Madonna Says She Felt ‘Raped’ by New York Times Profile

By Dano Nissen

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Madonna had some choice words for the New York Times Magazine feature ” at Sixty ” by Vanessa Grigoriadis that published Wednesday.

“It makes me feel raped,” the pop icon wrote on Instagram. The turn of phrase calls back to an instance chronicled in the article where she likens the online leak of songs from the 2015 album “Rebel Heart” to being raped.

“It didn’t feel right to explain that women these days were trying not to use that word metaphorically,” writes Grigoriadis in the feature in reference to Madonna’s rape comparison.

Madonna rebutted in her post, “And yes I’m allowed to use that analogy having been raped at the age of 19.”

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She wrote that Grigoriadis spent months with her and had access “into a world which many people don’t get to see.” But after the feature was published, Madonna concluded, “I’m sorry I spent 5 minutes with her. ”

“To say that I was disappointed in the article would be an understatement,” Madonna wrote. She took umbrage with the author’s focus on “trivial and superficial matter such as the ethnicity of my stand-in or the fabric of my curtains and never ending comments about my age which would never have been mentioned had I been a MAN!”

Grigoriadis frequently mentions the difficulties she perceives Madonna having to navigate as a pop star as she gets older, writing of watching her rehearse for a Billboard Awards number and noting, “The sex bomb at 60 was slightly less than bionic…”. At another point, she writes, “I realized I couldn’t ask her about anything as personal as menopause, but I had to broach the topic of aging.” The writer expresses dissatisfaction with Madonna’s level of vulnerability, as well, writing that even though she tried to relate to her as a fellow older mother, “She was like a cactus with spikes protecting her from anyone getting too close, particularly journalists. … I didn’t feel I was hearing enough of her real thoughts about her real life.”

“Women have a really hard time being the champions of other women even if they are posing as intellectual feminists,” Madonna wrote.

The singer added about the feature: “Further proof that the venerable N.Y.T. Is one of the founding fathers of the Patriarchy. And I say—-DEATH TO THE PATRIARCHY woven deep into the fabric of Society. I will never stop fighting to eradicate it.”

The declined to comment.