I’ve never been one to jump on the Madonna bandwagon, though I’ve been mildly interested in the various feminist discussions of her. But I think it’s good that, when performing with Roma (Gypsy) musicians in Romania she made a note of the discrimination that they suffer:
“It has been brought to my attention … that there is a lot of discrimination against Romanies and Gypsies in general in Eastern Europe,” she said. “It made me feel very sad.”
And that was enough to get thousands booing her. I can’t begin to say how disgusting I find that.
(Many non-Europeans probably don’t know much about anti-Roma discrimination. Amnesty has information here.)
Feminist Philosophers 
Coincidentally, and perhaps tangentially, this just went up over at Bitch Blog:
http://bitchmagazine.org/post/rave-on-singer-songwriter-joan-wasser-on-outlaw-culture
Here’s a teaser: “I had written essays on Madonna when I was in high school, horrified because my ideas of empowered women were Siouxsie Sioux and Exene Cervenka. I was already a massive music fan and felt confused by Madonna’s brazenly sexual image (and unshaven underarms) in combination with her music, which I considered, at the time, totally useless fluff.”
I hope that, as she has decided to perform in Israel, she makes not of the ongoing discrimination there…
Not not, note!
Isn’t this a bit tricky? Maybe it was more a matter of “who is she to lecture us”?
I don’t like her much at all, but I kudos her for bringing it up.
jj,
Well that is probably a bad thing also.
I expect, fleshed out that argument amounts to
“you are not perfect, so why should I care if I am doing something bad”
or “you don’t know everything so you shouldn’t comment”
both of which are non sequitors, don’t pass the categorical imperative and I believe are quite destructive to modern policy debate.
It is not as if discrimination against Roma is a fact that is in dispute amongst reasonable people, that Madonna was wrong to feel sad about that or that she was forcing a solution down their throats…
GNZ, I don’t think your version captures how the US is seen, and the difference that makes. If the US is seen as a ruthlessly aggressive nation that has violence and racism at home, Madonna’s little piece may have seem quite offensive. It might have seemed like Bernie Madoff lecturing the court on giving more to charity. E.g., really outrageous.