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Combating Gender Norms with a Lipstick-Gun |
35www.jrfm.eu
2020, 6/2, 34–39
Katharina Luise Merkert
Combating Gender Norms
with a Lipstick-Gun
Lady Gaga’s JUDAS
Keywords
Pop Music, Gender Norms, Religious Symbols, Criticism, Lady Gaga, Judas
Biography
Katharina Luise Merkert is attending a master’s degree program in the study of religion
at the University of Munich (LMU). She concluded her BA degree in religion as well as in
language, literatures, and cultures at the same university. This article is inspired by her BA
thesis.
Lady Gaga was born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta in 1986 in New York.
Ever since her breakthrough in 2008 with the album The Fame, she has been an
international pop star and a vital part of the music scene. “Judas”, a track on
her album Born This Way, released in 2011,1 has attracted attention not only
in popular media but also amongst scholars.2 Many questions were raised,
including whether the message of the song is critical of religion and whether
“Judas” is blasphemous.3
As Fritz Stolz has argued, following Clifford Geertz’s definition of religion
as a “system of symbols”,4 religious symbols have a communicative role.5 In
this example, communication takes place within popular media, specifically
within a pop song. The song “Judas” deals with the biblical story of Jesus of
Nazareth and his discipline Judas Iscariot, who identified Jesus for his ene-
1 Born This Way (Lady Gaga, US 2011, Interscope Records).
2 Hawkins 2014.
3 Sun 2011.
4 Geertz 1985.
5 Stolz 2004.
JRFM
Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 06/02
- Title
- JRFM
- Subtitle
- Journal Religion Film Media
- Volume
- 06/02
- Authors
- Christian Wessely
- Daria Pezzoli-Olgiati
- Editor
- Uni-Graz
- Publisher
- SchĂĽren Verlag GmbH
- Location
- Graz
- Date
- 2020
- Language
- English
- License
- CC BY-NC 4.0
- Size
- 14.8 x 21.0 cm
- Pages
- 128
- Categories
- Zeitschriften JRFM