My last gagablog addressed the Jesus connotations of "it doesn't matter if you love him or capital H-I-M" but I got into a discussion about another aspect with someone this morning. She said she thought it showed that Gaga was still hung up on christian indoctrination, but I wholeheartedly disagree.
First I will insist that the negative aspects of christianity all stem from patriarchal authority and "exclusion" and all these kinds of christians are evangelical, which I disagree with, and I think evangelism is central to the flawed christianity. I think Gaga dismisses evangelism by saying "it doesn't matter" and I think in this way it is both a criticism of those who insist that others believe in Jesus and an Invitation to those who have been burned by the church - that it is okay to love him, OR Him. That Jesus is not "against" the things that the church has hurt so many people opposing, and that it does not matter if we call it Jesus or not, or "capitalize" it and call it divine or not - that is what it is, it is love. But it works with love between people.
I was raised in a christian home, my dad is a preacher and my mom is a priest, and I have my own understanding of christianity. I think the first verse of Born This Way hold a mirror up for people and they see what they bring to it. For many, many people, they have either a resentment, love, or misconception of christianity, of Jesus, and Gaga calls all these things up with this verse and says its Okay. The girl I was talking with this morning was not raised christian, she is a witch who has her own love for Jesus, like me. But she does not have a very strong opinion of christianity like I do. She was not reacting so much to the Jesus part - though she was saying she thought it showed that Gaga was still hung up on christianity. I think the opposite, that it shows she is above the contradictions of christianity and has a christlike perspective of Love. And I think love is the focus. The girl this morning said that she thought Gaga was presenting "loving him" as the norm, like she accepted this part of "christian" indoctrination. But to me, this depends on my friend being female - for the male audience, it has the opposite connotation to say "it does not matter if you love him" -that is is okay to be gay. So in this case, even though it is not about christianity or divinity directly, my friend brought her own issues to the mirror of the first lines of Born This Way - and I think women are completely justified to question the idea that loving a man is the norm. So Gaga brings all these things up in the first line of Born this Way - then, as someone else I was talking about this with today said, shows herself as the Goddess figure, and in the video, with the Manifesto of Mommy Monster, she declares the Eternal Goddess.
So this is really all about loving Her, the divine in all of us - but it doesn't matter if you love him, or capital H-I-M" And now that I have mentioned the difference in the way this line will strike a male / female audience, and is best interpretted that everything is allowed, its all good, I can't wait to talk about the messages in the rest of the lyrics and in the video. Its a real treasure, like any great creation myth. Thanks, Gaga, I love you.
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