How Madonna’s nude ‘Sex’ book caused a scandal 30 years ago

A week before its provocative pages were exposed to the world 30 years ago, Madonna’s scandalous “Sex” book came to life at its infamous launch party in New York.

The BDSM-themed bash — which turned Industria Superstudio in the Meatpacking District into a den of debauchery — had everything from naked women suspended in the air by chains and lowered into big tubs of popcorn to people masturbating and having sex behind different doors. Meanwhile, Madonna presided over the whole affair as her dominatrix alter ego Dita wearing a Little Bo Peep costume that was more naughty than nursery.

But after the “Sex” book came out on Oct. 21, 1992 — the day after Madonna released her lustful LP “Erotica” — the pop provocateur reached a new level of controversy at the height of her career. There were photos of her cavorting in threesomes, sucking her own toes and hitchhiking naked in Miami, while suggesting everything from bondage to bestiality. And joining the Material Girl in a series of photo fantasies that sometimes bordered on soft porn were other celebrities including Naomi Campbell, Big Daddy Kane, Isabella Rossellini and Vanilla Ice, who was dating Madonna at the time. (In 2011, Vanilla Ice said he “was hurt to be an unwitting part of this slutty package” and that the book’s publication led to their breakup.)

“We live in a very repressed society, and I deal with erotic themes,” Madonna told Spin in 1993. “The point I try to make is: Why should we feel ashamed of our sexuality?”

Of course, Madge was pushing boundaries — and buttons — well before the “Sex” book was released. But after her “Justify My Love” video was banned from MTV in 1990 and she performed fellatio on a water bottle in 1991’s “Truth or Dare,” she was ready to up the ante by doing a companion coffee table book to go along with her “Erotica” album. With fashion photographer Steven Meisel doing the dirty work behind the camera, they shot in locations that included the Chelsea Hotel and the old gay burlesque Gaiety Theatre in Midtown.   

The iconic hitchhiking shot happened when someone jokingly suggested that Madonna — who was prancing around naked in her Miami house —  should go outside on Ocean Boulevard. “Cars screeched to a halt, motorists whistled and one entranced cyclist fell off his bike,” according to a 1992 Entertainment Weekly article about the making of the book.

But Madonna originally had another title in mind for the book. “We were gonna call it ‘X’ … but then the whole thing with the ‘Malcolm X’ movie started,” she told Vogue in 1992. “I realized it might be confusing or look like I was copying Spike [Lee]. Besides ‘Sex’ is … only two letters more than ‘X.’ ” 

And Madonna originally wanted the book to be shaped like a condom. Although she didn’t get her wish on that, “Sex” came sealed in a Mylar bag, much like condoms. Retailing for $49.95, the spiral-bound, 128-page tome also featured Madonna sharing her views on sex in its text.

“There is something comforting about being tied up,” she writes. “Like when you were a baby and your mother strapped you in the car seat.”

No stranger to controversy, Madonna faced her share of backlash with the book. The Vatican urged followers to boycott “Sex,” calling it “morally intolerable,” while many bookstores would only put it on display behind the cash register and sell it to customers over 18. But HMV music store in New York City set up a booth where people could look at the book for one dollar a minute, with proceeds going to the AIDS charity Lifebeat.

However, “Sex” — which sold over 150,000 copies on its first day of release and topped the New York Times’ Best Seller List for three weeks — has been out of print for years. Three decades later, it’s now a collector’s item that fetches hundreds of dollars on the resale market.

And “Sex” remains one of the biggest pop culture statements of Madonna’s legendary 40-year career.

“A lot of the things I deal with in my music and the book are, in particular, with the repression that’s going on in America right now,” she told MTV in 1992. “There’s a lot of really narrow-minded people. If I can change the way 1/100th of them thinks, then I’ve accomplished something.”