LADY GAGA--MADONNA-BORN THIS WAY not safe for work

Leaving "Bad Romance" aside, consider "Born This Way," another great song.  It is widely perceived as a celebration of human rights. It's also seen as derivative from Madonna's "Express Yourself," written in 1989. Although the music is similar, Madonna sings about women not settling for second best in love and standing up for themselves. However, she has no explicit lyrics at all about alternate lifestyles. Her costumes vary from nudity and underwear to a sleeveless ball gown, to a gasp, pinstriped pantsuit. The analysts at the time thought that she was gender-bending to wear a pantsuit, why I don't know.  Note that Hilary Clinton became First Lady in Jan. 1993 but her pantsuits did not become national news until then. The Ellen DeGeneres Show did not air until 2003, so until then there had not been a suited female TV host. I'm not sure why "Express Yourself 'was considered so special. However I wasn't paying attention to music in 1989, being busy with two children and a career.


Gaga's lyrics, on the other hand, are complete clear--she sings about accepting yourself, accepting you're LGBT, standing up for yourself if you're bullied or disabled. She bobbled a bit with the lyrics,"chola," Latina gangbanger, offensive to that community, and "orient," which Asians bristled at. I really like the song a lot, even though Gaga sings a lot of it in a small leather bra and panties. Note that Madonna first set the skank bar in the late 80's. She's one reason Lady Gaga can get away with the teensy underwear costumes she likes.  I also want to give a shout-out to Weird Al Yankovic.   He hesitated on doing a parody song because he considered "Born This Way" a great song about acceptance, but finally decided to do it as a parody of Gaga's style, not her music. "Perform This Way is wonderful, and Al sure has a great body for a 52 year old man. ;>0.

One sad and honest thing which came to light recently--despite all her singing about acceptance, she struggles with her self-image because of her weight. She's had weight issues since she was young, at one point purging so much that she was afraid her voice would change. She recently gained twenty-five pounds or more, and boasts that her boyfriend likes her curvier. That's great, but she should consider larger sized costumes that would showcase her new form, not detract from it.  Responding to criticism over her weight gain, she recently published pictures of herself in underwear and bra, facing the mirror and showing her fans exactly how she looks now.

Her music style is meant to be ambiguous, and androgynous,  but it's highly female sexually. She has multiple male dancers, mostly half dressed and presumably gay. She has lyrics which shock, such as in "Poker Face"--"I'm not bluffing with my muffin," as she points to her groin in the video. In an interview she helpfully explains further, "Obviously it's my pussy's poker face." Awk! And also in during the Fame Tour in 2009 she suggested that it referred to her bisexuality, to be with a man but fantasize about being with a woman.


So is she a feminist?  Depends. Hardly anyone uses the word anymore, paradoxically because of the women's rights movement successes.  In 1982 the Equal Rights Amendment failed to be ratified and died as a federal bill. It did, however, pass in thirty-five states, who now have initiated at least partial equal rights laws. Contrary to what you might think, red state Texas was one of the 35.

 Millions of women now take it for granted that they can get a job in any profession, go into law enforcement, the military, and politics.  But they seem not to realize that they're still getting paid only 75-80% what a man does. There are few women CEOs, few governors or senators. Still as has been written before, "women are slowing moving up, getting that corner office, quietly contributing to Emily's List."

 N. Williams, in her March 11, 2010 article in MS magazine, writes, "Nobody could describe my relationship with Lady Gaga better--We're in a bad romance.She’ll say something feminist one minute and equate feminism with man-hating the next."

She concludes with:
"Lady Gaga is a young artist who seems to renegotiate her image and identity with each bit of education she receives. Maybe she has made some feminist faux pas, but to her credit, she educates herself and comes back with a stronger statement than the last. She thinks about who she is and how she presents herself, and that is refreshing. And “a little bit feminist.”  I can’t help but fantasize about just what Lady Gaga could do by identifying as“feminist.” Her immense popularity and youthful, outspoken image could be the perfect set-up for a revolution of the word.

One last note--a very good parody of "Bad Romance" is "Bad Romance-Womens' Suffrage." It's about the struggle for women's right to get the vote.  The lead singer represents Alice Paul, who wrote the first equal rights amendment--in 1923.