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American singer-songwriter Madonna has elicited an overwhelming different public perceptions. Her every move was often much scrutinized playing for and against her. Immediate and retrospectives have agreed her image and appearance became a fixation in her career, having been discussed more than her music. The age of Madonna took later a center role, especially in the Internet age.

Reviews often transcended Madonna's own career, and they way Madonna deployed her image, was scrutinized, having also impacted the industry and on others.

Public perception[edit]

Various authors including Mark Bego noted how Madonna represents "different things to different people" and even "as her career progresses and she slowly peels away various layers of camouflage, new dimensions of her personality are exposed".[1]

The mere mention of Madonna’s name conjures strong reactions: she is the kind of girl you either love, hate, or love to hate. Rarely does she elicit a blasé response. Brash, bratty, rude, shocking, stunning, controversial, glamorous, and unpredictable—Madonna is the biggest international star of the nineties. Singer, dancer, actress, movie star, pin-up girl, and outrageous celebrity-for-all-seasons, she is the selfcreated product of shameless media manipulation.[2]

Background and career fixation[edit]

[...] from the beginning of her career, Madonna has been primarily defined not by her music but by her ambition and her ability to present herself in visually interesting and ever-changing guises. There talking points have been repeated in pretty much every magazine profile ever written about her.

—American music critic Steven Hyden (2016)[3]

Fixation overly Madonna's image has been a constant since she burst onto the scene. In this regard, John Street wrote in Musicologists, Sociologists and Madonna (1993), that her reception "it is devoted almost exclusively to her image and appearance" for both her critics and defenders.[4] Madonna's biography at Ohio State University, pinpointed how her "image became the source of endless debate among feminists and cultural scholars".[5]

Shortly after her debut, Madonna's music took a second place; Time magazine alienated the perspective, calling her a pin-up girl, and describing in 1985, "her image has completely overshadowed her music".[6] She was instantly deemed more a pop icon rather than a musician.[7][8][9] "I don't think Madonna [...] has any particular interest in music", considered critic Greil Marcus in 1985.[10] In similar connotations, in the 1990s, reviewers like Annalee Newitz referred that she "is not a musician per se", but also estimated how she has given to culture "a collection of images".[11] By this decade, Melody Maker called her "the most popular female singer of all time", but credited her success to her image, saying "she is pure image".[4] Writing for Time in 1994, Christopher John Farley said her career has "never really been about music", pointing out areas such as marketing or publicity.[12] It was in the "extramusical realm that Madonna really made her name", described critic Martha Bayles around 1996.[13] Back in the 1980s, media scholar John Fiske summed up: "Most critics have nothing good to say about her music, but they have a lot to say about her image".[14]

Madonna's ability to toy with her image —gauging the public's perceptions of her, then manipulating those perceptions— has spawned plenty of commentary.

Brian McCollum, Knight Ridder-Bartow Press (2000)[15]

Madonna also earned a long-time reputation for being "in control" and "calculate" every move including her image recognized by critics and audiences,[16] with English music journalist Paul Morley saying in Words & Music (2015), she "controlled herself and her images".[17] Chris Smith wrote in 101 Albums That Changed Popular Music (2007), she is perhaps the artist who has manipulated her image the most, also stating it helped her reach a status of "near-legendary cultural phenomenon".[18] According to three researchers in 1993, her image of taking control was seen more positively by people rather than Madonna embodying stereotypes.[16] Further than other female artists before Madonna, some considered her as "the first female" artist to have a "complete control" overly every aspect of her image,[5] including supporters like Roger Blackwell.[19] On this, Sonya Andermahr from University of Northampton commented: "She exercises more power and control over the production, marketing and financial value of her image than any female icon before her".[20] To historian Glen Jeansonne, both Michael Jackson and Madonna represented "the triumph of image" of the 1980s, and which revolutionized the way recordings and artists were sold to the public.[21] In Popular Music and Society (2007), Brian Longhurst defines "Madonna is not simply a recording artist, but an image that connects a number of different areas of culture".[22]

Image deployment and discussions[edit]

The way Madonna deployed her image received an overwhelming immediate and retrospective discussions. "Academic writing on Madonna has seen her innovative largely in her usage of images", wrote scholar Sara Mills in Gendering the Reader (1994).[23] In 1990, The Straits Times referred how she made headlines in the 1980s "every time she changed her image".[24] In Girl Heroes (2002), Susan Hopkins named her the "quintessential image strategist".[25] In 2023, Jennifer Weiner opined for The New York Times that every new version of Madonna was both a look and a commentary on looking, a statement about the artifice of beauty.[26]

Reinvention: identities, stage personas and alter egos[edit]

Madonna and her alter ego, Madame X in an interview with MTV International in 2019

From her fashion to visual presentation, Madonna reinvented her image, using different stage personas, alter egos and "identities". In Hollywood Songsters (2003), James Robert Parish and Michael R. Pitts referred to her "ever-changing show-business alter ego".[27]

Madonna constructed a performance persona by drawing on various strands of popular and artistic culture, re-packaging them to pose what she has referred to as "provocative questions" about social conundrums and prejudices. In doing so, she has often presented her different incarnations, or "re-invention" as authentic parts of her core identity.

—Richard J. Gray II (2014).[28]

She transformed identities "into a concept",[29] and became "popular because she reflects our own uncertainties about identity", once wrote Hardvard's scholar Lynne Layton.[30] Gender theorist Judith Butler explained she embodied multiple identities at once.[31] In Film Stars: Hollywood and Beyond (2004), Andrew Willis wrote that she "promoted the idea that female identity was a construct that could be orchestrated and manipulated at will".[32] She also used gender-bending and with Peter Rainer from Los Angeles Times commented "is basically just another way of rejimmying her image".[33]

Due to her ever changing style, reinvention became a word constantly attributed in her career, wrote biographer Michelle Morgan in 2015.[34] It defined her career,[35] and "fuelled a boom in jargon-filled academic studies about her as a post-feminist chameleon" explained a Financial Times contributor in 2008.[36] Defined as one of her "cultural meanings" in Psychoanalyses / Feminisms (2000),[37] a critic claimed self-reinvention was her "greatest success".[38] Once referred as a "master of the unexpected",[39] in the early 1990s, Roger Ebert said "she changes images so quickly that she is always ahead of her audience".[40] However, turning into the 21st century, while she attained praise, other critics were divided. In 2006, American critic Ginia Bellafante stated "Madonna no longer re-invents, she maintains".[41]

Artistically, Stuart Lenig wrote in The Twisted Tale of Glam Rock (2010) that stage performance seemed essential to developing her ever-changing personas with complex scenarios. Author quotes Madonna as saying in an interview with Rolling Stone in 1987: "I've always liked to have different characters that I project".[42] In 2019, Vice contributors dedicated an article with her every persona "identified".[43] Madonna's reinvention has been compared to, or said to be influenced by art-world figures such as Cindy Sherman and Picasso,[44][45] and entertainers like David Bowie, with whom Australian scholar McKenzie Wark said both "raised this to a fine art".[46]

Criticisms and ambiguities[edit]

Lucy O'Brien (sic) "it has often been asked, who is the 'real' Madonna?",[47] with many using the phrase "Who's That Girl"?.

