International superstars Shakira and Rihanna pooled their “talents” and recorded a recent duet: the single “Can’t Remember to Forget You.” While the song has been somewhat easy to forget, the video has not: it was made available for streaming on Shakira's VEVO profile on YouTube where it received more than 17.1 million views during its first 24 hours of availability. On February 9, 2014, the video reached 100 million views; and overnight - the images from that video went viral across the globe faster than a feared Earth-wide mega-plague. The video’s claim to fame? A series of lesbian tableaus between its two stars. Immediately, I was reminded of the same-sex kiss from Madonna in her ground-breaking music video for the 1990 single “Justify My Love.” But then, MTV refused to play it, their was no Internet or YouTube, so I vividly recall walking into a San Francisco record shop and buying the then unheard-of VHS “video single” for a few dollars. Its impact upon me was devastating. The only other time I had seen such glorification of homosexuality was in the pornographic music video of Duran Duran’s b-side song “The Chauffer;” which was included in their 1983 video album - that I nonchalantly purchased as a 14 year old boy with no questions asked at the store counter; and through the lesbian-kink photographs of Vanessa Williams in “Penthouse” - a singular moment of public spectacle for any young male who lived through the 1980s; a magazine which I quickly and greedily stole form my brother. Only, all this paled in front of Madonna; for in the early-90s, she was the undisputed Queen of all Gaydom. We looked up to her as a goddess. She was a false Pope, a sort of anti-Christ - and we obeyed her authority and commands. Similarly, today, Shakira and Rihanna, through the reign of social media, can quickly and more effectively sway their perspective masses. With Madonna, because of the lack in technological advances, it took a greater participation of the will from her followers. Because of the Internet, a rather crass and calculated swerve in homosexuality can quickly become an icon of cultural significance unimaginable during the pre-selfie age; case in point: the Katy Perry single “I Kissed a Girl,” which set-up the former failed Christian singer as genuine phenomenon. If Madonna was like influenza: taking weeks, even months to spread its harm and influence, the new media celebrities are a living form of cyber bug - loading death in micro-minutes.