When I think about pop culture and popstars, my mind immediately goes right to Lady Gaga. I picture elementary school me binge watching her most famous “Bad Romance” music video, where she’s in her iconic white latex bodysuit with a matching headpiece covering her eyes. Whether it was that or wearing a dress made out of literal meat, I was in awe of her confidence and aesthetic. For me, Gaga was an early introduction to the pop music industry, and despite how much my parents complained, I grew up blasting her music anywhere I went. Gaga was the first person I saw in the spotlight who truly did not seem to care what other people thought and she embraced her flaws with open arms. She was also an early activist of LGBTQ and women’s rights, and was one of the first major celebrities to appreciate and display queer and feminist culture through her music, fashion, and legendary music videos.
Lady Gaga’s early music videos sparked controversy by showing several scenes that were still considered taboo. As another one of my favorites, the 10-minute long “Telephone” music video is a great example as to why. The video, which has over 400 million views on youtube, opens up with Gaga being thrown into a women’s prison cell by two transgender female guards. What follows are scenes of very revealing outfits, swearing, and even a lesbian kiss. Although these moments may not seem like a big deal now, for a video made in 2010, small moments like these were revolutionary for queer history and pop-culture. Pop-stars were supposed to be classy and appeal to the masses, and were definitely not known for using foul language, making out with people of the same sex for pleasure, and wearing glasses made out of cigarettes like Gaga did in the video. The music video then continues with the appearance of Beyonce bailing Gaga out of jail and the two of them then head to a diner where they poison and kill all of its guests.
Just three months after the iconic “Telephone” music video, Gaga released another one to the song “Alejandro.” Although this music video has less of a linear plot than its predecessor, “Alejandro” is still filled with many moments that skyrocketed it’s popularity to reach almost 500 million views. The video primarily follows Gaga while she’s on some sort of war base, mostly surrounded by military men wearing feminine clothing. The entire video has a dark funeral feel to it and features many more scenes of over-the-top fashion, including a bra with protruding machine guns and men in fishnet tights and heels. Once again, it is clear from this music video that Lady Gaga does not stick to the status quo. She wants to be talked about, and has stated several times that she wants her videos and outfits to cause controversy and conversation.
Although the music videos for “Telephone” and “Alejandro'' have different overall themes, both are alike because of their shared, unique aesthetic and over-the-top fashion. It is because of this that I consider Gaga to be the queen of camp. According to Susan Sontag, “camp sees everything in quotation marks. It’s not a lamp, but a “lamp” ; not a woman, but a “woman.” (Sontag, 1964, p. 4)I think that this definition in particular suits Gaga well. To her, it is not a bra, but a perfect place for machine guns to stick out of. It’s not sunglasses, but the ideal spot for still lit cigarettes. Lady Gaga takes things that are ordinary, and she makes them extraordinary. This is key for camp. In “Telephone,” she takes the big metal chains from the prison she’s in and turns them into an accessory for her top. Later on in the diner, her hair is shaped like a literal telephone, highlighting what the song is about. Camp is also not only confined to Gaga's fashion. It is also displayed through her sharp and awkward poses, her exaggerated actions like carrying a literal bloody heart in “Alejandro,” and her facial expressions that deliberately never seem to match the mood of the scene.
Lady Gaga is so unique because she uses camp to convey messages in promoting feminism and lgbtq rights. In the same definition, Sontag argues that camp “is the farthest extension, in sensibility, of the metaphor of life as a theater.” (p. 4) Gaga’s clothes perform for her. In “Telephone,” for example, Gaga has a scene where she wears nothing but a few lines of yellow caution tape while in a jail cell. Although the outfit might seem bizarre, the caution tape represents how “dangerous” society thinks criminal women are, and how we need to keep caution while around them. Gaga’s fashion choices in her music videos are purposeful and usually carry a broader meaning of equality. This is hand in hand with the ideals of feminism and the concept of the “male gaze” that feminist author Andi Zeisler talks about. In her definition, “by positioning women as nothing more than objects to be looked at, sexualized, and made vulnerable, the male unconscious reassures itself that, really, it has nothing to fear from women” (Zeisler, 2008, p. 8). Lady Gaga’s music videos try to do the opposite. She wants to dress sexually to prove to men that “no, you should be afraid of us.” In “Alejandro,” there is a sequence where Gaga is in bed with a man. This time, however, she is on top and is physically dominating him with a rope while he’s dressed in nothing but a thong and heels. This dynamic in particular proves to the world that Gaga opposes gender norms, and encourages women to be in positions of power, directly opposing the idea of the male gaze.
Through her strategic use of camp and feminism, Lady Gaga paved the way for a new era of pop-stars, and proved herself to be someone women and queer people can look up to. She will always be someone who helped me and millions of others grow comfortable with ourselves, and just like one of her most famous lyrics, she shows us every day through her legendary music videos and performances that it truly is ok to be “born this way.”
References
Crowder, C. (2010) Lady Gaga's New Video Explained: Dead Diners, Americana and Cigarette Sunglasses. ABC News. https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/SpringConcert/decoding-lady-gagas-telephone-video/story?id=10114081.
Staff, S. D. G. L. N. (2010, March 21). Video: Lady Gaga defends "telephone" music video. San Diego Gay and Lesbian News. https://sdlgbtn.com/entertainment/2010/03/21/lady-gaga-defends-telephone-music-video.
Calefati, J. (2010, June 21). Deconstructing Lady Gaga's "Alejandro" video. Mother Jones. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2010/06/music-monday-critique-lady-gagas-alejandro-video/.
Sontag, S. (1964) Notes on “Camp” pp. 1-14
Zeisler, A. (2008). Feminism and pop culture. New York, NY: Seal Press. Pp. 1-21
Links for the Youtube Videos:
Telephone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVBsypHzF3U&t=246s
Alejandro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niqrrmev4mA
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