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Lady Gaga fascinates me.  She makes me think.  I often find myself wanting to defend her, to whom I’m not sure.  I think she puts me on edge, makes me wonder why she does what she does, and I always come up with a self-satisfying answer.  Take her fashion statements for example.  They’re often… weird, to say the least.  They are revealing, bizarre, and often unattractive or even kind of hideous.  She does not dress like we typically expect our pop star/sex icons to dress.  And in an avant-garde, art club/theater kid misfit kind of way, that’s cool.  But I think it’s more than an angsty rebellion.  Lady Gaga’s fashion choices often make statements about how our society dictates female beauty.

Lady Gaga is thin, white, blonde, hairless…  She’s got the body of the pop star/sex icons of the last decade (Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, P!NK, Fergie, Mandy Moore, Jessica Simpson, Gwen Stefani… you know the mold), so she’s not scoring major points by presenting us with a new body type.  But what she does with that body is unusual.

Exhibit A: Body Shape

Despite having that “perfect” bod, Lady Gaga frequently distorts the way we see her body, using sharp angles, increasingly large shoulderpads, and poufs or wings to accentuate her hips.  Each of these things in moderation have been considered attractive/fashionable at one point or another, but the extremes to which she takes them have a distracting effect, creating a mismatched, unnatural body shape.

Read the rest of this entry »

Feministing had a great visual representation yesterday of the changes over time in beloved childhood characters.  I couldn’t think of any other characters to expand on, but I thought that the sexualization of these characters when it comes to costumes was worth noting.

Strawberry Shortcake

And so it begins.  It’s not like Strawberry Shortcake was lacking in the cuteness department, however her raggedy look apparently just didn’t cut it in these modern times.  Everything about her was neatened up, and her vibrant reds were subdued into girly pinks.  She became taller and thinner with flowing hair, big eyelashes, and modern clothes.  However, her traditional look is maintained in the adult costume (nothing like a sexy apron to compliment that too-short-for-your-stockings skirt, eh ladies?), which hypersexualizes the cartoon cutie.  Because costumes aren’t for playing with your identity, they’re for playing sexy.

Rainbow Brite

Unlike her traditional counterpart, Rainbow Brite is a girl from the future (check out her sweet moon-boots!).  However, just like Strawberry, Rainbow has gone through “the transformation.”  Her legs got longer, face got older, hair was made to flow more gracefully, and her waist was narrowed.  And, of course, in costume form her skirt was shortened even further, her wand became a phallic symbol to hold near the face with and moon-boots were traded for tall socks and stilettos.  This is not the future I hope to visit.  For more on Rainbow Brite’s makeover, check out this post at Feministe.

Dora the Explorer and that all time favorite, Barbie, after the jump.

As a woman who shaves her legs about four times per year, I can appreciate this:

Rock that leg hair with pride and joy!  This is what Golden Globe Award winning actresses look like.  Hells to the yeah.

Screw the snark, TMZ, real women wear their own fur.

Edit: Feministing posted this before I did, but after I had already written it, dang!  Check out their criticism of media’s focus (and criticism) of women’s bodies.  Clearly this is a problem, and has always been, and sadly probably always will be.  However, seeing such a beautiful, talented woman assuredly showing off a follicle taboo is a little empowering because it says “hey social expectations, you don’t dictate what goes on in my shower,” which is a message that all of us could use a little more of.  Rock it, Mo’Nique.

Panty predicament?  Fear not.  Cosmo’s got your back (lower back, if you know what I mean).

Classy.  Because not only do I need a magazine to tell me which undergarments to wear, I need them to be named after the underwear of children of the opposite sex, and I need them to make my butt look like someone else’s butt. The article begins:

A little more than 10 years ago… wearing a thin strip of fabric between your butt cheeks was considered daringly sexy.

Are we supposed to pretend that Cosmo didn’t tell us that thongs were “daringly sexy?”  The article goes on about the history of the thong and other “man-melting undies” – which might actually be interesting if it was about women’s fashion for women’s sakes, and not just as lures for mates.

But, that’s why I subscribe to Bitch and Bust and not Cosmo.  Thanks Jezebel!

5:00 Edit: The timeline of underwear at the bottom reminded me of this:

I have fallen in love with Lady Gaga over the past month, and this post from Jukebox Heroines on the feminist themes in her music was too awesome not to share.  If you are interested in cross-posting or guest-posting at feministhemes.com, please contact me with your ideas at misswizzle@feministhemes.com.

Lady Gaga – The Fame (2008) on (Streamline/Konlive/Cherrytree/Interscope)

Part 1:

Oh snap. Yes, I just said it. Lady Gaga’s music is feminist. Why do I say such things? Because I can back it up. And because I love her music, videos, and persona. She is the reason I have actually started to listen to pop music again. So, let me tell you about feminist music….

Why do I say that her music is feminist? Whether or not she herself claims to be a feminist, her work criticizes gender, sexuality, the body, pop culture’s representations of women, and the nature of power. This in itself is a feminist act. Now, feminism, I guess we must define in some form, considering most representations of it are: man hater, bra burner, lesbian, ugly, want power over men, bitchy, hate children…..not true. Feminism is the political and social movement for women’s social, political, and economic equality. In that social part lies music, and Lady Gaga knows exactly what she is up against in the music industry. Feminist Music therefore, can be made by anyone, male/female/trans, as long as it fulfills the goals of fighting for equality and justice based on gender.

