Lady Gaga's Boy Toy Morphs Into Mickey Mouse

Lady Gaga has made her dancer Mike Silas a sex symbol for Little Monsters all over the world. Like Gaga, Mike’s layered persona adds to her performance art, and his love for reflecting the world through his mind and body makes him a Warhol in motion.

26-year-old professional dancer Michael Silas, also known as Mike, is a human camera who photographs the world with his mind and body. He and the woman he tours with, Lady Gaga share a concept of reflecting the world by using their bodies as mirrors, which was the basis for the work of American pop artist Andy Warhol.

Both Mike and Warhol reflect the world through their internal mirrors and cameras. Each man reflects an image that he sees in the world into his mind’s mirror, and then his mind’s mirror reflects the image into the mirror of a camera that people take pictures with. Next, the mirror of the camera reflects the image back out into the outside world that we all live in, so now the image can be reflected again through clothing and dance. With the mirror inside a person’s mind (the person’s mental camera and camera the person buys from the store), the person creates reflections of the world, just like the many mirrors in a dressing room that reflect one other’s images ending up in one twisted image, like from a funhouse mirror.

Mike has a love for photography, and based on the self-photographed and self-styled photos of him on Facebook, it’s clear that he knows how to capture the world on film, while making himself a part of the art. While on the Monster Ball Tour with Lady Gaga, Mike was apparently shopping at a Disney store in Japan where a bunch of Mickey Mouse key chains hang around him, and tin canisters printed with Mickey’s image surround Mike. Then Mike wears a Mickey Mouse mask where only the eyes are visible. The combination of Mike’s mysterious human eyes and the image of Mickey’s cartoon smile have a frightening effect because it’s that same creepy feeling you get when you see a dog’s head on an ant’s body. Also, the contrast of Mickey’s head (excluding Mike’s eyes) and Mike’s outfit of a black T-shirt revealing some of his arm tattoos and backpack straps is shocking because you can’t imagine Mickey Mouse wearing this, yet it’s very artistic because it shows Mike as combination of the wholesome and the edgy. The funny thing about Mike’s black T-shirt is that it has a white silhouette of Mickey Mouse on it.

Also, there’s a multicolored tile design on the wall that serves as Mike’s backdrop, splitting the shelves full of Mickey merchandise. In the end, Mike becomes Mickey Mouse, a parody of the world’s most famous cartoon mouse, and a symbol of America’s fascination with reproducing products for making money. It’s an example of Mike taking the mirror inside his mind and reflecting back one of America’s symbols of innocence, and corrupting it with his tattooed skin and edgy clothes.

The edgy pop star becomes a piece of art in Andy Warhol’s 1963 silkscreen print Triple Elvis. The print shows three identical images of Elvis Priestly pointing a gun towards the camera. This same image is printed on top of one another, making the three images of Elvis look like a trio of gunslingers. By repeating Elvis’ image, Warhol shows how symbols of pop culture like pop star Elvis can express the values of a culture, which is making copies of the same product, so that they can be sold in stores. Then lots of money is made from the products. Elvis’ image is like a product that anyone can manipulate into different versions and different shapes to make money.

Shape-shifting is the common thread between Mike Silas and Lady Gaga. Mike is an important part of Gaga’s performance art because of his tattooed body. The presence of Mike’s tattoos defies stereotypes because his many tattoos make him seem rough and tough. The choreography for Lady Gaga’s songs pushes the boundaries of gender and when Mike performs it, it shows that he can be masculine and feminine. Mike is the product of a black father and a Hispanic mother, so that’s why his skin is light. His tattoos are a combination of Japanese fish (inked onto his body in Japan) and a lion for his zodiac sign Leo, as well as other symbols that he uses as a diary of his experiences. Mike’s light skin is the perfect canvas to make his diary stand out with color.

