Old? Right!...

Never mind the bedrudgers, says Carol Hunt, superstar Madonna and her bum are still fabulous at 53

It was Amy Huberman's tweet that started it. "Right," it read. "Dressed like Madonna for the concert tonight. One boob out."

Last week in Dublin, it wasn't boobs Madge was showing off, but bums.

Her bum to be exact. Which, in my - admittedly rather limited - experience of female bottoms, is rather fantastic. And not, as is usually mentioned immediately after a comment admiring of Madonna's body, just "for a 53 year old".

Nope, Madonna's bottom would look good on just about anyone. Well, nearly... oh, let's not go there.

But Huberman's fun comment - which was then followed by some rather unflattering retorts concerning Madonna's Nipplegate episode in Istanbul - made me realise just how much flak Madge has to take purely because she's still determined to remain as fabulous as a lot of ferocious hard work, good living and great surgery will allow. Even, God help us all, at the ripe old of age of 53.

Just previous to her MDNA tour, two other Old Goldies arrived into Dublin: Paul Simon and Bruce Springsteen: One 70 and the other 62.

The first held a rather demure sit-down event in the O2 with a suitably well behaved audience (if reports are to be believed), the second a slightly more raucous gig in the RDS but pretty much serving the same demographic.

Then we had Madonna; younger than both boyos; fitter, fabulously dressed with sexy dancers and routines that would exhaust an Olympic triathlon athlete; still setting trends and creating controversies (the swastika in the Marine Le Pen video) and what do the begrudgers say this time around?

She's too old.

Too old for what?

For keeping breasts inside her cone bra? Her pert bum hidden under her fishnets? Her 53-year-old legs in something a little more demure than the Super Shorts she wears with thigh-high boots?

Of course, deriding Madonna is nothing new. She's always been the smartest, hardest working, toughest b**ch on the block. That has intimidated a whole swathe of people who then try to disguise their misogyny/envy/fear/horror as snobbish disdain.

On and on she goes, indestructible; immune and indifferent to the complaints of those who aren't fit to tweak her bra strap. And now they're getting at her for growing older. Jesus wept; since when has aging become such a crime?

Or is it because, in Madonna's case it's the fact that at 53 she looks fantastic and can still put the likes of imitator Lady Gaga in the shade? Doesn't she know that older women are worth less than younger ones? (The opposite rule with men). That they're supposed to shut up?

Madonna puts on a show to beat all rivals: she can cartwheel, backflip and still make her twenty-something backing dancers look like they're struggling to keep up with her. I'd love to see the likes of Paul Simon or Bruce Springsteen try that.

Ouch! Then again, maybe not.

independent.ie