That touring life ............,,,,,,💘#tearsofaclown Finally made it to Melbourne🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

A photo posted by Madonna (@madonna) on Mar 11, 2016 at 11:20pm PST

Sensible pieces on the media-created meltdown Madonna allegedly suffered during her latest tour, and on Steve Grand's recent interview with PrideSource, the latter of which turned into a ridiculously hyperbolic piece on Out.com that condemned all young, gay, white men of being oblivious of racial issues. (Ironically, Out Magazine has for years been attacked for being too male, too white, charges I'm sure its staff finds annoying.)

 

 

"I'm not very good at crafting the public image version of me. I'm just not. I'm too messy of a person..." Full: http://www.pridesource.com/article.html?article=75772

A photo posted by Steve Grand (@stevegrandmusic) on Mar 21, 2016 at 7:35pm PDT

Lumping these together because there are some shared elements here, including both artists' tendency to self-sabotage in the face of nasty accusations (You think I'm a basic whore? Here's my ass!—Madonna, You think I'm a basic whore? Here's my ass in leggings!—Steve Grand) and the broader point that people are spending too much time trashing anyone and everyone in the public eye.

Some breakdown—a nugget of info from 2016.

Criticism is valid, but it turns into bloodsport quickly, and to what end?