FEATURE:
Borderlines
PHOTO CREDIT: Vanity Fair/Luigi & Iango
Ageism and Misogyny Aimed at Madonna: Why Do Women Always Have to Answer to This Kind of Toxicity?!
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I wish I didn’t have to keep writing about this…
IMAGE CREDIT: Madonna
because there is no valid excuse or rationale that can justify the tweets in this feed. Madonna recently announced that she is going back on tour. She normally tours after releasing albums and, as the last was in 2019 (Madame X), it has been a while since we have seen her on the road. This year is seeing one especially big anniversary. Her eponymous debut album is forty in July. It is an iconic and remarkable debut from an artist who would soon be the Queen of Pop. This 1983 gem is forty soon, so it is a perfect excuse to take her music around the world. Also, one of Madonna’s best single, Holiday, is forty in September. The demand for tickets for this celebratory tour have predictably sold out in record time! No wonder fans around the globe want a chance to see Madonna play. Of course, there are issues around tickets appearing in the hands of touts and facing this incredible mark-up. There are V.I.P. tickets going for a lot, but a lot of regular-priced tickets have been bought and on auction sites and elsewhere for extortionate amounts! By and large, there is this anticipation and excitement around a Pop icon hitting the road. Madonna is excited for people to join the party and celebrate. I think, to clear the decks and focus on posting about the tour, her Instagram feed has been cleared of photos from prior to the announcement.
I can’t put into words what Madonna means to me and so many others! Someone who opened the doors of Pop music and created some of my favourite music ever, you would hope that someone of her importance and stature should receive nothing but love and respect. Sure, she has said some misjudged things in the past. Apart from that, there has not been a lot to judge her for. She is human and, because of that, of course she will make mistakes! Largely, there is someone who is very real and herself. This big world tour announcement should get all positive vibes?! As you can tell from the tweet replies to that BBC article, there is a shocking amount of hatred, misogyny, sexism, ageism and downright toxicity and abuse! Sadly, it is not surprising that I am publishing the second feature in a very short amount of time reacting to the ageism and misogyny aimed at Madonna. Closer to the anniversaries and tour, I am going to go into depth about her material, legacy and importance. In August, the great Madonna celebrates her sixty-fifth birthday. It will be a wonderful reason to salute her and look back on all the years she has given us the greatest Pop music. Maybe it is not my fight to fight, but I am always disgusted that women have to face ageism. Everyone from Piers Morgan to The Times have said similar things. Madonna is merely sixty-four. She is a vibrant, beautiful and phenomenal woman who is not old or in an enfeebled state!
The word ‘embarrass’ come out a lot. Piers Morgan described Madonna as a hot mess. A term for someone that is a bit of state and is out of sorts. This image, perhaps cultivated from her Instagram feed, is of someone who is not growing old gracefully. Two points. For a start, Madonna can do what she wants! This idea that she has to be all prim, proper and age-appropriate (whatever that means!). Yes, she has posted some provocative images. Some have maybe been a little too explicit, but this is someone who does not have to explain herself and is showing that a woman in her sixties can be confident, vibrant, sexy and not have to live to any ideals, expectations from society. As much as anything, why do women like Madonna have to be modest and not show their bodies?! Almost like the Virgin Madonna, why does the Pop icon have to deal with abuse and people attacking her?! Many say she should act her age. Why do women in their sixties need to act a certain way?! Why are only young women allowed to be provacative, bold, inspiring, revealing, brave and sexy?! If she is seen as eccentric at times and a little bit wild, then that is her business! It is disgusting that, if any women of a ‘certain age’ – sorry to use that term, but I mean over forty I guess – is provocative and risqué, then they are seen as embarrassing or tragic. Men do not have to answer this abuse or have these same judgments aimed at them! Also, why do people think that a woman in her sixties is unable to handle an ambitious tour?
This assumption she will fall over, get tired, hurt herself or, as I suspect, people think she will look ridiculous trying to recapture the past. Madonna is not using The Celebration Tour to replicate her Blond Ambition World Tour of 1990 or be who she was. I doubt the tour will see the same sort of sets and costumes as she wore in the 1980s, 1990s and even the early-2000s. I am sure, for certain numbers, there are going to be some provocative and sexy outfits. A lot of the abuse and ageism comes when people imagine Madonna, at sixty-four, on stage in a skimpy outfit or trying to be sexy. She is still sexy, and it is empowering and inspiring if she does do what she was doing in her twenties and thirties in her sixties. I am going to round up in a bit, in the coming days, Madonna will make history by appearing on the cover of three different editions of Vanity Fair. This article gives a preview of what Madonna is talking about.
