Monday, January 27, 2014

Literal Or Figurative Or Neither

Here's the thing about Madonna's "Open Your Heart" song, I have, since childhood, thought when I heard this song "Wow, she's all about the dick in vagina interpretation," because... let me give you my explanation:

"Open your heart to me"
"I hold the lock and you hold the key"


Now, if the guy's heart is the one that needs to be opened, then he is in fact the lock, and her love is the key. But of course, it being Madonna, she's gone with the whole his penis is a key and her vagina is a lock thing. So I've always thought that she's being figurative in a physical sort of interpretation when she could have been figurative in a literary sort of interpretation.

But then, last night Madonna sang "Open Your Heart" as part of the marriage of 33 people at the Grammys.



















And while there were heterosexual couples involved, the point of the event was to highlight gay marriage: that of lock to lock and key to key. (I know, I know, you could get pretty complicated with transexuals and all other physical states and body parts, but let's try to keep the symbolism as straight forward as possible. "Straight," I know...)


















So last night, I thought that Madonna has possibly, finally moved to a more literary interpretation since there were all kinds of lock and key combinations represented, physically speaking. And then I considered, well you could say that America's heart was locked and it has finally been opened to the idea of gay marriage. But again, Madonna is singing that she's the vagina-lock, and I don't think she thinks of herself as an anti-gay-marriage-American. But that's me going with the physical sort of interpretation. So I'll go with the literary sort and say that the song represents America's vagina opening up to the idea.