What happened to Madonna’s face?
This was the social media buzz the morning after the Grammy awards.
Actually, that’s being kind.
It was a lot worse.
Do you know what happened to Madonna’s face?
It’s none of our business.
Just like it’s none of our business when a friend has a tummy tuck or decides to go gray or gains a few pounds or loses a few pounds.
In part, this explosion about Madonna can be an argument for gendered ageism.
Madonna said it herself. ”We live in a world that "refuses to celebrate women past the age of 45," but punishes them if they continue to be "strong-willed, hard-working and adventurous."
M. is right about this being an ageist issue. But I am thinking about how it is an argument for females in general.
We’re dammed if we do and if we don’t… no matter what our age.
The lens is always on us.
And we put it on ourselves and each other too.
I will admit several weeks ago I saw Madonna on TikTok and my own thoughts and comments were not kind.
Now as I think about this more, I wonder why I felt compelled to have those thoughts in the first place.
Why do we look to others, especially celebrities, to compare or judge, celebrate or laugh, love or hate?
Why can’t we mind our own damn business, celebrate ourselves and lift one another up?
Such a simple question turns into a rather complicated discussion.
When the internet exploded Jackie and I decided we wanted to talk about it, even as we were really processing a lot of this ourselves.
In this week’s episode of Modern Gen X Woman, we talked about how the public commentary around Madonna, Paulina Porizkova, and Ashley Judd is not ok.
The world is not set up to let women have the spotlight, especially women 40+.
As we push to make sure Gen X women are seen and heard, we’re going to get a lot of backlash. It’s just the nature of things, you know?
But instead of shrinking, we need to keep pushing no matter who says what.
Personally, what I take from all of this is to catch myself the next time I go to judge another woman, especially myself.
