Madonna was chosen to be the cover girl for the 150th-anniversary issue of Harper’s Bazaar, and even though the Queen of Pop’s fans have expressed mixed feelings of her photo shoots over the past couple of years, the unanimous feeling is that she slayed this one.
The consensus is that Madonna’s Harper’s Bazaar photos are sexy, but “powerful” sexy instead of “trying too hard to be young” sexy, which Madonna has often been accused of for the past several years. Fans have taken to Twitter to praise Madonna’s latest magazine cover appearance.
Madonna seems to have hit all the high notes lately, even if her voice sometimes misses them. Her appearance on Carpool Karaoke garnered praise. Rachel Sonis from Idolator thought the Queen of Pop’s appearance lived up to all the hype.
Madonna has been praised for many of her public appearances lately. [Photo by Fernando Valdes/AP Images]
“Madonna’s Carpool Karaoke segment on the Late Late Show has arrived, and it’s everything we’d hoped it would be…The best part, though, is when she keeps making fun of Corden’s ‘very Seattle 1990s’ flannel shirt. ‘You’re not going to get me with red flannel, baby,’ she replies after his multiple protests. Amazing.”
However, as the Inquisitr previously noted, it was Madonna’s speech at the Billboard Women in Music event that really hit a chord. As Rich Juzwiak of Jezebel noted, it was one of the singer’s most warmly received public offerings in recent memory.
In the speech, Madonna talked about the double standards of being a female entertainer. One month later, the speech is still a hot topic on Twitter. Of course, not everybody is happy with the speech. Camille Paglia, the “feminist” who has spent decades bullying Madonna (even once blaming Madonna for her own near-fatal horse accident) didn’t like the speech, especially because Madonna called her out on it. As Juzwiak points out, Camille responded by making fun of Madonna’s looks, her age, and everything else.
“It’s a fact that Madonna has railed against often over the years, but never with quite such clarity and acerbic conviction as she did on Friday night at Billboard’s Women in Music event. While accepting her woman of the year award (a well-intentioned, somewhat cumbersome honour, but that’s a debate for another day), she announced, ‘I stand before you as a doormat. Oh, I mean, as a female entertainer.'”
Madonna’s speech on misogyny touched a chord with many. [Image by Jonathan Leibson/Getty Images]
The article added that though it’s impossible to condense all the instances of gender inequality in music, Madonna’s speech at least scraped the surface in its concise clarity that was powered by decades of misogynistic experience. However, not all of the commenters after the article agreed.
“If you think it’s a good idea for your gran to be showing her pants and twerking at anyone who’ll watch then viva la patriarchy,” claimed Lebaiser.
“And why is she complaining about radio play for older female pop stars? How many male pop singers of 58 get their new stuff played on Radio 1 or other stations aimed at the kids?” asked Tifotum.
Some believe commenters like Tifotum may have a point as both men and women have a hard time getting their songs on the radio — it’s more of an issue of ageism than ageism combined with misogyny. For example, despite the critically acclaimed music, the last time Bruce Springsteen had a certified hit was 1997’s “Secret Garden,” which flopped as a single in 1995 but was revived as a hit when used in the movie Jerry Maguire.
The year 2017 should be interesting for Madonna. She may record new music or may direct another movie. But one can bet Madonna won’t be silent on the issues of ageism and misogyny, whether you agree with her or not.
[Featured Image by Evan Agostini/AP Images]
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