I'm gaga for Gaga!

It's true, I'm a huuuge Lady Gaga fan. Though at first, like many other people, I found her both silly and annoying. But now whenever I hear someone putting down Lady Gaga, I enter complete rage mode and defend her 'til my last breathe. So what changed? Well, I just simply realized that Lady Gaga is talented, smart, empowering, and pretty much the best thing to happen to pop music in a long time. 

"GaGa is the girl who at age 4 learned piano by ear. By age 13, she had written her first piano ballad. At 14, she played open mic nights at clubs such as New York's 'The Bitter End'. At 17, she was one of 20 kids in the world to get early admission to Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. There, she studied music and improved her songwriting skills by composing essays and analytical papers focusing on topics such as art, religion, and socio-political order. Signed by her 20th birthday and writing songs for other artists before her debut album was even released, Lady GaGa has earned the right to reach for the sky."

Lady Gaga is also a true activist for gay rights, which I find very refreshing for a pop star. The 23 year-old was the biggest celebrity to attend both the Human Rights Campaign dinner and the National Equality March. Not to mention she also hosted a gay marriage event/show not too long ago in Atlantic City, New Jersey (which I sadly couldn't attend because it was 21+ to enter; I was pissed), where all proceeds went to four regional gay rights organizations advocating for marriage equality. Very cool. 

On top of that, she is a real leader in the media when it comes to talking about gender issues and female empowerment. In the beginning Lady Gaga put down feminism, stating that she wasn't a feminist because she didn't hate men. Which made me really upset, I was sad that the majority of people still equated feminism with hating men. But lately Gaga seems to be taking that statement back, educating herself more about what feminism truly means, and even started calling herself one. I love that, I mean not everybody  is well-informed on the history of feminism, and the fact that Lady Gaga saw that she was wrong and changed her stance is a breathe of fresh air. Plus, maybe this will even convince more young women to not believe in the negative connotations surrounding feminism. Here are some awesome Lady Gaga quotes:

"I'm getting the sense that you're a little bit of a feminist, like I am, which is good. I find that men get away with saying a lot in this business, and that women get away with saying very little . . . In my opinion, women need and want someone to look up to that they feel have the full sense of who they are, and says, 'I'm great."

"I think it’s great to be a sexy, beautiful woman who can fuck her man after she makes him dinner. There’s a stigma around feminism that’s a little bit man-hating. And I don’t promote hatred, ever."

Many of her new songs address body image issues, and much of her outlandish style is aimed at critiquing female beauty standards and how unnatural they really are. Gaga was even quoted saying that her video for the song 'Bad Romance' was about "how the entertainment industry can, in a metaphorical way, simulate human trafficking; products being sold, the woman perceived as a commodity". Lady Gaga is fearless, and encourages all of us to let our inner freaks out and feel sexy in our own skin; which is  something I can always stand behind. So to conclude: do not fear The Gaga.