Bell Hooks video discussion on popular culture brought up MANY intriguing points! But what stuck out to me were her comments made about Madonna. She discussed how at the beginning of her career, Madonna made a stand that she would not portray the ideals of females in pop culture and would step out of the mold to represent all things different. She would become one of the faces of the women's movement. However, later in her career as she got older, she began to sell out and start conforming to what female pop stars typically are in pop culture. To Hooks this shows her desire for more money and more fame despite already being a rich woman. Her greed overcame her vision of being different.
This instantly made me think of Lady Gaga. Lady Gaga attempts to represent loving yourself no matter who you are. She portrays sexuality in an ambiguous way to show that their is no right or wrong person to love, and no right or wrong way to express yourself. Many people follow Lady Gaga because she embraces being different from the mold. She has often been compared to Madonna for these reasons and even resembles her physically in some ways. But my question is: what will happen as she grows older? Will she give in to conformity in order to further her career once her "gimmick" runs out? Or will she continue to do things differently than everyone else or retire from making millions of dollars. We may not know the answer to this for awhile, but after listening to Bell Hooks I have to say I'm very skeptical.
I wonder the same... and even if we haven't already begun to see artist like Gaga or Nicki Minaj be sucked into the consumerist notions of what a female artist must be.
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