Saturday fight live -- Madonna pulls Lady Gaga's hair; image courtesy of assets.nydailynews.com
So, I just wanna make sure we all saw Madonna and Lada Gaga catfight in a skit on SNL last weekend. If not . . .
This skit is interesting, though not without its problems in terms of how conceptualizes female competition. For one, while normative notions of masculinity, racial supremacy, and heterosexually accessible lesbianism are ultimately endorsed at the end of the skit, it is interesting that, for one of the few times in either pop star’s career, a queerable black man enacts agency and authority rather than being controlled by these women. For another, it addresses and challenges inter-generational power struggles between women. It also suggests that perhaps Gaga — who shares or steals Madonna’s prediliction for Marie Antoinette-informed spectacle — is a much better fit for succession of the Material Girl’s mantle than Britney.
1. The skit takes place on a fictitious house music TV program called Deep House Dish, acknowledging both pop stars’ dance club origins.
2. That program is on MTV4, a clear slight at the music network that has made both video-centric performers’ careers, while at the same time dispensing of the network’s original 24-hour music video programming schedule to make more room for reality television.
3. With their bleach-blonde hair, olive complexions, and leather get-ups, these are Italian American pop stars that believe in queerable toughness over normative pretty femininity in the cultivation of sexy.
4. As feisty as she is with her idol, I wonder if Lady Gaga will be fighting some emerging pop icon the same way Madonna is now. Where Britney kissed Madonna’s ass, Gaga is ready to kick it. Kill yr idols, indeed.
