fbpx
47 F
Spokane
Thursday, March 28, 2024
HomeCommentaryLady Gaga supports the status quo

Lady Gaga supports the status quo

Date:

Related stories

My Journey through Homelessness Part Five: Learning to Live Outside the Box

The value of my homeless experience lies not so much in having learned how to live outside — at least not in the geographical sense. The value of my homeless experience lies in having learned how to live outside the box.

Lost in Translation: Isn’t It Time We Moved Beyond a Fear-Based Repentance?

When I hear the kingdom is at hand, followed immediately by the command to repent, the good news is overshadowed by the fear that I’m not good enough to be part of the kingdom of God.

Inspiring Others: How Our Marriage Turned 50

As we prepare to celebrate 50 years there are so many thoughts and memories going through my head. I have joked about how I don't know how you've put up with me for this long, which is really true in a sense with my Irish enthusiasm and temper.

Taking the Road ‘Less Traveled by’ Has Made ‘All the Difference’

Pete Haug remembers hearing Robert Frost read his poem "The Road not Taken" 65 years ago. It reminded him of his spiritual journey out of the Christianity of his youth into choosing the Baha'i faith as an adult.

Ask an EOC: Can You Confess in Private to God but not in Church Confession and be Forgiven?

Concerning the sacrament of Confession, Christ directly gave the authority to his Church to remit or retain the sins of the penitent. 

Our Sponsors

spot_img
spot_img

CONTACT US  |  TALK BACK  |  SUBMIT TIP SUBMIT PHOTOS/VIDEOS CORRECTION

Lady Gaga/Wikipedia
Lady Gaga/Wikipedia

Beauty, the source of art for the classic aesthetics, has been replaced by an aesthetic of shock. Like a horror movie that uses a popping out hand to scare the audience, the art of shock surprises with outrage in the moment. Like the horror movie, we know it is not real and the shock is the fun. Especially fun if the shock directs one group to look down at another group.

When Andres Serrano dipped a crucifix in his urine, and took a picture, he was thumbing his nose, not at his own culture, but at an outside group — Christians. The people that went to the exhibition are not going to be outraged, but glad that the other, conservative Christians were outraged. That was part of the fun, angering people they did not like. 

Then there is a veneer of intellectualization to mask that it is not challenging the artist’s community, but the other. The aesthetic of shock, with it's harmless safeness, has gone mainstream since about the 1960s. Especially in pop music, Madonna, being the most astute at this aesthetics, goes out to shock in this harmless manner. Her tool and trade is sexuality, but the same attacking the conservative ethos for people that neither subscribe to it, nor are outraged by her antics. Lady Gaga and Katy Perry continue these aesthetics. Their fans are not outraged or challenged but they are fond of the outrage others have.

They all harmlessly thumb the eye of the conservatives. The problem with it is that once the shock is done, like the hand that reaches out to grab the teenage girl’s arm in Carrie, the joke is done and all is left is the story of outrage. The shock art works with those that agree with it and by the sideways glance at the community it aims to outrage. The people that go to the exhibition or buy the music are not challenged in their beliefs, rather they are supported in their beliefs. They look at the cross in urine and think this it right that the sacred is brought down low, even as they have weak understanding of the sacred. It works at two levels, by supporting the supposed liberation from the church (strange as most have never been to church) and to feel superior to the church goer. The reality that most of the people that applauded Serrano’s photo don't even have a clue or understood of what the cross means. St. Paul pointed to the challenge of the cross was greatest symbol weakness as a symbol of the almighty God.

The aesthetic of shock really works by keeping everything in place. The aesthetic of challenge is different.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter

You may be interested in these periodic mailings, too. Check any or all to subscribe.

 

Ernesto Tinajero
Ernesto Tinajero
Art, says Ernesto Tinajero, comes from the border of what has come before and what is coming next. Tinajero uses his experience studying poetry and theology to write about the intersecting borders of art, poetry and religion.

Our Sponsors

spot_img
spot_img
spot_img
0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
spot_img
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x