Madonna and sexuality

Press and public

In 2006, Ottawa Citizen's Dunlevy T'cha, said that "many critics" seen her "variously", including embodying the "contradictions of a society fascinated by fame [or] ambivalent about sexuality".^[5] In Record Collecting for Girls (2011), Courtney Smith documented that most people associate Madonna with sex.^[6] Vulture's Meaghan Garvey summarized at least in her first 20 years of career, "no one talked about Madonna without talking about sex".^[7]

By the late 1980s, physicist Stephen Hawking even name-checked the singer by joking: "I have sold more books on physics than Madonna has on sex".^[8] That perception was stronger in the 1990s; author Mark Bego reflected "since her arrival on the scene ten years ago, Madonna has become so synonymous with sex (and publicity) that it may be hard to remember that she started as a musical phenomenon."^[9] The 1996 edition of the Hutchinson Encyclopedia referred to her as a "U.S. pop singer and actress who presents herself on stage and in videos with an exaggerated sexuality".^[10] In The Thirty Years' Wars (1996), Andrew Kopkind regarded Madonna as "the premier sex symbol of the decade" (1990s),^[11] while Sara Mills cited a commentary about Madonna: "write off Madonna as 'just another sex symbol' is to fail to understand her massive appeal".^[12] In 2000, Brian McCollum from Knight Ridder made a comparative in AlltheWeb's results using the phrases "Madonna and music" which garnered 235,000 hits and "Madonna and sex" landing more than 333,000 results.^[13]

Her sexuality also made her a tabloid-fixture. In Profiles of Female Genius (1994), author Gene Landrum describes that Madonna's libidinal energy and sexuality become in her major attraction for the media and "it has become the focal point for her whole career".^[14] Madonna herself noted the "bad press" about her sexuality as early as 1985.^[15] Historian Andrea Stuart cited a tabloid headline where she was called a "man-eater" and how "used sex to climb to the top".^[16] Author Adam Sexton called some press pieces as a "creepy moralism".^[17] In the compendium The Madonna Connection (1993), scholars wrote there were persistent rumors of Madonna to be HIV-positive.^[18] They wrote that certain segments of society find comfort in identifying her as a carrier of the AIDS virus—a disease perceived as a punishment for immoral behavior— and making Madonna HIV-positive establishes her moral guilt and provides for her ultimate containment by death.^[18]

Scholarly

The Madonna studies saw a framework of its developments in theories about sexuality,^[19][20][21] although Rosemary Pringle from Griffith University, wrote in Transitions: New Australian feminisms (2020), that "there has been much controversy in the academy about the cultural and sexual politics of Madonna".^[22] Her notoriety, was commented on by Chuck Klosterman in Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs (2004): "Whenever I hear intellectuals talk about sexual icons of the present day, the name mentioned most is Madonna".^[23]

Citing Steven Anderson's views on Madonna in 1989, qualifying her as "a repository of all our ideas" on topics such as sex, Deborah Jermyn in Female Celebrity and Ageing (2016) wrote Madonna still functions as a repository of all of these ideas, except now she plays with these in an aging body.^[24] In 2018, sexologist Ana Fernández Alonso from Miguel de Cervantes European University, taught in a Madonna's class in the University of Oviedo that she is an "important" icon for women and for the way of understanding human sexuality in general, and sexual relations in particular.^[25] However, Mandy Merck from Royal Holloway in Perversions: Deviant Readings by Mandy Merck (1993), said that although Madonna was seen as perhaps "the most self-authored sexual artifact of this (or any other) time", her career coincides with long-held positions on pornography, fashion and sexual conduct.^[26]

Influences and comparisons

Madonna status as a sex symbol was often compared to others contemporary and earlier entertainers.^[38] Different publications, including PBS and Los Angeles Times observed that various entertainers have followed Mae West's footsteps in breaking taboos about sexuality, in particular Madonna.^[2][39] Other influences mentioned for Madonna by the public and media outlets included Marlene Dietrich.^[40] Around 1990s, feminists noted that Madonna began to explore female sexual fantasies, according to The Madonna Connection (1993), incorporating bondage or sadomasochism through aesthetic expressions.^[41] The sadomasochistic motifs in pop artist Andy Warhol's underground films were echoed in the videos for "Erotica" and "Deeper and Deeper".^[42]

