Alejandro

(originally posted on FetLife on July 10, 2010)

Lady Gaga is not a subject I would normally admit to starting a conversation about...

But I had to sit myself down and do some real thinking about bias and bitterness when, after finding a link to one of these music videos, described by the linker (don't remember who, but it was on youtube) as a really interesting demonstration of gender assumptions and such things, and going there, and watching and listening...

Well. I like the song, I have to admit. But I found myself having a very hard time accepting that I liked a song performed by Lady Gaga. And I found myself thinking that if it had been done by Ace of Base instead, I could have loved it and had no issue of feeling like I'd just smiled and shaken hands with Adolf Hitler. Which makes no sense, because I'll admit, Ace of Base has made some songs I consider almost pukeworthy for being idiotic, cliched and shallow... and also some songs I consider brilliant, but that doesn't diminish the badness of the bad.

And this is why myself had to take me aside for a little talk about bias. In front of someone, because I find it almost impossible to talk through these things properly unless I'm talking "to" someone.

Is Lady Gaga evil?

Well... erhhm?

Come on, Emily, erhhm is not a functional answer. What exactly is your problem with her?

And, well. Sigh. It turns out my problem with Lady Gaga is that a great, great many careless idiots love her music. It's popular. Fullstop. That's it.

And -some- of it, I don't like based on content as -well-, quite definitely. But, as has been discovered, not all.

But this brings me back to a very old problem of mine (as a not very old girl, anyway) of hating the popular simply because it is popular and I believe for both reasons bitter and senseless and reasons rooted in intelligence and perception, AND reasons that other people just told me and I find believable (let's not be denying that I'm perfectly capable of adopting other peoples' opinions just because they sound good, too, that would be dishonest)... that the methods by which things become popular are stupid, stupid methods that should die.

The problem is that even assuming that it's true things become popular for incredibly stupid reasons (such as, for instance, that a great many idiots like them, as one of the less conspiratorial explanations), does NOT mean that anything selected by this process will necessarily be horrible. Only that it WON'T necessarily be good. There's a difference. And...

Alright. Does her music condone violence?

Um... No, not any songs that I know of, anyway.

Does it condone hatred then?

Er... I don't think so? Does coldness count? Apathy? Psychological power tripping? Some of them seem to condone that.

No. It doesn't count.

Well damnit.

Yep.

(Sigh) ... Alright! Alright. Lady Gaga is not... Hang on wait! Um - Some of her songs may condone stupidity?

(Impatient sigh) Yes?

Well... ... Umm... ... Okay, okay! Fuck it. Fine! Lady Gaga is not evil.

Thank you. And?

(reluctant mumble) and it's not fair to hate her because she's popular...

And?

S'ry.

Well, there now. That wasn't so hard, was it?

Mumble mumble should have been harder mumble.

Oh, come on now, none of that.

... And in fact... Well. There -are- some really interesting and bizarre things in what she's doing there. Getting a small group of butch-looking men in militay uniform to dance in her own feminine style (and presenting a bunch of men almost naked wearing spiky heeled shoes) - and the resulting image, and how it looks to someone living in this culture (if you're watching one of the men in those scenes, and not her, for a minute - incredibly silly) DOES say a lot about gender roles, and about the repression and pressure and limitations on -men-...

Is it really any wonder we see so many crossdressers and "sissies" on FetLife? Us genetic females aren't the only ones who like to experiment with acting and dressing, and dancing, etc, in different ways.

I think there's something here I haven't been paying enough attention to the value of, because I've been a bit blinded by stupid hate.

And that... Well. It hurts. It's extremely embarassing and sad.

Let it never, ever be said that intelligent people are above stupidity.

And let it never be assumed that we should have to be.

Now that would be unreasonable bias.

SS