14 DAY TRIAL // Madonna is no stranger to controversy, and this cannot be stressed enough, especially since she built her career on her ability to shock the public and to constantly reinvent herself in the most surprising ways. However, maybe the time has come for her to hang up her fishnet stockings and call it a day in terms of posing in skimpy clothes, more and more media outlets are starting to say. Of them, Jan Moir of the Daily Mail seems the most set to raise awareness on the topic.
Without denying Madonna’s ability to permanently offer her fans an insight into a different public persona, Moir is one journalist that is adamant that, maybe, the singer is too old to be pulling such public stunts anymore, as she recently did. Moir identifies Madonna’s “pant-less blitzkrieg” with the moment she announced her divorce from Guy Ritchie more or less, since it is then that more pictures of her wearing no pants and in all sorts of weird, barely-there outfits began to emerge.
“Last week, it was those unsightly shots for a Louis Vuitton advertising campaign. That's right. Vuitton. A company which prides itself on the hand-stitched traditional craftsmanship of its luxury leather luggage. Classy stuff. Beloved of rappers and royalty alike.” Moir writes, adding that, before anyone could see what was coming, there was Madonna, spread on a couch with her feet in the air. This was, Moir says, something only Madonna could have deemed classy and fit for the equally stylish Vuitton.
Then, the latest pictures for her “Hard Candy” album came out. “Looking utterly miserable, she poses in thigh-high bondage boots, another pair of her favorite fishnets and the kind of underwear that can only be described as surgical.” Moir says. The entire massive campaign that is being unleashed on the “long-suffering public,” as per Moir, seems to be meant to prove that Madonna, both as an artist and as a public figure, still has what it takes to compete with other, younger performers. Thing is, Moir adds, at this point, she does not need to prove anything anymore, and it is precisely this that makes the situation only worse.
“It is almost as if she is trying to shock us into submission. OK, Madonna, we get the message: we surrender! You are definitely the trimmest, fittest […] bondage-wearing demi-centenarian on the planet. Now will you please put your top back on and go away?” Moir writes. Of course, this is the opinion of just one journalist, but that does not change the fact that there are countless others out there who feel the same. Perhaps Madonna should just learn to “age gracefully,” put some pants on and head on a different, less aggressive path, as far as her music is concerned. Your thoughts?