{"id":10538,"date":"2018-07-17T11:53:29","date_gmt":"2018-07-17T06:08:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pahichan.com\/?p=10538"},"modified":"2018-07-17T11:53:29","modified_gmt":"2018-07-17T06:08:29","slug":"matt-cain-on-madonna-she-opened-up-gay-culture-to-the-mainstream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/matt-cain-on-madonna-she-opened-up-gay-culture-to-the-mainstream\/","title":{"rendered":"Matt Cain on Madonna: \u2018She opened up gay culture to the mainstream\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kathmandu (Pahichan) July 17 – M<\/span><\/span>adonna was a radical, brilliant pop icon who changed so many people\u2019s lives. Mine included. I grew up in Bolton in the 1980s, at a time when no one wanted to say anything positive about gay people. If we were represented in the media, it was as disease-carrying sexual predators who couldn\u2019t be trusted around children. The idea of gay role models didn\u2019t even exist. And then along came\u00a0Madonna<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I first became aware of her around the time\u00a0Like a Virgin<\/em>\u00a0was released in 1984, and felt myself being drawn in, but I resisted. I\u2019d been conditioned to be mistrustful of transgressive, rebellious women who expressed their sexuality. By the time the\u00a0True Blue<\/em>\u00a0album came out in 1986 \u2013 I was 11 \u2013 I was starting to realise I was gay. And that made me sexually transgressive too.<\/p>\n

Then came the\u00a0Open Your Heart video<\/a>. In it, Madonna played a stripper dancing in a venue for an audience that included a lesbian drag king and two gay sailors locked in an affectionate embrace. The thing about her that had been my point of contention suddenly became a point of connection. After that, I didn\u2019t just enjoy Madonna\u2019s work: she became like a spirit guide.<\/p>\n

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People forget the role Madonna played in opening up gay culture to the mainstream. She wasn\u2019t gay herself, but from the beginning she talked about how gay people were part of her life: her gay mentor, her dance teacher, Christopher Flynn; the artists and photographers she hung around with like Keith Haring and Herb Ritts; the gay dancers she paraded around so proudly in the film\u00a0<\/em>In Bed With Madonna<\/em>. You cannot imagine what it was like to witness her doing that when you were being mercilessly bullied about your sexuality at school, as I was. This was when George Michael, Freddie Mercury and the Pet Shop Boys didn\u2019t dare to come out.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Nowadays, online, it\u2019s easy to know that there are other people like you in the world. But in the 1980s, you existed in your own bubble. This was also the time of Aids emerging. The album\u00a0Like a Prayer<\/em>\u00a0came with a copy of a handwritten note from Madonna \u2013 I remember so clearly opening it, and how tenderly it was worded, declaring that everyone with Aids deserved respect and compassion, \u201cregardless of their sexual orientation\u201d. Madonna was accused in TV interviews at the time of being irresponsible because of her support for gay culture \u2013 you can still see clips of this on YouTube. But she ripped into homophobic interviewers with such ferocity, like a lioness protecting her cubs. It had an incredible impact on me.<\/p>\n

Before Madonna, it felt like all gay icons had been tragic figures. And yes, Madonna had endured great tragedy in her life \u2013 her mother died when she was five \u2013 but you never saw an ounce of fragility in her. Think of her in that Jean Paul Gaultier basque \u2013 it was like a suit of armour. She was all steely defiance and I wanted to channel this to get through the challenges life was throwing at me.<\/p>\n

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I started to write a novel about growing up gay back in 2006, but it didn\u2019t start working as an idea\u00a0until I added Madonna<\/a>. I travelled to Argentina, working as a producer on\u00a0The South Bank Show<\/em>. I was recognising so many locations from\u00a0Evita<\/em>\u00a0and couldn\u2019t get the film\u2019s soundtrack out of my head. It dawned on me that Madonna had been with me all my life. There\u2019s a lot that\u2019s different to my own life in my novel, but a chapter about the protagonist, Charlie,\u00a0<\/em>going to see Madonna in her first ever UK concert in Leeds in 1987 is one of the most autobiographical. I remember watching in awe as my idol performed a show that was all about self-respect and standing up for your self. I was blown away<\/p>\n