The one in which I again defend Lady Gaga's bisexuality

Or rather, I'm defending Lady Gaga's right to define her sexuality any old way she pleases.

More than two years ago, I wrote this mildly angry screed. Last week, Queerty posted this quote taken from a Q&A at the Berghain Club during a stop in Berlin:

You know what? It’s not a lie that I am bisexual and I like women, and anyone that wants to twist this into ‘she says she’s bisexual for marketing,’ this is a fucking lie. This is who I am and who I have always been.”

The comments were... what I expected. Quite a bit of biphobia. I like Queerty, but the comments are often so predictably biphobic, I can't recommend it anymore. (There's a lot of unchecked cissexism among their commenters, too, which would be a huge problem by itself.)

I don't care who Lady Gaga is sleeping with. I don't care if she's not "queer enough" by some draconian set of standards, but I do care when people try to police the identity of others. I conduct business here with the idea that someone's gender identity or sexual orientation is off-limits for discussion. You are the best judge of you. Maybe I'm naive, but it never fails to surprise me that this is a difficult concept to grasp.

Lady Gaga: New Champion of Healthy Body Image?

Last.fm

In response to the recent gossip about her alleged weight gain, Lady Gaga posted a handful of pictures of herself on her blog wearing nothing but a bra and pair of panties.

It was a sincere effort to foster healthy body image, and she invited her fans to celebrate their "perceived flaws" her networking site, LittleMonsters.com, while talking honestly about her ongoing struggle with anorexia and bulimia. Jezebel's  Dodai praised the new sub-section of her site saying, "Some may dimiss this as a stunt. I've seen Facebook posts calling the weight gain an orchestrated move, for attention. But it's sick and cynical to think that this 26-year-old woman who performs her heart out, leaves it all on the stage, day after day, with an eating disordered past, would be playing games with something as serious as body image. Especially with a legion of young fans."

Lady Gaga is a huge, huge, mainstream star. Whether or not you're a fan or her work, her influence is inarguably wide-reaching. And as much as I grumble about her music and image being not as revolutionary as one would like to believe, she does use her voice and fame for good in a way that's sincere rather than career-enhancing. I would like to point out, though I'm sounding like a broken record at this point, that Gaga is still a young, conventionally attractive, and yes, thin white woman, and her privilege on many of life's axes makes this not as risky as, say, when someone like Beth Ditto poses nude for a magazine cover. Bitch Magazine's Kelsey Wallace  also brought up a good point that "isn't focusing on appearance kind of missing the point? Instead of telling everyone how pretty they look or telling a woman with Lupus that she's 'Still hot as fuck,' why not work to shift the conversation away from looks entirely?"

Still, none of this is meant to dismiss the actual good that could come from a major star discussing body image and eating disorders in the now instead being a part of her past that she "got over." The value in that can't be over-estimated.

Links & Bits: 9/21/12

Junot Diaz  talks about why men often fail at writing female characters.

Nisha Chittal  writes about the backlash against Mindy Kaling.

Everyone needs to shut up about Lady Gaga's weight.

Gaga Feminism

I'm really looking forward to J. Jack Halberstam's new book, Gaga Feminism: Sex, Gender, and the End of Normal:

Why are so many women single, so many men resisting marriage, and so many gays and lesbians having babies? In Gaga Feminism: Sex, Gender, and the End of Normal, J. Jack Halberstam answers these questions while attempting to make sense of the tectonic cultural shifts that have transformed gender and sexual politics in the last few decades. This colorful landscape is populated by symbols and phenomena as varied as pregnant men, late-life lesbians, SpongeBob SquarePants, and queer families. So how do we understand the dissonance between these real lived experiences and the heteronormative narratives that dominate popular media? We can embrace the chaos! With equal parts edge and wit, Halberstam reveals how these symbolic ruptures open a critical space to embrace new ways of conceptualizing sex, love, and marriage. (Amazon)

I love books that explore the intersection of pop culture and gender studies, and this looks like a good one for either crowd.

Is Lady Gaga making light of eating disorders?

