Madonna has always lived outside the borderline.
Now 53, The superstar tells the Dec. issue of Harper's Bazaar that she rebelled against her strict Catholic-Italian upbringing in Michigan. "[Girls] were told to wear our skirts to our knees, turtlenecks, cover ourselves and not wear makeup, and not do anything that would draw attention," The singer and director of W.E. explains. Madonna, naturally rebelled with unshaved armpits and wacky hairstyles.
As a result, the glamorous, sexy icons says, "Straight men did not find me attractive. I think they were scared of me because I was different."
Widely savaged by critics at preview screenings, W.E. retells the story of Wallis Simpson, the American socialite who famously married King Edward VIII, leading to his abdication in 1936. The film is "all about the cult of celebrity," Madonna remarked. "We like to put people on a pedestal, give them one character trait, and if they step outside of that shrine-like area that we blocked out for them, then we will punish them."
"I think my behavior and my lifestyle threaten a lot of social norms, like the movie does," the provocative mother of four muses. "I think there are a lot of parallels and connections."
Another envelope-pushing element in her life these days is Brahim Zaibat, her 24-year-old boyfriend. The "Vogue" singer says she's slowly including the French breakdancer in outings with her kids — Lourdes, 15, Rocco, 11, David, 6, and Mercy, 5.
"[My sons] need a male role model as well," Madonna tells Harper's Bazaar. "So I need to keep this in mind: What is this person modeling to my sons, what kind of man is he, what values odes he have, what energy is he giving off?" she noted.
