Rebecca Peake – 4886174 181MC Assessment
Through using Lady Gaga as a case study, to what extent do her videos undermine the legitimacy of heterosexuality?
Lady Gaga has been one of the 21st Century’s most controversial celebrities; this controversy has followed her around since the release of her first single ‘Just Dance’ and has continued right up until the present time. With the behaviour she has displayed over the past few years, including her choice of clothing and her shocking videos it is easy to understand why the media and audiences are constantly talking about her. Her videos do the complete opposite of trying to distinguish the controversy surrounding her, and questions about whether Lady Gaga’s videos fail to conform to the heterosexual lifestyles that society believes we should abide by have been asked. Heterosexuality comes from the Greek word ‘heteros’ meaning
‘other’ or ‘different’ and from ‘sexus’ meaning ‘sex’. Going by those definitions it is true to say that in her music videos there are a lot of alternative sexualities, such as homosexuality, bisexuality and transsexuality, however, this does not necessarily mean that she is undermining the legitimacy.
Lady Gaga is known for her gay rights activism and has spoken at many equality and pride events, in her speeches she has referred to them as being ‘the most important moment’ of her career. This is evidence of her support for non‐ heterosexual people, which is further backed up by her starting the ‘Born This Way’ foundation. She has even released a song called ‘Born This Way’ which again promotes the idea that ‘No matter gay, straight, or bi, lesbian, transgendered life’
(Lady Gaga – Born This Way) we should all embrace who we are. Elton John even called it a ‘gay anthem’. The imagery in this video is very ambiguous at times. Near the beginning of the video we see Lady Gaga lying down and a woman standing between her legs. In some ways this connotes that she is giving birth and the woman is helping her, but in other ways it could connote that she is performing a sexual act on her. Despite trying to encourage gay people to be happy with who they are, she is not trying to promote alternative sexualities over heterosexuality, she wants everyone to be confident in their own bodies.
The history of sexuality shows that homosexuality and bisexuality are not new concepts and have been around for a very long time, in fact since before heterosexuality was the only socially accepted sexual orientation. In ancient Greece and Rome, homosexual behaviour was a common occurrence and adult men and young boys would often engage in pederasty. Victoria Wohl (1997) even said ‘In
Athens, same sex desire was part of the sexual ideology of the democracy’. The
Greeks didn’t conceive sexual orientation which shows that it has been socially constructed somewhere along the line. It wasn’t until the 4 th century that homosexuality became illegal and these laws were still in place until the end of the
20 th century. Foucault (1978) suggested that during the 19 th Century there was an
‘Explosion of Discourse’ meaning the way we were encouraged to think about sex caused people to be categorized and scrutinized for their sexual behaviour, reinforcing the ideology that it is wrong. Because of the surveillance of issues such as Sexuality it was often classified, controlled and theorised as insane. Lady Gaga is often called mad or crazy which is linked with being insane, especially because of
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Rebecca Peake – 4886174 181MC Assessment her videos for example Alejandro and Judas. Over the last few decades same sex relationships have become a lot more socially accepted, even resulting in new gay marriage laws being put in place, however while these changes are being made there are still a large number of people who have not accepted the idea. It could be seen that Lady Gaga is just keeping up with the times and not undermining the legitimacy, just embracing the fact that being gay is now legal. She adjusted to the idea of homosexuality much quicker than a lot of society.
We can tell that sexuality is a social construction by looking at the history of sexuality. Vivien Burr (2003:3) sees the social world as a construction and says that categories, for example, gay/straight, do not refer to real divisions. However, Ian
Burkitt (1999) says ‘you are what you repeatedly do’ so even though they may not be real divisions, the repetition of the stereotypes convinces people that they are.
The reinforcement of heterosexuality causes us to think its normal, and that homosexuality and bisexuality etc. are not. Foucault (1978) uses an analogy of the
Panopticon prison to suggest that the power figures are watching over us, in the prison the prisoners can’t see whether they’re being watched, in the same way we cannot see the disciplinary power the dominant discourse seems natural to us.
