Critic's Notebook: Lady Gaga, sexuality and 21st century pop: Speaking truth to Camille Paglia

Responding to a piece of pop-musical analysis by Camille Paglia carries risks not unlike those involved in publishing images of a burning Koran. She is a self-serving provocateur with a dogmatic world view, more interested in swatting down others' assertions than in advancing cultural discourse. Remember the bad old days of the early 1990s, when she first made a splash, trashing feminism in order to elevate her idol Madonna and blaming college girls for walking into the "Testosterone Flats" of fraternity row and getting themselves date-raped?

Well, now Paglia's back, saying absolutely nothing that advances our world view in her attack on Lady Gaga published in London's Sunday Times. She attacks Gaga as not just unsexy, but also "stripped of genuine eroticism"; she argues that Gaga's embrace of freaks is insincere because she herself has a privileged background. Downplaying Gaga's sincere advocacy of gay rights, she calls her a corporate shill; ignoring the new ways in which she's deployed familiar images and sounds, she simply says she's unoriginal. Decrying Gaga, Paglia also trashes her fans as emotionally impoverished, and (diehard baby boomer that she is) expresses longing for fleshy 1960s heroines such as Tina Turner and Janis Joplin.

Once again, Paglia's arguments have smart, progressive people up in arms. I hate to join the fray running around trying to swat this fly.

Like Pastor Terry Jones, Paglia was an isolated figure who gained influence because her provocations complemented anxieties that were reaching a fever pitch when she emerged. In Paglia's case, feminism, not Islam, was the looming threat; her writing has sought to return gender relations to what she sees as a natural order. Her prose style is bloody and lurid and sometimes effectively comical, like a Rob Zombie-directed horror movie; it's hard to turn away.

But her assertions -- some of the bigger ones back in the day were that men were dogs, that women ruled  them by firing up their libidos; that feminists were a bunch of "sob sisters" to suggest that heterosexual relationships might reflect the larger realities of patriarchal powers; oh, and that the great feminist journalist Susan Faludi looked like a puppy dog -- basically sounded like reheated bohemian machismo, Henry Miller and Norman Mailer on a beer binge.

OK, deep breath. For more thorough refutations of the latest tinny aria from Camille, please read these fine entries by the queer theorist Jack Halberstam at the blog Bully Pulpit and by columnist Alex Needham in the Guardian. But I'd like to quickly point out what's really unnerving about Gaga's sexual persona: not that it's unoriginal or overly cold, but that it reflects the uncertainties of a younger generation for whom sexual liberation is a reality, but a highly unstable one.

Paglia's provocations are hard to fully ignore, because like another loudmouth whom she admires, Sarah Palin, she does know how to hit those tender spots in the always evolving body politic. Twenty years ago, she tapped into the fears and often frustrated dreams of men and women working to redefine gender-bound power relations on college campuses and in the workplace. Now, she's touching on a different nerve -- not, as she says with her talent for catchphrases, "the exhausted end of the sexual revolution,"  but the creeping suspicion that that revolution is disappointingly incomplete.

Her Gaga screed calls out young people for putting up cellphone and iPod walls between each other, and it's definitely true that grappling with the impact of technology is a big part of what Our Lady of the Telephone does. Understanding technology is key to having a cogent conversation about pop and sexuality now. But on a more basic level, old issues are resurfacing.

The Paglia flap sent me back to another, less noticed, piece of writing on female artists' place in pop now. Amy Klein of the fiery punk band Titus Andronicus has been keeping a tour diary that's both fun to read for its little details ("Mysterious and awesome snacks have started accumulating in the van. Hello, home baked pumpkin pie? Where did you come from!") and daring in its reach toward larger issues. Recently, she's posted a couple of blog entries about how the media perceive female musicians that revealed just how much less than far we long-way babies have come.

On Day 4 of her tour diary, Klein looked at an issue of Rolling Stone magazine that featured a "naked" woman on the cover (I'll bet it was Katy Perry, half-clothed) and despaired. She noticed that the publication contained only one picture in which a female was very clearly holding an instrument, and that woman was Taylor Swift, who's nearly impossible to ignore right now.

Klein is 24; she's come of age in an indie scene where women labor on every level, from the booking agency office to the club door to the soundboard to the stage. Yet still, she notices, rock's larger definition excludes most women. She doesn't see herself represented much beyond her own subculture. Her essay on this subject is beautifully rendered, personal and clear; it's also not very far from what the women who've served as Klein's role models, like Liz Phair and Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill, were writing in songs or in zines when this emergent rocker was just a child.

