“For those of you who are here hoping to hear a lot about Lady Gaga, let me give you a moment to leave.”
“For those of you who are here hoping to hear a lot about Lady Gaga, let me give you a moment to leave.”
It was an unexpected start to the public lecture by American academic Jack Halberstam, entitled ‘Gaga feminism: sex, gender and the end of normal’, at the Rhodes University Council Chambers last week Wednesday 14 August.
Halberstam, English professor and the Director of the Center for Feminist Research at the University of Southern California (USC), gave a dynamic presentation about the collapse of the nuclear family and the current state of feminism.
He argued that each era has sported its own form of feminism, and suggested the current feminist culture should be termed ‘Gaga Feminism’, referring to American pop star Lady Gaga who became famous for her music, outrageous outfits and outcast appeal.
“This feminism is not the scary, man-hating type. It’s a feminism you can find in pop culture,” Halberstam said. “Lady Gaga is a symbol for big changes that have happened in sex and gender over the last 10, 15 years.” But, he says, “She is not the author of those changes, she is not the author of a kind of new feminism.”
Halberstam’s argument was that the super star is a figure “[who]tells us something about the era that we live in, and the forms of embodiment that we are either shocked by, interested in, engaged by, or entertained by”. The talk was largely based on Halberstam’s latest book (he has written seven), Gaga Feminism.
He said the book has not been as successful as some of the more conservative current titles about sex and gender, which he blamed on the unpopular messages of his work. The book’s most controversial argument is that “the traditional family has collapsed completely, the nuclear family is a thing of the past and people are living in recognisably different kinds of households”.
Halberstam argued that Marxist theory states whoever controls reproduction controls society. New reproduction technologies mean that families are no longer dependent on males to father and raise children. Instead, new kinds of dynamic families are formed. “The biological family no longer holds sway,” he said. “The feminist take for this moment is to say that we’ve invented a new era of reproductive politics, within which lesbian motherhood, gay fatherhood, gay and lesbian adoption and transgender parenting becomes possible,” said Halberstam, who labelled himself as a ‘transman’ (transgender).
