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Madonna savages music’s sexist double standards

Madonna says she has coronavirus antibodies.

Madonna says she has coronavirus antibodies. Photo: Getty

Ever-provocative Madonna has taken the opportunity slam the music industry’s sexism and gender inequality during an acceptance speech at Billboard’s 2016 Women In Music event in New York.

In accepting the Woman of the Year award, Madonna welcomed the chance to ”speak her mind”.

“I stand before you as a doormat. Oh, I mean, as a female entertainer,” Madonna said.

“Thank you for acknowledging my ability to continue my career for 34 years in the face of blatant sexism and misogyny and constant bullying and relentless abuse.”

The 58-year-old singer, who extended her record as the highest-grossing female touring artist of all time this year, had opened her speech with a risque joke, straddling the microphone stand and saying: “I always feel better with something hard between my legs.”

But she soon unfurled an emotive and raw speech, opening up about her life as a teenager when she first moved to New York.

“People were dying of AIDS everywhere. It wasn’t safe to be gay, it wasn’t cool to be associated with the gay community,” Madonna said.

“It was 1979 and New York was a very scary place. In the first year I was held at gunpoint, raped on a rooftop with a knife digging into my throat and I had my apartment broken into and robbed so many times I stopped locking the door. In the years that followed, I lost almost every friend I had to AIDS or drugs or gunshots.”

She said her experiences taught her a vital lesson: “In life there is no real safety except for self-belief.”

“I was of course inspired by Debbie Harry and Chrissie Hynde and Aretha Franklin, but my real muse was David Bowie. He embodied male and female spirit and that suited me just fine.

“He made me think there were no rules. But I was wrong. There are no rules — if you’re a boy. There are rules if you’re a girl,” Madonna said.

“If you’re a girl, you have to play the game. You’re allowed to be pretty and cute and sexy. But don’t act too smart. Don’t have an opinion that’s out of line with the status quo.

“You are allowed to be objectified by men and dress like a slut, but don’t own your sluttiness. And do not, I repeat do not, share your own sexual fantasies with the world.

“Be what men want you to be, but more importantly, be what women feel comfortable with you being around other men.

“And finally, do not age. Because to age is a sin. You will be criticized and vilified and definitely not played on the radio.”

Madonna also said she felt “like the most hated person on the planet” after her divorce from her first husband, actor Sean Penn, after which she released her Erotica album and her Sex book in the 1990s.

“I remember being the headline of every newspaper and magazine. Everything I read about myself was damning,” she said.

“I was called a whore and a witch. One headline compared me to Satan. I said, ‘Wait a minute, isn’t Prince running around with fishnets and high heels and lipstick with his butt hanging out?’ Yes, he was. But he was a man.

This was the first time I truly understood women do not have the same freedom as men.

“I remember wishing I had a female peer I could look to for support. Camille Paglia, the famous feminist writer, said I set women back by objectifying myself sexually,” she said.

“So I thought, ‘oh, if you’re a feminist, you don’t have sexuality, you deny it.’ So I said ‘f*ck it. I’m a different kind of feminist. I’m a bad feminist.'”

In closing she thanked her haters and offered advice to other women in music.

“What I would like to say to all women here today is this: Women have been so oppressed for so long they believe what men have to say about them.

“They believe they have to back a man to get the job done. And there are some very good men worth backing, but not because they’re men — because they’re worthy.

“As women, we have to start appreciating our own worth and each other’s worth.

“Seek out strong women to befriend, to align yourself with, to learn from, to collaborate with, to be inspired by, to support, and enlightened by,” she said.

“To the doubters and naysayers and everyone who gave me hell and said I could not, that I would not or I must not — your resistance made me stronger, made me push harder, made me the fighter that I am today. It made me the woman that I am today. So thank you.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkfbG9OkiPM

 

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