Lady Gaga's Fat? Body Shaming Be Done!

Anyone who is anyone watches the super bowl, right? Well at least in my house we do. If not for the football game, then at least for the commercials and performances. One of the most publicized media-focused events of the super bowl is the halftime show. Every year people wonder who will be chosen to perform and some legendary performances have taken place during the show. Artists ranging from Madonna to The Who have taken the stage to entertain the crowds in the stadium and at home. This year Lady Gaga was the half-time show performer and she wowed with her acrobatics and stage presence. In spite of her outstanding performance both vocally and visually, the most talked about part of her spectacular show was her stomach flab. That’s right, one of today’s biggest stars was body shamed by our society for not meeting the stereotypes of perfection that we have come to expect in show business. Out of her 13-minute concert, only three minutes of it showed her mid-drift, but that’s what people could not stop talking about. These days nothing short of even a perfect performance will do, especially in a culture that is bred on appearances.

Our society is so overly focused on women’s appearances and the media is to blame. The physical appearance of women and men in our culture has taken priority over other traits such as compassion and brains. Let’s face it, Barbie and Ken never had a job or went to college, but their bodies were perfect. We are taught by the media that being attractive comes down to one thing and it is what you look like that matters most making it unacceptable to be anything else. Honestly I cannot say I did not notice her tiny bit of excess stomach, but it certainly would not be what I would choose to write about in the press or even post to my own social platforms based on her recital that day. However, the media and in particular social media commenter’s chose to remark and generate a tremendous amount of buzz about her physique. I searched Google for “lady gaga super bowl reactions to body” and more than 3,600,000 results appeared. From what I had seen in the news and online there was an abundance of negative talk about Gaga in the press, but where were the positive comments? Knowing that more than 3.6 million results were listed a vast number of people must have given some attention to the show even through social media channels.

Social media has only intensified the amount of media weigh-in received today. After Gaga’s performance fans and foes took to social media to voice their perceptions through comments. Now that social platforms have given anyone and everyone a say and the ability to have their expressions re-tweeted, millions of new online media sources have opened up to newsmakers. Through this wide-open form of communication, instant gender criticism is available from a variety of sources including the President of the United States to your neighborhood soccer mom. For Gaga, there were many positive comments about her concert from celebrities endorsing her talent and not worrying about her physical form following the super bowl show. However, there were also plenty of negative Internet trolls making fun of her and calling her fat. Her fans, also known as the little monsters, also came to her defense hard and backed her up in a big way. Many of who said they could appreciate how real she was for being herself on the stage and not being so-called “perfect” with airbrushed abs. Lady Gaga responded on Instagram to the ridiculous amount of chatter about her body at the super bowl by saying "I heard my body is a topic of conversation so I wanted to say, I'm proud of my body and you should be proud of yours too," she said. By February 7, just two days after the super bowl show airing her post had more than 1.3 million likes proving how enormously supportive her fan base really is. In this case social media also came to Gaga’s defense and defended a woman’s body image in the media.

In today’s age of cyber bullying, hiding behind a computer screen seems to give everyone the confidence to be a critic. That has to end though. We cannot let this type of harassment to continue to happen without doing something about it as a society. It is our social responsibility to create a place where each one of us can be proud of who we are without the media’s influence over our beliefs. Lady Gaga is no exception to this theory. She’s also not one to let social media bullies and media sources get off easy. In fact she has slammed social media companies in the past for not being harder on putting an end to cyber bullying. Gaga has insisted that social media companies have a responsibility to invest in the prevention and blocking of online tormenters and make social sites a safe place for everyone to hang out. Yes, freedom of speech is still an important component of our unique culture, but please follow Gaga’s advice and have a sense of decency. There’s no excuse for faceless cyber bullying to continue against celebrities or anyone else.

Just because we are born into a culture that over sexualizes women’s bodies into objects of discussion for all does not mean we have to remain silent and maintain the status quo. We can stand up just like Lady Gaga did even when it is uncomfortable and that means facing a possible world of backlash. It is up to each of us to communicate with people within our own families, workplaces and friends who perpetuate stereotyping of women based on their bodies and judge them for it. We are not all perfect, in fact a little secret is that no one really is, but you can feel perfectly satisfied with yourself and your social circle. Even through media outlets like social media we can create our own army of little monsters through our friends and family that support us and all the Lady Gaga’s of the world.