Lady Gaga's meat dress: a bloody mess? [Updated]

So -- Lady Gaga's meat dress at the VMAs last night. Times food blogger Jessica Gelt found it unsanitary and wasteful. Times art critic Christopher Knight found it trite and passe.

While my instinct as a nine-year vegan was to promptly dry heave at the sight of such a thing, let's assume she meant what she said that it's an indictment of the treatment of gays and lesbians in America. Wearing a dress made of raw flank steak is a real funny way to make a point about compassion and empathy.

And that's not to mention the absolute inanity of the metaphor itself, as if she were saying, "America treats gay people like meat, you see, and I will call attention to this fact by draping myself in it." That's some real Helene Cixous-level gender and sexual identity discourse there.

We're partial to Gaga's music and provocations around these parts, but doing something pointlessly repellent and vicious towards animals at a video awards show and calling it a commentary on gay rights doesn't advance any conversation or change a single person's mind about the virtues of marriage equality.

This feels more like a tipping point in revealing that Gaga's antics aren't in service of any real, learned feminism, activism or even pop-art bomb throwing. It's just about her. And if something's got to die to make her point? Well. Art!

[UPDATED: If Gaga is interested in a primer on the intersection of sexual violence and meat imagery, Carol J. Adams might prove an intriguing introduction to the topic for her.]

-- August Brown

Photo credit: Mario Anzuoni / Reuters

Comments

[sophie]

Utterly disgusting. Where is PETA on this??

[Shaun landry]

What message I got from her meat dress: "My fans are like stupid cattle to the slaughter."

[melissa]

PETA has issued a statement on their website regarding Lady Gaga's unfortunate fashion choice. It reads, in part: "Meat is the decomposing flesh of a tormented animal who didn't want to die, and after a few hours under the TV lights, it would smell like the rotting flesh it is and likely be crawling in maggots—not too attractive, really."

[Robomarkov]

Not a fan of her music. Take away the costumes and she's a run-of-the mill pop musician.

However, I think I'll buy one of her albums just on principle. I just want to dunk her in A1 and nibble on her!

[Krysten]

This article is way off base. The outfit she was wearing was not ACTUALLY made of meat (although it looks as though she may have been wearing a hunk of steak on her head). If you were watching, you could clearly see that the outfit was made of fabric. Get your facts straight before you bash one of the most ingenious, talented, GRACIOUS stars to come around in years.

[Linda]

Disgusting.

[AlexLOGIC]

Lady Gaga makes it up as she goes along, and this time, the analogy is really really stupid and non existent. I recall she referred to gays as "the gays" during her female artist award acceptance speech.

Maybe Gaga tried to cover up one faux pas with another.

[patrick]

Just sick and very sad, poor gaga

[wildone]

What a beautiful dress...let's eat!

[Garrett]

Oh, come on. If someone were caught eating a cheeseburger or philly cheese-steak no one would bat an eye. So Lady Gaga did something repulsive and creative. I say more power to her. If you eat meat, you probably don't have the right to criticize the way she chooses use animal flesh.

[Tina]

the dress was made of real meat. im sorry, shes just starved for attention. there are waay better acts out there who dont use this kind of attention to make millions.

http://cocoperez.com/2010-09-13-lady_gagas_franc_fernandez_meat_dress_was_made_from_real_meat

[dcgal]

Lame. I eat meat but she really is no great intellectual force with this gimmick. Sing a song and stop thinking you're some great philosopher.

[Nazar Hussain]

Release dogs on her and see how long her dress lasts

[Beth]

Only talentless hacks pull stunts like this.
Tina Turner never had to wear meat to get attention - her god given talent was enough - enough said.

[m]

hmmm. sure is provocative, though, isn't it? i mean, justin bieber was wearing a leather vest and pants, right? did peta react to his fashion statement? is wearing muscle ("meat") so much worse than wearing skin ("leather")?
i kinda love it.

[amanda]

Hell I'll never listen Gaga's songs again. She is disgusting in every way.

[Ashlee]

Get your facts straight before you bash one of the most ingenious, talented, GRACIOUS stars to come around in years.

---

Oh please. It's a waste (unlike eating it; many people can't afford to be vegetarians or can't be for health reasons) and it's a mockery of the poor dead animal. She's disgusting and pathetic, and I hope such an unintelligent and tasteless self-styled spokesperson for the gay community shuts her mouth before she does any more damage.

[Dahna]

How is it vicious to wear the dress if the meat was available at the local butcher shop? That makes zero sense for you to say.

I get that some people find it offensive, gross, ugly, repellant, but cruel to animals? That is going too far. She did not kill the cows and plaster them on herself. If she had, that would be cause for grave concern.

But since the designer bought the meat as millions of people do in America daily, what is the problem, exactly? We are allowed to buy meat in this country and she although avante guard, is allowed to do what she wants with it.

Whether I agree with Gaga or not, wearing this dress be it a political statement or just a desire for attention, why is there so much press about it? Seriously. Don't we expect controversy from celebs? I mean if they did not fancy controversy and attention, they'd have different careers. Get over it. So not a serious issue.

[CatJane]

I can't believe how idiotic the reaction to a dress made of material to look like meat is having. She has certainly done her job in being able to grab all the attention she deserves. If the dress was real maggots would have destroyed it within 24 hours alone. Gaga is great and if she can manage to grab the spotlight everytime she is in public well good for her. She is just what this world has needed.

[Jyoti Mathur]

And what about wasting the meat on a pointless dress when millions of people around the world are going hungry!!!!!!!!!!!

[Jim]

For someone who's looked up to by kids for her no-nonsense activism and socially responsible voice on issues of human rights, to see Lady Gaga's appearance at Sunday's MTV Video Music Awards as the instigator of this is kind of callous, stupid cruelty is really appalling and intensely disappointing.

Using the bodies of sentient creatures, slaughtered for a temporary novelty to decorate one's body with for a few minutes, is repugnant, irresponsible and entirely unacceptable--regardless of intention or message. There's something beyond the message: The actual cruelty and slaughter, intentionally carried out for the meaningless, brief spectacle of self-promotion.

We had paid $350+ for tickets several months in advance for her show in Raleigh, NC next Sunday, and now I really don’t even want to go.

Finally, the nerve of her ridiculous attempt at drawing gay and lesbian people into it to avoid taking the shame for her own stupidity on this is really over the top, and compounds the nauseating factor of the initial stunt all the more.

[Ice Tbone]

Lady Gaga and a meat dress. Sounds like a tasty treat to me.

[Mr. Pibb]

Ok, this time it's too obvious. She's trying too hard to get attention. but hey, it works. just like Madonna before her. It's funny how these days it the women in show business who are making all the waves.

[Disgusted - guest]

Disgusting, Sick, De-mended and Stinky. She sat in meat with no under garments, YUCK!! Did she have lipstick and tampons in her meat purse. YUCK!!! Makes me want to vomit. Lets put her back in that outfit and send her to the jungles in Africa so the Lions can appreciate it. She's mentally out of it, she's lost it. No Longer A Fan

[Lily]

She's just trying to distract everyone from the banality of her music.