What is up with Madonna's face?

At 52 years old, Madonna is still trim from rigorous workouts. She lacks sag in any areas of the torso that might be prone to sagging and -- since her divorce from Guy Ritchie in 2008 -- she's dated men (or at least one man) decades younger than herself. You go, girl.

We have just one squabble with Her Madgness: Her freakish, plastic, Priscilla Presley-esque face which -- with every passing photo op -- seems to inflate like a Restylane balloon that has reached maximum capacity and threatens to pop at any moment.

Madonna attends the opening of her first Hard Candy Fitness gym in Mexico City on Monday. (AP)

In a 2008 article, Jonathan Van Meter wrote about what he termed "the new face" -- a shift away from the stretch-and-pull plastic surgery of yesteryear in favor of a plumped up, smoothed face:

Indeed. Since that time, Madonna's face seems to have been "restuffed" almost beyond recognition. Where she once was all angles and big bold eyes, those same eyes now seem to disappear into her seat cushion of a face like two little upholstery tacks. Her jaw line is approaching beefy Leno-sized proportions.

A more natural-looking Madonna in 1999. (AP)

Why can't Madge -- like Helen Mirren (65), Julianne Moore (49) and Annette Bening (52) -- age gracefully and somewhat naturally? Is she too far down the "stuffing" road to let nature take it's course? Would it be a better example for her 14-year-old daughter? Would we respect her more as an artist or a woman?

Why do we even care?

As Hank Stuever wrote in 2008 when Madonna turned 50: