Reading Hollywood: Madonna’s Sex Book Is Still Fascinating and Shocking

The Queen of Pop, famed for baring it all, pushed even more buttons with her Erotica era.

(Warning: This issue is not safe for work. I mean, look at the title. There’s no nudity but still, you know, tread carefully.)

I’m a big fan of Madonna. I went all the way to Copenhagen to see her Celebration world tour in 2023. To me, she’s not just the undisputed Queen of Pop but one of the most important celebrities of the past century. It’s hard to overstate the impact she has had on culture, from her provocations against the Catholic Church to her risking arrest to perform her shows to battling decades of ageism. She’s a master of attention, a prime appropriator who has been pushing buttons and blazing trails for well over 40 years.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a musician from the past few decades who wasn’t in some way inspired by Madonna. Stan wars like to invoke Madonna in scolding ways, claiming she was never as risky as her reputation suggested. These people, to quote John Mulaney, are difficult and insane. Yes, Madonna was that big a deal and she was that daring. The Pope condemned her. The Toronto cops wanted to put her in handcuffs. She wasn’t alone in changing the game but without her, the entirety of pop music would look very different. Where Madonna went, so went the world. In 1992, however, her no-holds-barred celebration of sex, kink, and power made many wonder if she’d finally gone too far.

(Image via Giphy.)

On April 21, 1992, it was reported that Madonna had teamed up with Time Warner Inc. in a $60 million deal to form Maverick, a multi-media entertainment company that would allow her to delve into areas of entertainment outside of singing. Maverick would include a film production company, music publishing for non-Madonna artists, merchandising, and book publishing. This new agreement made her one of the highest-paid women in the industry and put her on the level of Michael Jackson. Madonna was thrilled to become a true business magnate. She'd already proven herself to be a savvy self-promoter and true cultural force, particularly with the record-breaking Blonde Ambition tour. Now, she wanted to be a leader, akin to Andy Warhol and his Factory. "There's a group of writers, photographers, directors and editors that I've met along the way in my career who I want to take with me everywhere I go. I want to incorporate them into my little factory of ideas," she explained at the time. Her first project was to be her fifth studio album, Erotica. The second would be her first book.