Because lady Gaga is trying to break away from the ideology of being ‘straight’ she is being accused of not conforming to the ‘norm’. In an interview with Andy Cohen she states how she has ‘taken a dip in the lady pond’; she is doing what many others don’t and is accepting who she is and not conforming to the idea that homosexuality is wrong.
Steve Craig (1992:94) believes that ‘as target audiences and the power structure of TV production change, representations of gender are expected to change too’. The same could apply to sexuality. As it is becoming more socially accepted, audiences are becoming more tolerant to alternative sexualities.
Heterosexuality is no longer seen as the only way. Postmodernists such as David
Gauntlett (2008) think that the male and female genders are merging together, males are becoming more interested in their appearance and females are doing what was previously considered more masculine, such as going to work and drinking alcohol. The media and the changes in both the representations of sexuality and gender have not only started to blur the lines between male and female, but gay and straight also. According to Mort (1998:98) there has been an emergence of the
‘metrosexual male’, which is suggesting men are more in touch with their feminine side. This is still suggesting heteronormativity, but there may be more equality within the family due to the males doing more housework and childcare. In a lot of
Lady Gaga’s videos she has male backing dancers; they come across as stereotypically gay with their dancing and clothing. Steve Craig (1992) outlines the main ways in which gay men are stereotyped in the media and two of the stereotypes he suggests are included in Lady Gaga’s videos, these are ‘camp’ – the flamboyant feminine behaviour and ‘Macho’ – over exaggerated masculinity such as wearing police hats. This is a very prominent feature, especially in Judas, Alejandro and Born this way. But with the new ‘metrosexual male’ these dancers may not be gay, just in touch with their feminine. There is nothing in the video that actually points them out as being homosexual, so she may not be failing to conform to heterosexuality because they could possibly be ‘straight’.
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Rebecca Peake – 4886174 181MC Assessment
When it comes to women and homosexuality in Lady Gaga’s videos there are quite a few scenes which display girls kissing each other, in some of these scenes it is Lady Gaga doing the kissing, an example of this is in her video for Telephone and in You and I she says ‘the nurses have nice asses’. Laura Mulvey (1989) says that there is a lot of sexual objectification of women in the media, which she calls the
‘male gaze’. In Lady Gaga’s videos the women are relatively attractive, so the question is, is it just to entice viewers, especially men, or is she doing it to show her support for the lesbian community and want to break the stereotype? She could just be trying to make money and get viewers rather than deliberately undermining the legitimacy of heterosexuality.
The mass media is now an important element in the primary socialisation of children. They are able to access the Internet and other media platforms incredibly easily. As older generations go, Lady Gaga’s videos are unlikely to alter their views on sexuality drastically, but for the young children who are watching and seeing the homosexuality/bisexuality in them, they are more likely to be socialised into idea that all sexualities are equal, which is what activists are trying to promote. Lady
Gaga has been nominated for awards and both the kids and teen choice awards, which is evidence that children do listen to her music and watch the videos. But does this mean that heterosexuality is being undermined or that young people are just more aware of other sexualities. The other elements in socialisation, such as the family, will teach them about heterosexuality and this will probably have more of an impact on the children than the media would.
It is very easy to see why it is believed by many that Lady Gaga is failing to conform to the ideological heterosexual lifestyle in the way that she presents homosexuality in her videos. However, the lyrics to her songs are usually about male and female relationships and the videos quite often show this too, despite the potentially gay men dancing around behind her. Both Judith Butler (1990) and
Foucault (1978) suggest that we do not choose our sexuality, but it is in fact chosen for us, this is known as compulsory heterosexuality. Butler would say we are performing gender roles which are not actually real, but actually benefiting and naturalising compulsory heterosexuality .It is highly unlikely it would encourage people to change their sexual orientation, if people suddenly come out as homosexual it would be because they have been too scared to in the past, but feel more comfortable now celebrities are embracing it, not because the promotion Lady
Gaga has done has turned them gay. It is not a choice, as Lady Gaga says, ‘you are born this way’.
