Only After We Die We Are All Seen As Equal.
When you see a human skeleton what do you think about? What is your first instant thought pertaining to a human skeleton?
I for one love the human skeleton because to me it defines equality. I am a feminist, I believe every individual regardless of their sex, gender, race, and class should be treated equally, because underneath our skin we are all the same. Our flesh is simply a disguise, but once we get stripped from it we are all just a bag of bones. Lady Gaga’s popular music video “Born This Way” does a great job demonstrating the idea that we are all equally the same, we are all beautiful, and we are “born this way” and it’s okay.
In Lady Gaga’s lyrics she sings,
“No matter gay, straight or bi
Lesbian transgendered life
I’m on the right track baby,
I was born to survive”
This line stood out to me the most because in society if you do not follow the sex or gender binaries you are treated differently as if something is wrong with you. To further explain, in Freya’s Brown article, “On The Social Construction of Sex,” she states, “The motivation behind “correcting” inter-sex characteristics is thus not one related to the health of the child, it is entirely one of enforcing the sex binary.” Out of the entire article this quote struck a nerve, because society cares more about keeping a hetero-normative world, rather than accepting the fact that it is okay to be different. In Lady Gaga’s music video we can see how her body is different because she has pointy shoulders as well as small pointy edges that look like horns coming out of her forehead. She is not suppose to be human, but more like an alien from a different planet. The science fiction narrative that goes along with the music video implies that inter-sex or non-hetero normative individuals are seen as aliens because they are different. However, Lady Gaga’s lyrics continue with the supporting line,
“I’m beautiful in my way
Cause God makes no mistakes
I’m on the right track baby,
I was born this way”
To explain, Lady Gaga is arguing that regardless whether you are inter-sex, gay, or transgendered there is nothing wrong. This brings me back to the human skeleton statement. Throughout the music video we see two human skeletons. One of them is Lady Gaga with her face painted as a skull, and the other individual is a male who also has a skull appearance. They are both in black suits and a bow tie. However, although we know the gender of each of these individuals what Lady Gaga is trying to demonstrate is that we are all the same, we are all skeletons disguised in flesh. To further explain, I think the reason behind Lady Gaga’s choice of attire in this scene is because she is trying to break out of the gender role that society has assigned for her. When Lady Gaga steps out in the black suit she does it with confidence, while simultaneously implying that she can and will wear whatever she wants. Similarly, in a different scene Lady Gaga does a jacking off gesture as if she had a penis. In this scene as she quickly ejaculates she throws the middle finger in the air, as if to say “fuck you and your hetero-normative society.” I like this scene because even though she is a woman with a vagina, she is pretending to have a penis to prove her point that inter-sexuality is normal and there is nothing wrong with having both genitalia.
In addition, in mid 2009 it was said that Lady Gaga is inter-sex due to a video where she is performing and a penis seemed to appear out of her short dress. Although the internet claims that Lady Gaga is inter-sex, I did not find any reliable sources to support this claim, but whether she is or not Lady Gaga is a feminist and a strong supporter of the LGBTQ community.
As a final note, I would like to share this beautiful video that I love and also does a marvelous job at demonstrating how all individuals should be treated equally because we are all the same. Although this video focuses on love, it still projects the same idea of acceptance. It is time for society to stop enforcing the sex binary and begin accepting everyone for who they are, because every human being should have the right to live a happy life.
