Blogging Assignment for Week 9: Lady Gaga Crosses Gender Lines Through her Alter Ego

Lady Gaga's male alter ego, Jo Calderone, made a debut this year in the MTV VMA Awards. Dressing up as a man, Gaga seemed to be imitating John Travolta's famous and hot "Grease"character. Gaga has not only revolutionized the music industry, but has also surprisingly reinvented gender roles. By redefining femininity, Lady Gaga has changed the image of female celebrities which has been popularly accepted by her "monsters." (Gaga refers to her fans as monsters. Thus, the word "monster" revisits the article we read about in Week 8 in which hermaphrodites were thought of as monsters because they endangered the socially- and gender-constructed norms defined by early society.) Gaga has received numerous amount of support from her fans, and although the media categorizes her image and actions as absurd and unreflective of modern society, her power over individuals has greatly amassed her to become one of the most influential people today. Although her drag show appearance did shock the MTV audience, the next day, most people seemed to have been applauding her performance. She won best female and best video, reflecting the power she has acquired. Thus, it seems that Gaga has made a stance in addressing an issue that affects transsexuals and the gay community in large. (The LGBT community seemed to have celebrated Gaga's image.) Now, the question is, if Lady Gaga can succesfully get away with "cross-dressing", then why can't others do it as well? Is it because Lady Gaga is not fully considered homosexual? Or is it because we are only viewing it as a sort of entertainment?