I am a huge, huge fan of Lady Gaga.  In my admiration, I do not go to the lengths that some do in calling her a genius, but I love her music simply because it’s so catchy and makes me want to dance.  I also thought she was a wonderful role model in a skanky, Christina Aguilera during her “Dirrrty” phase kind of way.  Quotes like this made me love her: “The last thing a young woman needs is another picture of a sexy pop star writhing in sand, covered in grease, touching herself. My image was an issue at my record label. I fought for months and cried at meetings. I got criticized for being arrogant because if you’re sure of yourself as a woman they say you’re a bitch whereas if you’re a man and you’re strong-willed it’s normal.”*  She seemed like such an amazing difference from other pop stars, so separated from the cultural industry system…until I saw “Telephone.”

Now, I should be upfront and say that I am not a music video person.  With the exception of Michael Jackson videos, I think they’re stupid (plus, seeing what musicians actually look like really really bothers me).  Lady Gaga’s videos are great though, really stunning visual artwork.  “Telephone” really, really bothered me though.  It wasn’t just the over-the-top, super obvious product placement, though that got annoying after a while.  It wasn’t the fact that it was ten minutes long…though that too irked me.  It wasn’t the freaky poisoning that reminded me of “Paparazzi.”  It wasn’t even the fact that it made no goddamn sense.

What really, really bothered me was the sexual objectification of women.  The quote I just cited above was the first thing I thought of when I saw her dancing in a g-string.  This was not empowering.  It was not some feminist statement.  This was Lady Gaga, my feminist icon, dancing in her panties and objectifying herself.  I wanted to cry.  Seriously.  I’ll write more about this later, I’m sure.  Right now, I’m just kind of sad.  I can’t believe such a strong woman has been reduced to a stripper in her own music video…

*from http://perezhilton.com/2010-02-26-quote-of-the-day-701