And I suspect her point is that she knows perfectly well the tradition to which she is indebted, and that she respects the work of those who have come before her. I also suspect she’s making a point about her own press and hype, about her reputation as a groundbreaking pop star.
![lady gaga alejandro video oficial lady gaga alejandro video oficial](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/7ec4611439f37cd7fce872aecf239b096bda446c/c=0-39-1500-885/local/-/media/Phoenix/Phoenix/2014/07/29/1406652030000-phxdc5-61dwxx2nn1s9ziyokjg-original.jpg)
They are props in her dance, objects in her meta-narrative point about making music videos. The objects of her sexual actions are the men. But Lady Gaga is making a point about the object of our collective sexualized gaze. Even the machine-gun bra is homage, not originality. The iconography of “Alejandro” is not original. They are slaves of the machine, but they are not getting pegged while wearing high-heels. Even in Madonna’s “Express Yourself,” to which “Alejandro” keeps getting compared, the male dancers are powerful icons of masculinity. I’m having trouble thinking of a single example. The sexuality of nearly-naked men in music videos is rarely feminized.
![lady gaga alejandro video oficial lady gaga alejandro video oficial](https://trueclef.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/alejandro.jpg)
That’s still all pretty damn transgressive. (I believe that the extremely butch woman in that video identifies as a woman, not as trans or as a man - if I am wrong about that, someone tell me in comments?) But the male dancers in “Alejandro” wear high-heeled shoes, they bottom to Lady Gaga, they simulate fucking each other, they kiss, they wear high-waisted shorts that look like male corsets. It takes a video like “Telephone,” with it’s extremes of gender identity, to make women-on-woman sexuality interesting. Women have been making out with each other in music videos for ages. What is transgressive about the video for “Alejandro” is that cross-dressing and homosexual behaviors of the male dancers. I rather think this is completely missing the point. I’ve seen various people Around The Internets mentioning that there is nothing new in having fetish imagery, religious imagery, or fascist imagery in your videos. I have a few deadline-type-things coming up, but before I dive into those projects I wanted to briefly comment on the Lady Gaga video for “Alejandro.” I can hear her in the office as she is trying to explain the product we are looking for. So, pen and paper it is.īut at least I am not on the phone with local grocery stores, looking for a specific product, like J currently is. However, I realized that while I sent myself notes from my phone, I never checked the site again. I’d been using the Evernote website and phone app. I have been keeping a list of things I need to do, ideas for future writing projects, people’s phone numbers, etc. So far the Field Notes has a significant advantage, which is I can keep one in my back pockets comfortably. I recently got a few of the Field Notes notebooks, checking them out to see if they’d make decent replacements or additions to my Moleskine notebooks.