Jock McGregor, wrote for L'Abri in 2008, that in "many ways Madonna is a victim of her own image".[48] Back in 2000, photographic critic Vince Aletti, claimed she "has been attacked by critics for being more about image than substance".[49] In Oh Fashion (1994) by Shari Benstock and Suzanne Ferriss, academic Douglas Kellner opined "Madonna problematized identity and revealed its constructedness and alterability".[50] For instance, Julia Pascal in Women in Theatre (2005), comparing Cleopatra and Madonna,said "both created so many and such various self images that it is diffucult to identify a 'real' identity".[51] Some considered she transcended debates about "authenticity", but also connects to new ideas about a form of politics based in ideas of play, the "freeing" and reconstitution of identity, wrote Brian Longhurst in Popular Music and Society (2007).[52] Michael Musto once said "[she] has nothing, and everything to do with realness".[16]

Mostly during late 20th century, some feminists were concerned as her multiple personae were deemed as a "threat to women's socialization, which entails the necessary integration of female identity".[53] Referring to her "many metamorphoses", Kat Bein from the Miami New Times, opined that she has "offended, affronted, and confused the masses".[54] In Representing Gender in Cultures (2004), authors explained:[55]

It is the very instability of Madonna's image, its incessant reinvention that produces anxiety both in the mass audience and the academic circles, and encourages frequent and rather desperate attempts at finding a steady point.

Responses to criticisms[edit]

Author Ty Burr considered "Madonna was ahead of her time because she saw that image was mutable and that audiences were ready to accept that notion (as they were not when Marilyn had clumsily tried to change who we thought she was)".[56] Similarly, art historian Jasmina Tešanović, defends that despite such constant reinvention could be seen as a sign of "shallowness or insincerity", her changes are well-calculated in order to be "ahead" further explaining "it has nothing to do with sincerity. Would you expect a magician to be sincere once he performs his tricks in order to marvel you? I would call Madonna as one of the most honest performers in pop culture. She always showed us the dirty laundry in the pop business".[57]

On the other hand, her changes also helped create headlines or garnered discussion where the phrase "Who's That Girl"? was constantly used, with Marvin E. Paymer saying in Facts Behind the Songs (1993), "whatever she may have been, she always had one asking 'Who's That Girl?'".[58] Professor Santigo Fouz-Hernandez wrote in Madonna's Drowned Worlds (2004) that a multitude of agents, repeatedly and consistently "promise us the 'real' Madonna, recanting elements of her life in relation to her work".[16]

Industry impact and influence[edit]

From left to right: Rihanna and Lil' Kim, both are one of the artists whom were influenced by Madonna's reinvention of image

Writing for The New York Times in 2018, Wesley Morris heralded Madonna as the "first great identity artist".[59] According to British scholar David Gauntlett, Madonna was "credited with popularizing the view that identity is not fixed and can be continuously rearranged and revamped".[60] In 2013, Manchester Metropolitan University wrote that due to the control she exerts over her identity, Madonna was heralded as a "unique female figure".[61]

Madonna's reinvention followed a similar linked pattern of commentaries. While she is not the first musical artist to reinvent her image reminds a scholar,[53] in 2010, author K. Elan Jung felt "she displayed an almost unique capacity for reinvention".[62] The same year, an editor from German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, compared how she linked patterns that were seen as largely "incompatible".[31] Similarly, Vicki Karaminas and Adam Geczy agreed she achieved "iconic status" becoming "the first woman [...] with [such] mainstream panache and approbation".[63] On the same, critic Stephen Holden complemented it, saying: "She has manipulated the persona of the good-bad girl in music videos, concerts and endless photographs in a way that has made her self-invention a kind of ongoing performance".[64] Madonna was "widely" dubbed the "Queen of Reinvention".[65] Raven Smith from Vogue referred "she is truly the Queen of Reinvention",[66] while American journalist Maureen Orth called her "Queen Mother of All Reinvention".[67] Jennifer Weiner referred to her as "our era's greatest chameleon".[26]

What makes Madonna remarkable is her perpetual reinvention [...] She laid the blueprint for aspiring female pop stars to continue evolving [...] it wouldn't be a stretch to say Taylor Swift owes the entire concept of having various "eras" to Madonna's legacy. But before you can reinvent yourself, you have to prove that you're someone worth paying attention to in the first place

—Chris Murphy, Vanity Fair (2023)[68]

Ty Burr commented in the 2010s, that she is the "first postmodern female celebrity in that she considered 'authenticity' to be just one more mask".[56] Writing for The Daily Telegraph in 2018, Matt Cain goes further saying she "popularized" reinvention in popular music.[69] Similarly, Erica Rusell from MTV largely discussed her "legacy" of reinvention in 2019, saying it "have left a lasting mark on the culture of pop music, normalizing it for artists to reinvent their image, sound, and creative themes upon each new 'era' or album release".[70]

Madonna's own forays into the concept of reinvention has been perceived on other artists.[44] Joe Zee and Alyssa Giacobbe, included artists such as Rihanna, Lady Gaga and even Taylor Swift.[71] Some of them, such as Rihanna and Lil' Kim publicly acknowledged Madonna's reinvention influence in their career.[72][73]

Public persona[edit]

The construction of a popular's music star's persona or image may change across time, ocassionally in a calculated attempt to redefine a performer's audience and appeal. The continued success of Madonna is an example.

—Roy Shuker, Popular Music: The Key Concepts (2002)[74]

Over decades, Madonna's attitude, personality and persona have been vigorously commented by media and scholars.[74] In American Icons (2006), associate professor Diane Pecknold explained that her persona also contributed to the rise of the Madonna studies.[75] Back in 1991, Graham Cray opined she "has skilfully developed a persona" complementing her as a "complex persona and phenomenon" that requires a "detailed analysis".[76] Swedish author Maria Wikse commented that most critics recognize her ever-changing persona and has influenced the way Madonna is read.[77]

Madonna was described as a "shifting persona",[53] and as a woman constantly searching for a "new self".[78] Like David Bowie, said author Adam Nayman, she "was a shape-shifter, always different yet always herself".[79] Others have referred to her self-actualization nature.[80] Writing for The New York Times, Vanessa Grigoriadis explained that "Madonna kept reaching into the past to discover more and more about herself".[81]

Notable aspects[edit]

Personality[edit]

[Known] more for who she is than for what she does.

—American author Ethan Mordden (2016)[82]

Madonna was linked to be perfectionist,[83] and it also affected to being deemed as a narcissist,[84] which Jennifer Egan interprets it is more than personality for her, "it's a motier, a creative vocabulary and a bridge to the culture at large".[84] She has been also called a demanding diva.[85] Mary Cross wrote that she is "demanding, but given her own perfectionism and discipline, she expects a lot from her entourage".[86] Writing for The Times in 2018, Scarlett Russell described her as "fearless, focused and ferocious".[87] Once described as "obsessively controlling of all the things she does",[48] Andrew Morton wrote in Madonna (2001) that her "obsessive need for control goes way beyond the parameters of a typical business manual".[88] Peter Robinson headlined her as the "control queen".[89] In early 1990s, J. Hoberman said that "to criticize Madonna for her narcissism is to complain that water is wet".[90] Author Saul Austerlitz commented and felt she engaged in an one-upmanship contest with herself.[91] Emma Ineson concludes in Ambition (2019), that her "biggest fear is mediocrity".[92] Sarah Vine in an op-ed for PerthNow in 2023, called Madonna a "Queen of non-conformism".[93] In 2015, Paul Morley complimented that she made a "great speed" and a "very broad line", further adding she "wanted to show that as a woman she could be just as selfish, just as self-obsessed, as any man".[17]

Madonna has always been too much her own person to be easily molded by others [...] It is Madonna's overall persona, her image as revealed through her songs and her very appearance, however that accounts for her colossal success [...]

