Lady Gaga and Feminism -Katerina
Katerina spoke about how she believes Lady Gaga is a feminist. She showed the class a series of videos, one of which I have posted below. Lady Gaga expresses her concern about inequality and women's rights. She claims to reject the way society teaches us how to perceive women and that women "are both strong and fragile, beautiful and ugly, soft spoken and loud". She claims that her art is both visually and musically a rejection of the standard ways of viewing women. She concludes by saying that her hope is to make feminism and women's rights trendy. After the videos Katerina asked the class what we thought of Lady Gaga, and whether or not she is a feminist. There were mixed responses to her question, she does embrace androgyny, and the defy the expectations of gender. I personally did not agree that she is a feminist. I think that she is sincere about her desire for gender equality, however I also think she is very contradictory and is unsure herself about the implications to the things she says, does and wears. I think her statements are meant to shock people and capture their attention for the success of her music career, not an attempt to make a social or political statement.