Anyway, I can't wait for her new album Born This Way, and hopefully her new music will clarify just how she feels about these issues.

We should also keep in mind that her audience (the male interviewer who spoke in surprisingly sexist undertones) was attempting to paint her as the stereotype of the raging, man-hating "feminist" that has been popularized by the testesterone-pumped egos of older, media-savvy, straight, white men. In my opinion, when she said she was not a feminist, she was answering it in the interviewer's context. As in, "I'm not a [man-hating] feminist. I hail men, I love men…" Right before that confusing statement, she described perfectly the nature of sexism in the music industry, and made it obvious that she did not agree by both her tone and her ending statement: "I'm just a rockstar."

It is sad, but true, that many people instantly close up when they hear someone is an activist. As it is now, only feminists really recognize that Lady Gaga is a feminist and that her music and videos and entire image is breaking into the mainstream to alter our perceptions of gender and reality. Everyone else is just confused.

Women who are uneducated about sexism in modern society are being subconsciously empowered by seeing a strong, independent woman who writes her own music and says/does whatever the hell she wants regardless of societies gender mores . If she became an overt feminist, many women would instantly be turned off because of false perceptions about what feminism entails (aka, "Oh, please! Women can work and wear pants now! None of that is relevant anymore! I don't need to listen to her conspiracy theory bullshit")

Men (heterosexual specifically), on the other hand, are often made uncomfortable by her and aren't quite sure why, and so can't really justify to themselves or others how they feel about her. Her embracing of the grotesque to screw with societies perceptions of beauty make it hard for them to feel comfortable watching her "just to see her take her clothes off", which is, I always thought, Madonna's major pitfall in creating a truly revolutionary feminist movement in pop culture (after all her work at creating an independent and strong image to a lot of women and men she was still just a sexy blonde who wore risque clothing and showed off her body). As it is now, Lady Gaga has overtly sexual themes and revealing clothing, which should be a good thing for men just looking to see some skin, but she embeds into them questions about basic social expectations (i.e.the men's clothing is often as revealing and impractical as a woman's, making it difficult for men in our homophobic culture to watch, and the setting surrounding her revealing outfits is rarely sexy in the traditional sense. I can't remember if it was said in this article or another one, but when Madonna did bondage it was sexy, when Lady Gaga does it, it looks like it hurts). But, if they suddenly realize she is a feminist, all the tired old excuses for not liking her would be too easy, "She's ugly, she looks like a man, she can't sing, her videos are weird, no one really acts like that, etc." All these excuses are meaningless attempts to cover up many males discomfort with their power-role in society being challenged, but yet they often seem to do the trick. -.-

And all this is to say nothing of her career! Would record labels (::coughcoughmostlywhiteheterosexualmencough::) really continue to pump money and advertising into an activist? How long would she last if she openly said, "I am a feminist and everything I am doing is to change social perceptions on gender and sexuality"? She would be done overnight.

As much as I would like for there to be a pop-act that can be thoroughly enjoyed by feminists, we don't need it. It is the uneducated masses of people who blindly consume pop culture art/music/media/images/etc. everyday who need to have their perceptions altered. And just like trying to give a kid vitamins, sometimes the only way to get them to take them is to crush them up and put them in ice cream. That is what Lady Gaga is doing to America. She is giving everyone something they know they want (theatricality: a risque, sexual, unique artistic statement that rests just perfectly between art and pop. Don't think, just watch and enjoy the pretty lights and crazy outfits!) and something they don't know they need (Deep philosophical questioning of often unaddressed social ideas). Through symbolism just subtle enough not to cause too much of a stir but overt enough to get our attention she is planting little seeds in the masses minds that will hopefully grow into bigger trends and eventually greater changes.

But if she isn't the fame monster that she is right now, being blindly idolized by millions of fans, none of that can happen. I don't know if she is doing it on purpose or not, but whatever she is doing, it is working and it is freaking ingenious.