During a performance of “Love Game” on Gaga’s Monster Ball Tour, Mike’s wardrobe looks like something out of the sci-fi A Clockwork Orange. He wears a white corset, white leggings, and a codpiece by his crotch area, and white boots that look like those Doc Marten boots that were popular in the ‘90s. A bone mask rests on his head with the point hanging down to the bridge of his nose, shading his eyes and looking like a bird’s beak. Mike’s face is made up with eye shadow and eyeliner. Also, his tattoos are exposed covering Mike’s lean, muscular body that makes him look feminine and masculine. So it’s a filled subway train car, a glowing disco stick and gender-bending costumes that pull the performance together. This is a reminder of how far Mike’s come since he first started dancing for Lady Gaga in 2008, when he had almost no facial hair and an ordinary haircut. Now he has facial hair, his hair shaved into different shapes, and Mohawks dyed fudge browns and cherry reds making him look like a punk rocker going against what people think is normal. The way Mike can always look so different is fits perfectly with Gaga’s performance art, including what he looks like and how he dances.

When Mike was teaching a Masters of Dance class, he gave his students a piece of advice about image that Andy Warhol would approve of. Mike said, “Just know that here [the dance class] is where you get your foundation and your confidence as a dancer, really look into this [touches mirror in the dance studio with hand].”When you look at your reflection in a mirror, the reflection depends on the mirror inside your mind. You could really look beautiful on the outside, but if you ugly on the inside then you’re going to look ugly on the outside. The idea of changing yourself into something different through makeup, clothes and movement of your body, is a way of destroying your ugly feelings, or just temporarily hiding it., Warhol thought himself ugly and tried to find beauty by making other people look beautiful in his artwork. Also, he photographed himself in drag, again transforming his image. As society often says, beauty is all in the eye of the beholder.

Dance Show Says Black Contestant is Too African

Jose Ruiz during audition.

Jose break-dancing.

If you didn’t already know, reality-television isn’t real. Instead it’s theater, and often bad theater. In the case of Fox’s ninth season of dance competition So You Think You Can Dance, it’s bad theater.

The judges on SYTYCD, namely the show’s executive producer Nigel Lythgoe, are trying to manufacture a winner. They’re trying to influence voters by making terrible comments about contestants with clearly more talent than the one contestant they’re trying to make a winner. That contestant is the baby-faced b-boy dancer Jose Ruiz.

Looking like a slightly lighter-skinned, corn-rowed version of singer Chris Brown, Jose Ruiz doesn’t do any other dancing except break-dancing, yet the judges are trying to make him the favorite to win SYTYCD. Jose along with tap dancer Melinda Sullivan were the two odd choices to make the Top 11 because their dancing is so different than than the other dances on SYTYCD, like ballet. Break-dancing and tap dancing is limited when it comes to performing other styles of dance. It's one thing to have a dominant style of dance like last year's SYTYCD winner Russell Ferguson (a hip-hop dancer), but Russell could perform other types of dancing. Jose can barely do hip-hop choreography smoothly. You would think with his break-dancing that he would be able to do hip-hop choreography, but he often comes off as stiff. Despite receiving the worst comments from the judges, Melinda wasn’t eliminated until the third week. Meanwhile, Jose is treated differently than his fellow contestants because he’s not trained in other dances, and although giving him good comments (for a b-boy dancer), Nigel Lythgoe went as far to say that Ruiz is not a good dancer, but he’s got a pretty face and solid acting skills.

 Last week, Jose performed a Bollywood routine that judge Mia Michaels said was “so wrong,” but he made it work because of personality and positive attitude. Follow that with this week’s episode where African-American contestant Adechike Torbert performed a Bollywood routine and was told that he made the Indian dance too “African.” The judges implied the race relation, but they didn’t say it directly. When host Cat Deeley pointed out to the judges that they had told Jose that his Bollywood routine had a groove to it (read: African, since apparently all black people can dance), similar to what they told Adechike, and Mia responded that Jose had more emotion. Adechike was on the verge of tears, but kept it in like a champ. It’s clear that the judges want Jose to win no matter what, and are willing to stomp all over people’s feelings in the process.