"What we’re doing when we exclude women from rock and roll, and from the sense of rebellion that rock and roll promises, is disallowing women that independent perspective," Klein writes. "We’re never giving them the chance to think critically about the world, and about the systems that oppress them. When we take women out of the arts, and take them out of art’s ability to critique the way things are, we’re making sure that women keep swallowing the status quo, day after day, and it’s the status quo that keeps us down."

The status quo. Hasn't it shifted? On the surface, it seems that it has. Women dominate the pop charts. Lady Gaga rules the world. Yet young women now don't necessarily feel more liberated. They stand before a bigger wall full of doors, but to open those doors still takes enormous strength and purpose. And then the problem of sexuality. For women in pop music, sexuality is both the most powerful force and the biggest trap.

Klein, who dresses comfortably onstage so that she can play her guitar and violin for all she's worth, acknowledges that for a different kind of female music-maker, revealing costumes serve a purpose. Pressed by a reader a few days later to explain why she didn't talk about the leading women of the Top 40 in her blog entry, she wrote a nuanced response that included this comment:

"The other reason that I tend to overlook pop singers is that pop singers are primarily concerned with selling sexuality, and women are already associated with sexuality in our society -- often inescapably so, and to the exclusion of our other qualities and goals. There’s nothing wrong with being proud of your sexuality and displaying it on stage, but it’s often hard for women who don’t want to advertise their sexuality to make it on other terms. I want to see more images of women showing audiences what’s in their hearts and minds; I want to see less of what’s on the outside. That’s why I tend to overlook the genre of pop, which emphasizes the female body as a fantasy, an object on consumption. I’ve seen enough booty shorts for my own good."

Klein's beautifully articulated thoughts join a chorus of young women currently bringing back to life some of the conversations that dominated rock, at least at its "alternative" edge, in the 1990s. Two new books, Sara Marcus' just-published "Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution" and Marisa Meltzer's older "Girl Power: The Nineties Revolution in Music," feed a renewed interest in a period when rock music and feminism were explicitly linked, and women's sexuality, though hardly downplayed, was a subject to be openly discussed and radically reinterpreted. There seems to be a longing among an increasing number of music makers and music lovers -- women mostly, perhaps, but not exclusively -- to step back from the libertine mood of 21st-century pop and return to a more stringent confrontation with what it means to bring sexy to the fore.

The truth is, sexuality in pop can't be pushed aside, or ever exhausted. It's the main force and subject of the stuff. Popular music is an expression of many emotions and a container for many messages -- about race, class, spirituality and the best kind of fun for a Saturday night. But it's also overwhelmingly erotic. I'd go so far as to say that pop is where sex lives most openly in our culture, and that it's not just a matter of surfaces -- of the consumption of beauty, as Klein asserts -- but of the depth and breadth of desire,  frustration, satisfaction.

In a world where gender still creates powerful dividing lines -- between men and women, gay and straight, "normal" and "queer" -- sexuality is always a problem. Expressing one's sexual power can be a very freeing experience. It can also be a trap. The most exciting pop stars, male and female, negotiate this shifting ground and help us understand it better. In the 21st century, this means confronting limits that often seem invisible. Aren't we living in a "post-feminist" era, when women can do anything with their lives and with their bodies? Oh, wait. They still can't hold guitars in a bestselling music magazine.

Woody Guthrie famously wrote "This Guitar Kills Fascists" on his battered instrument. Gaga turns a bra into a machine gun; Perry, always sweeter and more capitulating, spewed whipped cream out of hers. Could it be that the urge female pop stars feel to turn their revealing costumes into weapons is an attempt to instrumentalize sexuality, to foreground and even problematize the fact that it's the force that moves these women forward?  

Lady Gaga is the most sensational player in a wide field of musicians still struggling to comprehend and express the connections between sexuality and power. Rather than being emotionally impoverished and sexually burnt out, they're exploring how old feminine paradigms (and masculine ones, within the work of artists such as Eminem or Kanye West) empower and constrict in an age of technologically assisted identity flux. What's happening in pop is so far beyond a simple need for liberation that we need a new language for it, beyond what worked in the age of classic rock and soul to which Paglia is so attached.

