Often feeling compelled to understand Lady Gaga’s worldview, I recently came across a fan area titled the “lab of hookers” in Gaga’s dedicated website for her “little monsters.” This article seeks to delve into this ‘laboratory’ and probe it, examining the recurring themes of freedom and the body in Gaga’s work as well as the problematic notion of finding ‘moral compasses’ in our fast changing life and times.
Lady Gaga is an important part of the cultural redefinition process we are witnessing today in the world. “We must push the boundaries of culture through love and acceptance”, she says. Gaga is not only the world’s premier music icon; for her fans she is the “mother monster” too. She is also the biggest representative today of “shock art.” The lab of hookers on Gaga’s new fan website is a place filled with ideas, including interesting, exciting, jaw dropping or hair-raising ideas depending on what perspective one adopts. Statements like “24/7 high passion hookers” leave one feeling ecstatic and new terms have been coined to explain heightened experiences of pleasure.
A major characteristic of Lady Gaga’s work, both in music and through activism, has been the notion of freedom and building “acceptance.” After establishing herself as a popular singer, she launched her Born This Way Foundation in 2011 that seeks “to foster a more accepting society, where differences are embraced and individuality is celebrated.” The mission statement of the Foundation says, “We believe that everyone has the right to feel safe, to be empowered and to make a difference in the world. Together, we will move towards acceptance, bravery and love.” The Foundation works for promoting the ideal of “a braver, kinder world.” It is in this regard that Lady Gaga has promoted causes like the Paralympics and often supported sensitive, and controversial, issues involving the theme of acceptance such as homosexuality for which her popular song Born This Way served as an anthem. According to the news, her next offering on this theme may be a song with the legendary singer Cher named The Greatest Thing.
Another overarching theme in Gaga’s work has been the body. Being someone who has flaunted openly every curve of her body, recently she has launched a new campaign named ‘Body Revolution 2013’, which focuses on issues related to body image and how to overcome such insecurities. Preoccupation with the body theme was even apparent in her much successful Fame perfume launch. “The fragrance is called Fame. It must be black. It must be enticing. You must want to lick and touch and feel it, but the look of it must terrify you.” And for those who caught a glimpse of the Fame ad, terrifying it surely was with a completely unclothed Gaga having strategically placed tiny men crawling over her.
The themes of freedom and the body also converge quite dramatically. One of the most powerful, yet difficult, ideas to have emerged in this regard is what Gaga calls “the private in public.” In a special anniversary edition of Vogue this September, Gaga says, “I like to have private moments, but in public!” As, perhaps, an extreme manifestation of the private in public, Gaga recently posted a shocking picture of her in the toilet. From Vogue to the washroom, how does one deal with these manifestations of the Gagaic attitude originating from the laboratory?
We might love her or loathe her, but we cannot deny that in the world of ideas she occupies a powerful place today, being quite single handedly responsible for changing perspectives of millions of ‘little monsters’ around the globe about life, freedom and the body. Gaga recently received the John Lennon peace prize. In this regard Yoko Ono, Lennon’s widow, stated, “Lady Gaga is one of the biggest living artists of our time… She is not only an artist, she is also an activist… her album Born This Way
has widely changed the mental map of the world.” In stating that Gaga’s activism and ideas have ‘widely changed the mental map of the world’, Ono has struck a resounding chord.
In discussing Lady Gaga’s present status as an idol, probing the notion of a ‘moral compass’ in the life and times of today is also important. In a recent controversy, which clearly shows us “the intricacy of the moral compass”, Lady Gaga came in confrontation with, ironically, the Pope himself. The Pope had made comments about family life and had denounced homosexual marriages stating, “Marriage and the family are institutions that must be promoted and defended from every possible misinterpretation of their true nature, since whatever is injurious to them is injurious to society itself”. Replying to the comments, Lady Gaga stated, “I think that gay marriage is going to happen. It must. We are not actually equal humanity if we are not allowed to freely love one another.” She said that what the Pope says about such marriages “…does not matter to the world. It matters to the people who like the Pope and follow the Pope…It is not a reflection of all religious people. It’s a point of view of one person.” Perhaps it all depends on who one chooses as a ‘moral compass’ in an age when moral yardsticks are changing, with compasses pointing in all directions. Who defines what is normal, religious or good in the new world? Is it the Pope in Vatican or the “mother monster” with 30 million followers on Twitter? (making her the most followed person on Twitter) What if the compass malfunctions? These are the big questions of our times.
“Shame is an obsolete notion…,” says Lady Gaga. These are very powerful words. Gaga’s ‘meat dress’ at the MTV awards was called the height of creativity by some, while others felt it depicted a sad human condition of wearing a carcass. Similarly, the lab of hookers can well be seen as a place of indulgence and excess. But, perhaps, it can also be interpreted as a maze. Gaga manages to give us her anticipated answers to questions many of us have not yet imagined, luring us on her uncharted expeditions. “What does it mean to be human” is a blaring question one asks after the experience. However, upon return from probing the laboratory, one also ponders, what if the experiment goes wrong?
The writer teaches Sociology at the University College Lahore (UCL). He can be reached at [email protected]