This feminist blog which depends on your donations is not here to educate you!
Thanks to the anon at wank_report for the bulk of the writeup, with its singular virtues.

S.E. SMITH accuses Lady Gaga of appropriation:

It's been pointed out that she appropriates a lot of things from musical traditions created by people of colour and nonwhite people. That her work contains transmisogyny. That she appropriates the experiences of people with disabilities. These are all things that I don't think of as feminist acts—note that I am not saying that Lady Gaga is not feminist (because I don't think it's up to me to decide that), but rather that I am saying that her actions do not always mesh with the identity she has chosen to claim. The same could be said of many other people who identify as feminist, including myself, however. Let those in glass houses...

(bonus points for the excellent use of praeteritio here.)

A commenter asks for references and explanation. According to Snarky's Machine, late of the now-closed Shapely Prose, asking for sources is derailing and oppressive:

I can't be arsed to unpack and respond to your comment except to say you're trafficking in copious amounts of derailing for dummies. Your inability to "see" how Gaga misappropriates says everything about YOUR own privilege and inability to google "Grace Jones" and nothing else. If concepts are unfamiliar to you instead assuming the concepts themselves are wrong, you might want to hit up Professor Google. Because the argument, "you're wrong because I don't know what you're talking about." just does not cut it.

Comments defending that commenter get deleted (although some are reposted in the anon threads below). Mods claim to be "reviewing the situation" (i.e., pretending to do something about it). "Open thread" disappears after 20 minutes after irate commenters leave comments there. The current status is "please email the mods directly if you want to talk about comment policy", which couldn't possibly have a chilling effect--not at all.

Snarky's Machine has another reply to that initial commenter on Twitter:

Ha. I love how some weird ass creepy e-troll named whitney is stalking my feed and tattling cause I'm so mean. Who are these people.

People take refuge to complain in several threads in the sfd_anon community. (Which are now locked; possibly accessible if you're a member of the community.) Worth noting are the ones about how Bitch magazine aggressively solicits donations to support their journalism, which puts a special irony gloss on the "we're not here to educate you" rebuttal.

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kattahj
2010-09-19 09:49 am UTC (link)

Yeah, I read the post, but as lizbee says, it's an injury. People get injured all the time, and most of us have used at the very least crutches at one point or another in our lifetimes. I find it dicey when disabilities that are permanent IRL are treated as temporary in fiction ("You'll never walk again! Oh wait, you will!") but I don't see how a video portraying someone getting hurt (in an unspecified way) and then getting better is appropriating disability.

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franzen
2010-09-19 05:54 pm UTC (link)

Not everyone with a disability may need a wheelchair or crutches 24/7, so certainly Gaga's portrayal plays into the "permanent IRL/temporary in fiction" trope ("Lady No More Gaga"). I also think that injury is just another way of saying disabled, temporarily or permanently -- not every disability starts at birth. Moreover, crutches and wheelchairs are symbolically loaded objects: when used in a temporary fashion, I think the default (cultural) response is very much, "Oh, you poor thing, thank God this will be over soon and you can be back to normal," etc. So, yeah, I find something dicey about Lady Gaga using culturally-loaded symbols of disablement, being referred to as "NO MORE GAGA," and then casting them off to become fabulous again, wrong her attacker, and blah blah blah happy ending kyriarchy preserved kittens fly out of her ass.

I'll declare my bias in saying that I am non-visibly disabled (cerebral palsy); I cannot tell you how many times strangers have approached me to yell at me for parking in a handicapped space, even when the placard is visible. (I actually got a note calling me a "rotten person," because I "walk just fine.") Gaga's use of disability plays into the so-far only culturally recognized way of being disabled (i.e., signaled with aids), but it's okay, you guys, because she gets better.

I can't speak for the OP, I don't want to, but I suppose my thoughts on the matter come down to this: Gaga, like every other feminist and person on this planet, was born into the structure and socially conditioned to accept a certain reality. Awesome as she may be in some regards, she's still, in many ways, a product of environment and social constructions, institutionalized power structures, etc., just the same as anyone else. So why shouldn't we assume that, like most people, she's probably a little bit racist/transmisgynoistic/kyriarchic? The institutionalized beliefs about Others in our culture being what they are, and being so pervasive across all forms of media, we're all going to end up a little bit brainwashed. And you know what? So it goes. I have certain privileges and that means I accepted beliefs and became blind to issues I now find problematic. It means I am not everything I want to be. But I start with the default assumption that, yeah, I'm probably not as enlightened as I want to be, so if someone tells me "Hey, that sounded racist/unfriendly/you need to check yourself," I'm going to assume that they know better than I do, listen, and keep learning.

So as far as all of this goes, I guess I don't see it as an "innocent until proven guilty" kind of thing, nor do I necessarily see it as Gaga's "fault" -- she's playing off of some beliefs and tropes about disability that were institutionalized long ago. Does that make her a bad person? No, not more so than anyone else. Does it mean she's not perfect? Yeah, like the rest of us. It's not the end of the fucking world.

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kattahj
2010-09-19 06:16 pm UTC (link)

Not everyone with a disability may need a wheelchair or crutches 24/7, so certainly Gaga's portrayal plays into the "permanent IRL/temporary in fiction" trope ("Lady No More Gaga").