Pop stars openly and often opportunistically take on sexiness as a subject because that's what pop's history and our hunger requires of them. Musicians in other scenes, like Klein, must also confront this stuff, in different ways. It's not easy for anyone on the continuum. Will the subject, and those exploring it, ever be exhausted? That's just impossible.

-- Ann Powers

Top photo: Lady Gaga at the MTV Video Music Awards. Credit: Matt Sayles / Associated Press

Bottom photo: Lady Gaga in another outfit at the VMAs. Credit: Matt Sayles / Associated Press

Comments

[Ann Powers]

One more thing: there needs to be ongoing discussion of these matters, because they are the essence of popular music. Did I make that clear?

[lms10045]

The reason I don't get Paglia's essay is that she is trashing Gaga while she had praised Madonna. I mean, what is the difference? You can prefer one singer over the other, but both make shock videos where they wear little clothing to get publicity to sell more albums and tickets to concerts. They both embraced unusual fashion to make waves. They both sang pop songs on the dancy bumblegum side of the spectrum. Arguably, Lady Gaga is a better singer than Madonna, although Madonna was always a striver when it came to music and dance. Both presented themselves in ways that were not necessarily true to their past -- but like most pop stars, this is perfectly normal. You tell a story that sells, not necessarily one that is true.

Paglia has written a lot over the years. It isn't all bad, but oftentimes it doesn't hit its mark. This is one of those times.

[John Hopkins]

No.

And the essence of popular music is the desire for fame and riches, not as a reward for originality and hard work, but as an entitlement for regurgitation.

Music and its presentation is no longer original or creative. It's trite and venal. Plagiarized and boring.

"Oh, look at me I'm so different and unique ..."

Lady Gaga. Next.

[Francisco Vara-Orta]

You are a wonderfully thorough and thoughtful writer Ann, have been a fan for many years now. Thanks for speaking the truth.

[gabbie18]

Where can we read Amy Klein's blog?

[Ann Powers]

I'm interested in what people think about the part of this essay that isn't about Gaga.

[David Salter]

"Paglia was an isolated figure who gained influence because her provocations complemented anxieties that were reaching a fever pitch when she emerged."

Sounds a bit like Stefani Germanotta, doesn't it?

[S. Lopez]

This reminds me of a blog I read about Annie Clark (St. Vincent) on the excruciatingly snarky Hipster Runoff http://www.hipsterrunoff.com/2009/10/indie-bro-obsession-the-objectification-of-female-indie-alt-celeb-musicians.html

I myself, find Annie Clark to be one of the best musicians around now, however that blog perfectly illustrates how male privilege tends to hold female artists back by defining them through their sexuality. What I get from writers like this, is male artists are the default, and females are the deviation, they're treated like a sort of gimmick. The writer even asks "Is it realistic for men to identify with themes in music made by females?" . Being a woman, if someone asked if I can relate to themes in music made by a male, I'd say of course, so why is it any different for males to relate to a theme created by a female? The reason why many would think there is a difference is because women tend to be defined by their sexuality. It's a real shame, but something we must continue to work on changing.

Great article by the way Ann, I'll be reading more of your work!

[Dee]

How wonderful it would be if we had a public that knew and enjoyed real music, music of depth and complexity that required mastery to produce. Music that touched the hidden corners of the soul and attempted to express and bring forth our deepest feelings about this existence. How sad that our top artist is Gaga.

[hijk]

I agree with what other comments say. It is really sad that women have to be defined by their sexuality and nothing else. I want to be something else, not someone's mom or a sex object. Paglia's article made me sick, reading that someone has such a big problem with someone challenging "gender."
It hurts me that society wants women to be nothing but their reproductive organs.
Paglia is so threatened by gender bending, asexuality and androgyny. Women (and men) should be free to step out of these roles and just because they do it doesn't mean its the end of the world or of this ridiculous sexual revolution that Paglia is so stuck on.

[feminine]

ms paglia needs to update herself for the 21st century
i would like to see her moderate a debate
madonna vs LadyGAGA

i am waiting for ladygaga to response with a SONG@
titled "I CAN HAVE SEX ANYTIME I WANT TO"

interesting

[Ann Powers]

Amy Klein's blog is at http://amyandronicus.tumblr.com/

David, point well taken on Stefani/Gaga, though I don't recall her attacking other female artists. She has been attacked a lot, though, by people who should know better than to chip away at what female solidarity might exist in pop: M.I.A., Joanna Newsom....

