I've listened to 'Born This Way' a few times now and I think it's really good in more ways then one. First, I have to say that I'm pretty sure that this is the first massively popular lead single to prominently mention a gay affirmative message in plain English.
But to me the real reason why this song is hugely valuable to the overall progressive movement is the spiritual undertone of the lyrics.
As everyone knows by now, the main message of the song is acceptance (as well as self-acceptance) of everybody as individuals. The song justifies this acceptance by stating that if God has made each person, and that God makes no mistakes, then society must open up to all of what makes people unique.
Such an affirming message by a popstar wouldn't ordinarily be that important, but the spiritually-based claim makes 'Born This Way' fly in the face of the Religious Right. Quite overtly, the song takes on the claims of Traditional Christians and other religious groups that it is not okay to embrace LGBT people and other marginalized groups because it is not 'part of God's Plan.'
The time is ripe within the mainstream public discourse for groups espousing tolerance and acceptance to systematically attack the main motivation and argument of the Religious Right, 'God's Plan' or 'God's Will.'
That is not to say that liberals should attack people's public religious expression, but rather attack the tendency of those individuals to imply that their religious beliefs are the end all and be all at the expense of other beliefs. The way to do this is to simply take away their arguments and use it against them, like what the song does.
Imagine watching a debate on a popular news show with one conservative claiming that God did not make people to live a gay lifestyle, and a liberal talking head countering just as forcefully with the claim that God made people to live that way?
It would definitely make for a confusing and loud program. Yet if both sides claimed that God was on their side, then the public would effectively see that they both can't be right.
Basically, the song affirms much of what the Religious Right considers to be 'disordered' and it is already widely heard by many all over the country. Yet it uses God as a justification, effectively stripping the Religious Right of their main point.
I'd say that's a victory for the progressive movement. And distributing this message didn't cost progressive groups a dime.
I'm going to challenge this just a little. While I totally agree with your analysis about all of the good in this song, she also uses racial epithets (i.e. Chola and Orient). I appreciate the effort in trying to speak to a lot of different folks, but the only time it's ok to use Oriental is in describing a rug motif.
ReplyDeleteI do like the "born this way" message but it's missing a piece. I'll describe more in my next post!