Adechike Torbert

Other than Jose there aren’t any favorites to win SYTYCD. The gifted ballet dancer Alex Wong, who made headlines with his excellent hip-hop routine, last week, was a favorite, but he ruptured his Achilles tendon (on his foot) and it’s not certain if he’ll be able to continue competing on the show. Sadly, I doubt he will. So that leaves just Jose. Along with Adechike, some of the other contestants the scheming judges are trying to sabotage include the soft-spoken Billy Bell. The judges don’t seem to be too enthusiastic about the wholesome cheerleader Lauren Froderman and the handsome, yet quirky Robert Roldan. They seem to like Ashley Galvan and the adorable farm boy Kent Boyd. Speaking of Kent, the judges are trying to market him to the tween audiences by getting him to say he’s single and that he’d likes girls who are like his mother. Aww, how sweet, right? Funny enough, he follows that with saying he wants a woman who’s like Beyonce. Suki Suki now!

At the end of day, the winner of So You Think You Can Dance is determined by the voters, so if Jose Ruiz can’t get the votes then he won’t be the winner. However, I wouldn’t put it past the judges to rig the voting since Nigel Lythgoe has a lot of power. Tonight is the voting results show, so let’s see which contestant goes home tonight.

Watch the show on the Fox channel at 9pm. Eastern

Is Lady Gaga a Man in a Woman's Body?

Lady Gaga has taken the rumors about her gender and turned them into a game that she wants you to play. This game is all about making you think about gender in a different way instead of labeling people, man or woman, gay or straight.

Gaga was born a female and still is a female biologically, but gender is more about the mind than the body. She makes you wonder if she’s a glamorous female trying to turn men on, or a drag queen in a woman’s body. Is her admitted bisexuality a statement on the rumors of her being a hermaphrodite or simply a way to turn on men? Gaga wants you to ask these questions and redefine your idea of normal.

It’s the blond wigs, heavy makeup and eye-popping outfits that make you think Gaga could be a man dressed as a woman, so it’s no wonder that so many people believed those hermaphrodite rumors. Gaga says she feels like a gay man trapped in a woman’s body, and it shows in her music. On some songs, she sees herself as an insecure man who finds confidence by dressing as a glamorous woman on “So Happy I Could Die.” Lyrics like “I love that lavender blonde/the way she moves, the way she walks” or “I do my hair, I gloss my eyes/I touch myself all through the night/ And when something falls out of place, I take my time, I put it back/I touch myself ‘til I’m on track” are good examples of how Gaga sees herself as a drag queen. Something falls out of place, hmmm… I wonder what that could be.

It’s also interesting that on “Bad Romance,” Gaga chooses to mention three Alfred Hitchcock movies that all feature males as their main characters. The movies she mentions appear in the song as “I want your Psycho, your Vertigo shtick/want you in my Rear Window, baby you’re sick.” Psycho features a grown man who dresses up as his dead mother and kills people. Vertigo is about a man who won’t let go of the past, and he dresses up the possible love of his life into a carbon copy of a dead woman from his past. And Rear Window focuses on a man who’d rather look at other’s people’s lives from his bedroom window than live his own life. Maybe Gaga sees herself in these men. Maybe each male character is an extreme example of her different types of fans, the Little Monsters. Many of the Little Monsters are adolescents and young adults who are quirky and unusual who feel like they don’t fit in. Lady Gaga tells them it’s okay to be different as long as they are themselves. Even if that means dressing up and hiding their bodies or faces, if that’s the way they feel comfortable in their own skin.

