Monitoring Desk
WASHINGTON DC: American singer and actress Madonna has defended her appearance after presenting at the Grammy Awards on Sunday night.
After a close-up photo of Madonna’s face went viral online and sparked a torrent of negative comments, the multi-award-winning singer lamented in her latest Instagram post that being “caught in the glare of misogyny and ageism that pervades the world we live in”.
Grammy Awards appearance and Madonna’s Speech
Madonna took the photo while introducing Kim Petras and Sam Smith’s performance of “Unholy.” Smith is nonbinary, and Petras is the world’s first openly transgender woman to conduct at the event. Madonna said that instead of focusing on what I said in my speech, which was about showing gratitude for the fearlessness of artists like Sam and Kim, many people decided to only talk about close-up photos of me taken with a long lens camera by a media photographer, which would distort anyone’s face.
Madonna’s Instagram page was overloaded with comments labelling her as “scary,” “unrecognisable,” and “obsessed with plastic surgery,” even though the singer has never publicly addressed rumours of cosmetic enhancements. Piers Morgan, the British television host frequently chastised for making sexist and racist remarks, dedicated a section of his Talk TV show, “Piers Morgan Uncensored,” to the viral photo.
The 64-year-old musician hit back, writing on Instagram that the world “refuses to celebrate women past the age of 45.” Madonna is no stranger to being thrown into the spotlight due to a controversial appearance. However, the singer, who famously wore a silk slip dress in the 1989 music video for “Like a Prayer” and a Jean Paul Gaultier cone bra during her 1990 Blond Ambition world tour, appears to have been undaunted by public opinion.
She stated that she has never apologised for any of her creative choices, or for how she looks or dresses, and she has no plans to do so in the future. She stated that the media had degraded her since the beginning of her career, but she understands that this is all a test and that she is happy to be a trailblazer so that all the women who come after her will have an easier time in the future.
