Opinion | Mary Gabriel : Happy Birthday, Madonna - The New York Times
▻https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/15/opinion/madonna-career.html
Un beau papier pour fêter les 65 ans de Madonna.
At that crucial moment, she forced mainstream society — globally — to see gay men as she did, with admiration, not scorn. Madonna also helped gay men view themselves differently, with pride. In the years since, her embrace of and by the queer community is undiminished. As the journalist Anderson Cooper said in 2019: “No single ally has been a better friend or had a bigger impact on acceptance for the L.G.B.T.Q. community than Madonna. It’s that simple.”
In the 1980s, when Madonna was in her late 20s, the press began musing aloud about when she might retire. Women in pop music had a use-by date, and hers was seen as fast approaching. With each decade, the same question persisted with varying degrees of cruelty. During a 2017 interview with the writer Roxane Gay (now a contributing Opinion writer for The Times), Madonna called it out for what it is: sexist. “Does somebody ask Steven Spielberg why he’s still making movies? Hasn’t he had enough success?” she said. She added: “Did somebody go to Pablo Picasso and say, ‘OK, you’re 80 years old. Haven’t you painted enough paintings?’ No.”
Madonna isn’t finished. The battle against bigotry that she has fought throughout her career is far from over, and she has something to say about it. As she prepares to begin her “Celebration” tour in October, that’s great news for us. If her past is any indication, we can expect to be shocked, inspired, challenged and entertained. We will also be enlightened.
So happy birthday, Madonna, and thank you.