In 2009, Lady Gaga revealed to the world that her No. 1 song “Poker Face” was about how she fantasized about women while she had sex with her boyfriend, but she kept it a secret for a while because she feared rejection. After hearing that information, you’d probably say that Gaga is bisexual and you would be right, but it’s the way she weaves her bisexuality into her art that makes her announcement so unique. She reflects the rumors about her gender with her magic mirror and turns it into art, and uses “Poker Face” as a way to comment on her bisexuality by saying her poker face is her mask, her hat and her veil of mystery. This obsession with covering her face, whether it’s with her fingers, veils, scarves or hats is a way of keeping part of herself private.

Gender is all about how people see themselves in their minds. Society makes the gender roles that we live with, but Lady Gaga wants you to break the rules. People only follow the rules because they care what people think, and Gaga says to be free. Whether you’re a man or a woman, transsexual or hermaphrodite, embrace your inner drag queen or your inner butch. Fly your freak flag and declare yourself a “free bitch.”

Alun Davies Punks Out Lady Gaga's Monsters

Lady Gaga's dancer Mike Silas wears Alun Davies disco ball armor.

Imagine a violent gang of hoodlums entering a night club and smashing its glittering disco ball into a thousand pieces, then murdering the people who live to dance under the disco ball each week; as if the disco ball were God and the night club their church.

Prop designer/art director Alun Davies takes the pieces of the broken disco ball and with them resurrects its worshippers by pumping their veins with glitter. He makes their once lifeless bodies dance as they begin a journey of revenge and self-discovery.

                    Above sketches by Alun Davies

These disco zombies wear glistening motorcycle helmets, shoulder pads and kneepads designed by Wales-born Alun Davies, that he calls “disco ball armor.” The outfits are the official costumes that Lady Gaga’s dancers wear whenever Gaga performs “Bad Romance” on her Monster Ball Tour. As a result, Davies’ outfits have become a central part of Gaga’s performance art each night of her tour, functioning as visual aids and telling a story of vigilantes seeking revenge on a cruel world.

It’s the vigilant spirit of the story Alun Davies’ disco ball costumes tell that is undeniably punk. The imagery of Davies’ costumes makes Lady Gaga’s male and female dancers look like characters from the movie Mad Max, as does the red smoke (dry ice) that covers the stage in a red fog making it look like the apocalyptic wasteland of Mad Max’s Australian landscape. Keeping with the constant symbolism of Gaga’s work, Davies’ disco ball costumes reveal a lot about punk culture and the ideas it represents. For instance, the checker-patterned motorcycle helmets are symbols of protection, suggesting that the dancers are warriors, and the shoulder pads make the dancers resemble the samurai-influenced villain Shredder from the ‘90s box-office hit Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Again, the kneepads are similar to Shredder. Therefore, the costumes do what Gaga does in all of her work, they reference various pieces of culture and sew them into a single structure, and as a result mirroring culture in a distorted way. On the whole, the punk spirit of the disco ball costumes is a warrior spirit.

The “Bad Romance” song itself is Lady Gaga’s love letter to the original punk culture of the mid-‘70s and the ‘80s, with its lyrical references to “leather, ““studded” and “revenge” and “criminal,” and she wants to inspire people around the world to unlock their inner punk. By unlocking their inner punk, they’re freeing themselves from their self-made and society-made prisons. For this reason, the “Bad Romance” performance ends with Gaga and her dancers away from the smoke-covered apocalyptic wasteland of the main stage and onto the stage’s apron closer to the fist-pumping audience, where the dancers remove their glittering disco ball helmets. Now the dancers have finally reached a peaceful place free of war, where they don’t need to protect themselves with body armor.

Alun Davies reminds the world that’s seen his disco ball costumes on the Monster Ball Tour that Lady Gaga is more of a punk than a pop star, and now the world can raise their fists high and sing at the top of their lungs to the shining light of the disco ball.

Lady Gaga's dancers wear disco ball armor by Alun Davies. Gaga wears a dress by Armani Prive.

Lady Gaga Gets Swallowed By A Wolf

On left: Alex Noble Outfit. On right: Lady Gaga wearing Alex Noble outfit during a performance of "Monster."