The author Stuart Jeffries in Everything, All the Time, Everywhere: How We Became Postmodern (2021), deemed Madonna as the leading sex symbol of the postmodern era, and a different one from Marilyn Monroe, who he defined as the leading sex symbol of the modern era.^[43] Similarly, Dylan Jones felt and referred to her as "the most famous sex symbol since Marilyn Monroe".^[44]

Scope

In 1991, New Internationalist regarded Madonna as a "hotly debated sexual icon".^[45] Deborah Bell from University of North Carolina, wrote in Masquerade (2015), that "much has been written about Madonna and sexual identity".^[46] British media sociologist, David Gauntlett asserts Madonna's image as a sexual free spirit has been "emphatically defined".^[47]

Australian professor Jeff Lewis commented "more than any other single female figure, [she] has self-consciously 'explored' and displayed women's sexuality".^[48] In the early 1990s, Lisa Henderson from Pennsylvania State University even considered her as "the ultimately the epitome of women's sexuality ... at best ambiguous in the end".^[49] Scholar of sexuality studies John Paul De Cecco and Grant Lukenbill, considered she was "one of the first major performers to blanket America with sexual code-code used specifically to appeal to the entire panorama of sexual expression".^[50] In Madonna, Bawdy & Soul (1997), Canadian scholar Karlene Faith noted her far-reaching audience saying she "has inscribed her sexual identities on the psyches of millions of children, adolescents, and adults in dozens of nations, on half a dozen continents".^[51] Professor Santiago Fouz-Hernandez wrote in Madonna's Drowned Worlds (2004) that she symbolized "sexual liberation" for women in many cultures.^[52] On the other hand, Donald C. Miller, in Coming of Age in Popular Culture (2018), described that she consistently intertwined sexuality with religion, feeling it was something that set her apart from earlier female performers.^[53]

Madonna's usage of sexuality

Madonna has used perceptions of sexual fluidity as part of her stage personas.^[54][55] In various of her performances, men were the sex objects.^[56] Various criticized her exhibitionism.^[57]

Shortly after her debut, Madonna's sexuality offered a challenge view to definitions of femininity and masculinity, according to author John Price.^[58] He continued saying that Madonna was a leading female figure who represented to many young women across the world, an "empowering figure" in control of her own body.^[58] American philosopher Susan Bordo, explains that the singer demonstrated her wannabes, the possibility of a female heterosexuality that was independent of patriarchal control.^[59] Meaghan Garven from Vulture magazine explained "her sexuality never rested on the idea of being attractive".^[7]

Different reviewers and academics in popular culture, further emphasized this stage of her career, with Gauntlett arguing that her sexual assertiveness "has been one of the most distinctive elements of her life and work".^[47] In Girl Heroes (2002), Susan Hopkins held she didn't only sell sexuality, but power, or rather "sexuality as power".^[60] Similarly, Camille Paglia described her "sexual persona" as "her power",^[61] while academic Marcel Danesi made also a remark on it.^[62] In 100 Entertainers Who Changed America (2013), Robert Sickels believes that in her 1980s-works, Madonna portrayed herself as the "modern woman": Comfortable in and gratified by her own sexuality, but still a powerful female. She took the idea further in her next decade, Sickels says.^[63] In Contesting Feminist Orthodoxies (1996), authors explained that the singer not only represented herself as a sexual subject/object, but expressly proposed sexuality as a praxis of and towards artistic freedom, women's liberation, and indeed, gay liberation.^[64] Psychiatrist and author Jule Eisenbud commented that she reached a level "equivalent to masculinity" and "has allowed her to maintain her status as a sex symbol".^[65] Psychologist Jonathan Young, expressed: "[...] through sexually muscular scenarios of female domination, Madonna turns feminine sexuality as it is conventionally defined inside out: she reveals the hidden fantasy within women's [...]".^[66]

The way she has deployed her sexuality while aging has continued to attract commentary. To Alina Simone in Madonnaland (2016), her brutal sexiness "would only become more so as time went on".^[67] In the early 2000s, Hopkins commented that she was "ageing before the world [...] but she keeps presenting herself as a kind of 'sexual revolutionary'".^[68] In 2008, Blender's editor-in-chief, Joe Levy commented about her entrance into the middle age, that "she is trying to go somewhere no one has gone before" with the possible exception of Cher.^[69] In 2018, music scholar Freya Jarman at the University of Liverpool felt Madonna was "demonstrating a new kind of relevance".^[70] In 2024, Eric Cabahug from The Post, says that her sexuality deployment shifted to against of "the ageist machine".^[71]

