Why I Admire Gaga Less Now

[SpaceAce 1,058]

I can respect you trying to lay your opinion out in a semi-respectful manner but this whole post is entirely hypercritical with such little evidence and real insight into Gaga as a person and her struggles. You've cherry picked small things from years ago that simply can't represent Gaga as whole the way you want them to here.  

Comparing Gaga and Madonna is not fair to both women. And mental illness isn't weighed and measured by how much perceived struggle there is in one's life. I've suffered with depression for most of my life and I have two incredible parents and enough money to feel safe and comfortable. Whereas my mother lost a parent, lived in poverty and was assaulted all before she became an adult. And guess what? She's never suffered from depression. She can't relate to me at all even though she tries to be understanding. 

So everyone is different and handles their pain differently. To say that Gaga is faking her struggle or making herself think her life is dark is just your one-dimensional perception based off of a few brief moments you've witnessed in her public life. That VF interview where she talks about doing drugs to **** up her life is revealing of her mindset at age 19, when she was young, naive and looking for a perspective as an artist. She never shared this story as a proud moment, but rather as a hard lesson and growing experience. So I think you using this interview to back up your thoughts here is extremely unfair and misguided. 

Maybe it's possible to appreciate different things in different artists instead of wishing they would all conform to your strange standards of a strong woman. I can appreciate Madonna's stoic nature and also appreciate Gaga's bravery in being open and vulnerable to a judgemental, gossip crazed and unforgiving public. It's quite apparent now that even people who call themselves fans can twist her words and not appreciate her genuine hunger for human connection.

So I don't believe she has the same intentions as other artists who want to share their art from a tower above the people and be perceived as untouchable. And neither intention is wrong or less admirable. 

All in all, I think you tried to make the point that Gaga is taking a short cut to her own "legend" by "playing a victim" when in fact she's bravely put herself in a very tough spot by sharing so much with a society that likes to consume celebrities, chew them up, spit them back out, and expect them to be okay despite it all. 

 

[Kayla 7,595]

7 minutes ago, Omar Vela said:

Are you for real!?!?!?!? This site sometimes I think it should be called Maddersdaily instead of Gagadaily. How calling Gaga a fake isn't insulting?, calling her weak because she doesn't act like other "divas" that never say anything abouth their rough past?... this is really awful. 

I think there were some things in OP that were insulting. I also think parts of his opinion are very valid. Personally, when I read OP's words I didn't think he was calling Gaga fake as much as he was saying she tends to make mountains out of molehills because she has to feel like she's really overcome something to be taken seriously. 

Honestly, I can totally see it in her and the root cause I believe is society's fascination for the underdog. If you make it big but are some rich kid, they'll look down on you. It's really shitty how people both expect perfection, but also expect celebrities to have overcome some tragic downfall to earn respect.

That being said, she's also a very emotional person who immerses herself in what she does, so I think part of her somewhat destructive behavior is an unintentional part of her personality. 

idk. I totally get it. I see a lot of myself in it. Pushing yourself too hard because you think you can do it, you know you can do it. And the burnout feels terrible, but god coming up out of it feels so great. It's been an effort for me to learn how to maintain a stable sense of being, to continue to succeed without needing to fall into a pit in order to find the motivation to keep going. I see these things in myself, and in many ways I notice them in Gaga too. That's why I agree with many of the sentiments OP is saying. 

[Kayla 7,595]

9 minutes ago, SpaceAce said:

I can respect you trying to lay your opinion out in a semi-respectful manner but this whole post is entirely hypercritical with such little evidence and real insight into Gaga as a person and her struggles. You've cherry picked small things from years ago that simply can't represent Gaga as whole the way you want them to here.  

Comparing Gaga and Madonna is not fair to both women. And mental illness isn't weighed and measured by how much perceived struggle there is in one's life. I've suffered with depression for most of my life and I have two incredible parents and enough money to feel safe and comfortable. Whereas my mother lost a parent, lived in poverty and was assaulted all before she became an adult. And guess what? She's never suffered from depression. She can't relate to me at all even though she tries to be understanding. 

So everyone is different and handles their pain differently. To say that Gaga is faking her struggle or making herself think her life is dark is just your one-dimensional perception based off of a few brief moments you've witnessed in her public life. That VF interview where she talks about doing drugs to **** up her life is revealing of her mindset at age 19, when she was young, naive and looking for a perspective as an artist. She never shared this story as a proud moment, but rather as a hard lesson and growing experience. So I think you using this interview to back up your thoughts here is extremely unfair and misguided. 

Maybe it's possible to appreciate different things in different artists instead of wishing they would all conform to your strange standards of "a strong woman". I can appreciate Madonna's stoic nature and also appreciate Gaga's bravery in being open and vulnerable to a judgemental, gossip crazed and unforgiving public. It's quite apparent now that even people who call themselves fans can twist her words and not appreciate her genuine hunger for human connection.

So I don't believe she has the same intentions as other artists who want to share their art from a tower above the people and be perceived as untouchable. And neither intention is wrong or less admirable. 

