Lady Gaga: The Voice of the Sexual Generation

Just another week, just another Lady Gaga video, right? Even if you are not a fan of the most famous artist in the world right now (artist, not singer- though she'd probably give Justin a run for his money on the latter as well), you still need to give her props for production value. Every successive video she has released has been more over the top and revolutionary than all the previous ones combined; thus, this week's pop culture metamorphosis is brought to you by the release of the video for her latest single, Alejandro. You know, the one with the Spanish influenced beat about the love she just can't let go of, no matter how hard she tries. A feeling that I can empathize with because of how often this song has been stuck in my head since it came out last November with the release of Gaga's remastered The Fame Monster.

So the video. Well, it's kinda hard to describe; you've kinda just gotta watch it. There is definitely the "homoerotic, military theme" that she discussed with Larry King on his show last week (while wearing suspenders nonetheless- gotta love Gaga!). But there are also large themes of Catholicism, Nazism, and sexual identity. Gaga dresses up as a nun on two separate occasions in the video, and during one such instance swallows a rosary. The soldiers who dance about her throughout all nine minutes seem to be outfitted in garb that is heavily influenced by the Third Reich. As always, the details of the love story are vague and interwoven with many other controversies. Also, there's a gigantic orgy in there somewhere.

Then there is, as always, the Madonna influence: conical bras replaced by those made of machine guns; the nun habits (made of latex nonetheless, me thinks); the (over)sexualization of violence; the black and white shots, particularly the one involving the pantsuit and something close to vogueing; the sheer epicness of the performance value. Many have called Gaga unoriginal for borrowing so heavily from Madonna throughout her career, but it actually shows her originality more than anything. Almost nothing in the world is entirely original: people feed off of others for inspiration, ideas, criticism, everything. Being original doesn't mean coming up with an idea out of thin air; it means being able to start something in a new way, in a new time, to own your ideas fully and defend them. Sure, Madonna criticized the Catholic Church and wore weird things as bras, but she, herself, was not the first person to do those things either. No one is accusing Lady Gaga of ripping off Martin Luther, so why would they accuse her of ripping off Madonna? Inspiration does not exist in a vacuum; originality does not exist, period.

The most dominating influence of the video seems to be the power of the female. Gaga has gone back and forth on her statement of feminism, but I think the video speaks quite loudly in favor of it. The lone female in the video- Gaga- is in the ultimate position of power. She is the one commanding the soldiers, the one leading the war, the one holding the leash in the S&M scenes. Gaga simply shrugs off the death of Alejandro and then, throughout the entire nine minutes, continues to take no prisoners. In a time when Rude Boy and Ke$ha are intentionally as explicit as is allowed by mainstream censors in an effort to provoke masculine sexuality, Gaga is uses her own media control and sexuality to empower women. There is a reason that a woman who is not traditionally beautiful is the biggest sex symbol in the world right now.

In this video, Gaga seems to have perfected her balancing act as the definitive voice of pop culture, queer culture, and female empowerment.

Photo: Flickr by way of CC