Madonna and sexuality

American singer-songwriter Madonna has been regarded as a sexual icon and defined by an author, as the leading sex symbol of the postmodern era. Many have considered Madonna's sexuality as one of the focal points of her career. The Oxford Dictionary of English (2010) credited her image as a sex symbol as a source of her international stardom. Her sexual displays have drawn numerous analysis by scholars, sexologists, feminists, and other authors. Due to her constant usage of explicit sexual content, Madonna faced censorship by MTV for her videos, as well as by other entities for her stage performances, and other projects. Aware of other female performers that paved the way, Madonna's path is notably recognized by a number of authors and scholars in opened up a variety of things, as depends on point of views, for both positive or negative. Historian Lilly J. Goren commented that Madonna perpetuated the public perception of women performers as feminine and sexual objects, but also found that industry exploited Madonna's concepts of using sexuality to gain power and sell more records, an approach normalized since then and with Madonna having a catalyst role. Feminist scholars Cheris Kramarae and Dale Spender described her inescapable influence saying "she created an illusion of sexual availability that many female pop artists felt compelled to emulate". The criticism of Madonna's overt sexuality would become a constant through her career. Madonna herself decries a double-standard in various opportunities, for which various agents such as Goren, Alina Simone and David Gauntlett have supported some of her statements. As her career continued, she polarized some views about sexuality in an aged woman. In her career, Madonna has also promoted safe sex and advocated for women's sexuality and individuality; she actively supported other groups and charities during the AIDS pandemic of the 1980s and 1990s, and continued her advocacy in the next decades, including throughout her charity Raising Malawi founded in 2006.