Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery but in reality, it’s just plain annoying. Pop diva Lady Gaga has been called out by many for being a habitual copycat. But in her defense, nothing is original so maybe she just borrowed other people’s ideas and tried to make them better? Madonna, Annie Lennox and Cam’ron may think otherwise. Revisit all those times Gaga thought she was being daringly original and instead should have given credit where credit is due.
Meat Dress
It’s hard to forget Gaga’s strange meat dress at the 2010 MTV Music Video Awards. She gave an emotional acceptance speech after asking Cher to hold her meat purse and then belted out a snippet of her (at the time) new single,”Born This Way” on national television. While this whole uncomfortable spectacle went down, Canadian artist Jana Sterbak was probably at home, livid after Gaga had “forgotten” to mention that Sterbak did it first.
In 1987, Sterbak released her controversial “Vanitas: Flesh Dress for an Albino Anorexic” sculpture which was a dress made out of raw flank steak. The piece was created to reflect “the alienation humans feel from their own flesh, aging and mortality.” It also symbolized the “you are what you wear” ideology and how more young women have been diagnosed with eating disorders because their bodies don’t fit society’s “ideal” type. When Gaga was asked by Ellen DeGeneres why she chose to wear meat, the singer said, “It has many interpretations, but for me this evening … If we don’t stand up for what we believe in and if we don’t fight for our rights, pretty soon we’re going to have as much rights as the meat on our own bones. And I am not a piece of meat.” What she had failed to mention is that Sterbak originally made this same statement but maybe the rotting meat smell distracted her and made her forget.
Watch the Making of Jana Sterbak’s “Vanitas: Flesh Dress for an Albino Anorectic” below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUX7nu6gmGU
