Gaga Studies
October 29, 2010
THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA will offer a sociology course next year on Lady Gaga. The professor teaching the course brags about it in The New York Times, as if the course sets him apart from the pack. In fact, what he is doing is utterly conventional. Popular culture courses are a dime a dozen. The professor also admits to being entranced with Gaga, an out-of-control fan who has traveled around the world to see her concerts and started a fan website devoted to her.
— Comments —
Youngfogey writes:
The problem here is not whether popular culture icons etc. are reasonable subjects to ask questions about. They are. The issue is that the approach to the subject in these classes is the same kind of empty liberalism that informs the worldviews of most professors.
Given that, the worldview comes out and does its damage no matter what the topic is.
Laura writes:
Popular culture is a subject worthy of academic study, provided it’s not everything a student studies. I agree, the problem is not analyzing popular culture, but courses that are nothing more than thinly-veiled idolatry.
Andrea writes:
In response to the University of South Carolina offering a sociology class on Gaga…are they crazy?! What a horrible idea for young impressionable students. And what kind of man is this professor? He has traveled all over the world seeing Gaga in concert?! What a loser! I wouldn’t want my daughter or son within 100 feet of this guy. If I were a parent of a student that attended this university I would be appalled that they would even think of offering a course like this. One in which the students will surely be “dumber” at its conclusion.
Have you seen Gaga’s video Alejandro? This is a perfect example of her evil intentions to infiltrate society with perversion and impurity.
Can we please stop talking about her?
Laura writes:
I haven’t seen Alejandro and, having seen Bad Romance, I’ll never watch another one. I think it’s wrong to talk abut her purely as an interesting phenomenon. The whole packaging of Gaga is too disturbing to be considered “interesting.”
