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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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.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	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.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	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)

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