How does she present feminist ideas? I will give you a few examples. Read the rest of this entry »

Although I never expected to fall for Gaga, I must say that she has won me over somehow.  I’m not the only one who is somewhat mystified by just how she charms us, but the following quotes are a window into what pushed me over the edge.

1. She’s a strong individual, and she wants you to be, too.

“When I say to you, there is nobody like me, and there never was, that is a statement I want every woman to feel and make about themselves… I know my greatness is individual. And I want every woman to be able to say that.”

2. She knows who she is and is proud of it.

“There is never a moment that you see me that I’m not working towards something creatively. For me, it’s very simple: I’m not going to allow you to portray me in a way that is your idea of what you think I am. I know who I am and — praise the Lord! — I’m a real artist. Why is this a bad thing?”

3. She’s an outspoken ally of the LGBT community (who spoke at a Washington rally) and is open about her own sexuality as well.

“I don’t think being gay or being bisexual or being sexually free is anything that should be hidden. Everybody has a right to their secrecy, of course, but I don’t feel particularly shy about it. It is who I am.”

4. She’s known for her fashion choices, but she really knows how to accessorize.

“I think we must all remember that the ultimate accessory is the condom.”

6 more reasons to go gaga for Gaga after the jump

Yesterday in one of my graduate level classes we had a guest speaker who shared with us some of his experiences and thoughts about being a crossdresser.  He reported that he spent 95% of his time as a man and didn’t have a “chip on [his] shoulder” about the questions we asked him or the pronouns we used to refer to him, so despite his being dressed as a woman yesterday I’ll be referring to this individual as “him.”  Although he gave us the disclaimer that we could ask anything, I still wasn’t comfortable asking everything I wanted to or voicing some things I was struggling to understand, but I figured this was as good a place as any to work through my thoughts.

I was born female and identify as female, and I view that as a privilege.  I don’t know what it’s like to be born in the wrong body, but I believe it can and does happen, and I believe it can and does make life harder for many people.  I also understand that there are individuals who are drawn to crossdressing who have no feelings of wanting to be the other gender, but simply like the way it feels or the way they look when they experiment with gender atypical attire.  But something wasn’t sitting right with me today.

Our guest speaker kept repeating, as he showed us pictures of 50s housewives doing chores in dresses and heels, “doesn’t that look like fun!?”  Maybe.  But not to me.  And the idea that this was once an expectation for women but is now seen as kitchy, cute, and “fun” rubs me the wrong way.  Women have worked long and hard to have the option to get out of that role, and “fun” kind of belittles that struggle.  I was also getting bogged down in privilege-tied guilt that its acceptable for me as a woman to dress in “male” clothing and the reverse isn’t true for men. I firmly believe that rigid gender roles cut both ways and hurt both women and men, too.  It sucks that men can’t dress how they want, and our speaker was right in stating that it’s not fair.  But it’s a little more complicated than that. More thoughts after the jump.

Your typical ladies mag probably has some gorgeous model on the cover whose spent about seven hours in makeup prior to her photoshoot.  It probably has headlines about how to lose weight, have better sex, and make your man happy.  It’s lined with ads for make up, weight loss products, and designer clothes and jewelry that’d cost you a full paycheck (not to mention that you’d never have anyplace to wear them).  There’s an interview with some Hollywood starlet who’s promoting her latest show or film, and trying to iron out some trashy rumors.  If you’re lucky, there’s a gossip column outlining everyone else’s dirt, too.

Not the kind of magazine you want on your coffee table, but not sure there are other options?  Rest assured, and pick up a copy of BUST: a magazine “for women with something to get off their chests.”  According to editor-in-chief Debbie Stoller:

I’ve always believed that pop culture is far more than just a matter of keeping us entertained on the couch.  Not merely reflective, pop culture acts to shape our ideas of our society and, in particular, women’s place in it.

I picked up my first issue of BUST in June, and read it cover to cover – not something I can often say about magazines.  The issue contained interviews with Kathy Griffin, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, screenwriter Vendela Vida (of Away We Go) and the women of the Gulabi Gang (an Indian domestic violence vigilante women’s group).  There were recipes, DIY instructions for pinatas, tongue-in-cheek articles about the obsession with women’s bodies, and a thoughtful discussion of labiaplasty.

Issue #2 included interviews with Diablo Cody and Regina Spektor, craft and recipe instructions, a fall preview of music, movies, television and books, and a killer crossword (which went much better for me than the June/July puzzle).  In short, the magazine delivered.  Again.

BUST has everything you could hope for, from book, music and movie reviews to feminist friendly fashion designers to DIY instructions for everything from lunchboxes to shower curtains to kombucha.  The magazine regularly features interviews with empowered women from a variety of fields, ranging from pop to politics.  The “Boy Du Jour” column highlights interesting men in the media, and male artists are often included in the reviews (another reminder that feminists aren’t “man-haters”).

You can bet I filled out that little cardboard subscription card ASAP and dropped in my mailbox.  In fact, I did that after binging on Issue #1.  Issue #2 looked so good, I couldn’t risk my subscription not starting in time so I picked it up at the store, too!  If you’re looking for something a little less insulting and a little more empowering than Glamour, Cosmo, or Elle, I highly recommend BUST magazine.  You won’t be able to put it down.

“We fight against a room full of men over whether we should wear pants [in an action sequence]
when they think I can do it in a skirt and Gucci boots.”

- Zoe Saldana

Zoe Saldana is an actress best known for her roles as Uhura in Star Trek and Anamaria in Pirates of the Carribean.