Feministing.com

Lady Gaga cause a mini-firestorm a few days ago with this tweet, "Just killed back to back spin classes. Eating a salad dreaming of a cheeseburger," with the tongue-in-cheek, but probably a little insensitive, hashtage, "PopSingersDon'tEat," and the ironic, "IWasBornThisWay." It's been discussed and dissected at length here and here, but in short, whatever a woman says about eating and dieting is wrong, obviously.

With her fame comes responsibility, and yeah, there are quite a few problematic aspects to this, most notably her playing into the tired old trope that pop stars (or hey, women in general) must remain skinny at all cost, but I like her honesty, at least. In an era where it's customary for celebrities to claim that they come by their bodies naturally, it's nice to see someone admit that she wasn't, in fact, "born that way."

Links & Bits: 9/30/11

Clarrisa Thorn wrote a great post for Feministe about liberal, sex-positive sex education.

Chloe listed her favorite pop singers  with "giant, real voices."

Autostraddle asks, "Does Lady Gaga empower you ?" (Answer: if you've over twelve, probably no more than any other pop star.)

Mac Pogue for Bitch made a mix that breaks out of the "white, male punk" canon.

Lady Gaga Does Drag at VMAs

I would be remiss if I didn't write at least something about Lady Gaga's -- I mean Jo Calderone's -- performance at the VMA's Sunday. Granted, I am not MTV's target audience, and haven't been in some time, but I did catch Gaga qua Jo Calderone opening the show, and since I fairly recently wrote a post about drag kings, it was inevitable that'd I'd, at least, mention Lady Gaga's performance. 

First off, let me say that I love that she plays it "ugly," Most of the time, female drag, especially done by pop stars, means sexy woman in a suit. Not that there's anything inherently wrong with that, but it isn't particularly subversive either. I mean, part of pop stars job description is to be sexy. Gaga's vaguely brutish, slouching, scratching, spitting male alter-go, Jo, is downright unattractive, grotesque even. Original? Er, no. Nuanced? Not really. In fact, relying on a working-class, greaser trope was pretty grating (and frankly, this was a little weird ), but I have to hand it to her for messing with gender roles on prime time TV.

Related:
Gaga Queers Up MTV VMAs with Drag Performance Art (Autostraddle)
Joe Calderone: VMA's Savior Or A Tired Old Trope? (Queerty)
Did Lady Gaga Jump The Shark? (Gawker)

Links and Bits: 8/19/11

Patti Smith is turning her memoir, Just Kids, into a film.

The 2012 Presidential Candidates and Where They Stand on LGBT Issues

The Crunk Feminist Collectives discusses "The Help"

Sarah talks about the stealthily feminist R&B of 80s and 90s.

Emily from Popdust lists ten pop culture connections in Lady Gaga's new video, You and I.

Drag King Dreams

courtesy of last.fm 

I'm a big fan of RuPaul's Drag Race -- a competition for drag queens that's equal parts America's Next Top Model, Project Runway (at least during seasons one and two where the queens designed a lot of their wardrobe themselves), and maybe a soupcon of Bad Girls Club. Reality shows are a dime a dozen (almost literally -- one of the reasons reality shows proliferate tv todays is that they cost almost nothing to produce), but Drag Race has a level of self-awareness and cheeky humor not usually seen n television. Oh yeah, and the queens themselves. Drag subculture is rarely, if ever, featured on television. So needless to say I was excited when I first got wind of RuPaul's Drag U, which is now in its second season. Except when I heard that veteran queens from the original Drag Race would be putting cis women in drag (note: the show uses the word "bio woman" which I think is a tad insensitive) I mistakenly thought they'd be making women into drag kings. Instead, Drag U  is a standard makeover show -- albeit one with the same tongue-in-cheek fun as Drag Race and drag queens taking the place of New York stylists -- glamming up haggard housewives and renewing their confidence. Color me disappointed.

Is there something about women dressed as men that's inherently more dangerous -- less palatable to the tv audience -- than the inverse? Aside from Murray Hill, I can't name a "famous" drag king. Oh, Lady Gaga's drag alter-ego, Jo Calderone, brought male drag into the spotlight for about five minutes, but when usually what comes to mind is a kind of hyper-femininity parodied by male drag performers.

