Madonna’s never-ending rebellion
What rankles Madonna nowadays is ageism. “Whenever someone writes about me, my age is right after my name,” she says.
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.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Gandhi arrests: Narendra Modi's 'vendetta' against India's opposition
The Explainer Another episode threatens to spark uproar in the Indian PM's long-running battle against the country's first family
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK
-
How the woke right gained power in the US
Under the radar The term has grown in prominence since Donald Trump returned to the White House
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK
-
Codeword: April 24, 2025
The Week's daily codeword puzzle
By The Week Staff