Public image
Contrary to her outré style, the
New York Post described her early look as like "a refugee from
Jersey Shore" with "big black hair, heavy eye makeup and tight, revealing clothes."
[20] Gaga is a natural
brunette; she bleached her hair blonde because she was often mistaken for
Amy Winehouse.
[12] She often refers to her fans as her "little monsters" and in dedication, she had that inscription
tattooed on "the arm that holds [her] mic[rophone]."
[119] She has another six known tattoos, among them a
peace symbol, which was inspired by
John Lennon whom she stated was her hero,
[89] and a curling German script on her left arm which quotes the poet
Rainer Maria Rilke, her favorite
philosopher, commenting that his "philosophy of solitude" spoke to her.
[120] Towards the end of 2008, comparisons were made between the fashions of Gaga and fellow recording artist
Christina Aguilera that noted similarities in their styling, hair, and make-up.
[14] Aguilera stated that she was "completely unaware of [Gaga]" and "didn't know if it [was] a man or a woman."
[14] Gaga released a statement in which she welcomed the comparisons due to the attention providing useful publicity, saying, "She's such a huge star and if anything I should send her flowers, because a lot of people in America didn't know who I was until that whole thing happened. It really put me on the map in a way."
[121][122] Comparisons continued into 2010 when Aguilera released the music video of her single "
Not Myself Tonight". Critics noted similarities between the song and its accompanying music video with Gaga's video for "Bad Romance".
[123] There have also been similar comparisons made between Gaga's style and that of fashion icon
Dale Bozzio from the band
Missing Persons. Some have considered their respective images to be strikingly parallel although fans of Missing Persons note that Bozzio had pioneered the look more than thirty years earlier.
[124]
Gaga attributes much of her early success as a mainstream artist to her gay fans and is considered to be a rising
gay icon.
[125] Early in her career she had difficulty getting
radio airplay, and stated, "The turning point for me was the gay community. I've got so many gay fans and they're so loyal to me and they really lifted me up. They'll always stand by me and I'll always stand by them. It's not an easy thing to create a fanbase."
[126] She thanked FlyLife, a
Manhattan-based
LGBT marketing company with whom her label Interscope works, in the liner notes of
The Fame, saying, "I love you so much. You were the first heartbeat in this project, and your support and brilliance means the world to me. I will always fight for the gay community hand in hand with this incredible team."
[127] One of her first televised performances was in May 2008 at the
NewNowNext Awards, an awards show aired by the LGBT television network
Logo, where she sang her song "Just Dance".
[128] In June of the same year, she performed the song again at the
San Francisco Pride event.
[129] After
The Fame was released, she revealed that the song "Poker Face" was about her
bisexuality. In an interview with
Rolling Stone, she spoke about how her boyfriends tended to react to her bisexuality, saying "The fact that I'm into women, they're all intimidated by it. It makes them uncomfortable. They're like, 'I don't need to have a threesome. I'm happy with just you'."
[51] When she appeared as a guest on
The Ellen DeGeneres Show in May 2009, she praised DeGeneres for being "an inspiration for women and for the gay community".
[130] She proclaimed that the October 11, 2009,
National Equality March rally on the
national mall was "the single most important event of her career." As she exited, she left with an exultant "Bless God and bless the gays,"
[54] similar to her
2009 MTV Video Music Awards acceptance speech for Best New Artist a month earlier.
[131] At the rally, she performed a cover of
John Lennon's "
Imagine" declaring that "I'm not going to [play] one of my songs tonight because tonight is not about me, it's about you." She changed the original lyrics of the song to reflect the death of
Matthew Shepard, a college student murdered because of his sexuality.
[132] In September 2010, she spoke at a rally in favor of repealing the US military's
Don't ask, don't tell policy, which prohibits lesbian, gay and bisexual people from serving openly,
[133] and released an online video urging her fans to contact their Senators in an effort to get the policy overturned. Editors of
The Advocate commented that she had become the "fierce advocate" for gays and lesbians
[134] that future president Barack Obama had promised to be during his campaign.
[135]
Gaga's influence on modern culture and society has provoked the
University of South Carolina into offering a full-time course titled "Lady Gaga and the Sociology of Fame"
[136] in the objective of unravelling "the sociologically relevant dimensions of the fame of Lady Gaga with respect to her music, videos, fashion, and other artistic endeavors".
[137]
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