Social evaluations and criticisms

Madonna has been often criticized due her deployment of sexuality,^[53][72] by different sectors, including academics and mainstream media alike. In the early 1990s, Pennsylvania State University's Lisa Henderson elaborated that it became one of the reasons why some segments of society hate Madonna for challenging the sexual status quo.^[49] Media scholars Charlotte Brunsdon and Lynn Spigel, explained that she "inverted" or at least "challenged", America's notions of sex, gender and power exploring taboos.^[73] Essayist Hal Crowther described: "I think of Madonna as Roboslut, an alien programmed to conquer the earth by attacking our reproductive psychology".^[74]

She received attention of groupings like feminists. Some defined her sexuality as antifeminism,^[20] while different third-wave feminists who emerged in the 1990s, embraced Madonna as a symbol of female sexuality.^[20] Commenting about her divisive feminist reception, researcher Brian McNair held that "pro and anti-porn feminist made of her a symbol of all that was good or bad (depending on their viewpoint)".^[75] Paglia was one of her earliest feminist supporters.^[76][77]

During the height of her popularity, reactions and reception amid the youth culture of her time were addressed. Author Roy Shuker describes that her transgressions of sexuality was perhaps viewed as "extremely disturbing" or as a source of "pleasure" for others among her fandom.^[78] In the 1990s, James Naremore believes that some adolescent girls construct relevance between Madonna's sexuality and their own conditions of existence.^[79] English musicologist Sheila Whiteley observed positive reactions, citing that she was viewed by others as "acting responsibly" in bringing sex to the fore, so forcing the media, schools and parents alike to confront the "inconsistencies inherent" in the public attitude towards female sexuality.^[80] Providing a retrospective, Stephanie Rosenbloom from The New York Times explains her stance: "Never had we seen someone so bold, so powerful, so sexually aggressive who was not a man".^[81] Daryl Deino from The New York Observer made a similar observation in 2017, in which, defined her as a "conductor of her own" and deemed her as a revolutionary.^[82]

Through her career, Madonna's exhibitionism garnered her criticisms.^[57] In the early 1990s, American writer Lewis Grizzard, referred to the crotch grabbing as a "nasty trend" in which he included famous crotch-grabbers such as Madonna and Michael Jackson.^[83] Having mentioned both performers, author Therese Steffen, called it a common cultural code for sexual power and virility.^[84] Also, conservative outlet Liberty, Life, and Family criticized various popular A–list of entertainers in 1994, including Madonna, for having project androgynous images, and open sexuality, as part of their public persona and presentation and their influence in youngsters.^[85]

Her works of the 1990s "confirmed" or "intensified" her status as a sexually assertive and in-control woman by some.^[75] During this decade, Caryn James paid tribute to Madonna's "honesty about using sexuality to gain control and power".^[86] However, for others like biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli she sounded only like a lusty porn star no one could take seriously.^[87] For example, Australian professor Graeme Turner said that Madonna can be seen as a figure who "exaggerates" (and therefore makes ridiculous) male expectations of female sexuality.^[88] In Grrrls (1996), Amy Raphael also criticized that "taking the concept further than any other female artist before her, Madonna sold herself almost exclusively in terms of her sexuality".^[89]

As an aged pop star

Madonna further polarized views audiences by using an open sexuality while aging, most notoriously when she entered into her 40s with a response by the public defining her as "desperate", "cringey" and "give it up", according to Grazia magazine.^[90] Scholar Deborah Jermyn argues that Madonna for new audiences and her experimentation with sexuality, suggests and has come to mean "nothing" as it is gaining online critics by the thousands.^[24] Authors in Ageing Women in Literature and Visual Culture (2017) see Madonna overt sexuality to being demonized.^[91] Writing for PinkNews in 2023, Marcus Wratten noted commentaries from British tabloid The Daily Mail, saying her "aggressive sexuality" is "threatening to compromise" her "uncompromisable legacy".^[92]

