“Lady Gaga : News.” ladygaga.com. Lady Gaga, n.d. Web. 4 Feb. 2011 Sturken, Marita, and Lisa Cartwright. Practices of Looking : An Introduction to Visual Culture. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. Print.
Culture is how people express themselves. It is also how we become legible to one another. Western Culture tends to favour vision over any other senses. We live in a culture saturated with images, and each viewer interprets these images differently. This visual appeal to culture emphasizes the power that images can have. Cultural figures have images of positive and/or negative connotations attached to them. A political leader – such as Barack Obama – has the image of change, diversity, and power. Music icon Britney Spears has garnered many images: from performer and sex symbol, to mother. The manufactured image of pop star, Lady Gaga, emphasizes the power an image can have within a minority community. Lady Gaga’s image has become – in low and high culture – a voice for the GLBT – Gay, Lesbian, Bi-Sexual, and Transgendered – community. Lady Gaga’s image is a reflection of the absurd and how images of the nonsensical have become naturalized in culture. Her dramatic costumes and behaviour are a reflection of who she is artistically, but also of the GLBT community. Gaga’s infamous meat dress, donned at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards, was a couture protest against the United States Government’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. Lady Gaga’s cultural impact and overall image speaks directly to members of the GLBT community. This interpellation goes hand-to-hand with Gaga’s public activism and support for equal rights for members of the GLBT community in society. Lady Gaga’s image is nothing short of a spectacle. It is a spectacle of justice. Her image of being a spectacle perpetuates her as a voice for the GLBT community. Her image gives a voice to a community who is a minority and projected throughout culture as having a voice that is continuously ignored or silenced. Lady Gaga’s image is in-turn a reflection of a minority group in our society. This image forces viewers – unaccepting of the homosexual lifestyle – to accept those individuals who are not conforming to status quo. In this case the GLBT community. Lady Gaga’s image also reclaims the word “monster”. Her peculiar style, stage costumes, and support of the GLBT community have often been ridiculed – by anti-gay activists – and given the title “monster”. A term usually deemed negative, Lady Gaga reappropriates the word “monster”. She identifies herself as the “mother monster” and calls her supporters her children or “little monsters”. This is in the same way that earlier gay activist groups reclaimed the derogatory terms: “gay”, “queer”, and “faggot”. Gaga’s reappropriation of “monster” demonstrates an acceptance of all human beings. It shows acceptance of members of the GLBT community for who they are, and once again gives its members a voice. Lady Gaga’s second studio album titled Born This Way is a definitive piece of Gaga’s image. It is the anthem to the GLBT community and emphasizes the importance of equality. The album’s title track, “Born This Way”, reaffirms Lady Gaga as culturally relevant persona. The record speaks directly to members of the GLBT community, but also goes beyond and seeks to become the voice of all minority groups. It seeks to expose cultural prejudices and reveal the beauty in the “monstrous”: “no matter gay, straight, or bi, / lesbian, transgendered life / [you are] on the right track … / [you are] born to survive / . . . [you are] born this way” (Lady Gaga).
I am a writer of poetry and fiction from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. I am an undergraduate from Mount Saint Vincent University with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and Writing. You can visit my personal website at: http://www.brianjsmith.ca.