—Joy Johnston, The Union Democrat (1985)[94]

Madonna's personality has spawned plenty of commentary. Classified with some with a ESTP personality,[95] professor Alice Echols referred to her as "seductive but top-girl personality".[96] On the other hand, she has been described as a seeking-attention persona, with Madonna commenting about her childhood: "I was always desperate for attention and would do anything to get it".[97] Writing for Singaporean newspaper Today in 2011, Christopher Toh said about her hyperactivity, "she's remembered for her antics outside of the recording studio as much as her ability to create some great music".[98] Her former partner, Warren Beatty suggests that she's not the type to hide anything: "She doesn't want to live off-camera".[99] Referring to her sense of humour, social critic Elayne Rapping wrote in Media-tions (1994): "Madonna's sense of humor, irreverent and lusty, celebrates female freedom from sexist constraint of all kinds".[100]

Public speaking[edit]

Madonna during her speech at the 2017 Women's March

Madonna's intellectuality was a remarkable aspect commented by diverse reviewers as well. In 1995, she was named one of the "100 Smartest New Yorkers" by New York magazine.[101] Author Matt Mason called her "one of the smartest women in music".[102] In the 2010s, feminist author Laura Barcella states "what's always been most powerful about Madonna is her smarts", remarking that she has an IQ of 140, which makes her a "certified genius".[103] Depends how it is measured, publications like Time magazine considered she has a "near genius-level".[104]

Madonna's speeches and public speaking shaped her image as well, with Knight Ridder's Brian McCollum commenting she "always had a lot to say".[15] Writer Rodrigo Fresán mentioned that when "Madonna speaks" she becomes the "queen of one-liner".[105] Some books about her were focused on her quotes and speeches, including Madonna Speaks (1993) by Mike Fleiss (ISBN 0-9412-6383-5) or Madonna: Inspirations (2005) by Essential Works (ISBN 0-7407-5456-4), as well publications like American Songwriter and Maire Claire made listicles.[106][107] In 2006, Australian public intellectual Germaine Greer, said that Madonna "can talk", and that is what makes her a genius further summarizing that "what Madonna could do better than any other woman I know of was talk".[108] Having updated views about many issues, Madonna herself declared:

There was no one truth, only the deepening of your own understanding. What is the truth? Your truth when you're 18 is not going to be your truth when you're 28 or when you're 38. Life is not black and white. It's gray, and one minute you're going to feel so strongly and believe in something so strongly, and then maybe you won't in five years[81]

Impact[edit]

See also: Madonna wannabe

[Madonna...] had a considerable impact in shaping attitudes

—Publishers Weekly while reviewing the book Madonna and Me (2012).[109]

Madge's ever-evolving persona changed the way fans, scholars, and haters think about pop culture

—The Cut (2023)[110]

Aspects of her personality, attitude and persona were praised over decades by diverse commentators, with Christine Estima from SheKnows, commenting Madonna "seemingly understands the powerful impact her personal beliefs can have on our culture".[111] American author Rene Denfeld summed up that Madonna is one of the first female public figures ever to present ambition, power, and strength into one empowering package.[112] English author Dylan Jones, similarly claims she was "something else completely", being the first female pop star to not only project an image of control, drive and independece, but the first female pop star to truly own them too, concludes.[113]

Andrew Morton noted the usage of the phrase "What would Madonna do?", including one example in India Knight's novel My Life on a Plate and also concluding it "merely serves to accentuate the riddle of Madonna".[114] In 2014, Lorraine Candy, editor-in-chief of British Elle, dedicated an article using this phrase (which abbreviated as "WWMD") to musing "solve life's greatest dilemmas".[115]

Two authors agreed that Madonna helped redefine and blur the boundaries between public and private star personas.[116] Madonna appeared in various assessments, including being named one of the "25 Most Intriguing People in the World" in 1989, 1992, and 2001 by People magazine.[117] Writing for Vogue in 2018, Anders Christian Madsen called her "the most prolific artist of our time".[118]

Ambiguities and criticisms[edit]

Madonna was noted for her self-actualization and "shifting" persona, arousing critical commentaries.

Madonna's refusal to fess up to who and what she truly represented made her a logical, frustrating, and complex icon

—American editor Andi Zeisler (2008)[119]

Authors in Governing Codes largely explored Madonna's public image reception and concurred that critics examining her have produced "diverse", and "contradictory readings" of her public persona. And from a meta-critical level surronding the Madonna persona, they referred "the difficulties of fixing her as one set of meanings or another".[120] In 1987, Brazil journal cited that opinions differ when it comes to define Madonna, referring to various leading industry publications calling her variously as an "opportunist", "capricious", "imprecise" or "synthetic".[121] Madonna also earned a popular negative stereotype according to O'Brien as a "manipulative ballbreaker".[47] Joel Rubinoff from Waterloo Region Record summed up that "when it comes to Madonna, there tends to be two schools of thought", one of the them, says "she's a crass opportunist, talentless and manipulative".[122] On the other hand, regarding her constantly persona changes, Dick Weissman referred to her as the "Queen of role reversal" while considering that "complex analyses of her persona" (and music) are "difficult" because is "hard to tell where Madonna the singer-artist leaves off and Madonna the business-savvy media manipulator begins".[123]

Also Marty Franzen, correspondent of Burlington County Times, referred to her as a "divisive personality".[124] Ethan Mordden defined her as "unpredictable".[82] In Madonna: Like an Icon (2007), Lucy O'Brien wrote: "I have always found her work clear and autobiographical, but her personality complex and disarmingly changeable".[47] The New York Times's Jon Pareles said about her "evolving persona" that the only "constant" is the diligent effort that goes into every new guise, which made her the perfect pinup in the careerist 1980's.[125]

  • Madonna is degenerate queen of sleaze | Musician Issues 159-162; 1992

Audience responses to Madonna varied[120]

Other alternative responses[edit]

On the contrary, Gene N. Landrum, in Paranoia & Power (2007), interprets Madonna is the type who doesn't want to be who she "is" so that she can work on becoming what she "is not". That's made her an entertainment icon and such behavior is difficult for traditionalists to understand, author concludes.[126] Even British music journalist Paul Morley, in a lengthy praise, commented in 2015:

What made her so ahead of her time, knowing it and not knowing it, is that you can use her, colourise her, mix her, remix her, as part of your own narrative of meaning.[17]

Economist Robert M. Grant praised Madonna's oppoturnism from a business perspective.[127] Further remarking aspects of her public image, The New York Times staffers Caryn Ganz and Patrick Healy commented in 2016: "Madonna and Mrs. Clinton: both trailblazers, both polarizing figures, and both attacked for actions, choices and behavior that are broadly accepted — even applauded — when done by their male peers".[128]

