Madonna has reclaimed her title as an 'icon' and has sparked outrage for her new photo shoot for Vanity Fair - dressed as Virgin Mary and recreating The Last Supper. Vanity Fair's new 'Icon' issue portrays the 64-year-old singer as Virgin Mary, wearing a heart, pierced with swords. "Icon. Pioneer. Diva. Pop star. The first "Icon Issue" of Vanity Fair, an issue that will celebrate each year a great icon of contemporary culture, could only be dedicated to her: Madonna," tweeted Vanity Fair. In the photo project created by Luigi and Lango, Madonna is also portrayed as Jesus, with 12 women disciples in a recreation of 'The Last Supper'. [showads ad=MREC]"The idea came from Luigi & Iango and I thought it was a very interesting point of view. We breathe an all-feminine energy into a universe traditionally represented as exclusively male," Madonna told Vanity Fair. 'Demonic' https://twitter.com/CinemaShogun/status/1616456813410504704 Not surprisingly, conservative Christians took to social media, calling the Madonna photoshoot "demonic", "Satanic" and "sickening". This is obviously not Madonna's first rodeo. In the interview, Madonna described the image with her wearing a crown on her head in a dress above an altar and said that she felt “exposed” and “attacked”. Madonna explained that she agreed with Luigi & Iango’s vision of the all-female cast, stating that she felt an affinity for an “all-female energy". [showads ad=MREC2]Madonna called out the Catholic Church for “hypocritical” attacks against her Madonna: Truth or Dare documentary (known internationally as In Bed With Madonna), claiming that she was “shocked” to see herself being “attacked by the Church” for failing to understand her work. https://twitter.com/VanityFairFR/status/1615671539772317696 “That image brought me back to Rome, when I was fiercely criticized by the Catholic Church”, she said. [showads ad=MREC3]Madonna reflected on being brought up in a Catholic household and her shock during the press conference for Sleeping with Madonna, where she could see herself “being attacked by the Church, because they weren't able to understand how much my work was trying to produce something good.” Madonna And The Catholic Church The video was criticised by the Catholic Church, including the Vatican and Pope John Paul II, as they called for a boycott of her Blond Ambition tour. Controversy followed the tour due to the Catholic imagery and its highly explicit content. One of the performances in Madonna’s Blond Ambition tour involved her using simulated masturbation in the choreography for her song “Like a Virgin”. Pope John Paul II declared that the tour was “one of the most satanic shows in the history of humanity” and urged Catholics not to attend. Madonna criticised the Church for their attacks towards her performance, stating that “whoever attacked me was just a hypocrite”. She described her body of work as an artist “united people” and gave them “freedom of expression, unity” which was the “mirror of Jesus’ teachings”. A Gay Icon The “Queen of Pop'' has long been an 17c起草社区I+ advocate, with the singer asserting the importance of fighting for queer rights throughout her career. In 2012, Madonna defended gay rights during a performance, and the video was posted on her Facebook page, where she said, "I am here to say that the gay community and gay people here and all around the world have the same rights – to be treated with dignity, with respect, with tolerance, with compassion, with love. In her 2019 acceptance speech for the GLAAD Media Advocate for Change Award, Madonna fiercely defended change, comparing it to the importance of reading or the need to love. The singer said that she had always felt like an outsider in her childhood because she didn’t fit in and the first person to change that was her ballet teacher in high school who was gay. “The first gay man I ever met was named Christopher Flynn. He made me feel special as a dancer, as an artist and as a human being. I know this sounds trivial and superficial, but he was the first man to tell me I was beautiful”, she said. [showads ad=FOOT]