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Rebecca Peake – 4886174 181MC Assessment
YouTube (2013) Lady Gaga Live on Watch
What Happens. [Online] www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOZhbyEyXdU
[17 th November 2013]
This is the interview with Andy Cohen where
Lady Gaga mentions taking a dip in the ‘lady pond’.
YouTube (2013) Lady Gaga - Born This Way.
[Online] www.youtube.com/watch?v=wV1FrqwZyKw
[17 th November 2013]
This is the video to Lady Gaga’s Born This Way song, and this is the ambiguous scene mentioned where it looks as if she could be giving birth or performing a sexual act.
YouTube (2013) Lady Gaga - Alejandro. [Online] www.youtube.com/watch?v=niqrrmev4mA
[17 th November 2013]
This shows a clip from Lady Gaga’s Alejandro video, it shows her male backing dancers, which are mentioned in the assessment.
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Rebecca Peake – 4886174 181MC Assessment
YouTube (2013) Lady Gaga – Judas. [Online] www.youtube.com/watch?v=wagn8Wrmzuc
[17 th November 2013]
This screen also shows the male backing dancers, which adhere to Steve Craig’s stereotype suggestions.
YouTube (2013) Lady Gaga – Telephone.
[Online] www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVBsypHzF3U
[17 th November 2013]
This is an image from the Telephone video showing Lady Gaga kissing a woman.
Born This Way Foundation (2013) Born This
Way [Online] www.bornthiswayfoundation.org
[17 th
November 2013]
This is a screenshot of the website for Lady
Gaga’s charity The Born This Way Foundation
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Rebecca Peake – 4886174 181MC Assessment
YouTube (2013) National Equality March: Lady
Gaga Speaks. [Online]
[17 th equality event. www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRNsl_0AZOs
November 2013]
This is Lady Gaga making a speech at a gay
YouTube (2013) Lady Gaga Portland Speech.
[Online] www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoqOvFJ5-0c
[17 th November 2013]
This is Lady Gaga making a speech at a gay equality event. http://181mcbuzzmedia.wordpress.com
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Our Group Blog
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Rebecca Peake – 4886174 181MC Assessment
Born This Way Foundation (2013) Born This Way [Online] www.bornthiswayfoundation.org
[17 th November 2013]
Burkitt, Ian (1999) Bodies of Thought: Embodiment, Identity and Modernity. London:
Sage.
Burr, Vivienne (2003) Social Constructionism (2nd Ed.). Hove: Routledge.
Butler, Judith (1990) Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity.
London: Routledge
Craig, Steve (1992) Men, Masculinity and the Media. New York: Sage Publications
Foucault, Michel (1978) The History of Sexuality: Volume 1 - An Introduction. New
York: Random House
Gauntlett, David (2008) Media, Gender and Identity – An Introduction. Oxford:
Routledge
Mulvey, Laura (1989) Visual and Other Pleasures. London: Macmillan
The Daily Mail (2013) Lady Gaga Speaks About Sexuality [Online] www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2418918/I-like-girls-Lady-Gaga-speakssexuality-claims-lesbians-daring-men-boozy-appearance-Andy-Cohens-show.html
[17th November 2013]
The Guardian (2013) Lady Gaga New Gay Anthem [Online] www.theguardian.com/music/2011/feb/14/lady-gaga-gay-anthem [17th November
2013]
Wohl, Victoria (1997) Intimate Commerce: Exchange, Gender, and Subjectivity in
Greek Tragedy. Texas: University of Texas Press
YouTube (2013) Lady Gaga Live on Watch What Happens. [Online] www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOZhbyEyXdU [17 th November 2013]
YouTube (2013) Lady Gaga - Born This Way. [Online] www.youtube.com/watch?v=wV1FrqwZyKw [17 th November 2013]
YouTube (2013) Lady Gaga - Alejandro. [Online] www.youtube.com/watch?v=niqrrmev4mA [17 th November 2013]
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Rebecca Peake – 4886174 181MC Assessment
YouTube (2013) Lady Gaga – Judas. [Online] www.youtube.com/watch?v=wagn8Wrmzuc [17 th November 2013]
YouTube (2013) Lady Gaga – Telephone. [Online] www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVBsypHzF3U [17 th November 2013]
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