Lifestyle[edit]

Ashcombe House, Wiltshire owned by then marriage Madonna-Guy Ritchie

Madonna's was the most scrutinized female life of the 20th century—with the possible exceptions of Diana Spencer and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

—Gerri Hirshey (2001)[129]

In late 2000s, a Belfast Telegraph columnist explained "she was a full package of a way of living".[130] In similar connotation, British author George Pendle commented she defined a way of living in the 1980s and 1990s, and this led to having considered her as a cultural icon.[131]

Her every move has been generally chronicled.[78] In a decades-long period, her lifestyle (and personal life) attracted a widespread media attention (also scholarly attention[75]) being most discussed more than her music, according to her biography at Ohio State University.[5] Barbara Ellen from The Observer commented in 2016, "Madonna's life has always been much more vigorously reviewed that her art".[132] Another similar claim was made by Rolling Stone staffers in late 20th century: "Her personal life is tracked, scrutinized and documented as a matter of course".[133] Thanks to the headlines, a contributor from SheKnows mentioned in 2022 that Madonna "was arguably the most famous popstar on the planet at that time".[111] K. Elan Jung, opined that "Madonna's life is a study in contrasts".[62]

Critical views[edit]

Fusing her work with her life impacted her image. Vulture's Lindsay Zoladz called her in 2015, as the creator of "overshare".[134] Madonna's Drowned Worlds (2004) authors, explained that multiple observers, from journalists to academics, "have reviewed the likeness of her work with elements of her life".[16] Music critic Richard Morrison complimented Madonna and Michael Jackson for fusing their private lives, public and private persona, further saying "Madonna's whole life revolves around the presentation of her image".[48] Layton once expressed "she makes sense of her life", by "deliberately making her life as part of her work".[30] British sociologist Ellis Cashmore goes further saying "after Madonna, any aspiring singer or actor knew that they would have to surrender what used to be called a private life to their public".[135] In early 1990s, Graham Cray commented that elements of her work are confessional, but much is larger than life and each image develops some aspects of her own person.[76] Author Mark Bego once described her career as having a life of its own.[136]

Health and appearance[edit]

Perhaps the most pronounced example of a celebrity whose active body has been marketed and consumed in diverse and ambiguous ways is singer/actress Madonna, not an "athlete" per se. There are instances in the sociology of sport literature where bodies like Madonna's that transcend various popular culture genres are referred to.

—L. Fuller in Sport, Rhetoric, and Gender (2016).[137]

By 2006, Richard Sine from medical site WebMD explained that various health experts have commented on Madonna's well-being.[138] She has been also know for her "devotion to phyiscal fitness", as referred Vegetarian Times in 1987.[139] Ken McLeod, in We are the Champions (2013) wrote that Madonna "promoted a body image shaped by dance and exercise".[140] Originally trained as a dancer,[141] McLeod further said that her attention to fitnetss and exercise is "legendary".[140] Also, the same author described that her performances usually demanded "a high level of aerobic athletic fitness rarely, if ever, previously seen in the annals of female performance".[140]

Madonna became one of the first Hollywood stars devotee to pilates.[142] She hired various dance trainers, and was one of the first to adopt Tracy Anderson's workouts.[141] In Ageless Intensity (2021), Pete McCall credited Madonna and Cher as one of the first female celebrities to use personal trainers.[143] In 2010, she co-founded a chain of fitness centers called Hard Candy Fitness with Guy Oseary.[59] In 2011, Madonna co-founded DanceOn, with Oseary, Amanda Taylor and Allen DeBevoise from Machinima, Inc. "to promote dance content and creating viral dance hits".[144] The startup company led sucessful relases like "Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)".[145] The same year, she was the host of Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange Project by Smirnoff, Diageo and Live Nation, an international dance competition.[146][147]

Madonna (center) during the opening of her Hard Candy Fitness in Germany, 2013

Author Cara Hagan in Practicing Yoga as Resistance (2021), noted how after he prime, she "continued to influence perceptions about the American woman and her body".[148] Writing for The New York Times in 2018, Caryn Ganz commented "her fitness, flexibility and strength have always been tied to the kind of cultural power she wields".[59] The same year, British journalist Bidisha made a similar observation noting that "it is impossible to talk about Madonna without talking about power", she is an athlete.[149]

Madonna's relation with drugs, or her avoidance, was also commented on. In mid-1990s critic Gina Arnold noted she was not a drug addict while mentioned other celebrities.[150] Lucy O'Brien, in Madonna: Like an Icon (2007) explained Madonna avoided drugs and alcohol, because anything that tranquilized the spirit was a mini-death.[151] In 2022 however, Madonna caused controversy and was accussed for sniff Poppers during a TikTok livestream.[152] Back in 2014, Madonna admitted in an interview with David Blaine she has experimented with drugs but she refuted them.[153] In 2016, Madonna told James Corden at his Carpool Karaoke: "My work is rebellious, but my lifestyle isn't rebellious. I don't smoke, I don't drink, I don't party. I'm quite square".[154] In Art and Celebrity (2003), British art historian John A. Walker pointed out her relationship with plastic artist Jean-Michel Basquiat when Madonna ended their affair because of his heroin addiction, while she was an early riser, and disdained drugs.[45] According to The Daily Telegraph's Annabel Jones, Madonna is also known for her "strict healthy eating", being one of the first to advocate a macrobiotic diet.[141]

Madonna from 2008 to 2016

Impact and influence[edit]

Madonna wearing a sporty outfit in Buenos Aires, Argentina (1993). Vogue considered her style also influenced the way of dressing for gym[155]

According to Roger Blackwell, Madonna set numerous trends having included areas such as expressions and lifestyle.[19] In 2010, Ashley Mateo from magazine Self explored Madonna-inspired fitness trends.[142]

Madonna has also been a huge inspiration to many when it comes to fitness and self-acceptance

—Gulf Today (2020)[156]

Ganz commented she "was a pioneer of welding her voice to her image, and in a culture consumed with critiquing how women look, and controlling how they use their bodies".[59] Freddy DeMann recalls of their first meeting: "She had the most unbelievable physicality I've ever seen in any human".[157] According to James Robert Parish and Michael R. Pitts in Hollywood Songsters (2003), in the likes of Marilyn Monroe and Jean Harlow, she helped create a new generation of blonde bombshell image.[27] In Icons of Beauty (2009), authors agreed she introduced a concept of celebrity beauty, that was "more fluid and mobile" and perhpas marked "the beginning of new era in celebrity beauty".[29] In early 1990s, scholar Camille Paglia suggested that her "most enduring cultural contribution may be that she has introduced ravishing visual beauty and a lush Mediterranean sensuality".[158] To McLeod, "Madonna's videos and live shows introduced a new physicality into female pop performance".[140] In similar connotations, Spanish music critic Patricia Godes opined that Madonna was the first white Caucasian celebrity to have an athletic physique with muscular legs and shoulders and felt "it changed a little the idea of female physique".[159] In 2015, Yahoo! Life senior editor Amy Rushlow, commented: She has "one of the best bodies in entertainment — and has for the past three decades".[160] In 2020, People magazine staffers similarly said she has "one of the best bodies in the world".[161]

