Sex, Violence & Power: Lady Gaga and Beyonce do Thelma and Louise
WARNING: This post contains explicit language and a link to a video not appropriate for younger viewers.
Looking for a signpost of where pop feminism and girl power are living these days? Thank Gaga, Beyonce and writer/director Jonas Akerlund: their new nine minute music video, Telephone, is foot-tapping testament to the primacy of sex and aggression as compelling forms of female power.
The film opens with Gaga in the pokey, only this jail features women prancing around in prison couture (sex-cons?). Gaga’s fluid sexuality, trendsetting headgear and unapologetic ferocity are on full, gorgeous display. After stripping Gaga, a butch guard mutters, “I told you she didn’t have a dick.” The other replies, “Too bad.”
Gaga probably doesn’t think so: the film launches into a montage of violence that seems to suggest that anything you can do, we can do better – and we can do it in a thong. Men may pack pistols as satellite penises, but these girls burn rubber in Kill Bill’s “Pussy Wagon.”
The union of sex and aggression has never been more vivid. Check out the prisoner in thigh-high strappy boots wrapping her legs around the neck of a fellow inmate. Watch Gaga grit her teeth as she dances in a thong and bikini top. She seems ferally angry. Her dancing, at times, looks like glammed up air punching. Is it aggressive sexiness or sexy aggression? I’m not sure, but it’s clearly intended to announce a unique display of female power.
Is this a feminist film? The homage to the film Thelma and Louise comes at the end: Gaga and B.’s hands intertwined as they drive off into an unknown criminal future. Released in 1991 (and the subject of one of my first ever Women’s Studies papers at Vassar), Thelma and Louise shocked mainstream America with the criminal retaliation of a woman (played by Susan Sarandon) who was brutally raped– and who sought justice by killing a man trying to rape her best friend.
In Thelma and Louise, the crime circus created by the two women stemmed from victimization. In Telephone, Gaga and Beyonce are killing just to kill. Gaga has said the film is supposed to continue the story of Paparazzi, where Gaga is crippled by a boyfriend’s violent behavior and gets revenge by killing him. In Telephone Beyonce poisons a louse of a boyfriend, but his crime, besides being a sexist jerk, is unclear.
The women don’t just kill him, either; inexplicably, they kill everyone in the diner – then they dance around the dead bodies. You even see a dead dog. There are a lot of cultural appropriations here, many of which went over my head. Still, the message seems to be that these women mean business, and it also seems to flaunt a “just cuz” attitude towards violence. Why kill? Because we’re badass.
Unfortunately, the lyrics get lost in the melee. Listen closely and you’ll hear what may be the first song that expresses outrage towards a cyber-stalking man: Boy, the way you blowin’ up my phone/won’t make me leave no faster/Put my coat on faster/leave my girls no faster/I shoulda left my phone at home/cuz this is a disaster!/Callin’ like a collector/sorry, I cannot answer! The lyrics name a major problem affecting young women: a 2007 statistic reported that one in three teens say they are text messaged 10, 20, or 30 times an hour by a partner inquiring where they are, what they’re doing, or who they’re with.
The unabashed and roundly criticized product placement in this film – Virgin cell phones, a dating website, Diet Coke cans as curlers in Gaga’s hair – is weirdly ironic. On the one hand, it takes the marriage of commerce and art to a new, disturbing low. On the other hand, by not even attempting to hide the products, you almost feel relieved at the transparency. Gaga dancing around with Miracle Whip and Wonder Bread is so completely ridiculous that it feels like the joke is on the advertisers. The Atlantic makes the link to Warhol (along with some other fascinating insights – don’t miss their analysis).
I love watching Beyonce play with Gaga. “You’ve been a bad girl,” Beyonce admonishes. “A very, very bad girl, Gaga.” Indeed. According to the Atlantic, Gaga told E! that she wanted to take “the idea that America is full of young people that are inundated with information and technology and turn it into something that was more of a commentary on the kind of country that we are.” Gaga is leading us somewhere that partly freaks me out and partly inspires me. Whatever happens, this monster‘s hanging on her every word.
I sincerely adore Lady Gaga and her odd costumes although she really let herself down this time being seen out in see through underwear.
