ABSTRACT
If Lennox's play on androgyneity underpinned control and power, then Madonna's sexuality was perceived as ‘whorish … very very whorish. It was like she was fucking the music industry. It may have been parody on her part, but I thought it was very low’ (interview with Annie Lennox in Melody Maker, 1986). 1 The debates surrounding Madonna have been extensive, with competing viewpoints that have situated her as a feminine icon, a feminist, an opportunist. It is not intended to examine these debates in any detail here. 2 Rather, I will discuss two key videos, Express Yourself and Justify my Love, relating them to the discussions of plurality, play and difference which inform Irigaray's discussion of autoerotic practice and its relationship to the confrontation of patriarchal power. 3
