Bisexuality, threesomes, androgyny, voyeurism, BDSM. No, not a cross-section of the Craigslist personals, but rather the content of one the most controversial videos of an already colourful career. Madonna’s Justify My Love video caused quite the stir in 1990 with its fearlessly erotic subject matter. MTV elected to ban the video, which translated into a frenzied cascade of publicity for Madonna. When interviewed about the censorship and confronted over the fact that selling the video in favour of broadcasting it was likely to make her more money, her staunch reply was, “Yeah so? Lucky me.” Unsurprisingly, upon release on VHS, it promptly became the highest selling video single of all time. The video itself is shot entirely in black and white, portraying Madonna and a host of other provocative figures engaged in the sort of wordless, suggestive exchanges you’d probably find in a French arthouse film that errs on the side of “blue”. Madonna’s almost trademark appropriation of Christian symbols perturbed the Vatican — who traditionally get a little touchy when the Cross is depicted amidst steamy relations in a hotel room. The video’s politics are ultimately progressive, championing the more marginalised corners of sexuality. The video ends with Madonna sauntering down a hallway, cheeky smile creeping across her face, before fading to a black background emblazoned with the words, “Poor is the man whose pleasures depend on the permission of another”. The video may be black and white, but the spectrum of human sexuality is anything but.