[Lee]

Kind of sad that the music on KIIS is more relevant than what's on KROQ.

[Kevin Livingston]

The spastic machinations of GaGa are all sizzle and no steak. Kiss could write snappy tunes also. I'm glad Ms. Paglia stated what is obvious to the discerning observer unwilling to get caught up in the ridiculous quest for the Next Big Thing. The Po-Mo Lady GaGa exemplifies brings us the trivial, lacking in self-criticism, and what amounts to a message of mindless gibberish. She ought to enjoy her time in the spotlight because fickle fans will be moving on soon. Maybe Ann Powers can revive Robert Hilburn's handicapping the likelihood a given performer is headed for the R'n'R Hall of Fame?

[chuenng]

Enjoyed the article. While I listen to a lot of music, I don't frequently stop to reflect on cultural themes and messages, or its generational significance. I'm in my early 30s, and so I grew up on the latter part of new wave, wore plaid shirts through the grunge era, but also gained an appreciation for female songwriters during the mid-90s when Sarah McLachlan and Alanis Morissette gained prominence. Unexpectedly, that movement lost momentum as quickly as it gained it, and the rock scene was replaced by the likes of Korn and Linkin Park. What does it mean? Like what someone else said--yeah, the music from guys tend to be the default--from women, a deviation--at least, for rock. Switch over to the pop scene, and yes, women rule the charts. Is it because pop emphasizes overt sexuality more so than rock? I don't know, probably... just contributing to ongoing discussion here.

[C Boyer]

Where would Paglia be without the Lady GaGa's and such? She would be so unhappy having nothing/no one to rant about. (Talk about disingenuous.)

I can picture it: Camile frothing out of her twisted snarl, trying to bang something out on her keyboard, foam and spittle flying from her lips. Eeeeewwww.

Thanks' Gaga and the feminists for giving the bitter gal an outlet.

[Jeff]

The difference between Gaga and those she emulates (copies), is that Gaga lacks substance and genuine sex appeal. For instance- Madonna conveys sexuality, intelligence, strength and controversy all with tremendous substance and confident messaging. Gaga does not.

Madonna brings her views and rebellious nature to life through her videos, persona and music, something Gaga tries to do through outlandish costumes and ridiculous (laughable), as well as an infantile videos, appealing mostly to teenagers.

Madonna is an Icon. She has pushed peoples buttons, as well as boundaries. Yes, she is older now, but still a force to be reckoned with.

The one area Gaga is stronger, is her voice. Madonna has never had much of a singing voice, but was it ever about the voice?

Simply put- you can't compare the two.

[Ann Powers]

Cheunng -- Pop is a wide open field. It really describes whatever is popular at the moment -- usually hybrid forms -- even Gaga's music is a mix of Euro dance and glammish rock via Elton John. Rock, on the other hand, developed an unfortunately stringent set of rules as it matured, and a very masculine stance. "Indie" rock has more room for different kinds of people, but mainstream rock remains pretty much a guys' game. Pop has big male stars -- Jason Mraz comes to mind -- but rock still lacks many major female artists.

Speaking of which, everybody needs to check out Heart's excellent new album, "Red Velvet Car"!

[graffitiboy]

"Once again, Paglia's arguments have smart, progressive people up in arms. I hate to join the fray running around trying to swat this fly."

Gee, Ann, self-congratulatory or what? There's a lot of tripe in what Paglia wrote but there's also a lot of truth. Much like your own piece here. But rein it in a bit on stroking your own ego and that of the Gaga fanatics.

[Matt]

It is rather amusing to see Miss Paglia describe Lady Gaga as asexual, considering Miss Paglia exudes no sexuality whatsoever in her own appearance or demeanor. At best, we are left to find any sign of Camille’s own sexuality in her loquacious attempts at writing. What is even more amusing is that Miss Paglia prefers the manufactured/sexual facade of Madonna, who perpetually lacks the ability to sing live or “act” beyond the confines of a heavily scripted/edited music video. If all of the above were not enough, Camille then broad-brushes an entire generation with a technologically-induced form of ADD, the same technology from which she regularly quips about pop culture…here online. Unfortunately and ironically, she wastes multiple paragraphs to describe a viewpoint that could so easily have been expressed in 140-160 characters or less. Camille, however, never focuses on the accuracy or efficiency of her message, but, rather, prefers to meander through carefully-selected musings woven in with her own personal shortlist of who/what she considers relevant in that brain of hers that no doubt lurks somewhere beneath that short-bobbed head of hers. Fundamentally, the problem with Miss Paglia is that she suffers from the all-too-common affliction known as “nostalgia,” which is evidenced by her wistfully romanticizing all the characters in her past as the more ideal alternatives to the ever-changing world that she lives in.

