You and I

For the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards, an artist by the name of Lady Gaga shocked audiences everywhere by coming out to perform dressed as a male. She is typically a very feminine-oriented fashionable woman often found wearing high heels that are so tall it is borderline comical. Her character started out smoking a cigarette, jaw jutted out, fixing his hair, with a monologue from the point of view as an ex of Lady Gaga’s. He goes on about how she thinks he was crazy, but he claims that she is in fact the crazy one. It seems to be common for men to blame girls for being “crazy” after relationships end; there is a “crazy ex-girlfriend” stereotype, and it is even so popular of a concept there is a TV show with that as the title. He says he is crazy but at the same time blames Lady Gaga for being the crazy one and mocks her for wearing heels and the way she does her hair. “I think it’s great that she’s a star, but how am I supposed to shine” is a quote from the character, which really highlights hegemonic masculinity. He is just worried about himself, he cannot just be happy for her, he has to be above her and “out-shine” her, if you will as if he is above her. Some other symbols that she used were jutting her jaw out and breathing through her mouth (which are both seen as un-lady-like), grabbing her private parts, as many men do, smoking and drinking beer (also very un-lady-like in society’s eyes), and finally, one that is particularly masculine is her sitting with her legs spread wide open. It is so common for men to take up just about as much space as possible, sitting with their legs far apart to fill the room; whereas, women tend to sit with their legs crossed or together, taking up less space. This is seen an assertion of dominance for men over women. I don’t necessarily think that Lady Gaga doing this is to mock masculinity, but it is more like her interpretation of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACn41h45sUo