Charlie talks about Lady Gaga's "Born This Way"
I'm mostly posting this here so that I don't take up a huge amount of space on every community I want to say this in. That said, everything's under the cut...
I'm really not impressed with this song at all, whether or not it was going to be in Glee. My issues with it, now in bullet point format:
- "It doesn't matter if you love him or capital H-I-M": I'm not sure what she's trying to get at here? You can't be gay and have religion at the same time? You're not helping anything by enforcing this dichotomy, Gaga.
- "Don't be a drag, just be a queen": Equating between drag queen and gay man? Really, Gaga? I mean, a lot of drag queens are straight and certainly there is a plethora of gay men that would never do drag, even if you paid them. Aside from that "queen" is often used as a slur against gay men.
- Just the entire message of "born this way" is problematic - why does the queer community have to prove they were "born this way" in order to get rights? Rights should be granted to people for being people. But that's a political issue of it's own right. (I know that this doesn't apply to the issues of race that she's attempting to address in this song, but I thought this point was worth making, since Lady Gaga puts herself out there as a queer activist).
- "You're black, white, beige, chola descent / You're Lebanese, you're orient": Hello, racism. Seriously, what made her think that half of this was a good idea? Also, I'm curious about what the random shout out to Lebanese people is about. Not that they don't deserve a shout out in song, but it seems oddly specific...
- "Lesbian, transgendered life": Not sure how I feel about the exact wording of this...it edges really close to "lifestyle," and as a trans person, that rubs me the wrong way so badly.
- "Don't hide yourself in regret / Just love yourself and you're set": Okay, that's easier said than done, Gaga. And it's definitely easier done for a white, cis, rich, straight-passing woman than a trans person or a woman of color or a poor queer person. Particularly when there are famous pop stars using blatantly racist lyrics in their songs that are supposed to be about acceptance, on top of all the other media that sends marginalized groups negative messages about their identities.
- Whoever said this sounds like "express yourself" is right.
I have other issues with Gaga in general that I might make a post to ONTD_F about, but other than that...these are my feelings on "Born This Way"
For those interested, a YouTube video of the song:
And lyrics can be found here.
I'm really not impressed with this song at all, whether or not it was going to be in Glee. My issues with it, now in bullet point format:
- "It doesn't matter if you love him or capital H-I-M": I'm not sure what she's trying to get at here? You can't be gay and have religion at the same time? You're not helping anything by enforcing this dichotomy, Gaga.
- "Don't be a drag, just be a queen": Equating between drag queen and gay man? Really, Gaga? I mean, a lot of drag queens are straight and certainly there is a plethora of gay men that would never do drag, even if you paid them. Aside from that "queen" is often used as a slur against gay men.
- Just the entire message of "born this way" is problematic - why does the queer community have to prove they were "born this way" in order to get rights? Rights should be granted to people for being people. But that's a political issue of it's own right. (I know that this doesn't apply to the issues of race that she's attempting to address in this song, but I thought this point was worth making, since Lady Gaga puts herself out there as a queer activist).
- "You're black, white, beige, chola descent / You're Lebanese, you're orient": Hello, racism. Seriously, what made her think that half of this was a good idea? Also, I'm curious about what the random shout out to Lebanese people is about. Not that they don't deserve a shout out in song, but it seems oddly specific...
- "Lesbian, transgendered life": Not sure how I feel about the exact wording of this...it edges really close to "lifestyle," and as a trans person, that rubs me the wrong way so badly.
- "Don't hide yourself in regret / Just love yourself and you're set": Okay, that's easier said than done, Gaga. And it's definitely easier done for a white, cis, rich, straight-passing woman than a trans person or a woman of color or a poor queer person. Particularly when there are famous pop stars using blatantly racist lyrics in their songs that are supposed to be about acceptance, on top of all the other media that sends marginalized groups negative messages about their identities.
- Whoever said this sounds like "express yourself" is right.
I have other issues with Gaga in general that I might make a post to ONTD_F about, but other than that...these are my feelings on "Born This Way"
For those interested, a YouTube video of the song:
Click to viewAnd lyrics can be found here.