Madonna receently held court with a series of reporters, promoting her new album ‘Rebel Heart’. Last on her schedule was Out Magazine’s Christopher Glazek, whose interview ‘The Many Heresies of Madonna Louise Ciccone’ is published in the latest issue ofdue on newsstands March 17. Mert & Marcus share bondage-themed shots of the pop star cyclone, who is not known for keeping a stiff upper lip.

Madonna Says Women Remain Most Marginalized Group

Madge turns her tongue not only to women’s rights, as has been widely reported:

To me, the last great frontier is women…Women are still the most marginalized group. You’re still categorized—you’re either a virgin or a whore. If you’re a certain age, you’re not allowed to express your sexuality, be single or date younger men.

The has plenty to say about some gay men and their tepid support for women’s rights. Not only does Madonna break down the real-deal story of Joan of Arc as a strong woman abandoned by her gay male, gutless dauphine. The superstar speaks frankly about a deep-seeded misogyny against women and especially heterosexual women within the LGBT community.

Madonna’s comments echo those of 2015 Academy Awards best supporting actress Patricia Arquette, who was criticised loudly for suggesting that multiple groups — including the LGBT community — must stand for women. The debate became one about intersectionality, political correctness, and white women high-wage earners and not Arquette’s sound argument that all women are entitled to expect support for women’s rights after so many have stood for LGBT rights.

These views were not spur of the moment, delivered instead one week later in followup comments to Glazek.

Gay rights are way more advanced than women’s rights. People are a lot more open-minded to the gay community than they are to women, period.” For women, she feels, the situation has hardly improved since 1983. “It’s moved along for the gay community, for the African-American community, but women are still just trading on their ass. To me, the last great frontier is women.

Rose McGowan On Gay Misogyny

Glazek gives a boost to the blonde ambition’s theory by citing the November 2014 uproar in which Rose McGowan:

… was burned at the virtual stake for calling out gay misogyny. True, McGowan did not help her cause with the taunting assertion that gays had ‘fought for the right to stand on top of a float wearing an orange Speedo and take Molly, but then, neither did she threaten anyone’s life, in jest or otherwise.

McGowan spared no punches in her comments, ones echoed by Madonna.

Gay men are as misogynistic as straight men, if not more so,” she said. “I have an indictment of the gay community right now, I’m actually really upset with them.
I think it’s what happens to you as a group when you are starting to get most of what you fought for? What do you do now? What I would hope they would do is extend a hand to women. Women, by-and-large, have very much helped the gay community get to where they are today.
And I have seen not a single peep from these people, who supposedly represent lesbians as well… when the equal pay act was shut down by Republicans in the Senate, not a single man mentioned that.

New News for Women: Vaginas Are Irrelevant To The Female Experience

Madonna’s interview comes at a time of reflection for many feminists. For me, banning The Vagina Monologues at women’s college Mount Holyoke, based on protests from the transgender community — males without vaginas but identifying as women — has caused me to take a real cleansing breath.

The Daily Beastweighs in, explaining the position of Mount Holyoke:

At its core, the show offers an extremely narrow perspective on what it means to be a woman… Gender is a wide and varied experience, one that cannot simply be reduced to biological or anatomical distinctions, and many of us who have participated in the show have grown increasingly uncomfortable presenting material that is inherently reductionist and exclusive.

In one swift, skilled quote, Mount Holyoke’s Project Theatre Board representative Erin Murphy makes it clear that vaginas are irrelevant to the experience of being female. Tell that to all the women who have them sliced and diced around the world. Tell that to the victims of sex trafficking whose right to an abortion hit the wall yesterday in the US Congress — as the Republicans continued their war on regulating every aspect of women’s reproductive health.

Having a vagina is now irrelevant in the totality of women’s lives, declares the transgender community. Thankfully, Madonna doesn’t agree. And I don’t either. ~ Anne