Madonna strikes a pose at the Olympia theatre, Paris, to promote her latest album "Hard Candy." Picture: AP Photo/Jacques Brinon By Jo Stanley
MELBOURNE (Sunday Herald Sun)
May 11, 2008:
WHEN I hear a new song that I love, I tend to play it over and over until my husband threatens to wipe my iPod. This has been my reaction to Madonna's new single 4 Minutes.
I can't hear it enough.
Hard to believe it's been 25 years since I gave Madonna's Like a Virgin the same high repetition treatment (back then my tape deck took a similar stand to my hubby and chewed the cassette).
It's even harder to believe that Madonna is about to turn 50.
Still the world's most successful female musician, on this latest album she is pop diva meets hip-hop nanna.
At such an age she manages a purple leotard, fishnets and simulated sex act better than most women 20 years younger.
But seeing her perform such a yoga position makes me feel slightly uncomfortable.
While I love her music, admire her extraordinary energy and fitness and acknowledge her iconic status, I can't help but think that just because you can, doesn't mean you should.
At 25, Madonna projected this for herself: "I don't know what I'll be like when I'm in my 50s. Maybe I'll be retired.
"By that time, I'll be ready to crawl into a hole and just forget about it, anyway."
Instead we see her bumping and grinding with Justin Timberlake, who is easily young enough to be her son, or pashing a female dancer for controversy's sake, both of which seem unbecoming for a woman closer to my mother's age than mine.
Whatever happened to ageing gracefully?
Of course, such a concept is terribly Victorian and I'm not even sure what it means. Is it to dress and behave appropriately for your years?
Or to know how to hide your age? I think it has something to do with an easy acceptance and being tasteful in your aesthetic.
And most certainly nothing to do with appearing on an album cover in bondage gear with legs spread and mouth open.
Admittedly, the former is more elegant, but the latter seems far more fun.
Perhaps I've been too quick to judge. I too have received criticism from a generation below me for my unsuitable conduct.
According to a lithe young thing 15 years my junior, I'm too old for music festivals, nightclubs, mini-skirts, pashing in public and Bacardi Breezers.
Those things being my staple weekend fare, I'm clearly destroying all credibility by even leaving the house!
But it's difficult to know what is age appropriate these days, particularly when teenagers such as Miley Cyrus are photographed, aged 15, naked but for a well-placed bed quilt and an alluring over-the-shoulder look. I'd rather see a grandma than a minor in such a position.
Any woman over the age of 40 will tell you the process of ageing is coupled with a gradual and sometimes devastating loss of significance in the community.
Their experience differs from men in that their status decreases with maturity.
Men generally gain seniority in their profession, increased wealth and due respect from younger generations.
Some men, such as the very beautiful George Clooney, are fortunate enough to ripen with the years.
They score themselves hot young girlfriends with little or no cachet, other than legs like colts and breasts so perky they could do their own Mexican wave, and are admired for it.
Women, on the other hand, become progressively more invisible, as their youthful sex appeal is replaced by a maternal womanliness. Young men look through them. Girls regard them with disdain.
I wonder if ageing gracefully, a term almost always used in reference to women, means to accept that fate without a protest or a whimper - to quietly disappear from our consciousness, without fuss or fight, and allow younger generations to take your place.
If that is the case, I applaud Madonna for her loud, brash visibility and I strongly recommend that we all do the same.
I recommend we be as ungraceful as we choose. Perhaps in purple leotard, or a purple hat. Perhaps with bondage gear, or down the freeway in fifth gear.
Pashing whoever you like, be he older generation George or 20-something JT.
But I'd also recommend to Madonna that, if she plans to take her career into the next decade, she should lighten up on the whole sex symbol thing a little.
Not to say that a 60-year-old can't be erotic. I've seen websites that suggest there is a huge market for such a thing.
It's just that my experience of the older generation is that their pelvic floor is a little weak for the sorts of intense choreography favoured by Madonna.
And hip-hop should never be used in reference to a bad fall.
Jo Stanley is part of the Matt & Jo Show on Fox FM
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