Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Hedwig and the Angry Inch is a rock musical in the tradition of the Who's Tommy. However, unlike traditional or even rock musicals, it is not an ensemble piece, with a focus on music over character development. Instead, it relates the tale of the title character who is trying to find love against all odds. The title character of Hedwig is abandoned by his American serviceman lover after Hedwig gets a botched sex change operation. Hedwig goes on the road as a rock musician after the man's son Tommy steals his act and his music. Unlike most musicals, which are about romantic couples or groups of people putting on a show, Hedwig's story is about an individual's quest for identity. Instead of validating the audience's conventional assumptions about gender, Hedwig and the Angry Inch strives to challenge these assumptions. Instead of creating a mood through extraordinary visuals, Hedwig uses plot twists to command the audience's attention -- sometimes the characters and the settings are ugly, and although Hedwig's show may have a 'glam rock' sensibility, his/her life is anything but glamorous.

Hedwig strikes the viewer as a tragic figure -- he did not seem to want a sex change, but only got one so he could be with the lover who cruelly abandoned him. Hedwig's goal is always to find love, and Hedwig is willing to do anything to be loved, in the arms of a man or in the eyes of an adoring audience. But despite this the film also has a playful, parodic aesthetic, such as when it makes fun of traditional big-budget musical conventions like animated sequences. As with many musicals, the songs advance the plot as well as are incorporated into the plot -- Hedwig's makeshift venues are contrasted with Tommy's concert halls. No matter what the viewer's sensibilities may be, it is hard not to root for Hedwig, given that Hedwig embodies the role of the typical underdog, whether he is a he or a she.

Truth or Dare (1991)

The documentary Truth or Dare chronicles the singer and dancer Madonna's Blonde Ambition tour. Madonna has always used sexual ambiguity to create her personal style and to market herself. She is a savvy businesswoman in the film, despite the simulated masturbation and S&M aesthetic during the show itself. Madonna's exhibitionism is part of her brand image, and on camera she can be seen lying on her dead mother's grave, talking about the one love of her life (Sean Penn), as well as wearing next to nothing. This is highlighted in an argument she has with Warren Beatty, who says that if it doesn't happen on camera for Madonna, it might as well not have happened at all.

This is the irony of a behind-the-scenes documentary about a musical performance -- for Madonna, the creation of the performance becomes just as much a 'performance' itself. Yet what emerges is not Madonna's personally rampant sexuality, but her calculated way of using her sexuality to sell tickets. Madonna could be seen as anti-feminist in that she is 'selling herself' but it is she who is profiting off of the sales, not men. In fact, she keeps the men of her tour, gay and straight, under her beck and call. She also challenges local decency laws about what she can and cannot do on stage.