So I am sure that none of you guys in the class know this about me, but I am a HUGE Lady Gaga fan. I have been a "superfan" for around 2 years now. Since starting this class, I have been thinking a lot about her views, statements and her love for her fans. I have seen many, many of her performances and interviews, and she uses her voice as an outlet for an agenda filled with love and acceptance of all kinds of people. I would say I am fairly tuned into the fan base that is little monsters, and a lot of us view this fanbase as a religion. In her performances, she makes statements with religious undertones. She says "my religion is you" to her fans as well as says that her fan base views pop culture and music as a religion. Here are just a few videos that I think kind of shows her love for her fans and says some of the things that she believes.
Now I know that not every person reading this is going to feel the same way about her as I do, but I think that her message of love and acceptance of everyone is something that can really help and change the world. I was lucky enough to see her in concert a year ago, and that night really changed my life. I felt free and empowered. Though many would think that a fan base calling themselves a religion is blasphemous or wrong, but I highly disagree with that. To me, religion can be separated from spirituality. I believe that someone can be extremely spiritual and believe in god and Jesus and still not be religious. One of the biggest problems with religion, in my opinion, is that there isn't one religion that doesn't hate or feel strongly against another religion or different group of people. But in the "monster religion," if you really listen to the things that Lady G is saying, we are really striving to accept everyone. I think that religion is something that people get involved in so that they can learn a moral code for which to live their lives. They join a church or believe a religion because it tells them what is right or wrong. Isn't this the same thing? We believe in acceptance of everyone and living life without prejudice and hate.
There are many people who would not say that there could ever be a Monster Religion. To quote Lady Gaga, "they just see wigs and lipstick and shut down." Or people could think that because God is not involved it could not be a religion. I am not saying that I personally view Lady Gaga as God. I am saying, take god out of it, and just try to live life free of prejudice or hate, which is hopefully the main belief of Monsters everywhere. This Monster Religion could give people who don't believe in God something to believe it. Religion came about as a way to bring people together and support one another, and this monster religion does just that. To illustrate how united a fan base can be, a fellow fan, Jamey committed suicide recently. Though I had never met Jamey, I followed his blog on tumblr and had some contact with him in that way. He was 14 years old and ended his life because of the immense bullying he endured everyday at school because he was bisexual. After people learned about Jamey's death, people were extremely upset. Lady Gaga was extremely upset, and tweeted:
"The past days I've spent reflecting, crying, and yelling. I have so much anger. It is hard to feel love when cruelty takes someones life."
A couple days after his death, a group of 150 fans made this video in response:
And Lady Gaga herself dedicated her most recent performance of her song Hair to Jamey.
I guess what I am trying to say here, is that though God is not involved, this fan base could be considered as religion as well. We all love each other, and when someone is hurting, strangers unite to support that person even if they have never met them. To me, I don't have a problem saying that this group is a family or religion. I personally do not feel a strong connection with God nor do I even know if I believe that there is a god. But I do know that the outpouring of love and support for this one person means that the Monsters are doing something right. We are millions strong, and hopefully hate and cruelty can be diminished a little less if we speak up.
Very interesting! I often have seen the fan-culture in the pop-world as somewhat religious, though usually in a somewhat negative sense (as in, deifying their musician or celebrity). While I am somewhat doubtful of the depth of the love that lady Gaga's religion is spreading (this kind of movement is not unique to her, or even to our time), it may have more merits than I was willing to admit.
ReplyDeleteI like you idea here (and your dedication). I absolutely think that fan and pop culture can be, and often is, religious. People worship (figuratively and literally) idols all the time. If you think about all the greatest pop-culture movements that have occurred, they've only taken place because of the belief, love, and loyalty of the followers.
ReplyDelete"I personally do not feel a strong connection with God nor do I even know if I believe that there is a god. But I do know that the outpouring of love and support for this one person means that the Monsters are doing something right."
I think this is a really important point about the nature of religion; as has been said many times in class, religion is a group movement, whereas a spiritual belief in any higher being is completely individual.