Also, can I add there's great irony here when gay men make these sorts of comments to or about Madonna? I don't know if the same thing is true in Brazil, but in the United States, Madonna is a gay icon, one of our "divas" like Barbra, Bette, and Judy. Madonna stood up for us when it wasn't the popular thing to do, just like she stood up for women.

Have people forgotten how powerfully her art spoke to feminism and gender equality? How she brought it into every household and made it a subject for family conversation?

There's a reason the Catholic Church kept excommunicating her. They didn't want her speaking truth to power.

When I see gay men dissing Madonna for her appearance these days, I want to shake them and wake them up. But of course the irony I'm speaking of is the fact that we do it to ourselves too. The only thing as erasing in American culture as being an aging woman is being an aging gay man – at least as far as a lot of gay men are concerned.