You may have thought that Lady Gaga’s song “Monster” was about a wolf swallowing up Gaga as if she were Little Red Riding Hood, but truly it’s about mirrors.

Pay close attention to “Monster” and you’ll realize that it’s autobiographical like all of Lady Gaga’s music. “Monster” is about Gaga looking in the mirror and seeing her reflection, and wanting to become the reflection. When Gaga performed “Monster” in Stockholm, Sweden on May 8, 2010, she gave a clue of what the song is really about.* Watch the performance
^[FOOTNOTE]


The intro to “Monster” is the main clue to understand the song’s meaning. It starts out:

Don’t call me Gaga
I’ve never seen one like that before
(she giggles)
Don’t look at me like that, you amaze me
Hook: He ate my heart, he a-a-ate my heart
You little monster)
He ate my heart, he a-a-ate my heart out (you amaze me)

By saying “don’t call me Gaga,” she is saying that she wants to be someone different, which is the person she sees reflected back at her. Now, you might wonder who’s the “He” that ate her heart, and that He would be her, meaning Gaga. In other words, the reflection Gaga sees is aggressive and masculine, so when she becomes her reflection she becomes like a man. Likewise, in an interview, Gaga explained that “Monster” was about “a guy with a big dick,” and that the song reflected her experiences with bad boys who she knows will only end up hurting her. As a result, Gaga said she would lose sight of her womanhood by becoming more like a man. So when Gaga starts singing the first verse, she sings “Look at him, look at me,” what she's doing is creating a visual of the reflection (“Him”) looking back at her. Further, she sings “He’s a wolf in disguise/but I can’t stop staring in those evil eyes,” and she creates two more visuals: Firstly, the wolf is a man disguised as Gaga in blond hair and makeup, and secondly, Gaga stares into the mirror looking into her reflection’s “evil eyes.”


During a performance of “Monster,” in Stockholm, Sweden wearing an outfit designed by Alex Noble, Lady Gaga reinforced the mirror reflection concept, by making her hand into her trademark Monster Claw and turned the Claw inward in front of her face as if her Monster Claw was a mirror. Accordingly, she sang “Could I love him?,” translating into “could I love this new transformation of myself?”


All in all, Lady Gaga made “Monster” a song about transforming into a person she doesn’t recognize, and it becomes a loss of identity. As you know, Gaga’s songs are always adaptable and easily interpreted in many ways, and one obvious way is the way it also functions as a love letter to all you Little Monsters out there believing that she’s talking to you, especially when she says “I’ve never seen one like that before, you little monster, you amaze me.” What beautiful words, and knowing Gaga, she has said these words to thousands of her fans.



*FOOTNOTES

Gaga's performance of "Monster" in Stockholm, Sweden.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyLUP4S0jJQ

Link to more information at Gaga's Outfit:
http://gagadaily.com/fashion/2010/02/alex-noble-for-monster-ball-tour/





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Lady Gaga Eats With Her Eyes

Whether you’re a Little Monster or a religious fanatic, you probably have your own thoughts on Lady Gaga’s song and video “Telephone.” Is it about making phone calls or about eating food? Actually, it’s about both.

If you’ve found yourself learning the dance moves to Gaga’s songs, did you ever realize that the dance moves mean something? Just like sign language, Gaga’s dance moves are communicating many messages to you, reflecting the song lyrics. Also, the song lyrics reflect you, and the world we live in.

First off, the song "Telephone" is a poppy song that makes you hum it no matter who you are, but there's a deeper meaning. The dance moves or choreography are clues that help you figure out what the lyrics mean. I'll break down the lyrics for you with corresponding pictures. Below, during a live performance of "Telephone," Lady Gaga wears futuristic glasses and a black coat like something out of The  Matrix.

