my fascination with lady gaga

[jmtorres]

jmtorres: I keep wondering if I could come off as just totally crazypants if I started writing about how Gaga's Bad Romance video is a lengthy discussion of heterosexuality as a meat market.

grey_bard: Not that crazy pants. She herself said the story of the video was that her character was being unwillingly sold in sex trafficking.

Juls: Yeah, the interesting part is that's there, she's drugged, she's dragged out trying to cover her bits, she's bid on and bought, etc BUT there's lyrical acknowledgement that while it's badwrong, it's part of her desires.

Grey Bard: But see, I'm not sure how much the lyrics undercut the video, or if, in fact, the video is undercutting the lyrics. Like, is this what she's supposed to be telling the people she's supposed to seduce into buying her? Hard to say. I mean, the character *does* win out in the end. They clearly didn't know what they were dealing with. (And isn't *that* another layer of "this is probably about her relationship with men. or the public or both") Anyway, meta will not sound crazypants given that it is basically *made* of meta anyway.

Juls: I don't think it's really a case of one side undercutting the other, I think it's the both working in tandem re a complicated message, and that it's complicated because of the basic conflict between "I want it" and "it's a fucking meatmarket." I see in it frustration with trying to claim sexuality when female sexuality often gets called slutty or whoring. Like, metatextually, she likes creating all these crazy outlandish cover-nothing outfits that resultingly get her treated as an object. It's also interesting in this video that while the men objectify her and she has to dance for them and get bought by them etc, it's the women who drug her and shove her out there.

Grey Bard: Yes, definitely. The women are actively oppressing her. The men just sort of... willingly benefit.

Juls: And the women are dancing and being objects too, but it's like... this is a model of femininity that's enforced by both men and women.

Grey Bard: And more actively by the women than the men. Like, the men appear to be financing it and so on, but....

Juls: I think the coffin pod labeled "monster" is rather telling, as marking the sexual female as something to be feared and enslaved.

Grey Bard: And look at how much... hm, more *alive* the dancing is, more engaged, once she's in red and presumably, in the narrative of the video, has freed herself.

Juls: Part of that is being freed from the constraints of the vinyl bodysuit earlier, but heh, even the costume materials are thematic? Certainly the color is--the last bit has scarlet letter all over it.

Grey Bard: Did you notice they bleach all the color out of her? I mean, we don't see it, but Gaga in the bath has colored hair, and thereafter it is not.

Juls: Innnnteresting.

Grey Bard: *cough*noresemblancetoreality*cough* [In reality: the music company told her to bleach her hair, because otherwise they didn't think anyone could tell her from Amy Winehouse.]

Juls: Well, yes, Gaga in the bath has a peach cotton candy wig on.

Grey Bard: In reality it is wig, but, you know, as character... It's like they strip all the color out of her, and it is only after she takes her power back that we see her in red, which, yes, on one hand scarlet letter, but on the other hand, the color of fire and blood. And this time she's dancing, but not for an audience.

Juls: Interesting that it goes to peach bathtub Gaga [ie original pre-bleached sex slave] for "I'm a free bitch baby" right before the red sequence. I need to count how many versions of her do the gun hands, because so far I've seen the green sequin one do it, and the peach bathtub. [Clearly it is gun hands of FREEDOM and therefore versions of her expressing her own self and sexuality rather than sexual slavery are the ones doing gun hands.]

Grey Bard: Is it just me, or are the recurring "beauty" shots of her crying and singing in pale blue contacts really disturbing?

Juls: Hahahahahaah you wanna know the most hilarious thing I've read about this? One reviewer was all "we get a glimpse of the real Gaga and genuine emotion!" re those shots.

Grey Bard: WHAT? Let me guess: MAN.

Juls: Described as being naturalistic and make-up lite "stripped of her makeup" and I am like "...wait what"

Grey Bard: Whaaaaa? Like, that is the shot that looks least like her.

Juls: It's certainly a different LOOK but no, it's totally made up.

Grey Bard: Like, I could be wrong, but it looks almost intentionally bleached of individuality, into, you know, sad beautiful victim maiden crying sad sad tears of sad.

Juls: Yeah, those shots you can't even see her tats [individualization thru body modification yay!].

Grey Bard: I do think this video *is* more naturalistic than a lot of hers, in that in some scenes she... shows more emotion and seems more there than mask. But um. Not in that scene. The emotion isn't see my sad sad tears. It's, you know, in the middle of the wacky sequinned fashion costume, or the dance in red at the end, where she's very... engaged. And there.

Juls: Yeah, like that little tantrumesque beating the floor with her fists in the red sequence.

Grey Bard: Which was totally intentional, I'm sure. I really think that video is what has sent her over the top. I mean, not that she wasn't doing great before, but... she tipped her hand to how awesomely smart and thinky and audacious she is.

Juls: Huh, I think red Gaga is doing the gun hand [of FREEDOM] right before she splits her fingers in the like, "I see you" gesture.

Grey Bard: I *love* that little "I see you" gesture. That moment is perfect.

ETA: Juls again. I also wanted to link to Neutra Face,a type-setting related parody of Lady Gaga's Poker Face. I found it hilarious myself, but at least one person I've shown it to has commented "That's so wrong," or "I didn't want to see that" which is a complaint I'd like to address. Why--because it features men affecting similar (female sexual) choreography to Lady Gaga? I think it's awesome because of that. I do want to see that, and I'm not even that into guys (I tend to like them pretty, when I like them at all). I want to see sexual expression being that fluid. That those guys had fun doing that--that's awesome.

Comments

[thedeadparrot]

Neutra Face! I do like how the guys just *go for it* without any shame, and especially in those bowties, man.

And I do think there should be more odes to type-faces, seriously.

[jmtorres]

Shame-free for the win!

Maybe they could do a send-up of Comic Sans.

[jecook]

I'd contribute money to that.

If I'm referring to something as wrong, it's in the context of "it's so wrong to find this that funny".

Just FYI.