Theresa Miniscalco
Media Example Lady Gaga's Alejandro. Alejandro
1. How does the initial view of the "warriors" show how we define the sex of "boy" as a culture (consider lighting, camera angle, clothing, body shapes, etc)?
2. In the scenes were we see Lady Gaga as more robotic than fluidly human, is this working to empower her as a female/woman, or the opposite?
The Lady Gaga music video for Alejandro is completely sex based. The video teaches us that properly molded and desired sexed bodies are ones that are trim with little fat and basically naked. The interesting part is that the video has Lady Gaga acting out many sexual positions/actions, but doing both that are considered female role and male role. She clearly introduces the act of deviant sexual behavior by having men on men sexually (dressed in black leather), along with pulling at long black ties on the bed. Also, her outfit represents "deviant" sexual behavior as it is nude underwear paired with black stockings and heels. All of these images and implications teach us that we should desire to be sexually powerful, take charge in bed, and also be skinny with minimal body fat and hair, along with lacking other "imperfections". This comes at the expense of the majority of the human race who feel they can't relate or fit into what is the "normal" sexually attractive look. The irony is that we are taught to desire to look like a certain way, but only a very small percentage of people are born with the ability to look this way.
Abyan Gurase
Media Example Lady Gaga's Telephone Telephone
1. Why was the public so fascinated by Lady Gaga sex to the point of creating rumors about her having a penis? Is it because she is not complying to the social norms that society is questioning her gender? If it was man doing the same would his sex come into question?
2. Is the prison culture portrayed in Telephone based in reality? Does life in prison create a different society? What are the norms in that society? What behavior is considered deviant?
There was a scene in the video where Gaga is making out with another woman in the prison, which would be considered a 'deviant' act. But, the woman was very masculine in mannerisms and dress, Lady Gaga's behavior is considered less deviant by society because there were not any men around to fill the role. While Gaga is known for transcending social norms, in this case her behavior in the prison is conforming to the social norms of one man and one woman together, by having some of woman take the gender role of a man. Beyoncé and Gaga's behavior in the video can be seen as following norm of women being the passionate, emotional gender, while men are considered to be the logical, rational gender. The video also over sexualizes the female body; there are not any men on the video dancing sexually, and wearing extremely revealing clothing. The video promotes the idea that females are only sex objects there for men's pleasure. It would be harmful for adolescents to view this video because it promotes objectifying woman and they are there to be sexualized. Also, the violence would be a bad thing for impressionable youth to see, and learn that if they have a problem with someone violence is the answer.
Rashawn Shaver
Media Example Lady Gaga's Born This Way Born This Way
The video I chose was Born This Way. Right away the title of the song itself can easily be identified with sex by means of reproduction/birth. In the video there are two abstract scenes of births. One good. One evil. Both examples relate back to the title of simply being "born this way" and the good/evil cannot change that. Throughout the song Lady Gaga is seen crawling and in other "sexually attractive" poses to draw attention. Another way the theme of sex comes into play is the outfits. For most of the video Lady Gaga is dancing around simply wearing lingerie. Tons of skin is being shown and they even propped it to be glistening. Finally when listing to the lyrics themselves you can hear sexual lyrics. The most powerful line that comes up throughout the song says "Don't be a drag, Just be a queen" which obviously is a bunch of word play that makes drag queens come to mind. Although these sexual things in the video give off an image of what is "sexy" (in Lady Gaga's own weird way) the song itself has the right message of just accepting yourself and being you.
Payal Patel
Media Example Lady Gaga's Paparazzi Lady Gaga's Paparazzi Lady Gaga's Paparazzi
1. Why is it that society does not question Lady Gaga about her behavior in the videos and the way she portrays bisexuality, but when "normal" people in everyday life do that society feels that its "heteronormative?"
2. How is it fair to let young children watch Lady Gaga's disturbing videos thinking the videos will not influence the children, but it's not normal to let children speak to transgender people in our society? Isn't it unfair to let them watch such things on TV, but keep them from being near transgender people in reality?
Lady Gaga's album song Paparazzi is known to be something deviant, yet it's open to the public to view her personal life. For example, in this song she is having sex with her boyfriend, but later on she is being forced to let someone take pictures of her having sex, and when she refused her boyfriend pushed him off the balcony and made her disabled. To make him jealous she came back in the car with few males and females who were transgender just to show that she is a bisexual. In this video she is almost naked and she wears such lingerie that shows her cleavage and her butt that would intimidate both male and female genders. She touches and rubs her body in a sexy way to show that she wants to get intimate very desperately. She also kisses females and grinds on them and she spreads her legs when she's playing the piano hoping to turn on the audience. Lady Gaga also has money with her face on it and she has naked statues at her house to make her videos more sex appealing. This video displays such deviant behavior that is not considered normal and it would definitely benefit her because she gets paid for doing such things, it may also benefit some people who like to share their personal life to such extremity. Transgender people in our society do not display characteristics. Lady Gaga's heteronormative behavior has huge impacts on the current and future generation in our society, which may not fit the norms of gender and sexuality that we follow.
Group Analysis
While analyzing multiple Lady Gaga music videos, our group noticed numerous common themes relating to politics of sex. In her videos, Lady Gaga likes to challenge what society considers "normal". This relates to the common theme of portraying herself as nonhuman, including coming off as a robot, a cat, an alien, and a skeleton. In all of these scenes, she is either barely clothed or scantily dressed. By doing this, she is sexualizing deviant roles and behavior. Although she is challenging the social norms, which can be seen as progressive, she is going to such an extreme that the audience will possibly see the videos as too far detached from reality. An additional theme seen in these videos is the objectification of partly nude gendered bodies. The videos sexualize not only female bodies, but male bodies as well. In some of the videos Lady Gaga transcends gender and takes the role of man in sexual ways, such as in Alejandro. She portrayed herself as having a penis and sexually dominating her male dancers. On the other hand, in her videos she is portraying the traditional female gender role of being sexually dominated by a male, for example in Paparazzi. Also in Paparazzi, Lady Gaga poisons her boyfriend in order to kill him. It can be argued that poison is a "milder" form of killing compared to an action like shooting or stabbing, and is also commonly portrayed as a woman's weapon. Later in the video for Paparazzi, Lady Gaga's character is exiled from society due to her disability. The message is that she is not beneficial to society and she is disregarded by the rest of humanity. Overall, Lady Gaga had displayed many sexual themes, such as sexuality and gender issues. She also shows characteristics of bisexuality by dominating both male and female gender roles, which is going against the social norm and what is generally accepted by society. Regardless of her intent or message, Lady Gaga portrays anything she does in the videos in what can be considered an abnormal way. She does not follow the norms of any established group of people. Therefore, we feel that she is creating her own category and identity by disrupting the heteronormative lifestyle in today's society.
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