So, the New York Post has a piece on the creation of Lady Gaga as a personality and a marketing ploy that implies that the artifice, and the fact that she doesn't talk about it much, is some how "darker" than speculation about her sexual orientation or gender identity. This strikes me as incredibly stupid. First, who expects their pop stars to actually be genuine? This is an industry where Britney Spears got breast implants before she finished puberty, for god's sake. Where Pink recorded a listenable but laughable urban album before winning the right to do pop-rock. Everything's fake. Nobody sells 35 million downloads on the power of spontaneity and genuineness.
And I'd much rather someone create a persona of a creative, abstracted, empowered freak and get rich off it than be forced into an intense sexualization of themselves before they're ready for it. I mean, Lady Gaga may be mercenary in setting up a charity for homeless queer youth (and let's hope, please G-d, that it doesn't have Yele's financial problems), maybe it's all a part of her image, but I don't care. I'll take this kind of fake over all the others out there.