Madonna remains scandalous, but for the wrong reason

By C.M.

IN 2016 Madonna was honoured at a music industry awards ceremony. In her speech, she reflected on her 34 years in the business, her extraordinary success as the best-selling female artist of all time and her talent for shocking people. She said something that was, true to form, startling. “People say I’m controversial. But I think the most controversial thing I have ever done is to stick around.”

Asked to identify Madonna’s most scandalous moment, this is not the answer that most people would give. Foremost among her many provocations are the music video for “Like a Prayer” (1989), which the Vatican condemned as blasphemous, her simulation of masturbation during her Blond Ambition tour in 1990, and “Sex” (1992), an erotic photo-book chronicling her sexual adventures with both men and women. The idea that these events could be eclipsed by the mere longevity of Madonna’s career seems odd, until you remember how sexist and ageist the music industry is. In her speech she said that a woman who continues to make music even as she gets older is treated as guilty of a kind of sin. Well, here I am, Madonna seemed to say. Guilty.