The weirdest song on Madonna's weird new album Madame X -- her best album in years, though not exactly a return to form -- is "God Control," a bizarre protest song about gun control with many stylistic twists and turns. Last week "God Control" got a violent music video that evoked the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando three years ago. The video seemed intended not just to drive home Madonna's point but to do what she's always done best: invite controversy. On the latter count it has succeeded.
Emma González is a survivor of another horrific mass shooting, the one at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in February 2018. In the year-plus since that event, she has become a prominent anti-gun activist. As the New York Daily News points out, González took to Twitter over the weekend to condemn the new Madonna video. Her tweet thread begins by calling the video "fucked up" and "horrible." She went on to critique the timing of the video's release just after the Pulse shooting anniversary, as well as Madonna's decisions not to put an emphatic trigger warning on the video or inform the Pulse victims ahead of time.
Here's the full text of her thread:
So I’ve been ruminating on this thread for the past few days, make sure I get the words right.
Madonna’s new video for her song #GodControl was fucked up, it was horrible.
She should have sent out a message warning what her new video contained, ESPECIALLY to the Pulse Victims, ESPECIALLY as it was released Just After the Anniversary on June 12th.
This is NOT the correct way to talk about gun violence, unlike how many fans have been exclaiming — people who have been working in the GVP community know how to talk about gun violence, not most celebrities. #GodControl
If you want to support the gun violence prevention movement, donate to the places who need it, in this case the One Pulse Foundation and listen to the actual stories from actual survivors of gun violence. #GodControl
Also if you tweet pictures or videos from the video of #GodControl, please tag it as Triggering for fucks sake
In a video at TMZ, Pulse survivor Patience Carter says the video is "hard to watch" and that dramatizing the shooting was insensitive to its survivors. You can watch that video and see González's original tweets below.
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So I’ve been ruminating on this thread for the past few days, make sure I get the words right.
Madonna’s new video for her song #GodControl was fucked up, it was horrible.
— Emma González (@Emma4Change) June 29, 2019
She should have sent out a message warning what her new video contained, ESPECIALLY to the Pulse Victims, ESPECIALLY as it was released Just After the Anniversary on June 12th.
— Emma González (@Emma4Change) June 29, 2019
This is NOT the correct way to talk about gun violence, unlike how many fans have been exclaiming — people who have been working in the GVP community know how to talk about gun violence, not most celebrities. #GodControl
— Emma González (@Emma4Change) June 29, 2019
If you want to support the gun violence prevention movement, donate to the places who need it, in this case the One Pulse Foundation and listen to the actual stories from actual survivors of gun violence. #GodControl
— Emma González (@Emma4Change) June 29, 2019
Also if you tweet pictures or videos from the video of #GodControl, please tag it as Triggering for fucks sake
— Emma González (@Emma4Change) June 29, 2019
