Immaculate Connection: Can Madonna, Gay Men and American Football Go Together?
by Francisco Costa
On July 24, 2011, New York
became the sixth, and largest, state to allow same-sex couples to marry. Two
months later, following decades in which gay rights issues have divided American’s
opinion, the end of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy allowed gay
men and women to serve openly. In February this year, following a
year which suggested that Americans were becoming increasingly less tolerant of
institutional homophobia, a gay icon will be the halftime performer at the Super
Bowl show which airs to an average audience of 111 million viewers in America.
This not only suggests that Americans are less tolerant of institutional
homophobia, but of cultural homophobia as well. Thus, the importance of popular
culture, and in particular of Madonna performing at the Super Bowl, is rooted
in its ideological, social, cultural effects, and on its capacity to
reconceptualise cultural norms and hegemonic values, by reinforcing sexual
otherness.
