The differences in dating/courtship between New Zealand and Sweden. Interesting!
But Mom, what if I don't wanna get married?
Parents keep child's gender under wraps. Interesting, but I'm not sure I agree entirely with their approach (that's a big burden to put on a child...but so are gender norms. Blargh).
You've probably seen this video, as it's been making the rounds on FB but this chick gives some legitimate criticism of Beyonce's latest single (though I do love my some B).
A different POV: why didn't I ever get married?
Conservatives declare victory over abortion: this kinda makes me want to puke. At least they feel defeated with all the homo rights.
Cringe! Dove body wash ad with unintentional (I hope!) racism. Eesh.
Oddly, I was watching the View during Gaga's interview (one of my Mama's customers had it on) and agree 100% with the statement that Gaga doesn't really have much to say anymore.
Much love,
The Sheriff
100% agree with the jezebel article. lady gaga's songs and words are about absolutely nothing but getting herself attention. even the born this way shit is an obvious ploy her manager told her to do. put the words "transgender" and "lesbian" in a song, gaga, then all the gay people will love you even more! its insulting and ridiculous. her performances are bad (re: hbo special), her music is terrible now (re: entire born this way album) and she is getting WAY more attention than she deserves. especially because madonna already existed. she shouldnt be getting this much credit for a style, music, and message someone else created, whether or not people think her voice is better.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree at least that Gaga isn't really saying much right now. She says more with her wardrobe and her attitude than with her lyrics. I brought this up with a friend of mine, a diehard little monster, and she disagreed--she said that Lady Gaga isn't confronting patriarchy the way that Madonna was. In addition, she said that Gaga's only been around for a couple of years, whereas Madonna's had decades to perfect her message. I have to agree with her as well. We'll see if Lady Gaga comes up with some truly awesome ideas in the future, or if Jezebel was right all along. I'm willing to wait it out, honestly, because if nothing else she's wildly entertaining. :P
ReplyDeleteI think the best rebuttal I've seen to the charge that Gaga is just ripping off Madonna is in this post from Tiger Beatdown:
ReplyDelete"...it is odd how many people I’ve met that have only one thing to say about the New Gaga. 'She’s ripping off Madonna!'
Because, of course, women do not find inspiration in the work of other women. Women steal from each other. Radiohead, Bill Hicks, Jimmy Hendrix, The Beatles, Richard Pryor — men — are innovators. When the next generation contains 100 variations on their sound or their comedy, that is the power of influence and the continuance of tradition. But when two women sound alike, that is coded as cultural theft. [...]
This Dude Music Complex augments the way we look at all music that not made by cis men. And it makes us very quick to hold other music to a much higher standard of originality, so that we know it will be pleasing to the dominant. A lady needs to be without influences to be great, she needs to make no references, pitch no homages; she must work twice as hard for half the attention."
I do think that Gaga is being held to impossibly high standards in every area of performance, ability, celebrity, etc. I like her. I like what she does. Sure, not every song is my cup of tea, and I really hated the meat dress, but I don't get why people seem to feel the need to try to take Gaga down a peg, which is how that Jezebel post struck me. It was incredibly petty.
Particularly troubling to me are the accusations that she is pandering to gay folks by talking about homosexuality, since she herself has publicly identified as bisexual.
I didn't watch the interview on the View, but I do wonder why Gaga is always expected to "have something new to say" when we don't seem to have the same expectation of any other artist I can think of. Most musicians either directly cover other people's songs and/or cover the same themes we've seen over and over. Her whole persona seems to be designed for stimulating commentary on celebrity and fame (among any number of other themes), and for that I think she should be credited as an artist.
Adrienne-I think that's a good point about how her whole theme as an artist is to start discussion about celebrity and what it means. I guess I expect her to have more to say because she goes so far to distance herself from being like other artists, and to emphasize being different and whatnot, that it makes me expect her to have a message behind that, or perhaps something more original musically (enjoyable as she is at times).
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