In a new series called Mondo Bullshittio, let’s talk about some of the most glaring hypocrisies in pop culture.
As the year 2020 progresses at a steady clip toward the inevitable disappointment of whoever will turn out to be the next president (Bernie Sanders included), the lone silver lining has been that the media has finally seen fit to give “day old bread” women their due, as manifested by a Vogue article called “2020 Continues to Belong to Women in Their 50s.” It, of course, started with Shakira and Jennifer Lopez’s shared performance of respective hits at the Super Bowl, with J. Lo in particular being applauded and gawked at for having such a body at such an age. As though the two have been in direct opposition to one another until now. As though Madonna hasn’t been a beacon of fitness at every stage of her life. This very palpable about-face regarding how women “of a certain age” are talked about is somewhat jarring considering that it was once deemed a scandal to even be seen on a red carpet past one’s thirties (that’s certainly something the Golden Age of Hollywood made apparent).
Yes, we might be veering toward a new world order in the entertainment industry now, but let us take it back to 1998. August 16th, 1998, to be precise–the day of Madonna’s fortieth birthday. Headlines like “Madonna: Mad for Fame at 40” and backhanded compliments in articles about her record, Ray of Light, such as, “Although this new image is probably the least glamorous to date, Madonna, who turns forty in August, looks much younger than her years,” all served to pave the way for doing what Madonna predicted would happen in a 1992 interview with Jonathan Ross. That is to say, in her own words, that they would try to put her out to pasture, or, more specifically, “Once you reach a certain age, you’re not allowed to be adventurous, you’re not allowed to be sexual. And I think that’s rather hideous.What are you supposed to just die when you’re 40? And that’s basically what everyone wants people to do. You’re just supposed to kind of put yourself out to pasture.” Unless, that is, you’re Jennifer Lopez and instead of being condemned for lacking dignity in continuing to show your body and sing lyrics of a sexual nature, you’re praised quite possibly because you’re not a white woman that has been doing the same thing for much longer. Then there is the other side of the “elderly woman” coin: playing by the media’s rules about what aging with “dignity” means. This tends to apply to actresses, most notably Renee Zellweger, who won an Oscar for playing Judy Garland during one of her downward spirals at the end of her life. This is what the mainstream wants to see women in their 50s playing.
They want a woman to “embrace” her age by showing the wrinkles and the flaws that prove she’s being done a favor at all by being allowed in public. But hey, “old woman” parts have to go to someone, after all. And Diane Keaton couldn’t keep playing them forever. Laura Dern, too, has been called out of late for having a renaissance moment after her own consistent award wins for a marginal role in Marriage Story. Yet Madonna chooses to flash her ass at the Grammys and suddenly it’s New York Times “think” pieces about how her “antics” are being watched with “queasy fascination” as the public endures “her attempts to navigate the undeniable fact that she is growing older before our eyes in an era of obsessive self-documentation and rampant oversharing–one that she had a direct hand in creating.” Elsewhere, the female author, mind you, of the article discussed Madonna’s “determination to be the world’s youngest, raunchiest 56-year-old” in her “relentless” attempts to shock using sexual titillation from the same playbook she’s had her entire career.
No, Madonna is not aging “correctly”–just another term for “gracefully” in the eyes of the “media powers that be”–still hopelessly imprinted with misogyny for as many women as there are “on the beat” to cover Madonna as she causes indignation by sheer non-virtue of seemingly “acting” younger the older she gets (minus, alas, those pesky injuries that have been plaguing her throughout the Madame X Tour). That her latest boy toy rounds out a series of backup dancers and models in their early to mid-twenties has only further fanned the flames of contempt, as though to say, “How dare she?” Jennifer Lopez, Renee Zellweger and Laura Dern wouldn’t stoop to such levels of gauchery, of inelegance. Mainly because they probably couldn’t. It takes a certain kind of gumption to appear in public with a younger man, a kind that men themselves have had for centuries with younger women… but the tongue-wagging regarding that fact remains rather minimal. So while the public and the media that manipulates them overduely shifts the narrative in favor of the “aging woman,” one would do well to remember who the fuck showed up in public despite being tarred and feathered for it after the age of forty. Nay, even thirty-six, when an episode of Beavis and Butt-head found the duo critiquing the “Secret” video and its “old, white-haired lady” (she was bleach blonde at the time).
Because when Madonna does anything, the only retort is about her age. It’s an absurdity that doesn’t add up unless one factors in that she’s the only “old” woman who has ever incorporated sexuality consistently into her post-forty repertoire. An “act” that society is still a long way away from embracing. Least of all other women in Madonna’s age bracket who just want to appear to be “refined” and “imperial.” Though one can’t see where any of those adjectives play into J. Lo working a stripper pole (Madonna, too, worked a pole for most of 2005-2006 during performances of “Hung Up”). Again, it seems the accolades for this are at least somewhat related to not being Madonna. The one “old bag slag” who can’t make the cut for deference when it comes to women who have shown stamina in their career.
