TJ Walker responds to Madonna's Billboard Awards speech (Dec 2016), assessing her claims about misogyny, aging, and being viewed as a sexual object. He acknowledges Madonna's effectiveness as a speaker and commercial success (noting large concert/album sales), questions parts of her argument about aging and sexuality—contrasting music and film industries and citing performers like Barbra Streisand and Tina Turner—and criticizes Madonna's simultaneous appearance twerking on CBS at age 58. Walker also recounts Madonna's past use of sexuality to build her career and praises her candor about past abuse while advising that she speaks selectively on important issues.
Questions this video answers
December 11, 2016.
58 years old.
54 years old.
The Billboard Awards.
Chapters
Madonna causing quite a stir this week. Earlier in the week when she gave a speech at the Billboard Awards talking about being a woman in the entertainment business, she said she's been a doormat, she's been a victim of misogyny and abuse. I think she came across quite eloquent and forceful as a speaker. Now she is, according to some estimates, the most successful touring female performer ever. And when you factor in concert sales, album sales, everything else, she's sold billions of dollars worth of product and tickets, wildly successful. One of her points is that to age as a woman is considered a sin in our society. Now certainly there is discrimination. I would make the case that more prevalent in the movie industry where you can have a really old bald Sean Connery paired up with young attractive women. You don't see that with old less than physically perfect women being paired up with young men. Singing is a little bit different. Last time I checked, Barbra Streisand can sell out any crowd, any theater she wants and any venue. She can get any record deal with music. Quite often you can perform later in life. Tina Turner still can perform anywhere she wants. So I didn't find that part of her argument as compelling. The one thing I think that honest people, even liberal and feminist people can disagree on or have some range of opinion on is her suggestion that it's somehow unfair as you get older not to be seen as sexy. The very same week she's doing this, she's on cbs, the late night show, doing twerking in a car. Now she's 58 years old. Folks, I'm 54 and I don't have a problem if young teenagers don't consider me some sexy stud, I don't have a problem with that. And at some point, whether you're a 58 year old woman, 88, 100, at some point doing sexy twerking, I'm not going to say it's unseemly or to act your age, but at some point, I don't know, it just does seem a bit unseemly. Or put it this way, it seems a bit, a bit greedy to want everyone your own age older than you and people 40 years younger to think of you as the hot sex symbol. Also, Madonna, let's not forget, benefited from this. I mean, back when she was first emerging at age 24, it wasn't that she had the best voice, she was willing to be sexy. She wore the bras on the outside of her, of her clothes. She danced in a very sexy way. She was primarily a dancer not a singer. She put out books where she's completely. And I'm not condemning any of this, but if this were based purely on singing ability, Madonna would not be the number one grossing, touring, performing woman in the world. She wouldn't be in the top hundred or the top five. She has used sex, and sex being a sex symbol, her imagery, to promote her, and it's worked really, really well. The fact that it doesn't work quite as well at 58 as it does at 24 I don't think is the biggest surprise. Nonetheless, as a speaker, I think Madonna does a lot of things well. She doesn't speak that often. When she does, she picks issues. She's not afraid to be personal in talking about the abuse women receive in our culture. She talked about being violently raped back when she first came to New York and other horrific things that happened to her. So she was personal, she was sincere, she gave examples. All in all, I think she is a compelling speaker, in part because she doesn't wear out her welcome. She speaks selectively on issues of high importance, and that's a good lesson for everyone.
