Eagerly Accommodating Susan

Coming into Desperately Seeking Susan right off of Purple Rain, I, like a few others who have not seen Desperately Seeking Susan, had expected the film to be Madonna’s take on the Artist’s journey (shaped after her own life and complete with her own concert scenes) in the same manner as Prince’s film. I was delighted to find that I was wrong. This movie was funny, conventional, and entertaining in a way that was free of guilty pleasure.

An argument could be made that Desperately Seeking Susan does provide Madonna’s representation of the Artist archetype, but the film isn’t really interested in developing that narrative. She is not out to hone her craft (though perhaps she has just mastered it) nor is she looking to resolve any creative issues, and her closest proximity to the Artist’s character arc is only her tendency to trailblaze new styles. Jane Miller’s article “Madonna” offers a more accurate archetypal description of the pop star as the Black Madonna. I found this article to be a bit disjointed (a very solid analysis but not exactly cohesive as it seemed to condense a few too many things with insufficient connection) but the article did raise several interesting observations, chief among them the role of archetypes and the creative playground that they foster for the viewer. Miller elaborates, quoting Henri Matisse, that the Black Madonna gives "an enclosed area of very reduced proportions ... solely by the play of colors and lines, the dimensions of infinity." Miller asserts that Madonna, faithful to her namesake, maintains this definition of the Black Madonna archetype and then she connects its function to certain qualities of poetry. Miller describes certain poetry as being highly interpretive for each individual but typically having an emotional direction that is nearly universal. In this way Madonna's persona can can be interpreted by individuals differently, but she is simultaneously forwarding a universal cause, in this case the tenets of third-wave feminism. Miller argues, “Eventually, subliminally, the culture, I believe, feels the effects of these poetic goings-on: a logo, or sign, for example, which the audience slips behind or sees through to get to another layer or message.”

Though I agree with the parallels that Miller draws between poetry and the power of Madonna's dark femininity, and while I know that religious signifiers are imperative to Madonna’s subversive routine, I disagree with Miller's decision to pursue her description of Madonna with a detailed, rather religious, background of the Black Madonna and the statue “visited by thousands of pilgrims.” I don’t think that religious reverence towards the pop star is inaccurate because many do idolize her, I just find it too emblematic and harmful towards Madonna’s intentions. Yes, in reality, Madonna fills the role of the mother figure, or the caretaker, or the religious endower of exploratory opportunities, but I think her intentions are more in line with her role as Susan in Desperately Seeking Susan. The film is interested in grounding such a lofty icon to an average person’s playing field. Madonna, especially as a secondary character in the movie, is not a figure for the viewer to model themselves afterwards or to religiously follow but an excerpt of a way of life in which the viewer may choose to join and coexist -- more sisterly than motherly.

The film also answers Miller's one qualm and qualification about poetic justice, that often its "irony [is] used to excuse life rather than reveal it.” This I think is where the film picks up the heavy-lifting. Madonna herself may not be able to reveal third-wave feminism entirely because she is such an icon that her popularity will just excuse it.  The viewer’s revelation needs to come from consensus and open-appreciation. Enter: Desperately Seeking Susan, the vehicle for third-wave feminism. As I previously mentioned, Madonna plays a role that is more subdued than her typical performance. Her style remains the same, but she is relegated to being a second-string character, instead serving as more of a tool for the character Roberta to convert and develop into a woman enjoying her freedoms associated with third-wave feminism -- like materialism or freedoms of sexuality. Since the film displays such an icon among the mundane, or perhaps since "Susan's" style is made to appear as the more alluring and more necessary behavior, there is the sense that Madonna's behavior is perfectly fine as the norm.

This is made all the more apparent by the men's positive reception to the appearance and behavior that Susan demonstrates in the film. Jim desperately seeks it across the nation and is well accustomed to Madonna's feminism. Dez never bats an eye at Roberta's replication of Susan, and he's glad to be gone with his ex-girlfriend who looks masculine in a second-wave feminist manner. Gary, as a conservative stereotype in a ready position to combat any change to the traditional housewife, hardly fights Roberta's transformation; in fact, he (short-sightedly) seems bored with Roberta's adherence to tradition, he is intrigued and subservient to Susan's attitude, and he is already engaged in an affair -- he, and thus even the conservative types (for argument's sake, the supposed average), is ready for change. Actually, affairs in general are treated with nonchalance and little consequence within this movie, providing further evidence that the "average" and the "norm" should have fewer issues with sexual freedom on all fronts.

Overall, this film spends very little time on presenting two conflicting views which might offer choice for the viewer. It travels a potentially more effective route by taking Madonna's style for granted, or for necessity.