Pussy Wagon and multiple deaths are from Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill works.
Mixed messages abound.
My daughters (8 and 12) and I listen to Lady Gaga all the time. We love driving and singing or mis-singing her songs (“I don’t want to be French.”) We are huge fans of Glee and were thrilled to hear that she was going to be part of the next season (either through her songs or in person). I love her outrageous sense of style on the red carpet and when she met Queen Elizabeth. I love the rumours about her sexuality. And I love that Johnny Weir skates to her music. That said, I was a more than a bit taken aback and disappointed by the Telephone video. I watched it with my older daughter (12, which is probably a bit young but I figured she would see it on one of her friends’ i phones anyway and I wanted to be there to offer my running commentary). While it definitely was a visual roller coaster ride, there were some things that stuck out and disturbed me (particularly because she does have a lot of “tween” and young teen age girls in her fan base and, chances are, they are going to see this video, many without the benefit of their 1970s era feminist mother’s annoying commentary): the scantily clad women (leather bikinis and spiked heels) in prison seemed to be a trope out of a young man’s lesbian prison porn fanstasy; what was with the headgear made of cigarettes (I’m really paranoid about anything that would make young women think it was cool to smoke); quasi bondage-like images in the prison cell (again — thinking of the male gaze). Once Gaga and Beyonce were on the road, I was more comfortable with the video and, despite the unexplained (and unnecessary) mass murder, was able to place it in context for my daughter as a successor to Thelma and Louise (and more generally, the outlaw tradition in American film exemplified by Bonnie and Clyde). We talked about that and about objectification of women but how this was complicated by the fact that the possibly objectified women in question were two of the most powerful women in the entertainment industry who were auteurs of their own images. I wasn’t happy that she watched but I felt like I gave her some tools to make sense out of it in a way that wasn’t entirely scary and disturbing.
I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall for that conversation! Sounds pretty great. Agreed that some of this video is disturbing — I had the same response, every time I watched, to the cigarettes. The sexualization of violence also bothers me, because it can be read as positioning women as both objects AND subjects, or to be less academic, as objectified AND strong — a contradictory and confusing message (which speaks to your similar point about these two powerful women also being objectified). Brava for dealing head on with something that your daughter will likely watch — if not now, then at some point. Teaching her the skills to read her culture and media is true empowerment. While I wish it didn’t have to happen so young, I suppose that’s just part of what we have to deal with right now.
My favorite part of this video is how she makes fun of the idiots who spread the rumors that she has a dick.
This song is quickly becoming my favorite song at the moment.
It is ridiculously catchy. Since blogging about it I have listened to it a ton.
I think Lady GaGa is inspiring to the utmost. All her videos are somehow interseting and entertaining. I always find what she’s saying, but mostly everyone jsut thinks she’s weird. And they like her for that. But I think there’s more to her. And i loved this video, except that it didn’t work as well with the song as i’d hoped
I always get her videos, too. She may be a little weird, but that’s what makes her most appealing!
I agree that the video does not work with the song. I really do believe the lyrics about not wanting to be bothered on the phone get lost — and that these are powerful words to use against a digitally aggressive partner. Thanks for commenting!
I love Lady Gaga bc of all of her (notsohidden) messages: I think this video is about violence against women (that is often perpetuated and/or endorsed by women), and in turn, how this violence manifests itself as institutional and internalized oppression, which impacts all of us.
I am so glad that you talked about the Thelma and Louise reference- many folks I have talked to didn’t get it/see the connection!
I did think that Bey did her usual mediocre work as an “actress” and that the violence was a little much, even for Lady Gaga and her monsters.
But all in all, I am continually impressed by how Gaga is not afraid to tell the REAL truth about what’s happening!
Thanks for pointing out the internalized oppression — i had not picked that up at all in the initial reading. That’s very helpful, and it actually adds a lot of value to the message. I really did struggle with the violence because it seemed so senseless. Thanks so much for your comment!
Brilliant! You nailed it! Thank you for your educated and perceptive comments!
