About this blog...

sans objet (S.O.): the French equivalent of n/a, not available (or applicable). ''Sans'' comes from a combination of the Latin words sine and absenti, which mean ''without'' and ''in the absence of'' respectively. ''Objet'' also comes from Latin ''Objectum'' meaning something thrown down or presented. That being said, I chose this blog title when I didn't know what kind of posts I would be throwing down. Now that I have written a few entries, I would say that reading my blog means joining me on an etymological adventure that starts in France (where I am currently residing) and ends with me googling definitions and translations and then rambling about it.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Lady Gaga

For my français écrit classe we have to write an argumentative paper. Fortunately I already had an idea in mind. The other day my chéri sent me the link to watch the Lady Gaga video for ''Telephone'' because there is some harp in it. I wasn't overly impressed by the 5 seconds of harp in the song. What I did find bouleversant was  how borderline pornographic it was. I mean, we basically see everything except Lady's muff in this video (except I would bet my first-born harp that Lady Gaga does not have a muff). Lady Gaga is basically the equivalent of a Barbie doll, except most self-respecting people strip down their Barbie dolls and make them have simulated sex in the privacy of their own homes rather than on youtube with over a billion views.

I digress. The main reason I wanted to blog about this is because Lady Gaga is often lauded or scorned for her outré fashion sense. Outré being the past participle of the French verb ''outrer'' which means to go beyond. And if you are me, you are wondering if Lady Gaga can speak French (because I just saw a tweet that she made that was in French). Some websites say yes, and I guess the proof is at 3:52 in the ''Bad Romance'' video where she says like, three words in French:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrO4YZeyl0I

To finish off my Lady Gaga rant, I will just summarize my feelings by saying that her ''performance art'' is pretty vacuous. It entertains people, but entertainment and art aren't necessarily the same thing. She talks like she is empowered by her wacky fashions, but I don't see anything empowering about obligatory Brazillian waxes every few weeks.
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4 comments:

  1. Chantelle EricksonFebruary 10, 2011 at 2:18 PM

    I agree with you!
    And I like your blog - it helps keep me up-to-date on my French vocabulary! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. JohnFebruary 10, 2011 at 3:30 PM

    Mildred Huggens...what a name, what a name!

    My only input: check the below video out...the voice may (VAGUELY) sound familiar...

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NM51qOpwcIM

    Stefani Germanotta (a.k.a. Lady Gaga) attended an NYU art & music school where her graduating thesis was on, of all things, pop music and pop culture. She's SMART, and everything she does (in my opinion) is for calculated profit.

    Long story short: It's all a calculated act by a clever (one might say brilliant...but I'm not one of those) mind to make money off of the pop music culture. Give the audience what it wants, right?

    ReplyDelete
  3. LCFebruary 10, 2011 at 11:57 PM

    Yeah I do believe that she knows what she's doing, which almost makes it worse. Especially the whole spin about how she was teased at school and now she wants to be a role model for misfits. She should not be looked up to: she is a celebrity that gained money and power by making vapid pop music and exploiting her sexuality.

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownFebruary 12, 2011 at 9:46 AM

    The video for telephone (and the song too) was horrible. So full of stereotypes. I hadn't seen it before now. Such a waste, she could make really good music!

    I was surprised at the Nora Jones comparison, I was expecting Christina Aguilara..

    ReplyDelete

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