“Just remember. Lady GaGa is the enemy.”
This is how I ended a female counselors’ training session at camp this summer. I’ve worked at a summer camp out in California for the past four summers. Most of our campers came from wealthier homes in the LA area and come to camp charged with both the pressures and sense of opportunity inherent in being a girl today. This past summer, as director of Girls’ Camp, I was convinced that Lady GaGa–oversexed, plastic, and outrageous–was just the wrong role model for the strong and empowered women I wanted the campers to become.
I think I might have been wrong. Sorry GaGa.
This was back in the day before I watched the Bad Romance video so many times I almost have the dance memorized (it’s complicated and I’m not coordinated). Okay maybe lyrics like “I want your leather studded kiss in the sand” is a bit much for twelve-year-olds. But Lady GaGa–oversexed, plastic, and outrageous–totally owns her oversexed, plastic outrageousness.
Last night my roommates and I were discussing how wimpy and ignorant of English literature (hello Shakespeare) Taylor Swift, another contemporary pop princess, is. Today, I stumbled across this video, a parody of Taylor Swift’s song “Fifteen” by Madinthemoon:
Brilliant. I’m not sure what my favorite lines are. Maybe:
Don’t spend your weekend nights crying at home on your guitar wishing life was like Disney.
Or:
Cause if you’re a virgin and some jerk steals your hymen, your life isn’t over. Because your hymen isn’t all you’ve got to offer in this world. Did you know at that end of that play that Romeo and Juliet DIE?
She closes out with another gem:
If you’re going to listen to someone, listen to GaGa. Choose creative over canned, choose fierce over bland.