By 2010, Self considered her "as much a fitness icon as a musical legend".[142] In Sine's view, "without ever speaking a word on the subject, Madonna may have done more to spur the world's collective fitness than anyone else".[138] Similarly, Gulf Today in a dedicated piece in 2020, said "without trying, Madonna has become an inspiration to women the world over for her body positivity, self-confidence and fitness".[156] Having mentioned Madonna and Cher as one of the first celebrities to hire a personal trainer, McCall described it resulted in "the explosive growth of women starting to exercise in order to achieve the lean and fit bodies of the stars".[143] In 2023, Apple Fitness celebrated Pride Month and Madonna's career with a full Madonna-devoted month in their playlists and with Madonna-inspired workouts. Apple says of the celebration: "For the first time in any fitness service, the energy and themes of each workout are inspired by Madonna's on self-acceptance and inclusivity across music, culture, and style".[162] The same year, a trend in TikTok called The Madonna squat challenge became viral.[163] In 2021, Julia Hobbs from Vogue dedicated a piece discussing Madonna's influence on her, and also saying "The Queen of Pop's workout uniform wrote the manual on how to incorporate throwback athletic pieces into an elevated everyday 'fit".[164] Similarly, Liana Satenstein from same publication, referred how she influenced the ways of dressing to gym for others.[155]

Madonna has been cited as an influence for other dancers and trainers, including dancers Sofia Boutella and Loic Mabanza.[165][166] In 2020, Gulf Today dedicated an article where many women personal trainers, fitness influencers or bodybuilders from different ages expressed Madonna's influence on them.[156] Some of them gained fame after their association with her. Is the case attributed by The New York Observer with trainer Nicole Winhoffer.[167] Blond Ambition World Tour's dance troupe (including Kevin Stea, Carlton Wilborn, Luis Xtravaganza Camacho and Jose Gutierez Xtravaganza), were according to Jim Farber from The New York Times, "the only dance troupe on a pop tour ever to achieve a fame of their own".[168] According to NBC News' Sandra Guzman, they became icons for young gays worldwide.[169] The 2016 documentary Strike a Pose chronicled the life of six of the dancers after the tour finished.[169]

Contradictory perspectives[edit]

From left to right: Madonna at ages 50 (2008) and 32 (1990). Her arms once became a tabloid-fixture[111] but her musculature attained also praise.[161]

According to SheKnows, "the public has had something negative to say about Madonna's appearance for decades".[111] Catherine Schuler said that mainstream critics deplore her debauched lifestyle.[170] Generalized critics at the height of her popularity, relies that she promoted "hard-to-reach" physical ideal for women, while she had the benefit of working with top trainers among many other advantages.[156] Author and academic Elizabeth Currid-Halkett, recalls that she was also "known for her draconian fitness regime and diet".[171] O'Brien, also noted her "maniac improbable fitness routines" in her 2007 book, citing a source as saying: "Madonna was in danger of burning out completely. She was doing five hours physical workout every day, more than most professional athletes".[172]

On the other hand, Madonna also suffered of body shaming starting the beginning of her career as noted Mary Elizabeth Williams, saying "one of the very first things that happened when Madonna got famous was that people called her fat".[173] She was also called "chunky" as early as 1983.[111] Madonna recalled during MTV's tenth anniversary, "You believed in me when I was chubby".[173]

At some stage of her career, her muscular arms became a tabloid-fixture "using her as a cautionary tale for women who take exercise too seriously".[111] While her critic Piers Morgan described them "grotesque", Gulf Today said contrary to his opinion, "it turns out many women do in fact want to look like cavewomen".[156]

Personal relationships[edit]

From left to right: Madonna and then-husband Guy Ritchie in 2005 and Madonna with then-partner, Carlos Leon, father's of her first children, Lourdes Leon in 1996.

Madonna's personal relationships have shaped views on her image and persona. Having relationships with celebrities from the art-world, to fashion and film industries, as well from the LGBT community, author Clifford Thompson adds she "has had highly publicized relationships with a number of celebrities".[174] Similarly, Sheryl Garratt from Los Angeles Times commented in the 1990s, "her relationships are subjected to the intense scrutiny her celebrity invites",[175] and People magazine staffers said in the 2020s that she "has had a handful of high-profile relationships over the years".[176] A Southwest Journal contributor summed up: "From romantic relationships to family life, she has managed to keep people intrigued".[177]

Madonna's image catalyzed her then-husbands (Sean Penn and Guy Ritchie) images as well. Rock critic Mark Beech wrote both were dubbed by the press "Mr Madonna".[178] Regarding Penn, Mark Bego wrote in Madonna (2000), that he "will best remembered for is that of Madonna's husband".[179] In late 2008, Ritchie was quote as saying his relationship with the singer completely changed his life, and it catapulted him into the public eye.[180] Madonna and Ritchie's divorce became one of the most expensive in history, especially for a divorce settlement for a man (Madonna was allegelady paid to him £50 million).[181]

Madonna's encounters with various entertainers and public figures have sparked a diverse of commentaries, inspiring headlines and media articles as well, such as a listicle made by Vanity Fair in 2015.[182] The documentary Madonna: Truth or Dare is largely based in Madonna's celebrity persona at that time, and according to Landon Palmer in Rock Star/Movie Star (2020), "Madonna's encounters with other famous people throughout the documentary also serve to construct her persona".[183] Madonna is an A-list celebrity attributed with having celebrities beefs, included in related lists from publications such as BuzzFeed.[184] Various celebrities have talked about her, being labeled as "beign unique" by dance teacher Pearl Lang when she met her in the 1970s, and by Freddy DeMann in the 1980s.[185][157]

Madonna on-stage with her children, Rocco in 2012 (The MDNA Tour) and David Banda in 2015 (Rebel Heart Tour)

Autobiographies citing Madonna[edit]

Madonna has been mentioned in autobiographies and memories of other celebrities, including Dennis Rodman's Bad as I Wanna Be, Andy Warhol's The Andy Warhol Diaries and his brother Christopher Ciccone's publicized book Life with My Sister Madonna with Marjorie Hallenbeck-Huber mentioning in Celebrities' Most Wanted (2010) that after Madonna's brother book came out, "only heightened curiosity about Madonna's 'real life'".[186] While referred to Madonna's mention on severe other's books, including Rodman's autobiography, French scholar Georges-Claude Guilbert, said in Madonna as Postmodern Myth (2004), that other "celebrities are also keenly aware of Madonna's impact" and how other celebrities used her fame.[187] When American journalist Julie Salamon told Madonna that the only passage she ever read in Rodman's book was the "Madonna chapter", the singer adds and felt he exploited his "very brief" relationship with her.[187]

Considerations and media criticisms[edit]

Madonna earned a reputation among her critics, for "using" and "discarding" in her beginnings, boyfriends, managers and producers of both sexes and whoever could help "advance" her career, including commentators like Chris Connelly.[188] In Desperately Seeking Madonna (1993), author quoted Madonna: "If anybody wants to know, I never fucked anyone to get anywhere. Never... Yes, all my boyfriends turned out to be very helpful to my career, but that's not the only reason I stayed with them. I loved them very much".[188] [30] In Profile of Female Genius (1994), editor quotes a Madonna similar response while him concludes "what confidence and positive perspective she has about a negative part of her career building".[189] Writing for El País in 2003, Spanish music journalist Diego A. Manrique referred that the "scandal" derived from the fact Madonna never deviated from her goals, avoiding becoming the puppet of managers, composers, producers or record labels, whether they were bedfellows or not, and it would not shoked the music industry if the protagonist was a male artist.[190]

