To be a sex symbol- “Don’t be a Drag just be a Queen”
“Let’s have Some Fun This Beat is Sick”
This past Saturday I went and saw Lady Gaga play at the New Orleans Arena. What shocked me about the show was her level of sincerity and the deep connection she had to her audience. She has this way of saying things that you knew she meant- no one who was present can say she didn’t mean what she said- this feeling, reminiscent of Freud’s Oceanic feeling, covered the entire Arena and Gaga belted her notorious hits and previews from her next album through multiple costumes and set changes.
“Beautiful and Dirty Rich”
At the end of the show Gaga stood on the stage alone and told us about a journalist that asked her what it was like to be a sex symbol. “What is it like to be a sex symbol?… I was the girl who everyone thought was a freak… the girl who everyone asked ‘What is she wearing now?’… to go from that to a sex symbol?”
She stood there in front of us with such a vulnerability- almost in tears- telling us about how her memories of being bullied have stayed with her. “That’s why I created the Monster Ball- I wanted to create a place where all my little monsters could go… AND ALL THE FREAKS WOULD BE KEPT OUTSIDE!”
Let’s play a lovegame, Play a lovegame, Do you want love? Or you want fame? Are you in the game?”
This “performance” begs the question- is she genuine? That was the response I got from a few people when I told them why I was covered in glitter for the next three days. “I can’t believe you bought into that… it’s just an act! She doesn’t care about her fans…” Well sir, I call BS on that statement- I was there, in the nosebleed section but there nonetheless. I heard the pain in her voice, saw how she threw her entire soul into her choreography, felt how she desperately just wanted us to love her. Is this what being a sex symbol is all about? Being so completely in love with the fans and so fueled by their love that the fans cannot help but love her back?
“She’s got a halo round her finger around you”
Lady Gaga reinvents herself, it seems, almost every music video- long bleach blond hair, to short cropped with blunt bangs, back to long and pink- Gaga’s style and artistic eye cannot be denied. Her attitude of “Born this way– I’m a Free B*tch Baby” has resonated within every person who has ever felt they “Left you outcast, bullied, or teased, rejoice and love yourself today ‘cause you were born this way.”
If you’re to be a sex symbol your very image must be your voice. Gaga’s blew everyone away- her rawness as she screams to us to “Just Dance” or “Show Me Your Teeth”, even in her videos has touched us (figuratively and biblically). Her own embracement of the little monsters as well as the monsters inside her calls to all the gaga fans out there- love yourself, love yourself like you love me. It’s intoxicating. We are caught in a “Bad Romance” with Lady Gaga- the sex symbol, the saint of the “little monsters” and inspiration of our generation.