As Lady Gaga’s hordes of little monsters get ready for her Toronto gig tonight, an online movement of Gays Against Gaga are lashing out against her for a litany of perceived crimes. But after reading through the arguments presented by the anti-Gaga contingent, my head just hurts from the huge amount of eye-rolling it provoked in me.
I’m not a big fan of her music, but after reading pages of reactionary rants, I almost want to be just out of spite.
Where do you even start?
First of all, a common refrain among the complainers is that she has no right to speak for the gay community because she sleeps with men. Sure, they admit, she claims to enjoy the company of women too, but either that’s not enough to claim homo cred, or they assume she’s just saying that as a marketing strategy.
Speaking as an out bisexual, this particular narrative is kind of offensive, and verging on internalized homophobia. It’s not up to any of us to decide who’s queer enough. The fact that I have a girlfriend isn’t going to stop me from being gay bashed by homophobes – I’m just not manly enough to consistently pass, unlike a lot of gym bunnies who aren’t on the fence sexually. And while the gay community has made a lot of progress over the past decade, no one in their right mind would fake being queer to sell pop records. It’s just not good business, and Gaga is definitely a businesswoman.
Even if I find her music disappointingly conventional, I wish the queer pop stars of the 80s and 90s had the balls to actually be as out and proud as she is. Who did we have? We had a lot of closet cases who hid behind the idea that it’s no one’s business who they sleep with. Sure, many of them came out eventually, but long after the point where it would have had a strong effect on society. For a teenager struggling with their sexuality, it’s huge to hear one of the biggest pop stars in the world describing themselves as queer, and that’s something to be celebrated, regardless of whether you’re a fan of her actual music.
The more diluted version of the “not-gay-enough” line of thought is the complaint that she doesn’t represent every single type of homo in her videos and lyrics.
Of course not, and so what?
If you don’t see yourself perfectly portrayed in her representation of queerness, you should feel proud that your particular identity doesn’t fit into the dominant molds. Congrats – you’re more of an individual than some other people.
Does Gaga need to write a song listing every single sub-group of gay culture? Actually, that might be kind of cool, but the absence of such a song is hardly something to be offended by. Get a fucking grip. You are not being marginalized just because Gaga didn’t specifically describe your particular micro-culture.
And then we come to the point that she does business with corporations like Target, who have donated money to politicians known for homophobic platforms. It’s not enough that she imposed conditions on Target, including asking them to make donations to gay causes and to stop donating to hate mongers – the subtext seems to be that any involvement with corporations is inherently homophobic, because true gays are never capitalists.
Fair enough, I guess, but when was the last time an overtly political queer punk band managed to get a giant corporation to change its policies? It’s pretty easy to complain from the sidelines, but what other pop stars of her stature are doing anything significant to convince corporations that it’s bad business to support hate mongers?
I’m not saying that Gays Against Gaga need to learn to love her. I still find her music kind of boring, and I don’t really see myself in her representations of gay culture, nor do I see her as a gay messiah. But why on earth would I see those things as reasons to hate her? Are you really that worried that straight people will assume that every gay loves Gaga? And so what if they do? Anyone that stupid was never going to understand you anyway, so move on.
