Madonna Quote 'I am the cunt of Western civilization' Becomes Feminist Painting

Peter Reynosa has taken a quote Madonna supposedly said and has turned it into a painting about feminism. The quote is rumored to have been said by the singer in the late 1980s or early 1990s at a Los Angeles party. It was said when someone asked her to describe herself in one sentence and she said: “I am the cunt of Western civlization.”

“I always thought it was her greatest quote, so I decided to do a painting with it as the theme and I even titled the painting after the quote. The word ‘cunt’ has a negative connotation and is often the cruelest and meanest word one can use to describe a woman. But here Madonna uses the word to take pride in her sexuality and she also uses it to attack the notion that it is a bad thing for a woman to be thought of as a sexual thing. So, in fact, this is a very feminist quote.”

It is a red and white acrylic painting. “I painted Madonna in the shape of a defiant yonic symbol. A yonic symbol is a symbol that looks like a vagina or vulva. It is the opposite of a phallic symbol. And I made her head in the painting a clitoris.” We also see a full moon in the painting. “The moon symbolizes the woman as goddess. Many cultures named or saw the moon as a female goddess. And I painted a road to symbolize woman as the future.”

What will Madonna think of the painting. “Hopefully, she will love it. It is a complimentary piece of art. There is nothing insulting or belittling in it.” And will Madonna acknowledge that fact that this quote came from her lips? “I think she will admit she said this. I mean, it definitely sounds like something she would say. I hope it is not just an urban legend.”

Peter Reynosa is 48 and lives in San Francisco although he was raised in Farmersville, California. He is a painter and a poet. And he has done one poem and several paintings of Madonna the singer.