Body Vandalism: Lady Gaga, Disability, and Popular Culture

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Christopher Smit

Keywords

disability, Lady Gaga, aesthetics

Abstract

This essay investigates the employment of disability by the pop star Lady Gaga. Working through different illustrations of disability in her videos it is argued that Lady Gaga ushers in a new aesthetic and political platform on which disability can be redefined. In particular, the author argues that Lady Gaga unconsciously performs within the space of what Siebers has named a disability aesthetic in which the different bodies reformulate the expectations and desires of the art object. The context of popular culture is explained as a necessary component of this reframing.
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