Fifteen Minutes To Fame

skankassqueer:

blocky-sheep:

lizardwalk:

miraclesaremadeofluckandtime:

Lady Gaga. Just. Stop it.

Does anyone else feel this whole Jo Calderone thing is her appropriating queer and trans* identity so she can piggy back on her audience based on her “radical activism”? I’m not sure that’s what it…

just wait a month and she’ll do some racial drag.

Yep, I’m waiting.

jaded16india:

theadmiraljn:

thefeministhub:

ctchphrase:

freshfeminism:

genderbitch:

hopesichord:

Can we discuss the lyrics to Gaga’s new “Born This Way”?

Okay, good.  The actual fuck was that.  A brief refresher course:

Don’t be a drag, just be a queen
Whether you’re broke or evergreen
You’re black, white, beige, chola descent
You’re Lebanese, you’re orient
Whether life’s disabilities
Left you outcast, bullied, or teased
Rejoice and love yourself today
‘Cause baby you were born this way

Where do we even begin?

Shall we take it line by line?  That seems best.

Now, there’s something that’s really disquieting to me about this, ‘don’t be a drag, just be a queen’ line, not only because it reinforces transphobic shit Gaga has pulled in the past, but also bespeaks to me that she doesn’t actually understand anything about the LGBT community that has been so important in her success.

Broke or evergreen, okay, fine, but —

You’re black, white, beige, chola descent
You’re Lebanese, you’re orient

Hold the fucking phone.

I understand a rhyme scheme is a rhyme scheme but orient?  Are we serious right now?  Didn’t we all learn that’s not the word we use about, um, twenty years ago?  More?

And the use of life’s disabilities doesn’t sit well with me either, but maybe it’s just pissing me off because the rest of this stanza is actually ridiculous.  The thing is, Lady Gaga has taken to priding herself and constructing herself as speaker for the underprivileged (which is odd, given her white, thin, wealthy status), but it’s not working or she’s not doing it right, because at the end of her long period of preaching about how people are just born this way (which is a line that, in fact, she shouted to the crowd during the concert of hers I attended last year), she takes that mantra and turns it into this song.

The day Gaga shuts the fuck up about things she has no right to talk on as a privileged as shit person is the day I enjoy the rare unbigoted examples of her music again.

More dirt on her weird-ass, offensive lyrics…

I swear, sometimes people will actively look for reasons to trash someone. Cut the shit.

The line, “Don’t be a drag, just be a queen,” has absolutely no transphobic implications unless you are literally digging them out. In fact, it could actually be seen as a simple play on words in favor of drag queens. Stop making conflict out of what isn’t there.

The derail on the term, “orient”.. One, it’s a word. A vocabulary word with no traditional (or modern for that matter) pejorative implications. It’s a term derived from the rise of the sun to refer to the east. While it may not be common or politically accurate, it’s not demeaning nor racist, and, as you mentioned, it fits the rhyme scheme..no harm done.

And if you’re honestly telling someone that they can’t speak out for others simply because they are a wealthy, privileged individual, I’m sure there are MANY issues you should kindly shut up about yourself. Fact of the matter, when you’re in the public eye you have the ability to inspire others with a message, and her message is to be proud of who you are, despite your struggles. I see NO implication of her knowing what each and every individual is going through, and I doubt she would ever make that claim. She’s trying to speak to a broad audience, she’s trying to help others be proud of themselves, she’s trying to make a difference.

She’s trying. And I’m damn sure it’s working. And that’s a hell of a lot more than I can say about a lot of people in the public eye, or people in general.

So, take your pin-holed and extorted remarks and shove them down a hole. How dare you shame someone trying to make a difference, especially with a primary reason being simply because they’re in a position to do so. Sure, she has money. She has fame. Give me money and I’m still the same person. I’m gay, I’ve been sexually abused, my dad committed suicide, my mom has been to jail, I’ve been threatened with death. If I’m put in the public eye, does my so-called privilege discount what I’ve been through? Are you in a position to tell me what I can and can’t speak on because of what I have? No.

