The first thing that really stands out when I look at this jacket, is the height of the shoulder-pads. Thanks to the 80s, I associate the height of shoulder-pads on women as a sign of their power and self-respect in fashion. Honestly, what I really start thinking about is the movie, Heathers, in which the queen bee appears in a red blazer while at home with her friends:
As you can see here, apart from being in the center of the frame, she also happens to have the highest shoulder pads. Heather Duke always wears the highest shoulder pads and is obviously the most demanding of respect. Her power, both among her friends and throughout her school, is demonstrated through her clothing: her wardrobe consists mainly of these types of blazers and are very similar to business suits for women.
Shoulder pads equate with power through their derivation from menswear; they command respect and demand attention. Broad shoulders indicate strength, and shoulder pads are clearly designed to emulate the physical trait. The strength of body expresses womyn's strength of mind; as womyn enter the workplace they must blend in with the society they are infiltrating. In the words of Pierre Bourdieu: "Social categories disadvantaged by the symbolic order, such as women and the young, cannot but recognize the legitimacy of the dominant classification in the very fact that their only chance of neutralizing those of its effects most contrary to their own interests lies in submitting to them in order to make use of them" (1). In short, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. The marginalization of womyn required that they "think male," and in order to think male, looking like them -- to a certain extent -- proved to be necessary in order to achieve some semblance of equality in the workplace and society.
Lady Gaga has proved to be able to 'join 'em' as she has distorted what it means to be female or male through her derision at the rumors of her having a penis. In this Lollapalooza performance, on the other hand, she thinks male through her outrageous shoulder pads. Like Heather Duke, she expresses her strength through her fashions. Both Heather and Gaga control masses of people, and demand respect from fans and haters alike. However, their similarities end there.
What I find most interesting about these statements of power, is that they are farcical and are self deprecating, to a certain extent. While it is true that Lady Gaga takes her art seriously, she does not do the same with her fame and power. She has said that she has "zero perception of [her] celebrity presentation" (2) and that her fans "subconsciously transmit all of their freedom, and their love, and their joy into me; through the show, through [her] communication with them, it's almost like [they] have [their] own little spiritual connection separate from everything else" (3). Through these sentiments about her own inspiration, we can see that her power is not a hierarchical structure, as it has been in the West prior to Lady Gaga's rise to stardom. Her fame and power, as she understands them, exist as a symbiotic relationship in which they feed inspiration and love to one another. Her perception of herself and presentation, therefore, do not mirror the fashion philosophy behind the shoulder pads.
Frequently she is discussed as Mama Monster, and has been portrayed by the media as one of the most powerful and influential people in the world. This understanding of her, which is not necessarily her own, does mirror the fashion philosophy. But since it is not her own, Gaga chooses to satirize it. Yes, she will emulate the strength and power people believe she has, but she will go far beyond people's expectations to the point of spectacle.
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1. Amalia Sa'ar, "Postcolonial Feminism, the Politics of Identification, and the Liberal Bargain," Gender and Society 19, no. 5 (October 2005): 680-700. http://www.jstor.org/stable/
27640835 (accessed August 18, 2010), 685.
2. Lady Gaga, interview with Alexander Fury, May 2010, Show Studio,
On-Demand video, http://showstudio.com/project/in_camera/lady_gaga (accessed August 27, 2010).
3. Ibid.
