She may have turned 60 but with her her latest selfie, pop legend Madonna has no intention of fading into the background. And why the hell should she?

Fighting back against misogynistic naysayers who praise ageing rockstars while shaming older songstresses, the icon remained true to form by sharing a selfie with her Snapchat followers showing her posing in underwear. She’s also standing in front of a smoked glass mirror, just in case you thought it looked dirty!

While it could be said her body looks phenomenal, not only for someone who just turned 60, but full stop, what’s more important is the continued celebration of self. She doesn’t have to be any size or shape in order for an underwear selfie to be deemed acceptable but also, she doesn’t have to be any age. This is so obvious we shouldn’t even need to discuss it. Unfortunately, we do.

For anyone growing older, there is a societal pressure to disappear and make way for younger people. Well, screw that, right?

Madonna hit the big 6-0 recently, and while there was a lot of coverage on the impact she’s made on the world of music, pop culture and activism, there were also articles saying she was overrated, saying she should hang up her career and disappear, basically.

Articles have always abounded commenting on her looks, first gloating when a wrinkle is visible then admonishing if it appears she’s had work done. The fact is, this selfie wouldn’t be plastered across newspapers and websites and this article wouldn’t be necessary if Madonna was 30 or 40 years younger.

But there have always been and will always be people with a lot of things to say about a strong successful woman over an ‘acceptable’ age. You can even take out the age part.

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At the MTV Awards, days after her birthday, Madonna was asked to share a personal anecdote about Aretha Franklin, the legendary soul singer who had died the same day Madonna turned 60. She was not asked to deliver an official tribute, she was asked to give a personal anecdote.

Her speech didn’t go down well with a lot of people who claimed she had made it all about her. One of our own columnists wrote about the ‘speech’ before Madonna clarified what had actually happened.

She posted on Instagram: “They asked me to share any anecdotes I had in my career connected to Aretha Franklin! I shared a part of my journey and thanked Aretha for inspiring me along the way. I did not intend to do a tribute to her!”

Not many sites followed up their initial reports with that little nugget of information, did they? Well, GCN did!

Madonna has broken down barriers for women and the LGBT+ community, so in short – don’t stop doing what you’re doing, Madge.

We look forward to your next set of underwear selfies, and hopefully your lyric at the end of ‘Human Nature’ still rings true – “Absolutely no regrets.”