What she has or hasn't done to her body isn't relevant, but I am worried if she isn't able to deliver a 100% performance on her tour (judging by her most recent performances). Which is interesting to see when the tour kicks off.

Looking at her career and how she has always been, anyone expecting her to "age gracefully" has been missing the point of Madonna from the get go. She's made a career of being controversial, creating publicity, doing things that offend people, and laughing as everyone says she's a disgrace and that she's outrageous. She's doing it again now- look how fast the world tour sold out- it all makes no difference at all to her market appeal.

 

If there's a boundary to "common decency" she'll push against it- always has, always will.

 

 

I have somewhat mixed feelings about M as a figure against ageism. On the one hand, she's right in that women over 45 are far too ignored in media. Why is it so impossible for really any artist past that age to get a hit? And honestly, some of M's output HAS deserved a lot more attention. But. Here's the flip side. Would the Madonna of 2023 feature another artist her age on a song? Years ago, she said men her age are fat and grumpy. She surrounds herself with much younger people. And. Y'know. Frankly, in terms of collaborators...she should work with whoever she wants. But one could perceive that her interest isn't really about a battle against ageism in general...but more just...a battle against ageism as it pertains to Madonna.

 

As for the reaction to her Grammy pictures last week...people are being overly cruel yet again. As much as we want to think we've evolved in 2023, social media places way too much importance on snark for me to believe people have honestly gotten any less petty and mean. But. Here's the deal. M blaming the camera for making her look a certain way is a bit...deluded. The camera got what it got. What WAS distorted were all the pictures (now deleted) on M's Instagram to make her look like a different person than who she is today. I can't help but think of her team taking her Eurovision and Tears Of a Clown audios (both already widely heard) and distorting it all to make it sound like she hit all her notes.

 

So. I dunno. I give her credit for saying things about ageism that not enough people are saying. But being in denial of what you look like/what your voice sounds like at that age...I'm just not sure that's the healthiest way to age.

Edited February 14, 20232 yr by Piers

I think you raise some very good points there Piers, your comment “a battle against ageism as it pertains to Madonna” pretty much sums it up best. In some ways she’s perhaps part of the problem if she’s altering the reality of what she looks like, such as the heavy filters on her instagram. It also says to me that she too knows she’s not had good work done so the “as long as she’s happy” comments don’t really cut it for me.