“I’m not a feminist, I hail men!” pop superstar Lady Gaga said to a reporter last year. A short while later, she suddenly had a change of heart and began to consistently tell the media that she had changed her mind and was now a big-time feminist. It seemed like her public relations agent sat her down and slowly had to explain to Lady Gaga what feminism means: that it is not, in fact, the hatred of men. I can only imagine the look of realization upon her face with a drawn out, “Ooooh… oops.”
Lady Gaga’s lack of knowledge on the social issues she promotes is frustrating at best. She is a puppet. Her PR agent and her music producer are pulling the strings, trying to make her look like both a sincere activist and a talented musician.
I’ll admit that the girl has got some pipes, but if my cat, Professor Bananas, used Auto-Tune, he too would have the voice of an angel.
When Lady Gaga first began to emerge onto the scene, she invoked a sort of innovative, industrial style of fashion that had been waiting to burst into the upcoming decade. Her role in fashion follows the argument that many make with the Beatles as far as what they did for rock ‘n’ roll-if it hadn’t been them, it would have been someone else.
Progressing further into her career, Lady Gaga appeared in the video for her 2010 single, “Telephone,” covering just enough of her skin so that legally, she was not naked. Bravo! Lady Gaga, what a statement. Self-objectification and stripping down for a camera in an effort to make money has really never been done before. How original of you.
If Lady Gaga was truly the fashionista that everyone says she is, then why does she need to strip her clothes off for the camera in order to sell her music? That’s not fashion, and I don’t think I’m ready to go out on a limb just yet and say that exploiting your body for money makes you a feminist. To me, it just smells of desperation and cheap perfume.
Now we have this media frenzy on our hands after Lady Gaga wore an outfit made of raw meat at the recent 2010 VMAs. The outfit screamed, “Look at me! Look at me! I’m wearing meat on my head!”
It didn’t help that in an interview with Ellen DeGeneres after the awards show, she seemed very confused about the meaning behind her own outfit. Oh, the puns I could make here about her starvation for attention with the meat dress.
It is said that Lady Gaga is the new Madonna. Sure, why not. She certainly has many heads rolling and many heads bowing down to her. While I am not going to use the words “talented,” “ethical” or “informed” to describe Lady Gaga, she most certainly is good at bringing home the bacon-and then wearing it. Sex sells and attention keeps you at the top. If Lady Gaga knows one thing, it’s how to make money.
—
This article was originally published as an opinions piece in the DePaulia.
Leave a Reply