Her profesional collaborations have been also remarked on. In early 2000s, Madonna critics considered her a "vampire-like" way for hiring "fashionable" musicians to "update" her sound,[55] with Matthew Jacobs from HuffPost commenting a decade later that she hired "younger peers who would help her seem current".[191] After decades since she burst onto the scene, Billboard chart analyst Fred Bronson commented in 2003, that "Me Against the Music" was the first time in the Hot 100 that the name "Madonna" and the word "featuring" appeared.[181] Since then, she has collaborated with many other musicians in various singles and by 2012, she herself values overall collaborations by saying: "I can't work on my own... I need to hear what people think all the time".[192] Madonna has involucrated family members in her projects as well. She and her first children, Lourdes Leon created clothing line Material Girl, while with her brother Christopher Ciccone worked in her early tours and some videos too.[193]

On the other hand, economist Robert M. Grant considered that part of her success has been people management strengths with which Madonna has implemented her strategic initiatives.[127] Maury Dean deemed Madonna as "one of the most malleable singers of all time".[194]

Mentorships and matriarch-role[edit]

Guy Oseary and Madonna during the opening of their Hard Candy Fitness Australian branch in 2012.

Since 1980s, media have reffered how she had protegé figures in the industry such as Nick Kamen and Guy Oseary,[195][196][197] with the later crediting her "with pretty much everything" in his career.[198] During the 1990s and beyond, Madonna mentored signed artists in her record label Maverick Records; notoriously Alanis Morissette, whom declared to Rolling Stone in 2020, how "generous" she was as mentor.[199]

Others have referred to her "matriarchy"-like role,[200] with some authors claiming her "pop matriarch" status "has been atomized with exhaustive diligence" in some works.[201] Publications including Grammy.com have explored her support to other newly artists, including spontaneous statements even long before admirative demonstrations became later an "almost boringly common".[202][203] In the 2000s, media outlets such as Cosmopolitan recalled how Madonna helped create hype to a relative-unknown Katy Perry,[204] while Today referred how Madonna dubbed Britney Spears her "worthy successor".[205] Others have criticized however, her post-Gaga "matriarch status" starting in 2012.[206][207] Music critic Ann Powers, said she realizes it in a "complex and sometimes controversial ways", but she reacted positive to her "symbolic matriarch" calling her "Mother of Pop".[208] In 2015, MTV dedicated an article about "9 Princesses of Pop Who Have Earned Madonna's Blessing", noting her supporting manner.[209]

Media representation[edit]

See also: Madonna on the Late Show with David Letterman in 1994

Learning from Madonna —the master media manipulator— contemporary pop queens must invest in symbolic work (involving images) over and above the study of music and vocal training and technique.

—Susan Hopkins, Girl Heroes (2002)[25]

Madonna's image was also defined by her representation on media. In her early decades, various academics examined her media representations and discourses.[210] In Keeping the Promise: Essays on Leadership, Democracy, and Education (2007), scholars called her a "complex character in media culture", noting also her multiple media representations.[211] Peter Robinson called her the original "Queen of Pop Media".[89]

Traditional media[edit]

In her early decades, Madonna in-control and perfeccionism lead to be considered and praised as a "media manipulator". On this, scholar Georges-Claude Guilbert wrote in Madonna as Postmodern Myth (2004) about her media interviews, "it is said that on such ocassions, so as to fully master her image, she insists on checking the position of each camera".[212] Professor Roy Shuker in Popular Music: The Key Concepts (2002), explains that "to many her success" rests on media manipulation and artifice.[74] Writing for The Baltimore Sun in 1995, J. D. Considine heralded her as "more media manipulator than musician".[213] American journalist Josh Tyrangiel said that she reached her peak when released Like a Prayer.[214] Critics such as Stephen Thomas Erlewine called it one of her "greatest achievements",[215] and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame described after her induction in 2008, "no one in the pop realm has manipulated the media with such as savvy sense of self-promotion".[216]

Social media[edit]

Starting in the 2010s, Madonna on-stage representation, and social media "antics" often caused buzz. In the image, Madonna at the Tears of a Clown in 2016

Her look is at times so deliberately bizarre and extreme it becomes a radical anti-beauty statement. She has a constant urge to perform, to push and stretch herself beyond comfortable boundaries, and it is as if the flat, fragmentary world of social media cannot contain her.

—Lucy O'Brien (2023)[217]

Madonna constructed and deconstructed herself beginning in the 2010s, with her on-stage image and her introduction to social media channels,[218] such as Instagram and TikTok, with a website recalling "her social media antics generate a lot of buzz amongst the public" and Lucy O'Brien saying her social media presence is at times baffling.[219][217] In 2015, Robinson wrote for The Guardian how she entered internet in early 2000s, broking viewing records, and also noting her early absence in social media channels when the format becoming popular. He later referred to her social accounts have "become a hashtag-strewn, meme-littered jamboree of misfires through which the image Madonna spent three decades refining has begun to unravel".[89]

By 2016, a research cited by sources like The Independent described her a "toxic" figure calling her media image "embarrassing" while according to the researcher cited, it was not because of her age, but because her then-well received "media manipulator" image, turned "inauthentic".[220] Writing for The Guardian in 2022, Alaina Demopoulos provided with critical examples of her "antics" on social media, citing Katie Kapurch from Texas State University whom noted how she joint to the TikTok "credit-taking trend".[221] Commenting about her public appearance and social media activities which garnered her criticism, a record industry insider insisted "what you're seeing is a performance" further adding "nothing with her is unplanned".[222] In 2023, psychologist Belén Alfonso cited by El País, said Madonna "teaches us that physical activity, eroticism and trending on social media are not exclusive behaviors of a certain age".[218]

Madonna's age and cross-polarization reviews[edit]

More recently, people are upset about Madonna’s age and appearance

—Brandon Sanchez, The Cut (2023)[110]

Reviews over Madonna's appearance, lifestyle, media representation and beyond drastically changed after her entrance into mid 50s, with a contributor from Pitchfork referring as she gets older "she becomes polarizing in new ways".[223] Matthew Jacobs from HuffPost commented in 2019, her age has defined "Madonna's image",[191] while Glamour's Lucy Morgan explained that her name is often accompanied by unsolicited commentary about her appearance as well the concept of "ageing gracefully" is often levelled at her.[224]

She sparked conversations about ageism,[225] while two authors described her as "the site of both critical debate and academic study, much of which perpetuates its own form of ageism".[116] In 2018, commentator Mary Elizabeth Williams, said that she still as polarizing as ever, but also a pioneering, further commenting "her most radical act has simply been aging while being female".[173]

Background and increase[edit]

Entering in her age of 30s, Madonna was considered for her critics "too old". In the image, Madonna at age of 32, during the Blonde Ambition Tour

Matt Cain said that she has suffered of ageism "from the very start of her career".[69] Others have talked about as early as the beginning of the 1990s, when she entered into her 30s.[191][223] At age of 35 in 1993, Smash Hits dedicated an article under the headline "Madonna calm down grandma",[226] for daring to still be on tour.[111]

Mary Gabriel, opined for The New York Times in 2023, that since her late 20s, in the 1980s, the press began musing aloud about when she might retire, and with each decade the same question persisted with "varying degrees of cruelty".[227] Commercial and artistically, her entrance into her 40s, according to a Belfast Telegraph columnist in 2008, was a moment that many considered it "was supposed to be the end of her creativity and influence".[130] Back in 1992, in her 30s, The Canberra Times touching her then-future age of 40, explained that by pop standards (mainly) female singers peak much earlier their prime.[228] Amid the release of her album American Life in 2003, leading media outlets such as The New York Times devoted articles discussing Madonna's age and relevancy, in terms of music consumerism and its difficults to target her to young audiences which lead them suggest were the "final stages of a long career".[229] PopMatters staffers referred to The New York Times articles, and overall they said "the question of age is not inconsequential".[230] In Michael Arceneaux's opinion, while reviewed Madonna's Rebel Heart era in 2015, "unfortunately, with age comes a certain disconnect" of things.[231] A contributor from The Spectator have commented that contemporary radio stations have ignored her in favor to younger artists.[232] In 2015 for instance, Madonna accused BBC Radio 1 of ageism and discrimination after ban her song "Living for Love" from their playlist.[233]

Culturally, starting the 21st century, The Guardian arts writer Fiona Sturges, wrote in 2018 that her move in the past 15 years has been accompanied by a "grim chorus of put it away, grandma".[234] Although depending of viewpoints, she oscillated between "agelessness" and "ageing" amid her 50s.[235] In early 2020s, observers such as Suzanne Harrington from Irish Examiner and Toula Drimonis from the Cult MTL respectively defined "the ageism raining down on Madonna is dated, dull, and getting old" and "tiresome".[236][237]

Notable incidents and fixture[edit]

See also: Radio 1 Madonna controversy
Piers Morgan became a notable Madonna critic, often remarking her age and appearance over years[173][238]

The consolidation of various social media platforms in the 2010s, represented a bigger attention throught internet culture regarding her public image, focused on her age and acts. For instance, Spanish activist Roy Galán noted and commented, as she got older some "people started systematically ridiculing Madonna", criticizing everything she does or says and using her age as a weapon.[239] In the process, Claire Cohen from Vogue commented Madonna has been called someone who "needs help", "hypocritical", "a disgrace" and targeted by trolls,[240] while her usage of filters and image-altering software garnered her criticism, although Maggie Clancy from SheKnows said the overall debate surrounding celebrities using filters "isn't by any means a new one".[241] On Madonna's media and public attention through internet, Charlie Gowans-Eglinton from The New Zealand Herald commented in 2020:

Madonna's refusal to 'grow old gracefully' continues to anger the media, and the public who comment on her social media posts in their thousands.[242]

After various Madonna social moments becoming viral and often seen with commonly attributions for her age and later also her appearance, Maeve McDermott from USA Today commented in 2018, that the wide-ranging stories all shared a similar "cringe" as they assessed their subject: "An aging woman with the audacity to stay in the spotlight".[243] Referring to her performance at the Brit Awards 2015, when her costume caused her to be pulled down a flight of stairs, Caroline Sullivan from The Guardian said "hundreds of tweets that referenced her age as reason to sympathise with her fall".[244] Madonna's appearance at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards in 2023, also caused media stir.[225][245] A The New York Times Magazine 2019 interview with Madonna, garnered criticisms coming from both sides with the singer saying the publication focused too much on her age in her profile.[246]

In the process, Madonna also seen constantly critics, notably Piers Morgan, as Williams says he often "berate her for aging".[173] By 2023, Morgan referred "she's become the most grotesque, trainwreck embarrassment in the history of world entertainment" which also garnered him backlash as some condemned him as "misogynistic".[247]

Various reviewers commented on the criticisms she gets online, including Maddy Mussen from Evening Standard by saying: "Frankly, Madonna has done more for women's confidence, sexuality and liberation than any of her naysayers, so I don't see why they're getting a say on how she should look or behave as she gets older".[248] Rosa Lagarrigue, a Spanish manager also commented about the issue, saying who "attack" her from social networks are "ignorant cowards".[249]

Aspects[edit]

In a world that so often can't wait to put older women out to pasture, Madonna doing things on her terms and in her own time is, of course, going to create a backlash.

—Toula Drimonis from Cult MTL (2023)[236]

In 2013, McLeod commented she became a prisoner of her own constructed image.[140] Various reviewers noted or criticized the fact she appears to maintain her same previous ideals, including her fitness and body image.[140] On this, academic Camille Paglia commented in 2005, that she "cannibalizes herself in a misguided attempt to appeal to today's youth".[250] Another critic was American author Anne Helen Petersen questioning in her 2017 book, if Madonna battling ageism or battling for her own particular body "to remain forever young".[251]

Madonna's appearance along with her extravagant on-stage acts and behavior took a prominent role for her critics, as explains Drimonis is about "the way she looks", as some argued their reactions to Madonna has less to do with her age, and more to do with how she's responded to the aging process itself.[236] As early as 1990s, Matthew Wright cited a critic referring to her performance at the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards, saying "there's nothing this woman won't do to grab attention. I don't know if anyone hear really wants to see her boobs any more. We had enough of them years ago when she published her Sex book".[252] In 2008, Kate Holmquist, dedicated an entire article for The Irish Times titled "Dear Madonna - act your age".[253] Such representation of Madonna further divided opinions in the next years, with an editor from website Ageist saying she has us reflecting on double standards.[254] In 2023, Stacy London was quoted as saying: "People are angry that she doesn't follow prescribed cultural rules about aging and relevancy. She has always, ALWAYS been a provocateur; why would she change just because she's older?".[254] Others including Drimonis similarly complimented Madonna for remaining at her essence.[236] On Madonna's behavior, Nancy Jo Sales from The Guardian commented in 2023, "she does it all with a sense of humor – knowing full well that she doesn't look like the dazzling young woman she once was, and knowing what the haters will say about her supposedly trying to 'recapture her youth'".[255]

The criticism was also contradictory –some ragged on her for either not aging gracefully at 63, or for literally the opposite: trying to age gracefully by having cosmetic procedures.

