Lady Gaga has to be one of the most distinguished superstars
to make a masquerade of disability in recent years. Not only
in her music video for Paparazzi but also for her live Tour. The disabled community mostly does not approve
of these partials of disability. For one
they believe that she continues the institutional idea of “getting better” by
obtaining full physical ability as the story line continues. The other issue is that of pretending to have
a disability. This is something that is
part of a “normal” idea in culture, most characters with disabilities seen on
television and in movies are merely “pretending to be disabled. My take is that we are still at a point in
social development of disability that any representation is disability that isn’t
one of “pity” or “over coming” is an acceptable visual. Wheelchair Dancer's Blog really fleshes that out more so I wont go on about it.
The most notable controversy over Lady Gaga in recent months
is when she was egged in Australia by a group of disability activates. The issue that is presented is their dislike
of her wheelchair using mermaid character, Yuyi. Even though this character isn’t obviously a
knock off of Bette Midler’s wheelchair mermaid that was created in the 80s, it
never received the same reaction. This
could be a sign of changing social perceptions of disability and what is acceptable. I think it was certainly a way of getting Gaga’s
attention but I hope it doesn’t deter her from continuing her exploration of
disability. I just think her examination
could use a little professional guidance.
This is where my idea for a disability design specialist
comes into play. Questions that I ask,
which I have yet to see in the controversy, is why Lady Gaga is using such a
relic of a wheelchair. It's square jarring medical clumsiness doesn't portray the power to which Gaga tends to bring to her characters. Here is an
amazing opportunity to bring some style to wheelchairs, class, and glitz;
consumer product to put it simply. This wheelchair should represent the sexy smooth lines of a mermaid, or if it's a darker version she is going for then why use wheels with basic spokes, why not something you would find on a chopper bike. From what I can tell Gaga is anything but standard, so what is with the standard wheelchair? Another idea is where is her collection of
disabled back of dancers? This would be
a great opportunity to integrate her act and give you disability masquerade some
substance. Not only giving the world an opportunity
to see what amazing disabled performers are out there but also eliminate the
controversy over pretending to be disabled by also having real disability representation
sitting next to her.
This is exactly why Lady Gaga needs me to captain the ship
of disability representation in her act.
