The subject of Lady Gaga has come up a few times on this site. I personally enjoy her music for its strong female voice and her sex positive references. But I often struggle with whether or not I really enjoy her as a person at all. The beginning of the interview really had me jiving with of what she was saying, but towards the end Gaga is asked about feminism. She replies by stating that she is not a feminist because she hails men, supports/enjoys male culture... etc
It is really unfortunate that someone who advocates women controlling their sexuality to be so misinformed of the basic definition of feminism. But instead she marinates it in it cultural stereotypes.
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I feel as if Lady GaGa is severely misinformed over the meaning of "feminism". She really should stick to music and fashion and stop commenting on political/social movements that she does not understand.
I'm a little dissapointed, but not surprised.
I always thought she was a tad obnoxious in interviews. Now I guess that I can add "ignorant" and "immature" to that list of descriptors.
this is unfortunate, especially because she doesn't seem to get it that just because you are a feminist doesn't mean you don't like men, on the contrary I think that we like men more because we don't want this impossible gender standard that they cannot live up to either without feeling like a failure
we just need someone to educate Lady Gaga on the idea that, given what she advocates for, she actually is a feminist, and for whatever reason is just afraid of the word and thinks it requires hating men.
"she actually is a feminist"
In what way is she a feminist ?
She feeds sexism by telling young women that they have value only if they are provocatively sexually active. There's nothing wrong in being provocatively sexual except when you gullibly fall in the trendy belief ( that right now fills lady gaga's bank account ) that young women can NOT be feminine and feel valuable if they prefer knowledge , intellectual interests , professional ambitions over outrageous sexual conducts.
I think some of us make the mistake to think that being provocative NECESSARILY gives you freedom.
The best way to surpass this issue is that the society as a whole stop giving attention and being fascinated with sexually provocative pop stars . This makes me think that the idea that being provocatively sexual is empowering is acceptable only by people ( like lady gaga fans) who are profoundly PRUDE and naively fascinated by sex to the point that they think that sex is so sacred that messing with it will empower them. Like i said before there's nothing wrong with young women being sexually active but they have to know having more sex is not the key to become a ceo.
Or another , easiest way to discard this fake ladygaga like idea of empowerment is to promote sex even more , to a point when the SCAM will be obvious .
Is this empowerment ? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWF3GhS_WQA&feature=related
Thanks stephane-I agree that her 'sex positive' lyrics don't automatically make her a beacon of feminism.
Think of other pop stars that use sex through the male gaze as an 'empowering' thing to women. (C. Aguilera, B. Spears, etc, they're all the same)
Lady Gaga is no different than them-she just has a little different uniform.
She's still catering to the male gaze just like the former pop stars are.
Her music is absolute shit, but that's just my opinion.
She's just another rich girl trying to be 'subversive' in the music industry.
the trendy belief ( that right now fills lady gaga's bank account ) that young women can NOT be feminine and feel valuable if they prefer knowledge , intellectual interests , professional ambitions over outrageous sexual conducts.
Maybe I just read this wrong, but I really feel like YOU have a belief couched in there that "intellectual interests" are at odds with also prioritizing your sexuality.
and I am SO FUCKING SICK of this attitude. SO sick of it. I seriously have absolutely zero patience for this any more -- those of us who are highly intellectual AND highly sexual get the short end of the stick from all quarters -- our intellectual peers believe that our sexuality somehow renders us irrational hunks of meat on some level, and our sexual compatriots come to think of us as desexualized, ivory tower nerds when they catch sight of our bookshelves -- OR both parties reframe our legitimate sexuality as some kind of intellectual experiment, or something. It's just fucking stupid and I am so fucking sick of being required by everyone to prioritize EITHER my intellectual life OR my sexual one. There is no good goddamned reason why I can't have both. None.
I'm sorry if that came off rather harshly, I don't intend it to be directed actually at you -- your comment just provoked this reaction in me, and I needed to get these general complaints off of my chest.
Sorry, I meant to mark that middle paragraph as a "vent" paragraph with joke-html (like this: ) but apparently the joke-html just disappeared. Hmm.
My sentence didn't mean that i oppose sex and intelectual activites .It maybe sounded like that but it was not the case .
It simply meant that it's a trendy belief to assume that women who happen to choose to combine an interest for intelectual ativities and a desinterest for sex do not have "feminine power , feminine energy or have simply no value , no social value no self confidence .
I feel ( obviously i can't prove it ) Lady gaga banks on this idea because she socially validates , makes acceptable , her "artistic-intelectual" side with the use of a barrage of sexual messages and representations .
i should have said her PSEUDO "artistic-intelectual" side . ;)
catchy club tunes, but i don't think that lady gaga is doing/wearing/dancing/singing/revolutionizing anything that hasn't already been done by michael jackson, christina aguilera, and particularly madonna.
i'm a much bigger fan of the aforementioned; currently i'm a huge MIA and K'naan fan.
i didn't mean to put christina in the same category as michael and madonna....the latter are definitely on another level altogether.
This woman says and does outrageous things all the time. She's using her pseudo-intellectual Andy Warhol tone of voice to spew out the first nonsense that pops into her head.
I mean, come on. "I hail men." Really? REALLY?
She just strikes me as someone who is trying to get everyone to think she's really cool. Look at me! I'm bisexual, but don't worry! I still love menz the most! Woo!
Gag me.
Not gonna lie, she totally reminds me of something out of Spinal Tap. Are we sure that Christopher Guest didn't invent her?
That being said, it is a shame that she is so uninformed. I was actually starting to agree with what she was saying just before the whole "But I'm not a feminist!" bit. Boo.