Madonna: Has She Reached That Certain Age?
As the chameleon of the pop world, Madge is the queen of reinvention. She can appropriate a new look with more ease than it takes some of us to put a brush through our hair. However, while her capacity to rise like a carefully coiffured phoenix from the ashes was once celebrated, it is now seen as her greatest weakness.
Why?
Because as a 50-year-old woman she is considered too old by the mainstream press to flaunt her body wearing nothing but tight scanties.
In the promotional photos for her 11th studio album Hard Candy, Madonna is pictured wearing white fishnet stockings, knee-high boots and a white g-string, with a strip of white material resembling a surgical bandage wrapped tightly around her chest, displaying her super-toned midriff. Her breasts are not exposed in a glamour-girl type pose, and she is not offering a glazy-eyed, come hither stare. There is something almost Amazonian about the photos. She has a commanding presence; strong and empowered.
Madonna has never kept her grueling exercise regime a secret, speaking openly about the time and effort she spends stretching and sweating every day to remain super fit. The photos are not obscene, nor are they particularly daring by celebrity standards. In comparison to a lot of shoots capturing female starlets covered in nothing but thin slivers of silk or strategically placed petals, this is quite tame. Physically she is in great shape, with a figure envied by women half her age.
While aesthetically she does not look disgusting or unacceptable – if her age was unknown she could easily be mistaken for a much younger woman – the knowledge that she is 50 has lead to a spate of vitriolic comments across the international media. The UK’s Daily Mail claimed that she has “no intention of growing old gracefully,” with a columnist at The Sun speculating that the photos were touched-up during the editing process to remove her “creepy boobs.” She has, it seems, reached a time in life when this sort of behavior is considered offensive, but how old exactly is a woman of a certain age? Does it vary from one woman to the next?
Almost all images of celebrities are photo-shopped, so she cannot legitimately be criticized for this unless all digitally-enhanced photographs are going to be equally scrutinized. What’s notable is that Madonna’s critics assume that she wants to be fancied and objectified; they assume that providing sexual titillation is her raison d’être. This is why she has been berated because she is not seen to fit the template of what we should both desire and aspire to look like. Whether or not this was a consideration on her part is not discussed.
The malicious comments offered by journalists did make me wonder if the majority had looked at the photographs, or if they had just been swept away by the tide of insults. Madonna is an international star, a household name, an American institution. If her latest CDs were marketed like Frisbees with no album cover they would still sell; the cover is negligible. She chose to have these photos taken. Maybe she finds these shoots liberating? She appears to be subverting traditional poses by female stars, covering up her breasts, putting forward her strong jawbone and tensing her muscles. She is in control – an independent woman unfazed by the pressures of youth culture, instead challenging it.
I have never understood why there is such a direct correlation between age and tolerance of dress. Whereas the vast majority of men dress for themselves, it is always assumed that women dress for other people. The mini-skirt is considered the privilege of the young, as are tank tops (or anything showing midriff). Once a woman reaches this undefined “certain age” she is supposed to wear nothing but long dresses, matching jacket and trouser/skirt suits and high-necked blouses. This attitude emanates from the belief that while a man becomes more distinguished with age, women are seen to become less sexually attractive. Therefore any attempt to wear clothes with confidence is interpreted as a desperate attempt to recapture youth.
Fortunately, there is nothing to suggest that Madonna is planning to curb her unique sense of style, and all signs indicate that she will be flaunting her bits in leather and tight panties well into the next decade and beyond. If it feels good, she does it, and maybe this is a mantra we should all learn to live by, whether our choice of knee-high boots or boob tubes are considered appropriate or not?
Old News
Old Maid, Spinster or Cougar?Google squared can tell you what it means to be an old maid... (more) |
|