In popular media, women in drag is usually limited to women adopting a male identity for some sort of gain. On his blog recently, Michael Musto asked his audience to name the greatest drag king in movies . His favorites, and the responses given by his readers didn't deviate much from the trope, and said a lot about the paucity of examples of women in drag in movies,  listing Barbara Streisand in Yentl , and 80s cult movie, Just One of the Guys .

So what do you think? Could a Drag U with actual drag kings be as much of a runaway hit as the original?

Please Stop Making Me Defend Lady Gaga

I never planned to turn this blog into a study in "Leave Gaga Alone!" but the elder statespeople of rock are making it incredibly difficult for me not to defend Lady Gaga -- her sexuality, her image, or her brand. In other words, haters go hate somewhere else. It's too easy and far too obvious to dump on whomever is currently enjoying the spotlight. These are Morrissey's words in Digital Spy (as reported by Jezebel):

I say without bitterness that it is nothing new. I like the idea of women who are in full control, but I am tired of seeing singers who cannot deliver a song without the aide of 750 frenzied dancers assuming the erotic. It is actually fraudulent, and the exact opposite of erotic."

(He also referred to Madonna as "McDonna.")

Do I disagree with him? Not entirely. I prefer my artists not accompanied by a dance troupe, and Gaga, divorced from her image, essentially sings in platitudes (within the context of pop music, this is completely acceptable), but it's disappointing when a universally respected singer-songwriter -- one whose music I've grown up with -- makes disparaging comments about a currently popular star's persona, especially its eroticism (or lack thereof). The misogyny may be covert, but it's there.  By far, it's not the worst thing Morrissey's ever said, but it does nothing to belie his reputation as a aging, bitter pedant, and at best, reeks of sour grapes. And it's not that I think that female pop stars are above criticism, but hearing highly respected, if commercially ignored, artists pass judgement on the ones selling millions of albums -- you're not in the same game, right?   The deification of critics' pets bothers me as just as much as the overexposure of artists like Gaga, Katy Perry and Tyler Swift get, but that doesn't mean it's open season on the latter.

The Other "B" Word

In a recent interview in The Advocate, Lady Gaga declared herself part of the LGBT community, the "b-letter," as in bisexual:

As to whether she also considers herself an actual member of the LGBT community — “yes” is her response after a brief pause. Gaga draws the word out, perhaps steeling herself for the follow-up question, wondering if she’ll be forced to address the rumor that she has a penis. “The b letter,” Gaga answers, and lets out a giggle. She really is in good spirits today.

I'm pretty sure this isn't the first time she's talked about her attraction to other women, so I was disappointed to see some of the commenters on Jezebel (where I originally found the link to the Advocate article) questioning her legitimacy -- as a member of the LGBT community, and as an advocate (no pun intended). I don't know much about Lady Gaga's personal life, but I have no reason to think she's being insincere. Unlike Katy Perry or Nicki Minaj, I don't think she's claiming a bisexual identity solely for the titillation of men, or as a marketing tool. And while I see nothing wrong with questioning her commitment as an activist, mandating how one can label herself or her sexuality is extremely problematic. Lux Alptraum had the best comment, I think:

With regards to the nature of Gaga’s bisexuality: I think the more problematic thing here is that people feel that they have the right to comment on/qualify other people’s sexual orientations. Quite frankly, the queer rights movement should be more about allowing everyone the freedom to be attracted to/in love with whomever they choose, not policing whether or not people’s orientations are “legitimate.” If Gaga considers herself a part of the queer spectrum, and is motivated to work on behalf of sexual freedom, then god bless her—and I don’t think it’s anyone’s place to judge whether her bisexuality is “authentic” or not.