Other interpretations and Madonna's views

Albeit Madonna herself was both challenge and radical figure,^[94] the criticism she faced has also been subject to interpretation by other popular culture commentators. For instance, some reviewers felt a double standard in her industry. Gauntlett compared the sexuality deployment between male and female artists, comparing artists such as Elvis Presley and Mick Jagger while explained they were called "sex gods" due their sexual display and appeal. But, in the context of Madonna and women, scholar further adds this role was "unexpected" and "challenging".^[47] In 1993, scholar E. Ann Kaplan compared how male pop stars from Presley to Michael Jackson and Prince "have gotten away exploring male sexuality", but a female icon like Madonna "creates disturbance".^[95] In Madonnaland (2016), Alina Simone wrote that the sexual double standard becomes clear, when compare Madonna to "famously libidinous" artists like Jim Morrison or Jagger.^[67] In 2016, Emily Ratajkowski uses Madonna and Jagger to compare sexism in the industry, because she receives commentaries such as "desperate" or "a hot mess", and both are performers perceived to have a similar artistic sexuality brands. She asked: "So why does Madonna get flak for it while Jagger is celebrated?".^[96] However, related to comparison of sexism, Melanie Sjoberg from Australian outlet Green Left labeled an almost identical question as "the obvious feminist question".^[49] In Pop Cult: Religion and Popular Music (2010), author Rupert Till compared androgynous and overtly sexual artists such as Michael Jackson and Prince with Madonna describing her as the most who significantly addressed sex and caused more sexual controversy than any other musical act.^[97] On the other hand, at the 2021 International Conference on Human Aspects of Information, participants deemed as a "misogynistic rhetoric" the way ridiculing "her sexual agency and humiliating it" by using comparison with younger artists as a way to shame Madonna.^[98]

In her career, Madonna herself made some responses. On this, Constantine Chatzipapatheodoridis, a Greek adjunct lecturer at University of Patras, wrote that her "responses vary when openly provokes the public with overt sexuality".^[99] She addressed criticisms of setting women back 30 years in a 1984 interview with MTV, saying "I don't think that I'm using sex to sell myself, I think that I'm a very sexual persona and that comes through in my performing, and if that's what gets people to buy my records, then that's fine. But I don't think of it consciously, 'Well, I'm going to be sexy to get people interested in me' It's the way I am, the way I've always been".^[67] During the Billboard Women of the Year of 2016, Madonna expressed: "I made my Erotica album and my Sex book was released. I remember being the headline of every newspaper and magazine. Everything I read about myself was damning. I was called a whore and a witch. One headline compared me to Satan. I said, 'Wait a minute, isn't Prince running around with fishnets and high heels and lipstick with his butt hanging out?' Yes, he was. But he was a man".^[100] Lilly J. Goren believes that Madonna "correctly argued" that it is a double standard to criticize her for using sexuality to gain power but not to criticize Presley or Jagger for employing the same tactics.^[101]

Discussions and attributed impacts

In 2000, British magazine New Statesman said that Madonna "irrevocably changed the media image of female sexuality".^[103]

Some scholars credit Madonna with bringing issues into the mainstream. Researcher Brian Longhurst from University of Salford summarized this view, stating, "it is argued that her videos and books, bring forms of sexual representation, which had been hidden, into the mainstream".^[104] Scholar Brian McNair similarly suggested that Madonna's figure announced the arrival of a new phase in Western sexual culture.^[75] In The Twentieth Century in 100 Moments (2016), authors observed many examples and how today celebrities are open in ways "unimaginable a hundred years ago", and referring on Madonna: "Perhaps more than anyone else, [she] swayed American culture in that direction at the tail end of the twentieth century".^[105]

Some commentators similarly discussed Madonna's role in bringing new connotations of sexuality in mainstream culture,^[106] and was described as a "trailblazer" in this regard.^[63] Semiotician Marcel Danesi argued Madonna introduced a new form of feminism, liberating women to express their sexuality on "their own terms".^[107] Professor Patrice Oppliger has made a similar observation.^[108] In Queer in the Choir Room (2014), Michelle Parke goes further saying "Madonna single-handedly accelerated the battle between opposing ideas of appropriate expression of female sexuality".^[109] Likewise, in his view British journalist Matt Cain argued she brought female sexuality "front and centre".^[110] In Gauntlett's view, she did not invent sexiness in pop, but she could be credited with bringing a female desiring gaze to centre stage.^[47] The staff of The New Zealand Herald regards Madonna as a "pioneer" of intelligent sex appeal.^[111] Editors of Controversial Images (2012), credited that "the unprecedented visibility of sexuality" which Madonna embraced, has also contributed to the creation of the pop music diva—a powerful female music performer who explores sexuality openly and purposefully.^[112] E. San Juan Jr. commented "she is credited too with the exercise of 'gender-free sex', blurring the male/female boundaries by flirting with bisexuality, multiple partners and cross-dressing" among other things.^[113] In 2012, Sara Marcus devoted an article in Salon as "a celebration of the way she changed sexual mores".^[55]

