Not-So Immaculate Adoption?
OK, am I the only one who couldn’t figure out why a multi-billionaire like Madonna would adopt a child with a living parent who could speak out? Whether you believe Malawi orphan David’s father was mis-translated, mis-quoted, confused, or downright duplicitous, it seems a foolish move. Isn’t being rich all about NOT following the law to adopt? Making sure bio mom and dad are out of picture permanently so you can have this Walt Disney moment where you take in this poor little unfortunate was of great importance in years past. See Joan Crawford for a textbook case.
Not Madonna – she has to make a statement about her own sad upbringing. Like herself, she picks a child (albeit opposite sex, what would Freud say about that?) bereft a mother. On the one hand, she gets to be this mythic Mother figure she herself lacked. I’m sure she created quite a female fantasy figure growing up raised by a single father, and now she wants to play it out to heroic effect. But she takes the analogy one step further – by adopting a child with a living father, she is saying her own father should never been allowed to raise a child alone.
Legal adoption - $12,000
Helping an African village - $2 million dollars.
Getting to rewrite your personal history – priceless.
2 comments:
Its interesting that you say that as I just read the following on the Drudge Report: Madonna: Being a wife and mother isn't what I want
Appearing on American TV, Madonna has said that she wants more than just being a wife and a mother. She also confessed that her children complain that she neglects them.
SheraCW3
I saw a tiny portion of the interview aired last night that Madonna did for the BBC or something and aired here - and what you just cited was said by her - loosely, of course.
She was asked why go on concert tours when she was already wealthy. She felt she had things to say and could not define herself as only wife and mother and 'stay home'. She said the kids complained when she wasn't there or when their schedules were interupted for hers. If you were against her, you would take the comments as negative, if you were a fan, you took it as someone having the usual work-home conflicts many women face. I don't think she comes across as particularly likeable, so I can see where the naysayers have an easy target.
Maybe that didn't rile me so much as the whole question of 'does a woman have to be as crude as a man to become successful?' I think she's a great self-promoter, but what is she promoting? Sex? Raunch under the guise of empowerment? Is it empowering? Why are so many of our ground-breaking feminine role models using coarse actions or language to make money, earn status or gain power? Mae West is another example, and I have such mixed feelings.
As for celebrity adoptions: see Mommie Dearest. Using an orphan as a fashion accessory is far from new. Let's hope Madonna can be a good mother. Thanks for joining in!
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