Lindsay Clydesdale: "Madonna Has Diluted Her Image"

"She's done the virgin look, the dominatrix, the pretend lesbian and the charity do-gooder but Madonna's latest image change is by far her worst. On the publicity trail for her new single with Justin Timberlake, she's tried to reinvent herself by teaming up with a younger star. Unfortunately, instead of making her look youthful and sexy, the pictures of Madge pinning Justin to a wall while she writhed against him and thrust her groin at the cameras, were cringe-worthy. Rather than raising pulses, the only thing rising among many fans was bile in throats. Who is this embarrassing old lady trying and failing to prove she's still got "it"?

Yes she has an incredibly fit body and her face looks suspiciously smooth for a woman who turns 50 in August. But is there any need to push it, literally in poor Justin's case, in our faces? She can wear what she likes but there's a chance her choice of hooker boots, leotards and an allergy to bras are a bid to distract us from her music which, let's be honest, isn't her strong point.

Problem is, neither is her image now.

Her 30-year career has only lasted this long due to her ability to change her look from album to album but now reality and middle-age has set in, it's not so easy to hoodwink fans. They've seen the spreads in the glossy magazines where she poses in Barbour and wellies with horses on her country estate. They've watched her read the twaddle she penned in spiritual books for kids, in tea dress and pearls. And they couldn't miss the furore over her adoption of a baby from Malawi.

Madonna has diluted her image to the point where her life seems to be style over substance. Her reputation is a mess of conflicting messages - get your boobs out for the boys, dress chastely for the kids, save the planet, smash the system, blame religion, use religion. I don't know if even she knows what she stands for any more. And yet the constants in her life are her husband and three kids. When she's not trying to sell us something from the vast industry that is Madonna, she seems perfectly happy to drop the sexual aggressor act and be a mum and wife.

And at her age, why not?

So when Madonna decides to release another album and accompany it with shots of her perched on a throne with her legs spread and brandishing a cane, it makes us gulp but for all the wrong reasons. It's just too embarrassing, like catching your parents having sex or imagining the Queen on the loo.

If Madonna still thinks she's hot, it's probably down to her menopausal hormones. Here's hoping her next reinvention will be "Madonna in retirement"."

Source: Glasgow Daily Record, writer Lindsay Clydesdale.