Conversely, other scholars and commentators have dismissed claims of Madonna's positive influence or have assigned her a more negative cultural role. In her book Sex Symbols (1999), Donna Leigh-Kile described that Madonna "has pushed the boundaries that most women do not wish to broach".^[65] In The Happy Stripper (2007), the author reports that feminist critics have described Madonna as degrading to womanhood, characterizing her as "vulgar, sacrilegious, stupid, shallow [and] opportunistic".^[115] Professor Sheila Jeffreys argues that Madonna contributed to the cultural normalization of prostitution, citing a spokesperson of a pro-prostitution organization called Network of Sex Work Projects whom was favorable to Madonna's impact for her industry.^[116] In Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice (2011), Chris Barker identified Madonna as a significant point of reference of the raunch culture.^[117] According to Hypebot, Cher and Madonna were the mothers of pop-porn chic.^[118] In the early 1990s, bell hooks criticized Madonna from a racial perspective, saying that many black women who are disgusted by her flaunting of sexual experience are enraged due Madonna is "able to project and affirm with material gain has been the stick the society has used to justify its continued beating and assault on the black female body".^[119]

Entertainment industry

Madonna's sexual impact has also been discussed within the entertainment and music industries, particularly among female artists. Scholar Arthur Asa Berger argued her usage of sexuality has been imitated by other females.^[21]

In The Virgin in Art (2018), art historian Kyra Belán wrote that Madonna has opened the doors for other women artists as she established a "new frontier" for female sexuality.^[121] Professor Robert Sickels, similarly wrote that her sexuality was "vastly influential in paving the way" for not only the sexual expression of future female musicians, but also the acceptance of different forms of sexuality of countless of artists.^[63] Sociologist David Gauntlett was also of the idea that future female artists after Madonna, had the accessibility to express their own sexuality, largely thanks to her.^[47] The Advocate magazine made a similar commentary in 2012.^[122] Sergio del Amo, editor of Spaniard newspaper El País, however commented in 2017 that Madonna paved the way for various artists in terms of sexuality, though they did not receive the same criticisms of hers.^[123] Madonna herself, supported Miley Cyrus against criticism for her highly sexualised image in the mid-2010s.^[124]

Historian Lilly J. Goren was inclined to conclude that Madonna perpetuated the public perception of women performers as feminine and sexual objects, and it has an effect for women musicians who wanted to be taken seriously by the public, due to the "damaging" Madonna's usage of her sexuality.^[101] In 2004, Shmuley Boteach widely criticized her by saying that she was allowed to "destroy" the female recording industry by erasing the line that separates music from pornography. As before Madonna, it was possible for women more famous for their voices than their cleavage. Boteach further adds, that in the post-Madonna universe, artists feel the pressure to expose their bodies in order to sell albums.^[125] Feminist scholars Cheris Kramarae and Dale Spender explained "Madonna may have preached control, but she created an illusion of sexual availability that many female pop artists felt compelled to emulate".^[126] However, Goren also explored how others took benefit of Madonna's sexuality, finding that she "challenged how sexuality and sex should be portrayed on MTV", later arguing: "With the popularity of Madonna and through the medium of MTV, the music industry worked to produce solo acts such as Debbie Gibson, Pebbles, and Tiffany. The use of the media to market sexuality and thereby sell records has only increased in recent decades".^[101] On the other hand, others like the author of Someone like-- Adele (2012) whom describes the "trail blazed by Madonna", explained that some artists did not followed it and proposes a "turning point" in consumer music culture contextualizing the case of Adele.^[127] By this time, authors of Future Texts (2012), also explained that some millennial pop divas such as Britney Spears or Lady Gaga, used sexuality but without "any of the subversive elements that made Madonna's work the subject of feminist inquiry".^[128]

