Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Contradictory Allusions

As well as wearing the McQueen gown to the VMAs, Lady Gaga wore a meat dress.

(via here)


Ellen DeGeneres asked her, "What is the purpose of the meat?" Gaga replied, "Well, it is certainly no disrespect to anyone that is vegan or vegetarian. As you know, I am the most judgment-free human being on the earth. However, it has many interpretations; but, for me this evening, if we don't stand up for what we believe in and if we don't fight for our rights, pretty soon we're going to have as much rights as the meat on our own bones. And, I am not a piece of meat." (bold mine)

I wonder if Gaga knows about Magritte's famous pipe painting, which is essentially going for the same thing.


(via here)

"This is not a pipe." Magritte is not telling a lie. It's not a pipe. It's a painting of a pipe.
"I am not a piece of meat." Gaga is not telling a lie. She is not a piece of meat. She's a human, a woman.

So much can be said with an apparent contradiction.


Side note: Does Gaga really think she's the most "judgment-free person on earth?" That's such a silly thing to say. It is the rare person who is free of judgment, and the skeptic in me says she's not one of them.

1 comment:

Josh said...

I was definitely going to make a comment about the "most judgment-free person" remark, 'cause that seems to be pretty ridiculous.

As far as the meat-as-statement goes, well...we've talked about my thoughts on Lady GaGa before. But I certainly appreciate that she is inciting intelligent conversation. Some people just take their fame and go get strung out on cocaine...