“Madonna is used to making history, but in a first, the singer adorns the cover of three different editions of Vanity Fair in Italy, Spain and France this month in the kick-off to the new annual “Icon Issue” project celebrating legends who “contribute[s] to shape the modern culture.”
The massive project includes a sprawling portfolio of pictures created by photographers Luigi & Iango that expresses the “values Madonna has defended throughout her artistic path and iconography,” beginning with a provocative cover image of the singer as a weeping Virgin Mary, complete with a sword-pierced heart on the outside of her chest and another in which she plays a Jesus at an all-female Last Supper.
In a preview, the magazine said the two-day shoot for the piece involved more than 80 collaborators, noting that it will also spin off a future exhibition, a short movie and an urban art performance. In keeping with her haute history, Madonna was dressed for the shoot in designs by John Galliano for Maison Margiela, Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, Jean Paul Gaultier and others under the direction of her regular collaborator, Swedish stylist B. Åkerlund.
IMAGE CREDIT: Vanity Fair/Luigi & Iango
In an exclusive interview for the piece, Madonna talks about feminism, sexuality, religion and diversity, with a focus on her career-long battle against the patriarchy and the price she’s had to pay for sticking to her guns over the past four decades in the public eye.
The day after announcing the dates for her upcoming 40th anniversary “Celebration Tour,” the singer discusses her return to the stage and the plans for her long in-the-works biopic. “I’m about to create another show, and I’ve been working for several years on the screenplay about my life,” the singer told the magazine. “This is a good time for me — I’m gathering ideas, getting inspired, hanging out with creative people, watching films, seeing art, listening to music.”
The 35-city Live Nation-produced tour will kick off in North America on July 15 at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, BC and hit Detroit, Chicago, New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Dallas and San Francisco before wrapping up in Las Vegas on Oct. 7. The outing will then move on to Europe, starting with a date in London at the O2 Arena on Oct. 14 and winding down in Amsterdam on Dec. 1 at the Ziggo Dome. No release date or title has been announced so far for the biopic”.
Madonna always fights back and stands up to ageism and misogyny. She shouldn’t have to! For years, she has discussed ageist attitudes and being sidelined by some radio stations. It seems, even when she was in her forties, she was not being as played widely. Maybe this expectation that women in music are only vital, relevant and appealing/commercial when they are in their teens, twenties and thirties. Men do not have these problems. Although there is some mocking of bands like The Rolling Stones touring in old age, it is normally around the fact that they keep saying their stop. Maybe some jibe about their frailty. As they have shown, they are still more than capable of bossing the stage! There is never the same sort of vile and disrespectful wave of comments that the likes of Madonna have to face. So many other women have to face ageist remarks. I would recommend people reading this 2015 article, this 2020 read, in addition to this 2021 feature. The latter mentions Madonna, but it also talks about Christina Aguilera, and how she was seen as too old to talk about sex at her age (she wasn’t even thirty when that 2010 album came out). I know there is ageism against younger artists but for women, when they pass forty (or even thirty), they are given fewer opportunities and less respect. Labels still market women sexually, so they have this short shelf life for their artists. It is a disgrace that we shouldn’t have to talk about in 2023!
Artists such as Kylie Minogue and Sheryl Crow have discussed their experiences with ageism and how they are seen as too old. Madonna seems to face an endless barrage of sexist, ageist and misogynistic people and their stupid and insulting opinions. I hope that things change very soon. It is hard for women to get as much acceptance and acclaim as male artists. In terms of opportunities, there are fewer when it comes to labels, festivals and radioplay. Many labels do not know how to market women so, even though it is tough enough breaking through, finding out they will be insulted and seen as irrelevant after a short time is shocking! It will discourage women from coming into music- and it sets a horrible example to the young generation. That idea that an older male musician is cool and can act a bit disgracefully. That seems fashionable and acceptable. If someone like Madonna merely does her job or, God forbid, posts a photo of her in lingerie (or less), then she is subjected to the most abusive and callous things you have heard! She is taking her tour on the road very soon. A celebration of four decades of great music, at least the fans who are there will show her the love and appreciation she deserves! I hope that attitudes change, but I fear this same conversation will keep coming up every year. From Borderline and Material Girl to Holiday, through to Like a Prayer, Vogue, Music and far beyond, the Queen of Pop has changed music and inspired millions. She shouldn’t have to face ageism and misogyny from everyone – even if she is someone who will always strike back. Ageism is a very real and evident discrimination that…
NO woman should face.