But most people who use crutches and wheelchairs - in number of people, if not in number of hours spent in them - will not be permanently disabled. I mean, obviously you see them as symbols of permanent disability, but I for one don't, and symbolism isn't inherent to the object, it's a matter of interpretation.

My own bias in this matter is due to having used both types of aids temporarily myself, and I find it really baffling that experiences that are incredibly common are somehow invalid, and that the desire to get better after an injury would in itself be ablist. (Truth be told, it kind of pushes certain buttons with me, since it reminds me of the "How dare you be bisexual and ruin things for lesbians!" attitude I've met - not to say that either you or the OP would ever go there. Just that hot buttons vary from person to person.)

just the same as anyone else. So why shouldn't we assume that, like most people, she's probably a little bit racist/transmisgynoistic/kyriarchic?

She probably is, but the discussion (from my perspective at least) was about this particular act. I don't particularly care about Lady Gaga, and I don't participate in this discussion out of some desire to "defend" her. For me, it's more of a "would this kind of thing be ablist" (regardless of who does it) than whether or not she is.

But I start with the default assumption that, yeah, I'm probably not as enlightened as I want to be, so if someone tells me "Hey, that sounded racist/unfriendly/you need to check yourself," I'm going to assume that they know better than I do, listen, and keep learning.

I've heard this a lot of the time, and for me, if someone tells me to check myself, I'm going to assume that they may have a point and listen to the arguments presented. Which, sure, probably means that sometimes I'm going to reach conclusions that are boneheaded and plain wrong, but being a school librarian, I'm conditioned not to accept anyone's statements as gospel.

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annaham
2010-09-19 10:59 pm UTC (link)

it's a matter of interpretation. Which, yes, I agree. And kind of why I wrote the post on LG and disability--it was/is my interpretation of the video.

As a PWD, I am probably going to see that video from a different perspective than people who do not have disabilities might. I'm not trying to say that representing use of crutches/wheelchairs is OMGWRONG in all cases. There's just going to be more to that representation in Gaga's video, for me, than "yay, dancing with crutches!" or OMGWRONG. And, like

franzen said above, I do think that those questionable bits in that video align very nicely with existing attitudes about disability (even though--as I said in the post--there might be some potential for resistance in there?)

Oh, look at me, getting all serious-business. I wish I knew a good joke.

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	sepiamagpie 2010-09-20 12:07 am UTC (link)
	I've got one for you! It's my favourite. Okay, so, a hunter calls up 911 in a panic. Operator: 911, what is the emergency? Hunter: Oh god! I've shot my friend! I think he's dead! Operator: Calm down. First, I need you to make sure he's actually dead. Hunter: Okay. Gun shot: ensues Hunter: Okay, now what? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	annaham 2010-09-20 12:23 am UTC (link)
	Hahaha! Oh, I have one: What did the girl broom say to the boy broom? Let's sweep together! (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	sepiamagpie 2010-09-20 12:27 am UTC (link)
	aw. Hm. How do you get a giraffe into your fridge? You open the door and put in the fridge. How do you get an elephant into your fridge? You open the door, take out the giraffe, and put in the elephant. How do you know there's an elephant in your fridge? The footprints in the butter. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

dr_tectonic
2010-09-20 06:39 pm UTC (link)

How can you tell the difference between an elephant and a grape?

Grapes are purple.

What did Tarzan say when he saw a pack of elephants coming over the hill?

"Here come the elephants over the hill."

What did Tarzan say when he saw a pack of elephants coming over the hill wearing dark glasses?

Nothing, he didn't recognize them.

What did Jane say when she saw a pack of elephants coming over the hill wearing dark glasses?

"Ooo, look at all those grapes!" (She was colorblind.)

How can you tell the different between a grape and an elephant if you're colorblind?

Jump up and down on it for a while. If it gives off a little whine, it's a grape.

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	sepiamagpie 2010-09-20 08:10 pm UTC (link)
	THUMBS UP (Reply to this)(Parent)

	kattahj 2010-09-20 04:30 am UTC (link)
	If it's any consolation, I think - having slept on it and mulled it - that I'm getting a somewhat clearer image of the potential pitfalls, and how the phoenix-from-the-ashes thing could rub one the wrong way. Will stop serious stuff now. I don't know any good jokes at 6.30 in the morning, but this is a reliable source for dumb ones: http://theoatmeal.com/djtaf/ (Reply to this)(Parent)

	annaham 2010-09-19 10:03 pm UTC (link)
	Thank you for explaining this apparently better than I did in that post. (Reply to this)(Parent)

ruslan
2010-09-20 08:21 pm UTC (link)

One of the most interesting things I've read was a science fiction story written by a disabled man. It was the standard quadriplegic guy offered an experimental treatment that would cure him.

Except he didn't find it empowering or beautiful or anything, in fact, it scared the piss out of him! Because suddenly he wouldn't have an excuse to be a guy who stays in his house all day, has no friends, and refuses to come to terms with the past. He had to deal with the fact that these problems were internal and he couldn't use his disability as an excuse not to grow as a person anymore.

While I was looking for it I found a directory of fiction about and/or by disabled people, and it looks like the guy wrote some more and even put out an anthology. I think I'll get it, you almost never see disabled issues explored with much depth in science fiction. The story I read was The Cure.

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	kattahj 2010-09-21 04:23 am UTC (link)
	Sounds interesting, and makes sense - huge life-changing events are scary. Thanks for the directory! (Reply to this)(Parent)

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