Madonna lashes out against criticism: ‘Once again I am caught in the glare of ageism and misogyny’

No matter how many years go by, Madonna, 64, continues to be the subject of conversation. Whether it’s her music, her concerts or her constant physical changes, the queen of pop is still making headlines. But the artist has had enough and publicly burst out through her social media accounts. Her reaction came after her appearance at the Grammy Awards gala on Sunday became the object of controversy, criticism and even ridicule.

Madonna had been tasked with introducing the performance of the award-winning Sam Smith and Kim Petras, the first trans woman to win and perform at the awards. Madonna had described it as a “history-making moment,” but she ended up attracting all the attention to herself due to her looks.

“Instead of focusing on what I said in my speech which was about giving thanks for the fearlessness of artists like Sam and Kim – many people chose to only talk about close-up photos of me taken with a long lens camera by a press photographer that would distort anyone’s face!” she wrote in an Instagram post.

For the event, Madonna was wearing a black skirt and jacket, a white shirt, gloves and a tie, and her hair was made up into pigtails and braids. Many people commented on her surprising and sudden physical change, while others noted that in her Instagram Stories – short-lived posts that have already expired and cannot be seen again – the artist used photographic filters to refine and stylize her face.

“Once again I am caught in the glare of ageism and misogyny that permeates the world we live in. A world that refuses to celebrate women past the age of 45. And feels the need to punish her if she continues to be strongwilled, hardworking and adventurous,” Madonna wrote on her Instagram account, where she has almost 19 million followers.

Thirty years ago, when Madonna was 33, she published S.E.X, an erotic book with explicit images of her naked, kissing men and women, in which she wrote about her sexual fantasies and shared her point of view on sexuality. “They called me a whore, a witch, a heretic and even a demon,” the artist recalled just a few weeks ago, when the 30th anniversary of the book’s release was observed.

During her speech at the Grammy Awards, even before the criticism began on social media, Madonna already anticipated what was going to happen: “This is what I learned after four decades in music: if they call you shocking, scandalous, troublesome, provocative, or dangerous, you are definitely on to something.”

In 2023 the artist is embarking on several musical projects, including a world tour that will take a look back at four decades in the music business and feature some of her greatest hits such as Like a Prayer or Material Girl. The project is taking up so much of her time that he has decided to cancel the biopic she was preparing about her life, which already had an actress to play the lead, Julia Garner.

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