[Ann Powers]

graffitiboy: Fair point. I just meant to say that I feel ambivalent about writing about Paglia at all....and believe it or not, by "smart, progressive people" I was mostly thinking about my friend Jack Halberstam, whose post at the Bully Pulpit blog inspired me a lot. (I linked to it in the piece). But yeah, I should have been more careful in my wording!

[Mike M.]

Lady Madonna -
Gaga's wearing meat!
Wonder if she'll ever learn to move her feet?

Both count the money
You can bet the rent
Don't you think the dollar is their heaven's scent?

[phyllis]

I wonder how many people have read Pagilla. I'm not in total agreement with her view points, or even partial, but she has the right to these views . She is often thought provoking and at times has made me think outside of the box. I do agree with her about Lady Gaga. She comes off as insincere, but hey I'm just an old punk rocker who did have female 'role' models to look up to.
But then it seems like all feminist should think a like.

I agree with Ms. Klein-
I think most of, if not all of the top forty/ pop performers, aren't worth mentioning. They are manufactured, they are produced, with nothing original. Sexuality is part of music- but what sort of sexuality are we talking about?
Nico, former singer of the Velvet Underground, was a model who thought her beauty made people take her less serious so she tried to make herself 'ugly'. Look at Patti Smith. She is a brilliant musician. Lydia Lunch is another great performer and her songs are brutally honest as well. Then there was Kira a female member of the influence punk band Black Flag. What about Throwing Muses (Kristen Hersh and Tanya Donnelly) and Kim Deal of the Pixies and the Breeders?
Madonna and Lady Gaga both have flare but really a small amount of talent if any. It all seems so plastic.

[Dena]

My problem with the music of Lady Gaga is that, while she may be exploring the depths of homophobia and politics in Youtube videos, she alludes to it in her music, making more records about dancing up a storm and having sex. She seems to be an extremely talented musician, but she would prefer to be a Grace Jones copycat, entertaining like Madonna rather than singing the soul into music like Janis. I'm young -- just entering my 20s -- but I much prefer Taylor Swift (though I really kind of despise her music). The girl plays an instrument, she can't sing, but her music says something about her life and experience. She's not relying upon crazy hats and strange clothing to draw attention. I was reading a NY Times blog the other day that discussec how Gaga is far more interested in self exploitation than feminist revolution. While I wouldn't necessarily go that far, I don't think she's exploring sexuality and raising issues to be of genuine importance to a movement. Seems to me like she wants to be famous and sell records.

[Spike]

Thank you for making me think a little more, and dig a little deeper, on my initial response to the Paglia essay.

I love the Amy Klein comments about pop music. Perfect.

Whether it's pop, rock, indie.....whatever the label, we as a culture still seem to want to view female artists within a greater male context. This isn't new - Joni Mitchell was fighting against this in the 70s. She was continuously labeled as "the best female artist" when she wanted to be seen in the same context as Neil Young, Dylan, etc. - her peers.

I was reminded of this recently with some of the reactions to the latest Liz Phair work. I think David Mowery (Cracker/Camper van Beethoven) has explored some of the same things - damn the major labels! - that Liz did in "Funstyle," and explored more mature themes in his music, too, than what he originally came to prominence for.....One of them is respected, and the other is vilified and seen as a commodity that has aged and no longer has value. Guess which one is which?

I still don't care much for Gaga, or Katy Perry, or a number of the other artists right now all over the pop charts. I don't think that makes me someone yearning for the neo-classical sounds of my pop and soul youth.

I'm just not thrilled with the utter flood of pastiche that is overwhelming the market - and what I perceive to be an intense lack of warmth in a lot of music. Gaga and Perry almost seem like drag acts at times.

I hear exciting new sounds bubbling up, and maybe all that pastiche and all those mash-ups will result in a new musical language. Right now, it feels like post-punk and new wave is being recycled in music.....just as it is in all the eighties clothing the twentysomethings are finding in the barrels at Goodwill.