That's No Lady...That's a Pop Tart

I'm back from the Chapter, and it's good to be home.  I've only been to two of these things, and many of the Salesians I was with are five, ten, even twelve time losers on this thing (that's every chapter since 1974, God help them), so I shouldn't complain much.  Well, it ended, and actually ended well.  The documents were approved and now it's up to us to make the plan happen.

A name that came up a number of times over the week was that of one Lady Gaga (not in plenary session, but over lunch).  Now why would a group of mainly middle aged celibates be talking about Gaga, AKA Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta?  The short answer is, we're Salesians and we're where the kids are.  We may not like it all, or even approve of it all, but we can't be ignorant of what the young people we serve are watching and listening to. There was one Salesian who is the last one you'd think would be up on this stuff, but is.  I won't get into names because I don't want people to be afraid to talk to me lest they think the conversation will end up on line.  But  we were at lunch when the Lady's name came up around the table, and he said how he liked her, thought she had a pretty good voice and a good beat.  He admitted that he never really listened to the lyrics much, that is until his niece told him to listen closely, and watch one of her videos.  He may be hip for someone approaching his sixth decade on earth, but even liking what the kids like, as Don Bosco put it, has it's limits.  He didn't use the "P" word, but I'm not sure he had to.  I've seen a couple of Lady Gaga's videos and I found myself scrambling to close the browser so no one would walk in the room and think I was misusing my Internet privileges.

I don't want to beat up on poor Stefani too much because, like my confrere, I think she has a better than average voice. I'm a rocker, if you haven't figured that out from my earlier posts, but I do appreciate good ear candy if it's well produced and has a solid beat, and Gaga has that.  So I go on record stating that I think she's got talent.  But why the over sexualization?  If you've got talent, why do you have to do that?  There is a disturbing reality in the music industry that many female stars appeal to sex in order to get noticed in a way men don't.  And they're doing it at a younger and younger age.  It seems like there is this rite of passage for teen singers that when they hit about 17 they need to tart it up a bit to show that they've got street cred. I remember going through a mall in 1998 or '99 and seeing a huge poster of Brittney Spears, formally of Micky Mouse Club fame, still a little girl but made out to look like a woman.  The thought that passed through my mind was "This is not going to end well."  She's still alive, thank God, and the move helped her career in the short term, but I'm not sure it helped her emotional stability in the long run.  (Yes, I do think there is a connection between her sexualization as a teenager and her later emotional problems).

There is more to say on this entire thing, because, like I wrote, women seem to be under pressure to go this route, not only more than men, but instead of men.  There is a deeper implication, and next time I'll comment on Camile Paglia's criticism of Gaga, which is in many ways right, but for the wrong reasons.