All in all, I think you tried to make the point that Gaga is taking a short cut to her own "legend" by "playing a victim" when in fact she's bravely put herself in a very tough spot by sharing so much with a society that likes to consume celebrities, chew them up, spit them back out, and expect them to be okay despite it all. 

 

These are all really good points. I think the real story is actually a mix of what a lot of us are saying. I believe it's a complex issue that cannot be explained by just one person's opinion here. 

[SpaceAce 1,058]

1 minute ago, Kayla said:

These are all really good points. I think the real story is actually a mix of what a lot of us are saying. I believe it's a complex issue that cannot be explained by just one person's opinion here. 

Yes, of course. There's no way to get the whole story. My issue with the op was how unbalanced and judgemental it really is. There's no one way to define a strong woman. 

[HANZ 4,380]

I kinda agree with you

Gaga can be egocentrical and likes to play the victim a lot meanwhile Madonna has always had the whole world and odds against her but she always showed the fearless woman that she is and that's amazing

gaga also contradicts a lot  tbh

[Kayla 7,595]

My husband sent me this clip and I think it fits within the topic of this thread:

 

Fame does things to people, it effects their mind. He's right in saying the people who can get up there and maintain themselves are strong people. 

[Katie14 4,828]

@jojuun

Are you saying she wanted to famous because she is self destructive and craved the traumatic experience of being a celebrity?

[boneknuckleskin 776]

23 hours ago, jojuun said:

Hey guys....

...Thoughts?

 

Wordy, isn't he? 

Seriously, this is virtually unreadable. I cannot invest the time required to read and formulate a response to it. Believe me, I tried. I stopped when it became clear that you could have conveyed every thing you wrote here completely and succinctly in about 1,000 words or less. This reads like someone wrote it while high on amphetamines. It's a shame too because I would really like to know what your thoughts are and to discuss them with you --  but I have a life to live. 

 

 

[merlot 5,772]

I think you're reading too much into it.

i believe she's that out of good faith to indpire people and help them.

 

if there's something we should discuss it should be what's going with this era tho?! 

[Jakkusan 800]

This is a really irrelevant, awful, ignorant (and quite frankly) HURTFUL post.

There are just too many things wrong with it and i'm not going to bother going through them all.

The only thing I will say here is: "a victim wish"? Really?

Gaga's struggles are real and so are the struggles of so many people like her.

Drug addiction is not a self-inflicted weakness. This is just totally blinded and ignorant. 

 

[Americano 31,061]

Nothing about being personal and transparent is weak. The cockiness you praised during TF-BTW is actually what is weak and fake. 

[Heidi Montag 409]

I actually agree with you, and I've kind of felt this since the beginning. I never thought her talking about past struggles seemed very genuine or as bad as she tried to make it look, even in the TFM era.

I think that deep down, maybe even subconsciously she feels not 'worthy' of being a big star if she doesn't have some dramatic story to go with it so she tries to make it seem like she does. I don't really mind it though, she is by far not the only artist who does this.

[Joel 877]

8 hours ago, Kayla said:

Did you ever stop to think that maybe this "victim thing" going on with today's pop stars is a real issue?

Sure, I had more fun as a Gaga fan when she was a bomb-ass bitch who could do it all, but remember that these people are human. You can't expect someone to be in the public eye with all their actions critiqued all the time to be your badass 24/7. There is a lot of pressure to be perfect, act perfect, and succeed in everything. 
You're right that Gaga very much KNEW what she was getting into, but I think there was a lot she also didn't account for. 

However, I do get what you're saying about Gaga wishing she had a more dramatic life. Her parents were hard workers and it's not like she went without. Regardless, you're right she has taken on this persona of needing to overcome. 
But I think this also comes from public perception of people with success. If you came from a well-off family and made it big they don't take you as seriously. People want an underdog story. And while I believe Gaga believes she went through many tragedies (and truthfully, she's had her fair share), I also believe, as you too indicated, she wants to be more of the underdog than she actually is. 

And sure, Gaga has and had a pretty cushy life, all things considered. But I noticed in a recent interview that she sortof brought up losing a couple friends in the past year. She doesn't talk about it much, or really at all, but her mentioning it made me realize there's a lot more going on in her life than what we see. We see her career side, but there's a whole personal side that she certainly keeps off limits, for good reason. 

Honestly, I think once Gaga got to a certain point she just wanted to be seen as a person. 

Wow @Kayla, i think you just expressed what the OP wanted to say in a clearer and more respectful way 

And we definitely have to understand that they, as public figures have to deal through a lot of **** most part of their lives, we just have to look @ the kanye mess happening rn.

[gagaisitalian 3,573]

I agree.

Gaga started heavily playing the "victim"/"self-destructive" card when her fame started declining with Judas. She is still playing the card. She has lost her "heroic" stature in my opinion. Now she's just a sad singer-songwriter. Which is fine (I mean, my #1 is Lana) but it's a heavy contrast to the strong icon we saw her starting to become between 2008-Born This Way single release.

[Noir 17,344]

Surely being openly vulnerable and aware of overcoming and struggling your personal battles is an integral part of human life, so to then embrace her flaws and use her platform, as a public figure to discuss larger social issues which offers comfort is nothing but commendable. I find this original post incredibly shallow/weak-minded.