Madonna Is Now Comparing The Ageism She’s Experienced To Racism, While Also Comparing France To Nazi Germany

Madonna is doing the media rounds ahead of the release of her newest album Rebel Heart on March 6th. A promotional tour with Madonna means plenty of “controversial” statements to go around.

This time around, possibly stemming from the ideas put forth in Rebel Heart or the criticisms of the campaign behind the album’s promotion, Madonna seems a bit focused on the social battles that need fighting day to day. In an interview with Rolling Stone, the transforming pop queen talked about ageism she has faced and how she has dealt wit it:

“No one would dare to say a degrading remark about being black or dare to say a degrading remark on Instagram about someone being gay,” Madonna continues. “But my age – anybody and everybody would say something degrading to me. And I always think to myself, why is that accepted? What’s the difference between that and racism, or any discrimination? They’re judging me by my age. I don’t understand. I’m trying to get my head around it. Because women, generally, when they reach a certain age, have accepted that they’re not allowed to behave a certain way. But I don’t follow the rules. I never did, and I’m not going to start.”

I both agree and disagree with her here. Ageism is in the same boat as racism and homophobia, even if it can happen under the guise “just looking out” for those older folks out there. It carries the same manner of stereotypes and thoughts that sprout with racism.

Where I disagree is Madonna saying that people would never dare say anything degrading about race or sex on Instagram. Let’s extend that to the Internet as a whole and hope that Madonna can open her eyes are the silliness of such a statement. Sometimes comment sections are nothing but and there’s no shortage of opinion out there, a lot of it very raw.

The singer then sets her sights on France in another interview and she couldn’t stop herself from making comparisons to the Nazis:

“France was once a country that accepted people of color,” Madonna said. “It was once a place that artists escaped to, whether it was Josephine Baker or Charlie Parker or writers, painters, whatever. It was a country that embraced everyone and that encouraged freedom in every way, shape, or form — freedom of expression, artistic freedom, for example.”

“Now, it’s completely gone,” she continued. “It’s like, to me, you know, I said this two years ago, it’s like we’re living in a crazy time. It feels like, you know, Nazi Germany. All of these people … the intolerance, the level of intolerance that’s going on is really scary. It’s not just happening in France, it’s all over Europe, but it’s specifically in France. Anti-Semitism, I think, is at an all-time high, people are becoming, behaving, and reacting in extremely fearful ways, so it’s scary.” (via)

As Consequence of Sound points out, this mirrors some comments she made back in 2012 while on tour. They also point out that she’s attached Rebel Heart to all of this, including her Instagram tribute to the Charlie Hebdo victims and another on religious tolerance (which is probably viewed as ironic by some out there).

I’m sure there will be plenty more for Madonna until her album comes out later in the week. Until then, let’s continue to watch her fall down a bunch.

(Via Rolling Stone / Billboard / Consequence Of Sound)

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