A firestorm of controversy whipped up around Lady Gaga yesterday over her insensitive and horribly offensive use of the word “retarded” in her new expletive-laden interview with NME magazine (published this week). In an attempt to quell the outrage over her remark, Gaga issued a terse apology that seems more explanatory than it does apologetic. [...]
A firestorm of controversy whipped up around Lady Gaga yesterday over her insensitive and horribly offensive use of the word “retarded” in her new expletive-laden interview with NME magazine (published this week). In an attempt to quell the outrage over her remark, Gaga issued a terse apology that seems more explanatory than it does apologetic. Additionally, a minor controversy broke out yesterday as well as Weird Al Yankovic revealed that Gaga refused to let him release his parody song based on her single Born This Way. As another anti-Gaga firestorm started to emerge, Gaga reversed her position on the parody song and allowed Weird Al to release the song.
“I consider it part of my life’s work and music to push the boundaries of love and acceptance. My apologies for not speaking thoughtfully. To anyone that was hurt, please know that it was furiously unintentional. An honest mistake requires honesty to make. Whether life’s disabilities, left you outcast bullied or teased, rejoice and love yourself today.”
Anything that I say about Gaga‘s “apology” will very likely be interpreted as “hate” because I admittedly am not a big fan of anything she does … but, here goes. In my very honest opinion, I do not accept this carefully worded statement as a genuine apology. It seems like it was issued to try and put a stop to the angry commentary that has been going around about her insensitive and offensive remark. I would hope that Gaga is genuinely sorry for her remark and isn’t just trying to undo the PR mess that she created. In the end, an apology is an apology (I guess) and I — at the very least — commend her decision to issue a statement.
Now … as for the Weird Al controversy. Al spoke with The New York Times about Gaga‘s refusal to let him release his parody version of her song Born this Way. Click HERE to read his interview and listen below to his parody song Perform This Way:
To be fair, Gaga‘s position is that her manager never asked her to approve the song so she never denied Weird Al‘s request to release it. In the end, permission was given, the song has been approved and everyone is happy. Lady Gaga has been issuing mea culpas left and right … but is she really sorry for these mistakes or is she only interested in stemming the tide of negative controversy? The answer, I suppose, is up to each individual.
[Source, Source]
Malin Akerman
Mila Kunis
Eliza Dushku
Adriana Lima
No comments:
Post a Comment