You may have enjoyed her new video for Judas, but did you catch her subtle visual nod to those of you who still wonder if she has a penis? We didn’t either; thankfully Lezley Kinsel is on the case with her thoughts on “Gagaphrodite”:
Immediately following the lipstick application, straddling the distance between Gaga’s despair and the prostitute-kiss between Judas and Jesus, the video breaks to a dream sequence in which a motionless Gaga is overcome by a cascade of waves reminsicent of the early mythological origins of a much older deity: the Greek goddess of love and sexuality, Aphrodite.
Gaga thereby connects herself with another powerful, otherworldly feminine archetype worshipped long before Jesus was a glimmer in his [F]ather’s eye, and one also associated with sacred prostitution. Aphrodite literally means “out of the foam”; as the story goes, she was born of the ocean, after Uranus’ son castrated (or possibly emasculated) the elder god and threw his severed genitals into the sea. Given the persistent rumors that Gaga is intersex, or possesses both male and female genitalia, the depiction of her in the role of a distinctly feminine, sex-centric goddess born as a result of the removal of male genitalia is both tongue-in-cheek and incredibly apt.
Plus all that foam crashing around her made us think of big wet spooge, but then again we’re perverts. Of course, we have photographic proof that the Lady does in fact have a Lady Labia, but who doesn’t love the idea of having an intersexed pop diva? If you say you don’t, you’re lying.
Matt
Lady Gaga = pathetic publicity whoring + bad music.
Jo from BoMA
That is quite the analysis, but Kylie beat Gaga to the Aphrodite theme over a year ago.
Adonis-of-Fire
The wave scene represents a CULTURAL BAPTISM!!
j
I’m so bored of postmodern over analyzing. Maybe lady gaga thought it’d be cool to stand alone and powerful while waves tower over her? Maybe it did have to do with this whole cultural baptism thing she rambles on about (and her “subverting” of christian imagery). Or maybe, according to the author its because lady gaga wanted to assert herself as a sea goddess because she once made a joke that she was a man and thought that by personifying a deity that was created because of castration she would…erm, I dunno? But its all “incredibly apt” and terribly clever. Excuse me whilst I wipe the irony off of my screen.
j
The painting to the right of her is stunning, by the way.
Jollysocks
Same bad writing, same bad subject material . . . ah, The New Queerty is just like the Old.
skoc211
@Jo from BoMA: Yeah, and Botticelli beat Kylie to it over five hundred years ago, which totally pissed off the Hesiod fans……