Does Madonna reel off the names of so many timeless, glamorous stars—Greta Garbo, Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelly, Ginger Rogers—because she wants you to worship them, or because she’s trying to convince you she’s one of them? Why not both? Is Madonna crudely appropriating the hallowed art of voguing, as depicted in the heartening and heartbreaking 1991 Jennie Livingston documentary Paris Is Burning, or is she celebrating it, honoring it, casting a warming mainstream light upon it? Why not all of the above?
