Lady Gaga's Born This Way Analysis

Lady Gaga’s “Born this Way” video clocks to about 7.5 minutes, and I (Tara) think there is more to the video than what people give Lady Gaga credit for. Gaga herself wrote the script and treatment for the video, while famed British fashion photographer Nick Knight directed, along with choreographer Laurieann Gibson, and Nicola Formichetti, who styled the video. The journey into Lady Gaga's space-age utopia opens with an inverted pink triangle filled with a city skyline (a heavy nod to Fritz Lang’s German masterpiece Metropolis) and a unicorn. Why a pink triangle? Well, under Nazi Germany, every prisoner had to wear a concentration camp badge on their jacket, the color of which categorized them into groups. Individuals who were sexual offenders (including homosexual men) had to wear the pink triangle. Therefore, Gaga is using the pink triangle as a symbol for gay rights. In case you've been living under a rock, Born this Way is about gender equality gay rights, and unity, so no surprise there. Gaga greets us in the first few seconds saying, “This is the manifesto of Mother Monster.” She is obviously channeling Fritz Lang's 1927 film, Metropolis. The futuristic landscape of the video is comparable to the film. Lang’s Metropolis depicts a futuristic dystopia in which there is a split between two social classes. In the movie, an android named Maria (a copy of a real-life girl) is used to incite a revolt among the worker classes. This isn’t the first time that Lady Gaga has recreated images from Metropolis—David LaChapelle shot her for Rolling Stone as an android against the famous skyline in 2009. (picture below)

As for the unicorn....in medieval times, the unicorn was a symbol for the relationship between Virgin Mary and Christ. In this sense, it serves as pure love and immaculate conception. Lady Gaga even described the process of recording “Born this Way” to Vogue saying: “the gates just opened, and the songs kept coming. It was like an immaculate conception.”

Her headdress, neck regalia, and wardrobe are an ode to her dearly departed friend and frequent source of inspiration, Alexander McQueen. This look is part of his last collection, where he used Gaga as his muse.

Other things to notice: The stars are shaped like a uterus! A faint rainbow of gay pride emits underneath Gaga as she spreads her arms. The same rainbow can also be seen at 7:00. Gaga is also signaling her role as “Mother Monster” in that she is ready to die and be reborn for her Little Monsters seeking refuge from various forms of discrimination. 

The most striking image, however, is Gaga’s birthing scene. This is reminiscent of Salvador Dali's “Geopoliticus Child Watching the Birth of the New Man." Dali’s painting features a figure emerging out an egg-shaped globe (strikingly similar to “the vessel” at the Grammys) from North America, while an androgynous figure stands with a scared child, watching his birth. Gaga wishes for a race built upon the equality and celebration of all different people, regardless of sexual orientation, gender, race, etc.

Next, we're told that a "birth of magnificent and magical proportions" took place on G.O.A.T., or Government Owned Alien Territory. 

A gooey birthing scene takes place that is an interpretation of what Gaga thinks the “mitosis of the future” will look like. Biology class will remind you that mitosis is the process of a single cell dividing into two identical cells. In Gaga-land, this is symbolic of the "two ultimate forces" in humanity: Good and Evil. In both forces, Gaga is literally birthing a new race. The “V” imagery is blatantly referencing none other than Gaga’s woman parts. Not to mention, butterflies (my guess a monarch?) are flying out of her loins. The butterflies may be a sign of the metamorphosis and freedom that her utopia would possess.

Gaga pushes for a race which “bears no prejudice, no judgment.” While the new race she's pushing for sounds like a good one, the image we see is somewhat troubling; we see the birth of Evil. Bodies writhe on top of each other in a scene of the underworld that has a resemblance to Michelangelo's Last Judgment.

This birth gives rise to the Evil Gaga—sitting atop her trademark lightning bolts. On top of these, she delivers a huge gun – ouch! The gun functions in the video as it would in reality, taking away life. This sort of evil strips Gaga of her beauty, leaving her as a skeleton, zombie, or ghost.

There’s also definite visual homage to Madonna's "Express Yourself" video, which everybody needs to get over because Gaga idolizes Madge and vice versa. Also, they’re BOTH borrowing from Fritz Lang. The last five minutes of the video are less symbolic than the first two-and-a-half. Gaga and her background dancers are barefoot and primal. She dances in minimal lingerie and swims in goop. Even made up as a skeleton, Gagaloo manages to look amiable. She wears a suit in yet another “Express Yourself” nod, playing with the notion of gender and grabbing her crotch like Madonna, while rocking her famous high ponytail. Alongside ghost/skeleton Gaga is Zombie Boy, Rick Genest, a Canadian model who tattooed his face and body. Yes, those are all permanent tattoos. Gaga signs off with explicit tributes to Michael Jackson and Madonna. The awesome combination of Michael Jackson, Madonna, and Lady Gaga just might equal a unicorn, which is exactly what we see riding off into the metropolis. This time, though, the pink triangle around it is right side up, the way it was meant to be. Gagalupe signs off with a burst of bubblegum, the idea of which came from Zombie Boy Rick Genest. Apparently, Genest decided to tattoo his body as a zombie because, as a boy, he chewed obscene amounts of Bazooka bubble gum and liked the tattoos that came within the package. He always applied the tattoos and liked the look so much, he decided to make it a part of who he is.

As a whole, I think you're on the right track baby. Paws up!