In her long career of pushing boundaries, Madonna has run afoul of some of the world's most powerful institutions: the Catholic church, the Puerto Rican congress, David Letterman, the Catholic church again. Now, her provocative antics may get her thrown off Instagram.
The image-sharing app recently sent her an email warning that she may be banned if she continues flouting their guidelines. They didn't specify exactly what she'd done wrong, but their list of regulations offers some clues:
Don't share photos that aren't yours. (Madonna posted a photo of Frida Kahlo, which she probably didn't take herself.)
Don't share photos that show nudity or mature content. (Madonna's Instagram contains nothing gratuitous, but she did post one photo featuring cleavage and another showing perhaps a little more of a butt than is commonly regarded as enough of a butt.)
Don't share photos of illegal content. (One photograph shows Madonna drinking a martini, which could be problematic if she's found to be under 21; another photo is of a horse, and I'm not familiar enough with horse law to know if it's doing anything illegal.)
Don't share photos that attack an individual or group, or violate the Terms of Service. (Madonna posted a photo of a sign reading "WHATEVER YOU THINK THINK THE OPPOSITE," which is a clear incitement of hatred. For example, I don't think that Asians are inferior, but Madonna's racist sign is telling me to reverse that opinion.)
Meanwhile, I had the pleasure of seeing erstwhile shock-rock boogeyman Marilyn Manson in concert last week. In classic form, the venerable gross-out artist blew the lid off his audience's deepest beliefs with a series of shocking and blasphemous acts, including:
• Impaling a can of beer on some kind of menacing knife-microphone!
• Making scary faces and wearing scary makeup!
• Dressing up as an evil red pope guy!
• Shoving cake in Twiggy Ramirez's face in what could be interpreted as a lascivious fashion!
• Humping a kind-of-fascist-looking podium!
• Tearing some pages out of a Bible, throwing it into the crowd, then producing yet another Bible and rubbing his face in it!
The most disturbing thing I saw: a terrified service dog cowering under a woman's seat. I'm not sure whether it objected to the noise or harbored lingering fears of those old "the show won't start till the puppy is dead" rumors.
While the shockers of yesteryear may be struggling to offend, young talent is moving up to replace them. One controversial new star is Boston's Lil Poopy — yes, Poopy — who at just nine years old is already wearing "COKE BOYS" T-shirts, flashing huge wads of cash, and slapping the behinds of adult women. Naturally, this is raising the eyebrows of authority; Poopy's father has been the subject of a recent inquiry by the Department of Children and Families.
I can't see what they could possibly accuse the father (Big Poopy?) of, since "contributing to the unprecedented radness of a minor" isn't a crime. Lil Poopy makes clear that the "coke" he raps about is Coca-Cola, not some illegal substance. As for the butt-slapping, it can't be sexual in nature, for what is a butt to a child? A butt is gross; a girl's butt is even grosser — he may as well be eating a bug or something. Leave Poopy alone, fascists!
Finally, in political offense: a report in Wired claims that Al Qaeda–affiliated rapper Abu Mansour al-Amriki, alleged author of America-blowing-up hits like "Make Jihad with Me," may not have written his own lyrics! According to a scathing PDF released by a rival, al-Amriki may be a sucker MC, proving once more that no ideology and no region of the world is ever safe from the international scourge of chumps.
(This is the most notable example of Jihad biting since Osama bin Laden stole Biggie's idea to blow up the World Trade Center.)
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