Lady Gaga Vs Demi Lovato, Who's Right In The Vomit War?
We’ve all got our views on Lady GaGa’s ‘vomit’ performance at SXSW’ festival, was it art or was it just well, sick? But one person who’s been very vocal about their objections to Gaga’s onstage shenanigans is singer Demi Lovato. Demi, who has suffered from bulimia went online to voice her criticisms of the performance and the negative effect it might have on fans. Lovato felt that Gaga was glamourizing eating disorders, while others felt it was mainly art, but who's right? Where can we draw the line between something being art or harmful?
Former Disney star Demi Lovato has been very public about her struggle with bulimia and active in trying to help fight against the disease, especially amongst young people. That’s where her problem with Gaga’s performance lies. She labelled it ‘sad’ and said, ‘if we didn't have enough people glamorising eat disorders already. Bottom line, it's not "cool" or "artsy" at all.’ Later, in a longer post, she laid out her views more clearly, saying, ‘all I'm saying is, artists in pop culture have influence on people. Some of which are people who aren't capable of understanding the art that is that is expressed by their idols.’ But is Lovato right, are Gaga’s Little Monster’s going to look at her performance and want to try and replicate it?
If you watch any of the performance you'll see it's not pretty nor is it remotely glamorous. Anyone watching the footage is probably more likely to be repulsed by it than to want to go out and imitate it. But it's not the more mature section of Gaga's audience that Lovato is worried about, it's the younger fans, who might instead think it looks cool or fun. Still its hard to imagine even the littliest 'Little Monsters' thinking that Gaga needs to be imitated here. However on social media there has been a few fans having a go at some of their own 'puke art', but it amounts to nothing more than a few silly pictures of fans posing with their fingers in their mouths.
Meanwhile Millie Brown, the self styled ‘vomit artist’, whom Gaga used in the performance, was quick to come to the defence tweeting, ‘I believe in absolute freedom of expression. Challenging perceptions of art & beauty. If art is your communication it should not be censored'. The 'art' defense that Brown used wasn't enough for Demi to retract her objects, she responded by saying, 'putting the word ART in it isn’t a free card to do whatever you want without consequences. I could call [my eating disorder] art too.'
Next page:in defence of Lady GaGa.
What Demi might have forgotten is that Gaga herself has also spoken out about her struggles with eating disorders, including bulimia. In 2012, in response to media coverage of her weight gain, she posted pictures of herself wearing just a bra and underpants on her social networking site, LittleMonsters.com, with a caption that read 'bulimia and anorexia since I was 15.’ She then launched what she called the ‘body revolution’ and invited her fans to share pictures of what were their perceived body flaws. No one can really say that Gaga hasn't done her part to help fans gain a more positive body image during her time in the spotlight. After all Gaga's image isn't based around being the regular 'sexy' popstar, instead she chooses to present herself a little differently wether people like it or not.
Whilst Gaga doesn't always get things right as an artist or a performer, we can't expect her to. She’s known for pushing boundaries and showing extremes in her work. But what she has proven time and time again that she does care about her fans and tries to be a positive role model for them. She might not fit the perceived image of what a positive role model should be, ie someone who’s always good and never does anything slightly wrong, instead she focuses on giving people the freedom to express themselves and love themselves despite any percieved flaws. Lovato too cares about her fans, which is why she was so quick to criticise Gaga. You also cant really blame Demi for her viewpoint. She spent years being held up as a Disney teen idol, only to buckle under the pressure. She knows all too well the influence performers can have on young fans, so it's not surprising that she may think younger fans might take Gaga’s performance the wrong way.
Love // @ladygaga X Millie Brown // SXSW http://t.co/Uo5AjlbBmj pic.twitter.com/4BZNoVVWZu
— Millie Brown (@Millie_Brown) March 14, 2014Really to call Gaga’s vomit performance ‘art’ might be a stretch, but to call it ‘glamourising eating disorders’ is a stretch too far as well. Really it was just another of bit of controversy stirred up by Gaga, who, although questionable at times, can't be imagined to want to promote anything as harmful as bulimia to her fan base. If there’s one positive thing that we can at least take from Gaga’s performance and Lovato’s reaction it's that we’re talking about the dangers of eating disorders once again. The fight against bulimia is at least something that both artist should be able to stand side by side on.
More: Lady Gaga 10 Of Her Best (Or Worst) Wonderfully Wacky Outfits