Female celebs against Age-ism. Oh really?

So you probably saw or heard about the tumble Madonna took at the Brit Awards last week. Ouch it looked like it hurt. 

Twitter was ablaze, as you'd imagine, with some very nasty comments about her age. The newspapers inserted "56" wherever they could, and then came the "opinion pieces" about whether or not Madonna should be trying to be younger than she is, (who cares?) or whether she's giving the whole age thing the middle finger. (She is and she isn't.) 

In one respect Madonna's defying age because she has the body you don't expect on a 56 year old woman. Given her work-out regimen, she can probably outlast any 25 year old in the gym and bench press more than most men. Impressive. She's quoted in the latest Rolling Stone mag as saying 

"Because women, generally, when they reach a certain age, have accepted that they're not allowed to behave a certain way," ..... "But I don't follow the rules. I never did, and I'm not going to start."

She may be age-defying, and she may be ranting about age-ism, but I don't believe she's defying it, as some have suggested.  Sure. she's cavorting around in a way that many think is "unbecoming" for a middle-aged woman, - and god bless her - but what about the face? And the gloves? 

It looks like she's had quite a bit of work to keep the wrinkles at bay, and ever since the snide remarks about her old-looking hands started, she has reverted to the 80's fingerless gloves she popularized back in the day. I must point out that Maggie Smith's hands probably look younger than mine, so I feel Madonna's pain and I don't blame her for hiding them - but again, it's not really "being your age" is it?

We also have Cindy Crawford in the news for possibly having this body. 

At first it was supposed to have been released by her, which would have been refreshing, if a little hard to believe, given that she has a range of "age-defying" skin creams. Now Crawford is suing because the photo has apparently been doctored to make her look worse. I can't blame her really. If you work your butt off (pardon the pun) to have a nice body, you don't want people thinking you look like any old saggy-stomach'd 48 year old. But again, that's my point, she may be age-defying, but she's playing into the whole Hollywood ideal that beauty means looking younger than most other women your age. 

Here are a few women who, in my opinion, are really defying age-ism and not getting enough credit for it. 

Real beauties - rocking those laughter lines.