Tom Rasmussen

TOM RASMUSSEN spends his week in heated debate about Lady Gaga. But, it’s not as shallow as it sounds.

born this way CUTV debate exam term GaGa Lady Gaga Lady Gaga. pop meat dress revision Tom Rasmussen vma

WATCH: Tom’s attempt at being a bouncer at Cindies.

What a week it’s been for discussion. It seems that we Cantabrigians really do love taking regular breaks from our soul-destroying workloads for, you know, cups of tea accompanied by countless biscuits, alcohol fuelled Eurovision parties (Azerbaijan, really?), and tremendously intense cultural debates… oh, wait…

It seems it’s not only our sex lives and Wednesday night extravaganzas at Cindies which have died this exam term, but also our ability to discuss important current affairs. And so, naturally, we’ve turned to discussing Lady Gaga – a topic that, believe it or not, is not as trivial as it ostensibly sounds.

“They appear when I’m happy…”

Having spent a good three hours on Gaga-debate with a few friends this week, I decided to conduct some college-wide research, asking a cross-section of the Queensian population (from ‘lads’ to those currently in long-term relationships with their library desks) just what their opinion of Lady Gaga is. Joking aside, the response genuinely prompted heated debate.

The self-declared Messiah recently took to the application of facial-prosthetics, which she insists appear when she’s happy, as manifestations of her creative genius. This just served to fuel debate about her.

While some tore the Mother Monster to shreds, like a werewolf on a piece of meat dress, claiming that the woman is sensationalist, insane, pretentious, and a money making attention-seeker, others argued that she is a powerful voice for those people who feel like outcasts; an artistic genius who simply pushes every boundary to orgasmic limits.

I find Lady Gaga’s exploration of the anti-pretty, sexual (but not always sexy) side of womanhood inspiring. Displaying images of Katy Perry in her cream-squirting bra on billboards everywhere, panda-ing to men’s sexual desires, and censoring Gaga’s dildo heels out of magazines is clearly hypocritical.

Those famous heels…

Gaga claims to have ‘moved the universe forwards’, perhaps a tad arrogantly, and strives to raise the bar for the ‘new artist’. The fact is: not only is her claim largely accurate but refers to more than just her music. As music critics describe the audio world ‘post-Gaga’as being one in which mediocrity will just not suffice, this surely will have the same effect on the role of creativity in popular culture. This has to be a positive thing.

Love her or hate her, she is undoubtedly making history.

The beauty of the First Lady of electro-pop is that she’s not screaming for everyone to like her music – she’s screaming for everyone to like what they want to like, and for people to find who they are and fearlessly be that person, with no need for excuses.

A cheesy and a clichéd statement, you say?

Oh well, I was Born This Way