From bullfighter’s lover to female matador: The evolution of Madonna’s gender displays in her music videos

Throughout her artistic career, Madonna has been notorious for her provocative gender displays. Academic literature has highlighted the ambivalence of many of her performances in this regard: although she occupies masculine spaces and roles, she often adopts positions that are in line with a traditional kind of femininity or with representation patterns that are part of and reinforce patriarchal discourse. Our analysis of Madonna’s music videos reveals the transformation that takes place in the artist’s gender displays. In this analysis we pay special attention to postfeminist features such as self-sexualization and the use of violence. Through three of the artist’s videos that employ the bullfighting metaphor, we see how the representation of femininity embodied by Madonna is transformed – within the framework of a sexual and affective relationship – from her position as a victim and passive female to that of aggressor.