Oh, and while we're on the topic of claiming a bisexual identity as a marketing tool, the same could be said about Bowie more than thirty years ago, but no one seems to call his sexuality in question (at least not anymore) the way they do Gaga's. For the record, I'm a huge Bowie fan, and I think his "queering" of traditional masculinity broke down a ton of barriers irrespective of whom he took to bed at night. (I also don't doubt he truly identified as bi then, but that's the thing about sexuality -- sometimes it's flexible or fluid.) It would be silly to put Gaga in the same category as Bowie, at least this soon, but I can kind of see the same things happening with her: maybe not perfect representation, but welcome nonetheless.

(Parts of this were taken from a Tumblr conversation I had with The Rich Girls are Weeping.)

Born This Way (If Just For One Day)

As much as I write about the overall contempt "serious" music fans have for pop music, I'm still very much ensconced in the world of "serious music fans who hold pop music in contempt." Yeah, I talk a good talk, but unfortunately, I'm a big hypocrite. I don't really listen to a lot of pop music -- and I mean in the truest sense of the word: the kind of three-minute, "gets the blood pumping" songs that are played ad nauseam on radio, if radio still played music. And so much of it just makes me feel really old. I think it's okay not to be that into music made by people young enough to be your children, the same way it's okay not to really dig your parent's records. (Or the way they say "dig" and "records.") However, I found a major loophole: parades. "Born This Way" sounds freaking amazing when played by a marching band. Really, Lady Gaga (and Katy Perry for that matter) sounded just perfect at the Pride Parade last weekend. I can't remember who the author was, but last year someone on his blog said he had the same reaction to hearing Lady Gaga in a club -- it all made sense.

So maybe I'm not such a rockist after all.

Oh, and Weird Al parodies are always welcome:

Links & Bits for 5/20/11

Tyler, the Creator, Creates 43-Year-Old "Joke" (Tiger Beatdown)

And this means a few things. For example: That the “it’s all about the music” pose is a fucking lie. That all of the boys who are snickering at this, and/or applauding it (and oh, yes, there were plenty) are not enjoying the “music.” They’re enjoying the misogyny. They’re enjoying the suggestion that uppity women should have a dick shoved in them to shut them up.

First Take: Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" (Ann Powers for NPR)

I don't always agree with Gaga's approach to sloganeering. I'm turned off by the biological determinism contained in the very phrase "Born This Way" and puzzled at Gaga's refusal to engage with African-American culture, either musically or within her calls for liberation. After the Twitter fight the soul singer India.Arie had with Gaga's fans last year, it's hard to hear the lyrically inane "I Am My Hair" as anything but a swipe at that singer — and, by extension (pun intended), a sign of insensitivity about black women's long-fought struggles against racist beauty standards. At 25, Gaga is still very much a work in progress. But then, so was Bob Dylan when he went to Washington at 23.

What Makes a Body Obscene? (Sociological Images)

Unless that man’s gender is ambiguous; unless he does just enough femininity to make his body suspect. Indeed, the treatment of the Dossier cover reveals that the social and legislative ban on public breasts rests on a jiggly foundation. It’s not simply that breasts are considered pornographic. It’s that we’re afraid of women and femininity and female bodies and, if a man looks feminine enough, he becomes, by default, obscene.

Yael Naim Has a Story to Tell (PopMatters)

“Songs are a way to express what I have felt,” she reflects. “A way to understand what happened to me or to other people. I usually have an instrument in my hand. It’s usually unconscious. When I feel something coming, I hit record. It’s spontaneous. After a few hours, it will be a song."

Links & Bits for 5/6/11

Women in Rock: Tamar-kali (The F-Word)

I definitely identify as a womanist/feminist. I live my life knowing my worth as a human presence on this planet could never be eclipsed by my gender, that’s ludicrous to me. Based on the power structure in which we exist I walk this planet in the path of the ‘other’ and my lyrics reflect that; my rage, my hopes and the challenges I face. I do not write with political intention but the fact that I am a black woman telling my story in the context that I do makes it a political act in itself.