By early 2020s, Madonna faced criticisms from some online communities, including Black community, regarding her self-attribution influence of sexuality, particularly in relation to female rappers such as Cardi B. Tony Hicks, a music critic from Riff magazine, joined the conversation though his view was largely favorable toward Madonna.^[129] Alaina Demopoulos, an editor from The Guardian noted the criticisms of her self-credit role in the "Pornification of Pop", saying Madonna "would like to remind us all that she invented sex".^[130] In an op-ed article for NBC News, Ohio State University professor Treva B. Lindsey, didn't give her "too much" credit in the sex-positive freedom. Instead, she remarked the influence of Blues singers of the mid-20th century, who says were more influential than Madonna for opening the doors of female rappers (such as Lil' Kim, Mary J. Blige or Missy Elliott ) in terms of sexuality.^[131] In 2019, Australian magazine The Music commented "Madonna's corporeal feminism impacted on female rappers" such as Cardi B or Lil' Kim among many others female rappers.^[132]

Some figures from music industry, including Joni Mitchell have criticized Madonna, as Joe Taysom from Far Out nothing prior to her, "it wasn't a particularly popular route of expressions for female musicians at the time".^[133] While not attributing this shift solely to Madonna, American singer Sheryl Crow gave her a more serious role over others, in damage the image of women for using sex as a "form of power" in their "business form".^[82] Other artists referred to Madonna's impact, including Christina Aguilera,^[134] and Tove Lo who stated: "Madonna broke down barriers to allow female artists to express their sexuality. Madonna paved the way— she did all this hard work for us".^[135] In similar remarks, Louise Redknapp referred "without Madonna so many of us wouldn't have been doing what we were doing".^[136] Madonna made a response in the criticisms that women in pop are sexually exploited, stating, "we are exploring our sexuality".^[124] More critical were the views of Steve Allen and Morrissey, both of whom compared Madonna and her sexuality to prostitution or to a prostitute; Morrissey added "I mean the music industry is obviously prostitution anyway".^[137][138]

Listicles and superlatives

In addition to be called a sexual icon or sex symbol, in her first decades of career, Madonna was characterized in various ways in both press and academic publications in relation to her sexuality. In Girl Heroes (2002), Susan Hopkins called her "Queen of Sexual Politics".^[60] Esquire named her the "Sex Queen of America" in 1994.^[35] Others similarly called her a "Sex Queen" and a "Porn Queen".^[141][142] In late 1990s, Boze Hadleigh felt and expressed she "become a sex goddess for all generations and genders".^[143] Madonna was suggested as an "icon of sex appeal" by art historian David Morgan.^[144] Madonna was long considered the "Poster Girl" for "sexy" according to Grazia magazine.^[90] In 1991, psychologist Joyce Brothers echoed: "Madonna is a sexy person for our time".^[145] Similarly, in Chris Moyles's book The Gospel According to Chris Moyles (2014), a young Madonna is cited as "one of the sexiest women on the planet".^[146] In 1987, Rolling Stone magazine crowned her as the sexiest female artist.^[90] Author Brian D'Amato called Madonna, Marilyn Monroe and the Mona Lisa, as the three sexiest women ever being with the letter "M".^[147]

In contrast, other publications have offered more negative characterizations of Madonna in relation to her sexuality. In Profiles of Female Genius (1994), the author described her as "the most arcane and sexually perverse female of the twentieth century".^[148] Critics such as Achille Bonito Oliva have noted that for some "Madonna restored the [image of] Whore of Babylon, the pagan goddess banned by the last book of the Bible".^[149] Other commentators similarly associated Madonna with the "Bimbo of Babylon",^[148] and other "mythical feminine monsters" such as the succubus.^[150]

In addition, Madonna is featured on related pop culture lists. She was voted as the World's Hottest Woman by readers of woman's magazine Cosmopolitan in 2000.^[151] VH1 similarly ranked her as the Greatest Sexiest Artist in 2002. She was included once again in their 2013 updated list, with the staff saying: "You can say many things about Madonna, but you can't ever say she's not sexy".^[152] In 2006, Madonna topped the rank of Toronto Sun's 50 Greatest Sex Symbols in history, as "acknowledgment of her extraordinary aptitude for using sex to provoke and promote". They also reported: "While others have been sexier, none has been more cunning in needling and nudging popular tastes to their own commercial again".^[153] In 2012, she was placed at number 9 in Complex list of the "100 Hottest Female Singers of All Time".^[154] In 2020, Men's Health included Madonna in their "100 Hottest Sex Symbols of All Time", with staff declaring: She "has captured the world's heads, hearts, and hormones with startling consistency".^[155]