Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Formatting Issues
Fox and Gaga
Bulletin, 2009
“She’s too weird.”
“She’s a slut.”
“I heard she’s a tranny.”
These are all criticisms we have heard of two explosively famous female stars today: Megan Fox and Lady Gaga. While these two starlets dominate the latest TMZ, Perez Hilton and Us Weekly circles, they remain on distinctly divergent paths. Plenty of tween, teen, young adult and middle aged people are more than happy to regale you with a full explanation of why they hate/love/can’t stand/are devoted to Fox or Gaga. I suppose this article is a continuation of that.
I hate Megan Fox. I love Lady Gaga. Let me tell you why.
Megan Fox has been proclaimed the “Sexiest Woman in the World” and continues to rule atop her throne as queen of the fanboy wet dream. Hated by many women, Fox continues to get into the press for her so-called “outrageous” quotes and her nearly nude photos. Most women who hate her emote from a place of jealousy, wishing they too had a stellar rack, toned stomach and pinchable tush. Women with low self-esteem everywhere woefully lament their physical differences from her. This is not why I hate Megan Fox. I hate Megan Fox because she is not outrageous. She sells barely scandalous smut to those who choose to pretend they aren’t sexual beings. Talking about bi-sexual trysts with Los Angeles strippers is not outrageous; it’s pandering.
What I hate about Megan Fox is that she plays into the very gender dichotomy she claims to be so ardently against. She knows that the average young American woman is uncomfortable with sexuality, sexiness and sex itself. She then tells stories to magazines like Esquire and GQ meant to titillate the tight-laced masses and get them to become engrossed. With one breath she whines about the “archaic Biblical principles” that bind women to repressed sexuality and with another she blurts, “It’s very unfortunate because men are embraced for their sexual prowess and women discouraged from it,” while she not-so-subtly sucks on an ice cube in a barely-there bikini for the ogling pleasure of readers everywhere, watching the money pile up.
On the topic of young girls in the entertainment industry, Fox gripes, “But it’s not right. They take these little girls, and they put them through entertainment school and teach them to sing and dance, and make them wear belly shirts, but they won’t allow them to be their own people. It makes me sick.” In the same article she appears in pictures that hundreds of women have appeared in before—the sexy swimsuit, the bra and panties, the men’s button-up, it’s all been done before, call it cookie-cutter sex appeal.
While Fox decries the horrors of blatant sexuality as a curse for the average woman, leaving her forced to pretend as if it doesn’t exist while living in a world that placed vapid sexiness at a premium, she whines about women not being allowed to be smart and sexy. Then, with the same sort of back-and-forth that makes my blood boil, she says, in an interview with the men’s magazine Esquire, “I don't want to have to be like a Scarlett Johansson--who I have nothing against--but I don't want to have to go on talk shows and pull out every single SAT word I've ever learned to prove, like, 'Take me seriously, I am intelligent, I can speak.' I don't want to have to do that. I resent having to prove that I'm not a retard, but I do. And part of it is my own fault." Let me get this straight, Ms. Fox, you want to empower women but speaking with a vocabulary meant to be mastered by high-schoolers and being sexy because you’re smart is to be looked down upon? You’ve truly lost me.
Megan Fox doesn’t degrade women by posing in a ripped shirt covered in oil on top of a muscle car. She degrades women by not bringing anything else to the table. It seems just as repressive to women’s (and indeed, men’s) rights to bottle up human sexuality as it is to flaunt it as a tool for international fame. Hiding your body and feeling ashamed is just as bad as using it as a pop cultural calling card. Empowering women involves embracing both your body and your mind.
Lady Gaga is often placed alongside stars like Megan Fox in the pantheon of the criticized as “too weird.” Her non-traditional outfits, music videos and live performances have created a swirl of condemnation from critics large and small. Gaga, too, goes on the record frequently talking about her bisexuality, what she looks for in a lover, and is an outspoken advocate for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights. Some use this as evidence that she is merely a modern day shock jockey, riding the controversy of her rule-bending comments. They are wrong. She is much more. One thing separates Lady Gaga from Megan Fox--substance.
According to her biography, Gaga makes her own costumes, learned piano by ear at age four, and was a student (one of only 20) at the highly prestigious Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. Her impressive resume stacks up with her impressive popularity and skyrocketing record sales. When questioned by Rolling Stone’s Brian Hiatt about her sexiness, she replies, “I don’t feel like I look like the other perfect little pop singers…I think I am changing what people think is sexy.” She is certainly changing perceptions.
As for the rumors of her purported transsexuality, Gaga shrugs off the critics and makes frequent reference to her true fans. She, like Fox, fights the same sort of sexist blathering of fools who can’t comprehend a strong-headed, in-your-face female personality bringing sexiness to the table. However, Gaga answers with a savvy confidence that radiates and truly inspires young women (and young men) to be who they really are. She proves more than a willingness to be different. She shows a willingness to be unique. In a world where counter-culture is as pedestrian as a trip to the local mall, Lady Gaga breaks the mold—calling for liberation by individuality.
In the same Rolling Stone interview, Gaga said, “My true legacy will be the test of time, and whether I can sustain a space in pop culture and really make stuff that will have a genuine impact.”
I can only hope her legacy is an empowerment of all genders and a validation of individualism.