Next, her black coat symbolizes suffocation, so she takes it off. Now Gaga makes the sign for a telephone with her hand. The black glasses blocking her eyes and the top of her head symbolize numbness and losing touch with reality. Gaga is telling you that the media (television and movies, etc) make people less human. She's warning you that if you watch too much television, you'll become a machine, disconnected from reality. Just think of the concept from The Matrix. Then, she starts to sing the first verse of "Telephone" taking off her glasses in the process.

Next, she looks more like a human, like Madonna from her "Vogue" days.

 "Hello, hello, baby you called, I can't hear a thing/I have got no service in the club you see, see/what, what, what did you say, are you breakin' up on me/Sorry I cannot hear you, I'm kinda busy"

Again, Gaga is talking about disconnection from herself and reality when she sings the above words. For instance, “Are you breaking up on me" means that she's breaking up from herself, separating from the media information stuck in her brain.

Shortly after, she sings:

Just a second, it's my favorite song they're gonna play.

Although the above lyrics seem direct, it's indirect. Gaga is not talking about hearing her favorite song to dance to in the club, but instead she's talking about the symbols in the media that advertise products that they want you to buy. Therefore, "they" is the media, "song" is the product, and "Play" is "advertise." Then Gaga sings:

I cannot text you with a drink in my hand.

Again, it seems like she is talking about the most simple thing, but she's not. She puts two clenched fists up, which symbolizes freedom and unity. She’s saying she can’t fight for freedom if she has products being shoved down her throat by the media. “Texting” is a metaphor for fighting.“Drink” is a metaphor for product “Hand” is a metaphor for “brain” or “psyche.” Below, you can see a picture of the dance move.

Next, Gaga sings:

“You should’ve made some plans with me, you knew that I was free”

Before the media altered her mind with its images and opinions, Gaga was a "free" bitch with pure, unadulterated thoughts. Below, the picture shows Gaga drawing attention to her head with her hands symbolizing that her brain has been taken over. Now the food metaphor is approaching. Above, you can see a picture of the Gaga drawing attention to her head with her hands.

Then Gaga sings “Now you won’t stop calling me, I’m kind of busy.” the media won’t stop feeding her, so then she’s choking. “calling” means feeding and “busy” means choking. Below is a picture.

Following that is the song's chorus. “Stop calling, stop calling, I don’t wanna think anymore”:

Here, she's telling the media to stop feeding her because she doesn’t want to choke anymore. “Think” means “choke.” She makes the “ok sign” with her fingers, which also signifies the “all-seeing eye." In addition, the all-seeing eye represents God watching over humankind. Therefore, Gaga wants to reach a more spiritual place closer to God. Also, the hand sign symbolizes eating a sandwich, like when someone has a big sandwich held up to their mouth with both hands and then they chomp down on it. People chomp down on the media through advertisements. They’re eating the media with their eyes and they digest the media with their brains. She also claps hands symbolizing putting two slices of bread together to form a sandwich and eats the media's food. Right below is a picture:

Next, Gaga sings:

“I left my head and my heart on the dance floor”:

Now, she's turned a part of her brain off, because her head and her heart are containers of information fed to her by the media and she dispenses of the containers filled with the information. Further, by leaving her head and heart on the dance floor, she is fighting against the media, which is why she clenches her fists in resistance. Above is a picture of Gaga being militant, and below is of Gaga again making the "ok sign" with her fingers. Again, it's the all-seeing eye. The dance floor is a spiritual place where Gaga feels closer to God. Then the choking begins:

“eh, eh. Eh. Eh eh, Stop telephoning me”:

Likewise, the eh eh eh sounds are symbolic of choking. “Stop telephoning me” again means to stop calling her or stop feeding her. After that, she sings:

“Can call all you want, but there’s no one home”:

Here, Gaga is saying no matter how many advertisements they shove down her throat, she’s not there to see them. She’s blinded herself from it. “Home” is a metaphor for “brain.” Next, the word “phone” or “Telephone” is a metaphor the part of her brain where the media’s information is stored. Also, “and you’re not gonna reach my telephone”means the media is not going to choke her anymore because she’s removed it from her brain. Then she sings:

“Out in the club and I’m sipping that bub”:

Now the “club” is a place to escape the suffocating media and its advertisements. Next,“sipping that bub” symbolizes getting drunk literally and figuratively. In the figurative sense, it symbolizes getting drunk or high from peace, love and unity and most importantly freedom.Soon Gaga gets some company to escape the media with.

