Madonnarama: Essays on Sex and Popular Culture

This collection of commentary on Madonna's oeuvre Sex is engaging and diverse, no small task considering the overwhelming media attention it has already earned . All of the contributors have reservations about the book but feel the volume is worthy of consideration. In a playful introduction Frank and Smith ( Clint Eastwood: A Cultural Production ) toy with the effects of Time-Warner's ``lengthy prepublication foreplay'' on the media and the public. bell hooks mourns Madonna's turnaround from supporter of feminist issues to ``sex kitten.'' Carol A. Queen announces that the book moved her to masturbate as a lead-in to commenting on the inability of critics to respond to erotic material without denigrating it. Kirsten Marthe Lentz disputes Madonna's assertion, ``Whether I'm gay or not is irrelevant,'' while Pat Califia claims that even the performer's distorted lesbian imagery is better than none at all. Two more creative pieces are the standouts. Cathay Che's letters to ``Dita'' mimic Madonna's style in Sex and point out its prejudices, and in an ironic poem Thomas Allen Harris chronicles the reactions of his mother, his therapist and others to the book and punctuates their remarks with the ``flip flip'' of turning pages. (July)