Madonna’d already done enough shocking people for several lifetimes by 1990.

What a strange experience, to be a little kid—to be a young, impressionable, but presexual human—in the mid-to-late ’80s, as Madonna ascended to MTV dominance and global megastardom, and to understand that this person was controversial and confrontational and quote-unquote sexy and possibly outright dangerous without quite understanding why. Boy, this lady sure makes my parents uncomfortable. Boy, this lady sure smooches a lot of dudes. Boy, this lady sure likes rolling around on the ground. Boy, this lady sure loves her belly button. The belly button thing is not conjecture, on my part. Her second-best quote of the ’80s—taken, like the naked guy on the crucifix bit, from a 1985 cover story in Spin magazine—reads as follows:

My favorite button is my belly button. I have the most perfect belly button: an inny, and there’s no lint in it. I never wore a jewel in my belly, but if I did it would be a ruby or an emerald, but not a diamond. When I stick my finger in my belly button, I feel a nerve in the center of my body shoot up my spine. If 100 belly buttons were lined up against a wall, I could definitely pick out which one is mine.

Read full article at The Ringer

Tags: