Madonna Compares Ageism Against Her to Racism and Homophobia

What goes around comes around.

We celebrate youth and see aging as weakness and as a betrayal to the high value we place on youth.

She's got a point.

Madonna fights the physical signs of age. Seems ageist to me.

R3 Exactly.

Old Lives Matter.

Madonna-as-victim is most unconvincing. In her youth she preached a generic "freedom!" to "express yourself!", yet now that she's on the receiving end of criticism she want speech codes. Typical doofus.

Or R3 her income depends on her marketing her looks. Or it's also about feeling better with a fit body.

But yes essentially you make sharp observation.

She's more or less over as a performer now anyway. I doubt most people under the age of 40 care about her music now.

Because she isn't elegant or classy. No refinement. If she wasn't fighting it so hard no one would notice. People don't mention the age of Meryl Streep. Streep is focused on bigger issues. Madonna has always been silly and transparent. Emotionally stunted and addicted to attention.

Yet for all that she was part of my growing up.

[quote]No one would dare to say a degrading remark about being black

Didn't you read my Tweet last month?

You've got nothing to complain about, lady. Without consequences, you threatened to actually blow up Trump's house, while I've got G-men still riding my ass because I was photographed holding a mask covered in catsup!

I agree with Madonna and I do not like her.

She is right to an extent. Sudennly her last album stopped getting any airplay (and the songs were not significantly different from her previous one). Also the frequent comments she should stop acting sexual and provocative at her age. However, the comments on her horrible plastic surgery are fully deserved.

We shouldn't deride her aged appearance, no.

But we can certainly marvel that even at her considerable age, she is still attention seeking and apparently in dire need of therapy.

It's pathetic, really. These older women struggling to look twenty-five.

[quote] She is right to an extent. Sudennly her last album stopped getting any airplay (and the songs were not significantly different from her previous one).

Which also weren’t played because they’re shit.

It’s always all about her.

She is ageist herself-- with all the plastic surgery to look young, and not dressing her age (grills? really?)

It's not the same as racism or homophobia because aging is something all of us, regardless of income, gender, race, anything experience equally.

What are your favorite episodes? I def prefer the 1,2&3 season’s. Like the freak show, the one with the weed/comics guy, the Amalia amalfi one, the one of the wedding of miranda’s friend and the decorator ( frog gift), when Carrie met the ex spouse of Big.

^ oops wrong thread! Sorry! I thought I was posting on the SATC thread hahah

R19 Right. To my knowledge no one is making fun of her for getting older. She is being ridiculed for being foolish.

She is right to an extent. On DL, this thread, and many others you can see the fear of growing older in post after post. I guess younger posters think what older adults do is "not as good", "not as relevant" etc. even when they are only middle aged, never mind really old. And of course to them the idea of older people having sex and/or falling in love anew disgusts them. Think about it. Isn't that the kind of shit homophobes pull on us?

On the other hand, Madonna brings it on herself somewhat. She has had too much plastic surgery- and why? She's afraid of age as well. I have much more admiration for older actresses who minimize the surgery etc and just produce (Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Steep, although she is not all that old). I actually think aging and losing her "powers" as happens to all of us- scares Madonna. She has a way to go, and hopefully she will understand that fear is what drives younger adult rejection of older adults.

I will be 65 shortly and I can assure you, I do not like it. On the other hand I am lucky to have made it. As you will all see if you too survive, aging is not for the faint of heart. And everyone resists it- being more forgetful, aches and pains; health issues related to wear and tear you never predicted; can't so the same activities and on and on. Resistance and acceptance- very hard to balance. On the other hand older adults have a lot to offer: experience.

Kindness is the anecdote. Kindness from the younger (wishful thinking?) and kindness toward ourselves. Kindness seems to be non existent on (in particular) anonymous and even non anonymous (Facebook) Internet platforms. I have a mantra that I say often throughout the day to keep me right side up (I sometimes change the order): love, kindness, patience, tolerance, empathy. I also remind myself to accept the world as it is, not as I want it to be. This last one is real hard in today's political world when I in fact work hard and use my money to try to do my part to shape the world as I think it should be- (consider our current President- who I will never accept).

It ain't simple and it ain't easy. There are posters who seem to get how hard life can be for the old. For others look around a bit more- watch an old lady or man struggle (alone) with things that you take for granted- watch old cats and dogs struggle. Take some time to chat with a really old adult about their life- it can be as wonderful as a good book or movie.

Great post, r24.

She would have more credibility if she weren’t fighting the aging the process with all the ferocity of someone battling cancer.

She is ageist as well. She buys twenty something boyfriends rather than pursuing any relationship with a man twenty, let alone almost forty, years younger.

Fuck off, Madge, you old cunt. lol

Plastic surgery to look younger isn't ageism at best it's a response to ageism. R19 is a great example. He accuses Madonna of ageism because she had plastic surgery and then goes on to claim he does dress her age. Anyone else see the irony?

R24 - Kindness is the answer? Your description of aging leaves out employment discrimination which I don't think can be cured by kindness. It's illegal and like all discrimination it can be very difficult to prove. You sound fortunate in that you've don't mention any kind of discrimination that would cause you to lose your home. As we learned during the last great recession it was next to impossible for people over 50 to find work if they lost their jobs. Much harder than for those under 50.

R20 - wrong. Discrimination isn't determined over a life time. But rather moments in time and specific acts. If you are over 40 you are in a protected class.

R29 ageism is real- but I was not addressing institutionalized ageism. My post is an appeal to prevent it- to identify it in yourself like any prejudice (and not act on it.) Ever notice how many coming of age romances (gay films, even the good ones) dominate. Not mature love stories, as if the only people who fall in love are young. My appeal is to look more closely around you to see what aging really is- and yes, to be kinder. Simple. Look closely, listen, and be kind- be quiet. You'll start to see things that you never noticed. Life does not end at 30, or any of the subsequent decades- and the accrued experience of survival can be awfully interesting. Certainly at least as interesting as falling in love for the first time as a young person.

R30 - how does kindness address institutional discrimination of any form? Looking closely and being quiet doesn't pay the rent.

Because her kids keep telling her MOM you are too OLD to show your butt every night in front of my friends.

It isn't about right or wrong; might is right. Old people are worthless to society. Blacks fight our wars and gays act.

Ageism is a real problem for people who are NOT madonna and I would respect her more if she brought light to the issue of ageism in the workplace. People getting laid off in their fifties and then being unemployed or underemployed without any real safety net is terrifying.

Italians don't age well. Her being Italian through her dad's side. I am more interested in her having a straight, bi, lesbian, gay man caught in a woman's body and black girl from Pontiac, Michigan mind set. She must get confused what hat to wear on the dabce floor. Living on the Upper East side has killed her ability to produce any music of value. If her mom had lived we would not have to deal with this woman who will never go away.