I fondly agree. One of my fav feminist movies of all time is Death Proof and this totally reminded me of it. I absolutely loved it the second time around (the first watch there is just too much going on to find meaning)
[...] Sex, Violence & Power: Lady Gaga and Beyonce do Thelma and Louise … [...]
Am I getting this wrong? Rachel, you are not actually condoning this video as appropriate displays of feminism. Sex and violence have nothing to do with feminism. As the mother of 2 daughters, I am totally disgusted by your comments “Gaga is leading us somewhere that partly freaks me out and partly inspires me. Whatever happens, this monster’s hanging on her every word.” What!??
Most likely, you are not a mother, and if these are the kinds of things you are teaching young girls today at your Leadership Institute, touting sex and violence by women being fine, God help us all. How does this help “girls and young women grow into authentic, emotionally intelligent and assertive adults.” Using sex and violence is unacceptable, whether men or women are the perpetrators.
[I point you to the work of a true scholar, Christina Hoff Sommers. Her newest article is available at http://www.cblpi.org/ftp/Policy%20Express/10-1_Sommers_TakeBackFeminism.pdf
What happened to the women’s groups who, in the past, were against using women as unintellectual sex objects?? Apparently, it is now acceptable. Even PETA can jump in to use womens’ bodies in order to “save” animals. So, not only are you supporting this type of behavior, you are actually promoting it???
I really do not know what you were thinking with this posting. I am wondering if you have lost your way, or perhaps this is your way…..
VERY DISAPPOINTING!
Hi Renee,
Thanks for your comment. In *NO* way am I promoting this video as an appropriate display of feminism, and I am not certain where you have gotten that idea from. As I clearly state, this video is a barometer of where pop feminism and girl power are going — and the blog is my analysis. To the contrary, there’s much about Gaga’s videos that I find disturbing for younger female viewers. And I have blogged in the past about the sexualization of girls, as well as the troubled relationship to healthy sexuality that many young women seem to have.
That said, if we look away from the media that our girls are consuming, we do them a huge disservice. Denial is not the answer. We must deconstruct the messaging and give girls the tools to be critical consumers of the images they are seeing. Without this, they internalize the messages wholesale — whether we want them to or not, no matter what restrictions parents place (kids leave the house at some point) — and that’s where the real damage occurs. This week, I had several mothers thank me for this blog as a way to start a conversation with their daughters. This is my goal in writing it.
I had the great pleasure this week of spending 2 days working at Gaga’s alma mater (she is class of 2004), a Catholic girls school in NYC with an unparalleled commitment to character and morality education, and girls’ empowerment. Stefanie, as Gaga was known there, was a beloved student — driven, committed and aspirational. While her videos and lyrics may be controversial for a religious community, from what I can see and hear, her teachers are deeply proud of her.
I am in fact inspired by Gaga’s commitment to social justice, by the lyrics against digital stalking contained in this song, by her professional and articulate self-presentation, by her aesthetic and by her music. That doesn’t mean I like everything she does, but I do like some of it, and I do think we need to take it seriously and help girls make sense of it. I am, of course, sorry to read about your disappointment, but I hope you will take the time to consider this response.
Best wishes –
Rachel
Rachel,
I have considered your response. When you state in another response to a young girl, “It is ridiculously catchy. Since blogging about it I have listened to it a ton,” you absolutely are promoting the song, and by default, the video.
Neither your analysis, nor The Atlantic’s (written by another female), provided any CLEAR admonishment regarding the totally inappropriate displays of feminism. This was what I found very disappointing, especially from two prominent women.
It is understand that Lady GaGa inspires you and you have a right to that opinion, personally. What you are failing to realize here is that you, as an adult woman, are a powerful teacher. (Sound familiar?) I would just have preferred to see you provide better guidance to young girls about ALL the NEGATIVE images in the video.
No doubt mothers should be conversing about this with their daughters, which is something I do routinely. There are so many inappropriate displays of feminism in all forms of media today, (including Teen Vogue).
I was very impressed by your documentary, “A Girls Life” on PBS, and it is my hope to see you do more to help young girls in becoming healthier young women. Female aggression is becoming more prevalent, and videos such as “Telephone” only serve to confirm, and perhaps even encourage, that trend.
Thank you for your consideration.
God Bless,
Renee
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