Immediately Beyonce comes in with a rapid-fire verse full of venom. Beyonce has never performed "Telephone" with Gaga live, so there are dance moves to go along with Beyonce's lyrics, however Beyonce's lyrics relate perfectly to Gaga's performance. Next, Beyonce sings:

“boy, the way you blowin’ up my phone won’t make me leave no faster” She's saying the media bombards her brain, but she won’t make her leave her place of peace where she escapes to, the “club.” The “club” can be literally a night club to go dance the night away or anywhere you feel safe and happy. Consequently, the black Matrix coat that Gaga wears in the first picture above finds its way into Beyonce's verse. “Put my coat on faster." The "coat" represents suffocation and death and she refuses to suffocate and die from the media's pressure.

Soon thereafter, Beyonce sings: “I should’ve left my phone at home ‘cuz this is a disaster”: remember the “phone” is the part of her brain where the media’s information is stored. The “home” symbolizes her brain. Beyonce's friend Gaga returns, so she and Gaga can go to the club.

Then Gaga sings: “It’s not that I don’t like you, I’m just at a party." Although Gaga may like the media sometimes and has an appreciation for it, she doesn’t like its dark side. As a result, her “party” is her peace of mind and her freedom. Nearby, dancing is on its way.

During the bridge, Gaga and Beyonce feel like they're in heaven tearing up the dance floor. “I’ll be dancing”: Gaga and Beyonce will be free from the media and the evils of the world. Below, one of Gaga's female dancers makes a halo symbol with her arms on the word “I’m dancing.” The halo symbol refers to finding a higher, spiritual place, refereeing God.

Lastly, Gaga's female dancer also makes the all-seeing eye sign with one hand and a clenched fist with the other hand. These signs symbolize that by dancing Gaga is being militant and spiritual at the same time. Below is a picture.

Now you should have a better understanding of what Lady Gaga is all about. Her performances are much more than unusual outfits and amazing dance moves, they make you think about life and the world you live in.

Lady Gaga Gets Catholic Defense

Lady Gaga in her "Alejandro" video

 All of you who have seen Lady Gaga’s controversial “Alejandro” video know that it’s been getting strong reactions from so many different people. Some say Gaga copied Madonna and some say Gaga’s a Satanist, but Catholic writer and college professor Mathew N. Schmalz disagrees. His defense of Gaga actually explains the meaning of Gaga’s art.

Schmalz says Gaga and Madonna are “flip sides of the same coin” meaning they’re similar, but slightly different. He says there are two types of religion: the religion of the healthy-minded, which means everyone who serves God is happy, and the religion of the sick soul. The sick soul is about the tragic and painful parts of life. Can you guess which type of religion Schmalz said Gaga is, and what type of religion he says Madonna is? Healthy-minded or sick soul?

Further, Schmalz recognizes that Gaga’s style is exaggerated and she wants to shock you. Madonna does too, but Schmalz said Gaga is focused more on the dark side of religion and how it can really confuse people if they feel the religion rejects them. In other words, Schmalz is on Gaga’s side.

All in all, the article is satisfying because of its ending. Schmalz ends it with a lyric from one of Gaga’s most famous songs. He calls the lyric one of the most Catholic lines he’s heard in recent years. Before you read the article, can you guess which song lyric Schmalz used?

READ THE ARTICLE FOR YOURSELF: http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/mathew_n_schmalz/2010/06/mark_judge_deserves_credit_for.html