—SheKnows's Christine Estima on bidirectional criticisms (2022)[111]

Fashion statements of an aged Madonna also garnered her criticisms; she appeared posting underwear-clad selfies on her social media channels in various opportunities.[173][248] Her appealing about dating younger partners was also remarked on.[256][257][258][255] After media stir at Madonna's Grammy Awards appearance in 2023, Glamour consulted beauty critics to discuss what "ageing gracefully" means.[224] Miguel Espeche from La Nación commented that Madonna somehow puts us in front of ourselves.[259]

According to Lucy O'Brien, "there has been a media backlash against her cosmetic surgeries".[217] After her appearance at the 2023 Grammy Awards, Madonna caused speculations about how much cosmetic surgery she'd had done.[224] Publications and commentariats, including beauty critic Jessica DeFino regarding that moment, concludes that "people are upset by Madonna's new face because it is, on some level, exposing the truth: The anti-ageing is an inhuman goal".[224] DeFino commented about cosmetic procedures, saying when plastic surgery is subtle, we call it "good work", and when is obvious, we call it "bad work".[224] Some have remembered her opinion against cosmetic surgeries back in her documentary Madonna: Truth or Dare in 1991, although she has updated views which was extensively justified by a contributor from SheKnows,[111] and with Cohen noticing a number of "prominent" female-focused organizations posting on social media in defence of Madonna's right to do "what she wants with her body".[240]

Comparisons and differences[edit]

Madonna was often compared with other celebrities to justify or judge her case. Jacobs mentioned older artists before her, but he commented "they've more or less accepted that they are nostalgia acts, a status Madonna is hellbent on avoiding".[191] While reviewing an aged Madonna in 2019, Vanessa Grigoriadis from The New York Times compared that "fans love aging musicians" for their nostalgia among many other things.[81] Caryn Ganz from the same publication commented a previous year, "there has never been a pop star writing and performing at her level, and demanding a seat at the table, at her age".[59] Spanish music critic Patricia Godes while compared her to other contemporary or older artists, mainly men, expressed "what is transgressive is being Madonna".[249] From Matt Cain to Bidisha various journalists complimented her to "outlived" many of her contemporary and "dared to grow old".[149][69]

On the other hand, multiple observers have noted sexism related-bias, which Drimonis overall comments "the double standards are brutal for female entertainers".[236] On this, a editor from The Independent cites that Madonna questioned criticisms which was aimed at her more aggressively than at her male contemporaries.[260] In Spain, newspaper El Mundo garnered criticisms for highlighting male artists' age and longevity, while headlined female artists such as Beyoncé (at age of 40) and Madonna's age (at age of 64) in a despective way.[261] Others like Jade Biggs from Cosmopolitan noted more and more examples of public figures suffering of ageism.[262]

Madonna and other celebrities reactions[edit]

Madonna looks, she looks that way on purpose, and she looks that way to provoke us into deeper thought. You think that Madonna Louise Ciccone doesn't know what she's doing?

Monica Hesse, The Washington Post (2023)[263]

Madonna herself voiced to ageism on society and in her industry multiple times, with Drimonis explaining she has "fighting ageism long before she was even old".[236] As early as 1992, at age of 34, Madonna responded to Jonathan Ross: "Is there a rule? Are people just supposed to die when they're 40?".[264] According to Bethany Minelle from Sky News in 2023, Madonna's criticisms on ageism received widespread media coverage.[192]

Madonna has made a special emphasis on women. In one opportunity, she expressed: "Women, generally, when they reach a certain age, have accepted that they're not allowed to behave a certain way. But I don't follow the rules. I never did, and I'm not going to start".[173] "I am happy to do the trailblazing so that all the women behind me can have an easier time in the years to come", she once felt and commented.[26] Similarly after her appearance at the 2015 Grammy Awards when she was criticized for her fashion statement, she responded: "If I have to be the person who opens the door for women to believe and understand and embrace the idea that they can be sexual and look good and be as relevant in their 50s or their 60s or whatever as they were in their 20s, then so be it".[265] Commenting about her continual intervention, a contributor from USA Today said in 2018[243]:

Madonna, who has proven to be an astute cultural critic time and again throughout her career, has spent the past few years fighting back, both in her continually unapologetic flamboyance in the public eye and in her barbed defenses of her behavior in interviews

Various celebrities have reacted to public reactions against her age with relevancy, social media representation and beyond, including rapper 50 Cent whom constantly "mocked" her according to NME.[266]

Cultural impact[edit]

Madonna at age of 48 in 2006 interpreting "Hung Up". She sets some age chart records, including being recognized by the Guinness World Records as the "Oldest artist to simultaneously top the UK singles and album charts" with "Hung Up" and Confessions on a Dance Floor.[267]

Madonna's age also received a significant cultural response. Her entrance into her 40s, excited a "media frenzy" resulting an increase for record sales of her catalog in the UK charts according to Music Week, and in US charts according to Billboard, helped with media exposeture.[268][269] In her 40s, author Rodrigo Fresán in 2000, reflected on an aging Madonna as a "mirror of our days" to an entire generation.[270] Authors of Gender, Age and Musical Creativity (2016), considered when she entered into her 50s, she perhaps became the "best known and most talked about female musician in her fifties".[271] Furthermore, in 2008 Australian newspaper, The Age commented that her 50th anniversary represented "big news". "So big" they added, that a virtual clock counted down to the moment she reaches her half-century, further adding about the attention: "From trashy gossip magazines to esteemed cultural institutions, the queen of pop's entrance into middle age is being chewed over, processed and then dissected again".[272] Turning her entrance into her 60s, a member from AAR wrote an article for Campaign where defines her 60th anniversary as a "major pop culture event".[273] Leading media outlets including The Guardian dedicated a "series" of articles celebriting that milestone, written by musicians and columinists,[274] and hashtag #MadonnaAt60 was used for her fans and some celebrities.[275][276]

Madonna has continued to dominate recent academic debate about the role of ageing women in pop.

—Ageing, Popular Culture and Contemporary Feminism (2014)[116]

Due to the widespread attention, Paulina Porizkova commented in early 2023, that she is "forcing the world to discuss aging. Specifically, women".[277] Back in the mid-2010s, Vanity Fair and Harper's Bazaar editors similarly considered Madonna the most relevant case of ageism and the one who put it into relevancy.[278][279] Fiona Sturges opined for The Guardian in 2018, that Madonna is defying the critics who tell older women to "gracefully" fade away, further concluding "we can take heart that, as with so many aspects of the female experience, Madonna is doing her damnedest to put it right".[234] Similarly, Jennifer Weiner opined for The New York Times in 2023, whatever her intentions, "the superstar has gotten us talking about how good looks are subjective and how ageism is pervasive".[26] Mussen goes further referring to the time "BM (Before Madonna)", saying times are now different, complementing various celebrities over the age of 50, embracing their sexuality or freedom speech, while thanking Madonna.[248] Nancy Jo Sales reflected and complimented: "She wants us to be uncomfortable with an older woman being sexual because we are uncomfortable with it. She wants us to look at ourselves and ask what we're so feeling so judgy about, exactly".[255]

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Bego 2000, p. ix
  2. ^ Bego 2000, p. 2
  3. ^ Hyden 2016, p. online
  4. ^ a b Street, John (1993). "Musicologists, Sociologists and Madonna". Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research. 6 (3): 277–289. doi:10.1080/13511610.1993.9968356. Retrieved February 10, 2022.
  5. ^ a b c "Madonna". Ohio State University. Archived from the original on December 16, 2016. Retrieved July 14, 2023.
  6. ^ "Madonna". Time. Vol. 125, no. 9–17. 1985. p. 76. Retrieved July 14, 2023.
  7. ^ Harrison 2017, p. 213
  8. ^ Havranek 2009, p. 262
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Book sources[edit]

See also: Bibliography of works on Madonna and List of academic publishing works on Madonna

External links[edit]

[edit]

[edit]

  1. ^ Wolf, Naomi (February 10, 2012). "Q&A with Naomi Wolf: why do people hate Madonna?". The Guardian. Retrieved October 9, 2022.
  2. ^ a b Myers, Chuck (August 12, 2001). "Madonna Music Maverick". Sun Sentinel. p. 3D. Retrieved October 5, 2023.
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