But you know what? She’s not speaking on the behalf of anyone, she’s speaking TO people. To people who may need it. So calm your angst-ridden arrogant self, listen to music with lyrics that you don’t forcibly misconstrue to offend you, and talk about real issues that actually matter.

Thanks.

Huh. Your post is so much full of epicphail that I was facepalming for a quite a while without knowing quite why, just muttering several exotic swears to myself till I realised I was having a severe ghastly allergy to your privilege. Let’s dismantle the nincompoopism, shall we?

• You’re saying “Don’t be a drag, be a queen” isn’t problematic and it’s just us silly pesky feminists and other social justice activists who had a problem with the line. It’s not lyke it’s telling trans peeps how to behave in the most douchefucketty patronising way ever, or is again policing or normalising ‘one kind of trans*’ body/action over another. Soree, this must be our flawed perception and the idea of civil respect getting in the way.
• Orient is a word. So is douchefuck. And so is Colonialism. See a pattern here? I’ll be clear: When one uses the word Orient without quotes, or without a punch of irony, that means you are not being sarcastic and you mean it when you say Orient. And it’s not just “a term derived from the rise of the sun to refer to the east.”. Heard of that pesky leetal things like colonialism? You know that blotch in history where some white peeps decided to hang out in my country for some 200+ years and did some notverynice things lyke raping, plundering and exploiting us in any way they could? So when a dusty lady lyke me hears this term EVEN WHEN IT RHYMES, I explode in rage, so hard that my internal organs melt at the same tyme and cause a dust-storm.
• Okay, tyme for a leetal lesson in Tokenism: You drop names and then don’t do shit. Lyke someone may say, “See I have a friend who squats delligently in the ditches everyday! This means I am a nice person because who else would be-friend a ditch-squatting person, no?”. Here you can substitute any race-ethnic and/or sexual minority in the way white privileged peeps lyke Lady Gaga do and then you drop names and ethnicities and brag saying “Oh look at me! I am so liberal and shit!”. Meanwhile peeps who do get appropriated are stewing but no one cares about that because “those damn buggers are always angry”, no?
• “At least she’s trying”, that excuse died the moment it was born, just for fyi and other side-side info.
• I’m sorry you went through that crap. I honestly am, no one should be put through that crap. No one is saying that people with privileges speak up or out. The more peepal advocating for social justice, the better. BUT, saying transphobic, colonial-empire-hugging shit lyke this doesn’t and will never go without critique.
• And the last thing? Gaga isn’t speaking TO peepal. She’s speaking OF and FOR minorities, in the worst way possible. So no, no love from me. 

~ Jaded

peepal.

peepal.

PEEPAL.

(Also, it’s spelled ‘like’.)

I am really sick of people treating Lady Gaga like some fucking deity with all that ‘Godga’ crap and everything. She isn’t the fucking second coming. She’s just a pop diva who happens to wear clothes made out of meat and other weird shit. Get over it.

WAT? You no lyke my dusty third world epicphail engliss? Wouldn’t grammar spelled differently smell just as sweet, no? 

WHY? Why must I do the conformity and spick engliss lyke you? O THAT’S RITE.

Because anyone who doesn’t adhere to correct spellings is immediately dismissed. Also, personally I don’t care too much about Lady Gaga but she is kinda-sorta-really a public figure who claims to be an ally, so no we won’t get over it. She is rite now a verybig epicphail and she or anyone in her position will be held accountable.

Also, TAKE YOUR HEGEMONIC-INTENTIONAL ENGLISS AWAY FROM MY DUSTY FACE okay? Okay. 

Reblogging for the ridiculous Gaga apologism and the lovely takedown of it.

(Source: demarches, via oncejadedtwicesnarked-deactivat)