You and I

I actually wrote this blog just over a month ago in the summer holidays (sigh) and then lost internet for a long time, so I never got round to editing or publishing it. It just concerns me being my usual self and reading too far in to things. Anyway, I still think this is an interesting video and has a lot to say for itself.


I'm not a particularly big Lady Gaga fan but I do really like this song and I think the music video is intriguing. After first watching the video it plagued my mind for a couple of days - I showed it to a number of people and tried to understand it.
What does the video mean? Why is Lady Gaga being experimented on? Why does she start making out with her male self?

Like much of Lady Gaga's work, I think the message of this video is whatever you interpret it to be. Everyone I've talked to has focused on a different aspect of the video - we see what is significant to us. I thought I'd write a little bit about what I drew from this video. 

For me the video seems to be a commentary on relationships. When I first viewed it I was going through a rough time so it spoke to me.
When you're in the transition to becoming an 'adult' (yikes!) you discover a lot about yourself. I think one of the key ways to find out about yourself is through relationships. You share your life with someone and tend to have to reflect upon it at the same time. You are also forging a new identity as 'Blah blah's partner' and that often involves change.
This video focuses on the tie between relationships and identity. How much should you change for someone else? How important is your sense of self?

There are two particular ideas I found in the music video that I would like to focus on. Firstly, the way a relationship can change you. Secondly, your relationship with yourself.

So, to start with - the way a relationship can change you.
Lady Gaga spends a fair amount of the video as a mermaid. I'm not entirely sure why she's a mermaid - probably just something cool she could pull off? When completely in her mermaid form Lady Gaga is either being romantic with or experimented on by her lover. In later scenes, after her transformation, there are allusions to her having been a mermaid. For example, in one scene she's naked in the form of a woman but is wearing shoes similar to the shape of a mermaid's tail. Similarly, in the marriage scene Lady Gaga has blue make up on her cheekbones - mirroring where her gills were in the mermaid scenes.

Change from a relationship can be a positive and negative thing - I think this video supports this view. Change can be positive in that, hopefully, the person you are with makes you want to strive to be a better person. They should bring out the best in you. Change can be negative in that you can lose a sense of personal identity as you become part of a pair. In trying to meet what your partner wants you can lose too much of yourself.
In this video there are aggressive scenes where Gaga's lover is experimenting on her and her pain is evident - the negative part of changing in a relationship. Parts of the video that I find more sinister are when she appears sedated and does not resist her transformation - something I'm sure we've seen in friends in relationships.
However, the more positive aspects of the video that I noted were her mermaid's tail shoes and blue makeup resembling gills that I mentioned earlier. These are symbols of her maintaining her identity in her relationship. Despite her lover's violent efforts she stays true to herself. I think this idea is particularly prominent in the marriage scene - she is simply in white (a strong contrast to her usual elaborateness) but she maintains her quirkiness with her blue makeup and her expressions are so endearing.
I think change thanks to a relationship is a fine balancing act. If that person helps you to flourish then change is a wonderful thing. Just don't struggle to the extent where you're striving to meet unnatural expectations. Positive change in a relationship requires the blossoming of something that is already there. 

The second aspect of the video that triggered the most thought for me were the scenes where Lady Gaga is playing a piano in a field and sitting on top of it is her dressed as a man. It gets particularly peculiar when she starts getting rather intimate with her male counterpart. This is the part of the video that has had the most 'shock-factor' in the media and a part that I interpreted as having an important message. I think this section of the video is about your relationship with yourself - an important relationship that we often forget about because it's more abstract. The message from this scene is that you have to remember to love yourself - maybe in Lady Gaga's case a little too much?! Despite whatever may be happening in the rest of your life you should always remember to care for yourself. We can get so caught up in ensuring that others are okay or trying to meet people's expectations that we forget to have some sensible self-interest. I know that I am my greatest critic and it is important for me to respect myself. The person you should always be answering to is yourself - people have a lot more power than they give themselves credit for and can often look to others instead of looking within.

I also thought it was rather interesting that for a particularly elaborate woman Lady Gaga has such a subtle and almost bare appearance when she's in this scene. I interpreted this as symbolising that you can't hide anything from yourself - everything is laid out. The good in this is that you can be comfortable and aware in your own the skin. The bad is that you do have to live with your behaviour - reinforcing my idea that the person you should always answer to is yourself. Make yourself proud.