Gaga's just the lede, boys

June 27, 2010 7:05 PM

Nancy Bauer critically examines "lady power" and its place in modern feminism. Bauer, a philosophy prof, places the modern interpretation of female sexuality as power in an existential context, using Lady Gaga as an easy example, but the essay isn't really about her.
posted by klangklangston (24 comments total)

Spoiler: this is yet another purity-embracing screed against hook-up culture. Because casual sex hurts ladies!
posted by prefpara at 7:10 PM on June 27, 2010

Deleted thread.
posted by enn at 7:14 PM on June 27, 2010 [1 favorite]

tl;dr = author fears her college-aged daughter knows what oral sex is, invokes Sartre (!?) to validate her... ah, fuck it. Fish in a barrel.
posted by joe lisboa at 7:17 PM on June 27, 2010

Yeah. The article started out interesting, and devolved into "I don't want my little girl having random sex!" with a bunch of big words tarting it up.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 7:19 PM on June 27, 2010

"Spoiler: this is yet another purity-embracing screed against hook-up culture. Because casual sex hurts ladies!"

Spoiler: No, it's not. It's about the tension that exists between two views of the self, in which sexualized gender roles often lead to conflicted feelings!

"tl;dr = author fears her college-aged daughter knows what oral sex is, invokes Sartre (!?) to validate her... ah, fuck it. Fish in a barrel."

Well, no, not really. Perhaps it was tl, you dr?
posted by klangklangston at 7:19 PM on June 27, 2010

There are two things that Metafilter loves to hate: Lady Gaga and articles in the NYT which take small pieces of Manhattanite existence and magnify them to apocalyptic importance.

It's not you, Klang. It's just .... every time I open my browser the NYT has a new article like "Moroccan Nannies: Temporary Help or Transhuman Paradigm Shift?"
posted by Avenger at 7:20 PM on June 27, 2010 [12 favorites]

Now,
'Jack Bauer critically examines "lady power" and its place in modern feminism'...
...that would be an interesting post.
posted by uosuaq at 7:20 PM on June 27, 2010

There is nobody like Lady Gaga in part because she keeps us guessing about who she, as a woman, really is.

A similar statement -- with much more longevity behind it -- could be made about Cliff Richard.
posted by grounded at 7:20 PM on June 27, 2010 [2 favorites]

I did not hallucinate gems like But the morning after, students routinely tell me, they are vulnerable to what I’ve come to call the “hook-up hangover.”.
posted by prefpara at 7:22 PM on June 27, 2010 [1 favorite]

I did, klang. And I love ya, but this is a lazy application of Sartrean concepts. I felt dirty for reading it as it devolved, as if I could myself complicit in the mental word-countdown of the author as she churned this out. I am not slagging on you posting this, I just do not think I am the intended audience for this and am tiring a bit of the woe-is-the-lower-upper-class angle of every other Times piece these days. Again, no hate, just criticism.
posted by joe lisboa at 7:22 PM on June 27, 2010

Spoiler: this is yet another purity-embracing screed against hook-up culture. Because casual sex hurts ladies!

Oh, dear, prefpara, is this the level on which you understood this?

I think she's pointing out that there is some level of hypocrisy that is unavoidable when you put forth, as a young female, that you are capable of acting in the world on your own merits, then you turn into a teasing meretrix when you want to 'party'.

That's what I got out of her very well thought out essay, anyway. But she might indeed have a hard-on for hookup culture. Dumb bitch!
posted by Turtles all the way down at 7:24 PM on June 27, 2010

... could *see myself complicit ...
posted by joe lisboa at 7:24 PM on June 27, 2010

Dumb bitch!

This is not helpful or even remotely charitable.
posted by joe lisboa at 7:25 PM on June 27, 2010 [1 favorite]

Sorry, joe lisboa, that not what I think and I should now by now not to put words into the mouth of other poster's arguments. My apologies to all, and to prefpara in particular.
posted by Turtles all the way down at 7:28 PM on June 27, 2010

"I think she's pointing out that there is some level of hypocrisy that is unavoidable when you put forth, as a young female, that you are capable of acting in the world on your own merits, then you turn into a teasing meretrix when you want to 'party'."

I also think that an extended unbinding of social roles plays into this—young people (of which I still consider myself one, despite my rapidly approaching birthday) have more time than ever to define themselves and to experiment with identity. I don't think it's wrong to look at that from a distance and to be critical (both ways) of it.
posted by klangklangston at 7:28 PM on June 27, 2010

This is the first thing I've read that gives me hope I may one day understand what Lady Gaga is doing and why young women would identify with her.
posted by jamjam at 7:32 PM on June 27, 2010

I felt dirty for reading it

That's the "read-up hangover" you may have heard about.
posted by The World Famous at 7:37 PM on June 27, 2010 [1 favorite]

I feel like I've been reading this article since I was old enough to read articles. (In those days, Madonna wasn't an aside).
posted by moxiedoll at 7:39 PM on June 27, 2010

It's not you, Klang. It's just .... every time I open my browser the NYT has a new article like "Moroccan Nannies: Temporary Help or Transhuman Paradigm Shift?"

Then you'll love today's self-parodyingly predictable Op-Ed by zombie counter-feminist Camille Paglia in which she reacts to a proposed medicine to revive women's interest in sex by explaining that bourgeois modern men just aren't fucking them right, and also movies and music haven't been sexy since, well, precisely when she herself was young. Also, bourgeois.

To her credit, though, she does hate Lady Gaga.
posted by nicwolff at 7:44 PM on June 27, 2010 [3 favorites]

There are two things that Metafilter loves to hate:

You forgot cops.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 7:47 PM on June 27, 2010

There are two things that Metafilter loves to hate: Lady Gaga ...

No, Metafilter hates people who hate Lady Gaga. Didn't you read the FAQ?
posted by lukemeister at 7:56 PM on June 27, 2010

Funny, I thought people had casual sex because they found it fun, not because they want to assert their power and freedom and move up in the world.

So it seems strange that women will sometimes stand up for themselves and sometimes submit? It shouldn't. Everyone has varying amounts of control in various contexts. Whether it's better to have more control or less depends on what you're trying to do.
posted by LogicalDash at 8:00 PM on June 27, 2010

Those students just need some hair of the hookup dog.
posted by drjimmy11 at 8:03 PM on June 27, 2010

MetaFilter hates Lady Gaga now? When on Earth did that happen?
posted by brundlefly at 8:07 PM on June 27, 2010