Will Gaga's $1 Million Donation To Gay Youth Actually Reach Gay Youth? (Queerty)

Not one to let a social media campaign escape her, Lady Gaga is letting her Facebook fans decide how she should donate a million dollars. Though she certainly could use a new creative director and better prosthetics, you can’t argue with Gaga for going the more charitable route with her gay-earned dollars. The artist better known for making awesome music videos to otherwise terrible pop songs has partnered with the Robin Hood Foundation in New York to give $1 million to five non-profits working with homeless or at-risk LGBT youth.

Oh, by the way Queerty's back!

Thoughts on United States of Tara (Womanist Musings)

There is a huge part of me that is happy to see a disabled character at the center of the show, and another part of me that worries about whether or not the portrayal is realistic.

Pop-Apologist

This, from Spinner yesterday:

"After playing the revved 'Up in the Dark' from their latest album 'Together,' Newman (of the New Pornographers) asked the crowd, "Are you guys seeing Lady Gaga at Lolla?" It's going to be awful." Not holding anything back, Case took a shot at the diva: "At least I don't wear underwear on my head." Later on, Newman encouraged the crowd to see Green Day because they're punk, but then debated with his cohorts if Green Day was actually punk."

I've been a fan of the New Pornographers for nearly a decade, but this just disappoints me. I don't know if their stab at Lady Gaga was meant as a joke or what, but I wish we could stop pitting "cool, genuine 'indie'" against "shallow, image-conscious pop." I say this because I spent years doing this myself. It took two years writing at a fairly mainstream blog where I had to reign in the snark before I realized, "You know, most pop music isn't bad." At this point, the line between indie and pop, commercial and alternative, is so blurred that the two are nearly indistinguishable.

I wonder how much of this is an age thing? Most of the people I come in contact with are over thirty, the last generation to have gotten their music through more traditional avenues: radio, television, and record stores. When I was a teenager, there was a definite line between what was commercial and what wasn't. If you had the wherewithal to seek out music that wasn't getting airplay, well, you were deemed a person of taste. Now it's not so simple, and when a guy running a small label out of Omaha can have hit records, the playing field has leveled considerably.

Gaga Fans Ignore Haters

Just when I think I've had my fill of the media juggernaut that is Lady Gaga, she does something that's pretty awesome and deserves mention.

Twice Lady Gaga has swung through my town in the past year, and twice the show has been targeted by homophobic picketers. This time around Lady Gaga instructed fans to "ignore the 'hate criminals' at all costs and be grateful that they are 'not addicted to hate'." (Jezebel) From her Twitter:

"Tonight love and hate met in St. Louis. And love outnumbered the hate, in poetic thousands. Hate left. But love stayed. + Together we sang."

More on the St. Lois Gaga show:
Lady Gaga fans Battle Homophobes in STL: Does Westboro Deserve Counter-Protesters? (Autostraddle)
Show Review + Photos + Setlist: Lady Gaga Burns Down the Scottrade Center (Riverfront Times)

Lady Gaga Backlash?

Yes, this is another Lady Gaga post. I swear each time I think everything that needs to be said about the whole Lady Gaga phenomenon has been said, something else comes up. Have we reached the "full saturation point?" (Answer: Yes, we are fully saturated with "Gaga-ness" when you're in the car with your mother and she's singing, "Ga Ga Ooh La La-ah," but only recognizes it as "that song they did on Glee.") From Jezebel:

"Everyone in the spotlight who reaches a point of public adoration is subject to the all-powerful backlash, though most backlashes seem aimed at the subject's obsessive fans, or, in the case of Betty White, the majority of people on the internet for their seemingly endless, patronizing, and fairly irritating need to act as if they're the only ones who have noticed that that Betty White, who has been an entertainer for most of her 88 years, is quite good at her job and deserves recognition."

(Full disclosure: I am a sometime commenter at Jezebel, and have followed Lady Gaga's career mostly through her fans, and she has many among the Jezzie crowd. )

I've been a fan of pop music for more than twenty-years now, and it's easy to say that everyone has a shelf life, but what fascinates me most about Lady Gaga -- and I swear I've read this somewhere but can't place it -- is that she came to us this fully-formed pop star. There was no embryonic state; nothing from which she's evolved. She's essentially a collection of influences. (And one of those influences, Madonna, if I recall, started out pretty rough.) It kind of makes a backlash inevitable.

