sundries

[rm]

Patty has a cold. :(

Also, Buffy and Angel? Not here yet.

Finished my WIAD story.

Can we talk about Lady Gaga's new video? Because I could. All day. Not only is it a response to a certain era of Madonna, but it also goes to a lot of strange, strange uncomfortable places, the fascist references in its physical language being close to the top of the list. It's incredibly cool, smart stuff. There needs to be a Gaga Studies Journal, that's all I'm saying.

From all of my friendslist to all of yours: liljacks_corner is a community that has been set up for fan creators to make G-rated stuff for an eight-year-old boy named Jack who has just lost his legs; one of the only things that cheers him up right now is Doctor Who. He's only seen the first two seasons of the New series. What's being requested is a story about a little boy, much like the one it's for, going on an adventure with the Doctor and Rose. Details at the community.

Ready to start hollering? Daring to discuss women in science.

The Century Athletic Club.

New York now has an AllStaints Spitalfields.

Does anyone know more about this: is Judy Shepard's book homophobic? Accusations vague, scenario murky. Bwah? Anyone read it?

Didn't know this: Stephanie Flores, the Peruvian woman van der Sloot has reportedly confessed to killing, was a lesbian.

Comments

[xtricks.livejournal.com]

I watched it an it was before I'd seen anything else she'd done and I also grew up through the early madonna years. I was like ... oooh, so *all* kinky Catholics grow up to be like this.

I didn't see it so much as about gay men or whatever the discussion is now, but I thought it was about kink -- particularly kink about costume, clothing, and ... ritual, visually at least. I didn't get the story the vid was tryign to show, but I loved the sense that there was a story. Like you the most I got from it was facism and in particular, the romaticizing/idealizing of facism. (I'm almost entirely talking bout the visuals here).

Then I watched as many of her other vids as I could find easily and sexual violence, power dynamics, and costume fetish all seem to be the predominant themes in her visual style. It's like Lady Gaga is her own personal kink_bingo!

now I want to write a story about how Lady Gaga is a futuristic sex robot gone rogue and Torchwood has to track her down

[dremiel.livejournal.com]

You should make a Lady GaGa Bingo Card!

[xtricks.livejournal.com]

Wow, it would fill up quick.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Yes, to all of this. I also saw the whole "gay men and the military" discussion only after I'd seen the video, and I'm like "really? but can we talk about the fascism and the theater some more?"

Also, yes please.

[xtricks.livejournal.com]

I think, because there were men in heels/fishnets, they were supposed to be gay or about gay men. OTOH -- whithin facism there is also often a fetishizing of masculinity and modern visuals about facism often seem to conflate facism with leathermen (old guard style). The intro with the silloutted men marching along was pretty much a leather man dance routine (more please!).

I wasn't nearly as bothered by the imagery here (hell, the bad romance vid and the paparazzi one seemed much more controversial) as some, mostly because it seems so 'fantasy' to me. It probably helps that it catered to several of my fantasy images.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my first response was "hello uniform fetish" and I could go on and on about the silhouette of Axis vs. Allied uniforms and the different male shapes the video highlights, but that would just be showing my issues waaaaaaaaaay too much.

It's interesting to me that you find the imagery here more fantasy than some of the other videos. I don't, and I'm trying to figure out why now (Paparazzi has the most realism, but it also tells us it's a film, so that's sort of a weird toss up), and I think to a certain extent it's probably just a sense of conditioning I feel to question/take military imagery seriously and also a sort of innate suspicion when it comes to anything that might smell like "the Nazis had the best uniforms" (which is probably in the top 10 wank dramas of Harry Potter fandom).

[xtricks.livejournal.com]

I saw paparazzi as a mix of the 'film' and 'reality' -- like the actors were in a film during part of it then, when she was thrown off the balcony, it was the real 'actor' ... or something like that.

What I saw it mostly as was two people (Gaga and her b'freind) using the Papparazzi to stay famous. Reminded me of the brief fetish for 'my own TV reality show' and the folks who commited various crimes to get one (the guy with the little kid and the weather ballon, the two folks who crashed the White House party).

Bad Romance bothered me because some of the fantasy elements were ones that freak me out (kidnapping, some sort of unwilling enslavement thing going on, rape).

Machine gun bras? Good clean fun! Kidnapping, drugging and forcing someone to be a sex toy (unwillingly)? Where's the warning before the text cut!!???!!

[rm.livejournal.com]

The Bad Romance video was the one that first made me go "this is really, really interesting" but I think our general "crap we do to women in entertainment" makes it way less noticeably so. It's also the video that has the most over Leigh Bowery reference in it, so I sort of love it for the homages to the New York that was.

[soukup.livejournal.com]

I could go on and on about the silhouette of Axis vs. Allied uniforms and the different male shapes the video highlights

Thank you for catching this! I was wondering if I was imagining it.

Also, you seem to have spent a little more time thinking about Lady Gaga than I have (and possibly about fascism, too), so I’d be interested to hear your take on the gender stuff in this video. Do you have any thoughts about why she might have chosen to feminize the fascists? I've read what xtricks has said above, but I'm curious what your thoughts are as well -- you pay attention to gender in very productive ways, and this seems to have gone over my head.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I do! (Although it's still percolating). And, if Google is kind to me, with pictures! So, that has to wait a bit.

[soukup.livejournal.com]

*folds hands, waits patiently*

[bugeyedmonster.livejournal.com]

Oh, I would read that fic... if you wrote it I mean. And just imagine how Jack might 'capture' a sex robot. lol!