Pop icon Madonna has described herself as “oppressed,” saying she was tired of a gender double-standard over her relationships with younger men.
The 58-year-old singer said in an interview published on Tuesday that she has endured criticism throughout her entire career despite her professional success.
“I’ve always felt oppressed,” she told Harper’s Bazaar magazine.
“A large part of that is because I’m female and also because I refuse to live a conventional life. I’ve created a very unconventional family.
“I have lovers who are three decades younger than me. This makes people very uncomfortable. I feel like everything I do makes people feel really uncomfortable,” she said.
Madonna has been linked romantically to a number of men in their 20s at the time, most recently Ivorian model Aboubakar Soumahoro and earlier French choreographer Brahim Zaibat and Dutch dancer Timor Steffens.
The Material Girl — who has four children and has been married twice — also said she faced sexism in that she is often asked why she remains active as an artist.
“Did somebody go to Pablo Picasso and say, ‘Okay, you’re 80 years old. Haven’t you painted enough paintings?’ No. I’m so tired of that question.”
Madonna, who last year completed a global tour for her latest album Rebel Heart, will soon be directing a movie, Loved.
Madonna wrote the screenplay for the film, an adaptation of Andrew Sean Greer’s novel The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells about a woman who is transported to different eras as part of psychiatric treatment for depression.