Lady Gaga Releases New Video; People Have Opinions

So, the latest video from Lady Gaga, "Alejandro" hit the internet this week. I'm always at a loss for anything new or insightful to say about Lady Gaga. I'm far from her target audience -- I'm practically old enough to be her mother -- but I'm kind of junkie for pop culture analysis. Let's deconstruct, shall we?

Who's most offended by Lady Gaga's Alejandro? (The Guardian)
"Opening with militaristic men carrying giant set squares and other technical drawing equipment, the first group to take offence will be the League of Engineering Draftspeople, for suggesting that not only are they on some kind of violent rampage led by a recently unseated parliamentary representative from the Ministry of Silly Walks, but that women are grossly under-represented in their field. Shocking."

Queer Imagery in Lady Gaga's "Alejandro" (Broadsheet)
"Gay men wearing heels is nothing new, of course. But this isn't just about boys in girls' clothes; it's also about exploring feminine movement. One gentleman slinks around on the bed like calendar pinup. The dancers move behind Gaga in a synchronized mass, wave their arms out like tentacles and then draw them back in to do an update of the bend and snap. And there is a great deal of attitude in those snaps (most delightfully, the one to Lady Gaga’s left)."

Guide to Madonna References in Alejandro (Oh No They Didn't)
"Overanalyzers are overanalyzing. Us? We’re just geeking out over the number of Madonna references Gaga managed to pack into the video. Obviously, there’s the sex, the black-and-white cinematography (which ’90s Madge was so fond of), the feminized male dancers."

The Day I Didn't Want To Write About Lady Gaga (Tiger Beatdown)
"Lady Gaga is the Internet. Every time she does something, we all pay attention. But, unlike a video of a farting baby or a fatally injured cat or whatever else it is the Internet is looking at this week, she somewhat rewards our analysis."

And this, which was just one comment in a longer thread on Jezebel, was probably one of the more interesting things I've read on "Alejandro" this week:
"It occurs to me that Gaga is showcasing male-only worlds -- the military, Catholicism, gay men -- that she will always be excluded from, or at least never fully a part of, never fully accepted in, or never fully loved or completed in, just because she is a woman."

Lady GaGa: We Chose Her

Rachel Rosenfelt and Jennifer R. Bernstein from PopMatters wrote an incredibly detailed analysis of Lady Gaga's fame, calling her "he first democratically elected pop star."

"Web 2.0 has dissipated any paranoia that the sales-driven music industry might exert total control over mass culture—and although market forces retain their power in cyberspace, we have gained greater independence and flexibility in consumption than we have ever known. The radical increase in consumer agency licenses even the most skeptical highbrows among us to take pleasure in Gaga’s audiovisual spectacle. She has not been chosen for us; rather, we have chosen her."

Of course, you could argue that pop stars have always been chosen by us -- by the records we buy and the concerts we chose to see (as some of the commenters have pointed out). It's only the tools that are different.

A Roundup Of Links Regarding Lady Gaga's video "Telephone"

I wasn't going to blog about the new Lady Gaga video. I can't really add to the analysis of what was probably the most anticipated video since... I can't remember when we were this excited over a music video. "November Rain?" "Black or White?" (As you can probably tell, I haven't watched MTV since the early 90s. They still play videos, right? /sarcasm.) So yeah, the blogosphere went a little nutty this week. Here are a few of the most astutely written posts I've collected over the past couple days:

Lady Gaga Sets The Record Straight (gudbye t'jane)

Lady Gaga and Beyonce Do a Freaky Thelma and Louise (Whose Shoes Are These Anyway?)

Girl Power, Homicide & Blatant Product Placement: Lady Gaga's "Telephone" Sucks (Jezebel)

TELEPHONE! (Bitch Blogs)

WEEKEND ARTS SECTION: Nothing That Happened This Week Was Ever Going To Be As Important As The "Telephone" Video (Feministe)

What The "Telephone" Video has to do with Women in Congress (90sWoman.com)