Gender studies

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Popular culture

Feminist Media Studies

On the 18 January, 2009, an online pop music fan posted over fifty outtake images from Madonna's photographic shoot for her previously released Hard Candy album. These photos produced a backlash of abuse of the then fifty-year-old Madonna from music fans and can be situated in a wider online discursive sphere of brutal and offensive critique of Madonna's ageing body and femininity in social networking sites such as Facebook, for example. While longevity, experience and wisdom ensure that Madonna continues to be meaningful to nostalgic and new audiences alike, these attributes slide out of view as the focus remains upon her body, its femininity and its ability to ‘pass’ in a youth-centred popular music culture. In the wider context of a cultural, political and industry debate around the practice of releasing pre- and post-airbrushed images, the leaked photos are instrumental (albeit unintentionally) for interrogating the relationship between media and authentic ageing female bodies. This article offers a theoretical analysis of the online discursive (textual and visual) poaching and negotiation of Madonna's image, celebrity and marketing of the ageing female body.

From Old Media Whore to New Media Troll