Is Lady Gaga a character?

[ryanripley 86,575]

7 minutes ago, sipthistea said:

So you think Lady Gaga, as a character, died in the moment she released Joanne? 

i wouldn't say died, she finally had time to let "gaga" go to sleep and rest after nearly 10 years of non stop work

[sipthistea 21,099]

22 minutes ago, hoeslay said:

Yes and no. Lady Gaga is 100% Stefani. Stefani is NOT 100% Lady Gaga. I'd say Gaga is sort of like a mask but a transparent one like the clear ones you see that have faces painted onto them. True theatre is never a lie but rather a reality under imaginary circumstances and with pop performance art, you're making a theatre that is not traditional. You're no longer truthfully telling someone else's story but rather telling your own story with a few added details and some glitter and embroidery. It's real, it's just fantasy as well. She's talked about that before. The only time it's become an issue is when that side of you (not as a separate entity but as a facet of your personality) starts to take in all the stress and is used as a defense mechanism. Gaga has talked about herself using "Lady Gaga" as a tool for self empowerment that in moments became untrue or braver than she actually was or needed to be, and Katy even publicly shared a therapy session on this. So Gaga's not a character to me, at least - but simply a heightened expression of Stefani. Both coexist and as an artist it's simply just a process to make sure they can comfortably coexist. 

I really like your way of describing it. I believe something similar, and it has to be with Gaga being part of a storytelling made by Stefani. She, through her work and her own experience, tells her story from her artistic perspective. And this is well connected with what she explained when she released the video for MTN, that she prefers to remember things in an artistic way. That she lives between reality and fantasy. 

[justanothergay 2,486]

This is a very interesting subject to me. I think my opinion is that there's sort of a continuum between Gaga and Stefani. Gaga is a mask, brand, and a business, while Stefani is quite clearly the one who wears that mask and runs that business. I don't think wearing a mask is the same thing as playing a character, though. Recall that she said when she was writing BTW she imagined Whitney Houston was singing it basically because she was not strong enough. This is because Stefani writes the songs because that's where the pain comes from, and Gaga performs them. Maximum Gaga obviously happens on stage only.

I think it's like this for a lot of other artists as well, provided they are as deep as she is about her art. In a more general sense it's just private vs. public self, and the lines have really been quite blurred with Joanne. Keep in mind that on some level it's an eponymous album, but a "mask" is still there since it's just her middle name. (And it's not literally eponymous anyway ).

[Killa 15,097]

Defenitely not, the problem is that Stefani still has some shackles, and they're more obvious now.

Gaga is certainly a fantasy a fetish of hers, but it's also pretty much who she feels inside, ofc Gaga also became a creation of our time with her.

So Gaga exists in the fandom/public perspective, it can't just be herself.

 

[SychosSoChic 9,995]

Imagine not knowing who your fav really is

[Doot 2]

That is a hard question to answer. Honestly though, I would say yes.

It's hard because we were led to believe that it wasn't a character, but I would say that as soon as we hit the Joanne era, it was basically confirmed. She has made comments about her previous work (specifically the outfits) that almost sounded like shade.

I think you have to look at her as basically someone who struggles with adhering to a lot of what she says from one album cycle to the next. And I get it...from Day One as her outfits started to get more and more avant garde and the music began to change, I knew for a fact she was going to exhaust the ideas and the constant persona she put out into the world. I mean literally everything we ever saw was planned. During interviews her dancers would stand posed behind her.  She sat on stage last era in a trash bag outfit saying she would never become what the industry wanted her to become, only to do that very thing with the next album lol

I think each era is a different persona and they often contradict her previous personas. 

It's not a bad thing, just perhaps not as well thought out. I just don’t think she can keep up with it all. 

[Matangi 3,050]

to me gaga is quite like a drag persona. just like she always says, halfway between reality and fantasy.

[Glamourpuss 29,062]

No. Gaga is an extension of herself. I can understand the question with her saying call me Joanne.  But I remember interviews from the past where she said it annoys her when people call her a character because she feels that she isn't.

[derpmonster 22,412]

She's a hybrid. Gaga and Stefani are inseparable. Lady Gaga was and is a way for Stefani to discover herself and free her inner self. Stefani is Gaga and Gaga is Stefani.

Of course, there are times she puts on personas for her art but it's always something she believes in. She is not the girl in Telephone. But she is the girl in Born This Way. In Just Dance. In Bad Romance. In ARTPOP. In Joanne.

 

[derpmonster 22,412]

1 hour ago, Doot said:

I think each era is a different persona and they often contradict her previous personas. 

Yes, it's because people have a certain vision of who they are and their future but it changes. She is still Gaga throughout, though. There are many things like some outfits that we attribute to Gaga but she doesn't feel connected to them. But that's because everything she did is just way too much to be consistent. She has always believed in her art, though.

She's still into high fashion. And she said in an interview that Gaga is not a character. It's partly who she is and partly how the world sees her. It's not just her anymore. It's little monsters and the world who also have a part in defining Gaga. Which is why she may be slightly more distanced from it now.

[Bio 23,538]

It’s a character but that doesn’t mean it’s not her. We all have characters ourselves depending on the situation we’re at.

[crisTEAne 21,059]

it's the self and the other constructing one subjectivity. you cannot separate the two. gaga as the other within stefani is basically the answer to your question. 

there is no such thing as a "real" or "true" self, though. every moment is a performance. not just in gaga's case—in everybody's case. 

[Lazlo 106]

I think it's not entirely a character, but it sure does help her express what she feels inside, through the eras and different aesthetics, different music styles etc.