Madonna is still at war with people’s expectations, said Naomi Wolf in Harper’s Bazaar. Growing up in an Italian Catholic family in Michigan, she resented the fact that her brothers were allowed to run wild, while she had to dress and behave demurely. “We were told to wear our skirts to our knees and not do anything that would draw attention,” she says. “One of my father’s famous quotes was, ‘If there were more virgins, the world would be a better place.’”
In high school, she rebelled. “I saw how girls had to behave to get the boys,” says the 53-year-old. “So I decided to do the opposite. I refused to wear makeup, have a hairstyle, shave [my] armpits.” Her rebellion marked her as an outsider. “Boys in my school [called me] ‘hairy monster.’”
Four decades later, what rankles Madonna is ageism. “Whenever someone writes about me, my age is right after my name,” she says. “They’re saying, ‘Here she is, but remember she’s this age, so she’s not relevant anymore.’” But Madonna plans to keep acting outrageously. “[I’ll] continue to do what we perceive as the realm of young people: to provoke, to be rebellious.”
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