Lady Gaga: 'Skank With a Brain'

Pop's newest explosion exploits our obsession with sexuality, salaciousness
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 16, 2009 9:57 AM CDT
Lady Gaga: 'Skank With a Brain'
Lady Gaga performs during the MTV Video Music Awards at Radio City Music Hall on Sunday, Sept. 13, 2009, in New York.   (Frank Micelotta/PictureGroup via AP Images)

“Lady Gaga is pretty skanky,” writes James Brady Ryan for Nerve. “That might sound harsh, but there are some facts we all must face: the girl is no fan of pants, for one thing.” She may be crass, outlandish, and over-the-top sexual—but “she is also completely awesome.” And what makes her different from fellow blond sexpots like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera is that Gaga “is a skank with a brain.”

“She walked around like a space-age hooker from day one,” Ryan continues—unlike, say, Britney, who took years to go “from virgin to whore.” Today’s pop stars don’t have to be talented—which Gaga is—“all we require is that they entertain,” which Gaga does. And her “obvious cunning subverts the guilt we feel while watching a young woman’s life melt in front of the cameras, allowing us to simply enjoy the show.” (More Lady Gaga stories.)

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