It’s a lazy Sunday afternoon; you’re perusing the world news online, nibbling the last of the apricot ginger scones from Susina and downing the last of the morning’s champagne. On such a lovely day, what could possibly have prepared you for this new nightmare? Camille Paglia, America’s foremost cultural critic, has launched a full-scale attack on Lady Gaga. On September 12, of all days! Here’s just one quote that made me choke on my scone and snort champagne out of my nose:
“How could a figure so calculated and artificial, so clinical and strangely antiseptic, so stripped of genuine eroticism have become the icon of her generation? Can it be that Gaga represents the exhausted end of the sexual revolution? In Gaga’s manic miming of persona after persona, over-conceptualised and claustrophobic, we may have reached the limit of an era…”
-Camille Paglia, on Lady Gaga
Holy crap! What did Gaga ever do to you, Camille? She continues:
“She constantly touts her symbiotic bond with her fans, the ‘little monsters’, who she inspires to ‘love themselves’ as if they are damaged goods in need of her therapeutic repair. ‘You’re a superstar, no matter who you are!’ She earnestly tells them from the stage, while their cash ends up in her pockets. She told a magazine with messianic fervour: ‘I love my fans more than any artist who has ever lived.’ She claims to have changed the lives of the disabled, thrilled by her jewelled parody crutches in the Paparazzi video.”
You can read the bulk of the article at TheSundayTime.co.uk. You have to be a subscriber to read all of it, but I’m sure it will become available in the coming days. I’m curious to see if Obama, Clinton, Palin, Beck, Jolie and the Pope weigh in on this shocking and blatant grab for publicity on the part of Ms. Paglia. Gaga’s legion of “little monsters” will undoubtedly retaliate for such blasphemy. But what’s a society based on free speech to do? If we get Ms. Paglia to recant, are we just giving in to the demands of extremists? But if we allow her to exercise her rights, unabated, are we prepared for the global ramifications?
With relations with the Haus of Gaga always so close to the breaking point, can we tolerate such an intolerant critic? Or silence her for the greater good?
What Camille said, was fun, and I wish to subscribe to her newsletter. When my friends and I hear the latest song or see the latest video from Gaga, we ask ourselves; “Where have I heard that before? Where have I seen that image in her video before and who is she trying to emulate now?”
It’s a way to digest her even though someone else has done it. Try it! Make it a drinking game!
Well, to be fair to Gaga, Madonna didn’t sound so hot during her first tour, either. Pretty much the same accusations Paglia is lobbing at Gaga were being said about Madonna 25 years ago. But yeah, Madonna has had much longer to hone her skill, although I’d say although she’s a more accomplished performer, genuine emotion isn’t something she always bothers with (especially during her last album).
Galaxy Invader 09/19/2010 09:21 pm
Okay, Gaga is obviously deficient in some areas in which Madonna excels. I’ve even called some of Gaga’s work Madonna for Dummies. So if we’re comparing artists, yes, Madonna has a hell of a lot on Gaga, including real emotion in her vocals. Gaga is also pretty sloppy live and (like a lot of celebrity newbies) takes herself and her fandom far, far too seriously.
But, as I was actually discussing with Johnny M last week, this piece fits a pattern in Paglia’s work that is profoundly disturbing. Paglia is famous for helping to make it okay for educated women to be sexually aggressive as well. The problem is that she also seems to find women who are not sexy to have vastly diminished worth. Just look at the way she bashes “unsexy” women she claims to have common ground with (Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi,) usually with sexist overtones. Meanwhile, she struggles to disguise love letters to hotties like Sarah Palin as criticism, throwing out as many synonyms for “pagan” as she can muster. (Her primary skill now seems to be wrapping her idiotic observations in quasi-academic, Dionysian terms.)
This piece also shows another huge problem with her work: An inability to see outside the viewpoint of her own generation. I don’t know if Paglia was paying attention to anything BUT Madonna during the 20th century, but music popular with the kiddies could rarely be described as passionate, even then. Did you happen to notice how the ‘true originals’ she cited were all baby boomers or later? Because nobody EVER sang the blues until a white girl did! Right? It’s kind of pathetic, really.
As I told another friend who brought this article up to me, only someone outside of the United States could possibly think anyone here gives a flying f**k what Camille Paglia has to say. The woman’s arrogance and hubris make Kanye West look humble. She’s gotten crazier and crazier over the years, and as my friend told me, she’s only bashing her because she’s not attracted to her. And probably because Gaga is stealing Madonna’s thunder.
Bottom line, Paglia is an intellectual, homophobic jerk-off who thinks that the rest of the world is just too stupid and uneducated to see things as she does. She cherry-picks the evidence for arguments and frames around as many different ways to say “pagan” as she can. And keep in mind that I thought this WAY before she bashed Gaga. But I’ll let Molly Ivins say it for me:
“Nowadays, when a woman behaves in a hysterical and disagreeable fashion, we say, ‘Poor dear, it’s probably PMS.’ Whereas, if a man behaves in a hysterical and disagreeable fashion, we say, ‘What an @sshole.’ Let me leap to correct this unfairness by saying of Paglia, Sheesh, what an @sshole.”
