The only interesting part of Lady Gaga’s 35-minute interview on the The View this morning was when she wobbled onto the stage like a feeble old lady, needing to be escorted to the couch by two men because of her 12-inch platforms. And during the course of those 35 minutes, Gaga didn’t say anything we haven’t heard before. And that leads to the question: Now that we’ve gotten to know her a little bit, what exactly is Gaga’s style/substance ratio? Is she bringing anything else to the table besides a blanket message of self-acceptance and a meat dress?
Yes, she’s topped the Forbes 100 list and has over 10 million Twitter followers, but perhaps she should begin to ask herself the question that Madonna famously once wondered aloud about herself: “Now that I’ve got everyone’s attention, what do I have to say?”
Granted, Gaga has proved herself more talented as a musician/singer/songwriter than Madonna, so in that sense it’s OK if her music and her clothing are the best she has to offer. But if that’s the case, then why give her 35 minutes of interview time on a daytime talk show with absolutely no performance? So she could repeat everything we’ve already heard, apparently:
“I feel so blessed and so grateful”
“I was born this way”
“Love yourself”
“Be who you are”
“Little monsters”
“My dad did like when I danced in my underwear”
“I still feel like a loser sometimes”
“Be brave”
“I was bullied for having a big nose”
“Homosexuality [insert virtually any adjective or verb here]”
Don’t get me wrong—these are all positive sentiments, and her heart is presumably in the right place. And I think it’s great that she’s used her fame for gay activism and acceptance, and her work towards the repeal of DADT is nothing but pure goodness. That said: it also strikes me as slightly odd that she’s decided that as part of her artistry, she will become the patron saint of homosexuality, especially seeing as she’s not gay and I’m not sure the gay community asked her to appropriate herself to the role in the first place. And, worse, it would seem she doesn’t have anything new to say about the matter.
Madonna used to wear crazy shit (or that’s what it was considered at the time) and do outrageous things like stick a knife in her vagina, but everything she did, aesthetically and behaviorally, had some kind of statement about sexual double standards and the patriarchy, which were issues that she struggled with as a woman. Lady Gaga can draw a circle inside a square on her face and call it makeup or wear hair weaved around her waist and call it a skirt. But it sure as hell seems that someone who has spent so much time outwardly expressing herself doesn’t a lot to give from the inside.
