Madonna, who will be celebrating her 60th birthday later this year, has said she will not stop fighting against ageism and sexism.
While promoting her MDNA Skin beauty line and gearing up for her next album, the pop icon sat down with The Cut to discuss the current mindsets of today’s society and what needs to change.
"In the beginning of my career, I got so much flak for using sexuality as part of my creativity and was called a sexual provocateur. Now, all the challenges that I had to face 20 years ago seem ludicrous," the Material Girl explained. "What I am going through now is ageism, with people putting me down or giving me a hard time because I date younger men or do things that are considered to be only the domain of younger women. I mean, who made those rules? I'm going to keep fighting it.
"Ten to 20 years from now, it's going to be normal. People are going to shut up.”
When asked her opinions on how we can fight ageism today, Madonna told the interviewer, “we need role models.”
She said: "People are afraid of things they don't know and that are unfamiliar. Women have a different place in the world now. We're finding more work and fighting for more gender equality in the workplace. As we do that, we should keep working on not only our career but on ourselves.
"It's an outdated, patriarchal idea that a woman has to stop being fun, curious, adventurous, beautiful, or sexy past the age of 40. It's ridiculous. Why should only men be allowed to be adventurous, sexual, curious and get to have all the fun until the day they leave this earth? Why should that only be the domain of men? How do we fight this? By standing up to men and by standing up to social mores or standards that say we cannot," she explained. "The more women that do it, it will just be a matter of time.
Madonna’s best-kept secret appears to be her mentality, as she says “youth is a state of mind.”
"I never think I am fighting age. I'm just continuing on with my life as I always have. I've never gotten complacent. I've never gotten comfortable. I keep pushing myself into uncomfortable positions and taken risks... If you keep putting yourself in challenging, new adventurous situations, then you keep yourself alive and youthful."