Dear Lady Gaga: Feminists Also Drink Beer

“I’m not a feminist – I, I hail men, I love men. I celebrate American male culture, and beer, and bars and muscle cars…”–Lady Gaga

Hi there, LG (can I call you LG?). I’m the New Age Amazon. I’m glad we could call this little meeting of the minds.

See, I’m a feminist. I also drink beer and hang out in bars.

Strangely enough, I also know a lot of other feminists who hang out in bars, who drink beer and who, gasp and shock and horror, like muscle cars.

Two feminists who are drinking/have been drinking beer. Possibly a bit too much of it.

‘Cause see, doing that stuff and liking that stuff? That doesn’t really have much to do with feminism.

And see, the funny thing is, the statement you made right before this? Is a fairly feminist statement:

“You see, if I was a guy, and I was sitting her with a cigarette in my hand, grabbing my crotch and talking about how I make music ’cause I love fast cars and fucking girls, you’d call me a rock star. But when I do it in my music and in my videos, because I’m a female, because I make pop music, you’re judgmental, and you say that it is distracting. I’m just a rock star.”

Okay, see, that? The speaking out against the double standard in the music industry and the world at large that says women CAN’T act like that? Yeah, pretty fucking feminist.

Because, as I seem to have to keep repeating in this journal, feminism is about equality.

And since people pay more attention to things that are pink and sparkle, let’s try this again:

FEMINISM IS ABOUT EQUALITY!

Plain and simple. Feminism. Equality. It’s about. Got it? Feminism has fuck all to do with what you’re drinking, what kind of car you drive or, to go on to other examples, what you wear, whether or not you wear make-up, whether or not you enjoy cooking, whether or not you want kids…my list kinda goes on. Feminism is, at its very, very core, the belief that men and women should be equal and that the partriarchal view of the world that leads not only to sexism but also to homophobia and transphobia and, yes, the repression of MEN as well (I think The Prophet Varius said it best in one of my previous posts when he declared he’d like to be able to bake a quiche without having his sexuality questioned…and trust me, ladies, that man makes a damn fine quiche. And he’s single!) needs to be done away with because really not doing us any favors.

And to me, it seems like something with that goal isn’t exactly a waste of time, ya know?

So, LG, call yourself a feminist or don’t. The point is, you DO hold a pretty clearly feminist viewpoint on the music industry. But please, don’t trash feminism based on a ridiculous idea that it’s about hating men and male culture. It’s really not. See, feminism would look at that and go “Wait, why the hell are beer, bars and cars MALE things?”