Throwdown: Camille vs. Gaga (Round One)
By Chance
September 12, 2010 at 8:10PM EDT
It’s a lazy Sunday afternoon; you’re perusing the world news online, nibbling the last of the apricot ginger scones from Susina and downing the last of the morning’s champagne. On such a lovely day, what could possibly have prepared you for this new nightmare? Camille Paglia, America’s foremost cultural critic, has launched a full-scale attack on Lady Gaga. On September 12, of all days! Here’s just one quote that made me choke on my scone and snort champagne out of my nose:
“How could a figure so calculated and artificial, so clinical and strangely antiseptic, so stripped of genuine eroticism have become the icon of her generation? Can it be that Gaga represents the exhausted end of the sexual revolution? In Gaga’s manic miming of persona after persona, over-conceptualised and claustrophobic, we may have reached the limit of an era…”
-Camille Paglia, on Lady Gaga
Holy crap! What did Gaga ever do to you, Camille? She continues:
“She constantly touts her symbiotic bond with her fans, the ‘little monsters’, who she inspires to ‘love themselves’ as if they are damaged goods in need of her therapeutic repair. ‘You’re a superstar, no matter who you are!’ She earnestly tells them from the stage, while their cash ends up in her pockets. She told a magazine with messianic fervour: ‘I love my fans more than any artist who has ever lived.’ She claims to have changed the lives of the disabled, thrilled by her jewelled parody crutches in the Paparazzi video.”
You can read the bulk of the article at TheSundayTime.co.uk. You have to be a subscriber to read all of it, but I’m sure it will become available in the coming days. I’m curious to see if Obama, Clinton, Palin, Beck, Jolie and the Pope weigh in on this shocking and blatant grab for publicity on the part of Ms. Paglia. Gaga’s legion of “little monsters” will undoubtedly retaliate for such blasphemy. But what’s a society based on free speech to do? If we get Ms. Paglia to recant, are we just giving in to the demands of extremists? But if we allow her to exercise her rights, unabated, are we prepared for the global ramifications?
With relations with the Haus of Gaga always so close to the breaking point, can we tolerate such an intolerant critic? Or silence her for the greater good?
I shall pray for an answer.
Previous Comments
What Camille said, was fun, and I wish to subscribe to her newsletter. When my friends and I hear the latest song or see the latest video from Gaga, we ask ourselves; “Where have I heard that before? Where have I seen that image in her video before and who is she trying to emulate now?”
It’s a way to digest her even though someone else has done it. Try it! Make it a drinking game!
Well, to be fair to Gaga, Madonna didn’t sound so hot during her first tour, either. Pretty much the same accusations Paglia is lobbing at Gaga were being said about Madonna 25 years ago. But yeah, Madonna has had much longer to hone her skill, although I’d say although she’s a more accomplished performer, genuine emotion isn’t something she always bothers with (especially during her last album).
Okay, Gaga is obviously deficient in some areas in which Madonna excels. I’ve even called some of Gaga’s work Madonna for Dummies. So if we’re comparing artists, yes, Madonna has a hell of a lot on Gaga, including real emotion in her vocals. Gaga is also pretty sloppy live and (like a lot of celebrity newbies) takes herself and her fandom far, far too seriously.
But, as I was actually discussing with Johnny M last week, this piece fits a pattern in Paglia’s work that is profoundly disturbing. Paglia is famous for helping to make it okay for educated women to be sexually aggressive as well. The problem is that she also seems to find women who are not sexy to have vastly diminished worth. Just look at the way she bashes “unsexy” women she claims to have common ground with (Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi,) usually with sexist overtones. Meanwhile, she struggles to disguise love letters to hotties like Sarah Palin as criticism, throwing out as many synonyms for “pagan” as she can muster. (Her primary skill now seems to be wrapping her idiotic observations in quasi-academic, Dionysian terms.)
This piece also shows another huge problem with her work: An inability to see outside the viewpoint of her own generation. I don’t know if Paglia was paying attention to anything BUT Madonna during the 20th century, but music popular with the kiddies could rarely be described as passionate, even then. Did you happen to notice how the ‘true originals’ she cited were all baby boomers or later? Because nobody EVER sang the blues until a white girl did! Right? It’s kind of pathetic, really.
As I told another friend who brought this article up to me, only someone outside of the United States could possibly think anyone here gives a flying f**k what Camille Paglia has to say. The woman’s arrogance and hubris make Kanye West look humble. She’s gotten crazier and crazier over the years, and as my friend told me, she’s only bashing her because she’s not attracted to her. And probably because Gaga is stealing Madonna’s thunder.
Bottom line, Paglia is an intellectual, homophobic jerk-off who thinks that the rest of the world is just too stupid and uneducated to see things as she does. She cherry-picks the evidence for arguments and frames around as many different ways to say “pagan” as she can. And keep in mind that I thought this WAY before she bashed Gaga. But I’ll let Molly Ivins say it for me:
“Nowadays, when a woman behaves in a hysterical and disagreeable fashion, we say, ‘Poor dear, it’s probably PMS.’ Whereas, if a man behaves in a hysterical and disagreeable fashion, we say, ‘What an @sshole.’ Let me leap to correct this unfairness by saying of Paglia, Sheesh, what an @sshole.”
Headlines
ADVERTISMENT