Last Sunday, people across the nation tuned into yet another Super Bowl. Football has always gotten Americans’ attention, however, it was Lady Gaga who took center stage during her crazy, 12-minute throwback medley of songs.
The show began with Gaga’s rendition of “God Bless America” while some drone flew to create red, white, and blue shapes and then eventually the American flag. Gaga, clad in a sparkly, shoulder-padded bodysuit then jumped off the platform, only supported by a harness on two wires, and began the exciting medley of her old hit songs like “Poker Face,” “Just Dance,” and “Telephone.” There were flashing lights, a diverse group of backup dancers, and of course, another crazy Lady Gaga-style costume change during the show.
The whole show was very engaging and celebrated Gaga’s unique performance style. However, there was something else that Gaga got attention for and it wasn’t necessarily something related to her performance… and it also wasn’t positive attention either.
What could it have been, you ask? Let’s just say that people didn’t expect to see Gaga’s stomach poke out.
“Poke out” is a bit of a strong phrase because Gaga really did look amazing in her two-piece costume, but people went all over Twitter to point out the fact that she wasn’t as fit as they expected.
Personally, I think that the backlash over Gaga’s figure during her performance is not only disrespectful, but also completely uncalled for. If you Google any picture of her taken during her halftime performance, you will see that she does not look fat at all and that she look completely confident. In fact, Gaga has consistently been a model of confidence and has never cared about what people have said about her.
But this backlash goes deeper than that. While Gaga is strong enough to not let her body criticizers get to her, there are similar situations happening to other girls who are self-conscious about their bodies and don’t share that same strength as Lady Gaga herself. Body confidence is harder to come by for some people and the fact that others are criticizing her over a little bit of stomach fat is ridiculous because it shows that people are more fixated on looks rather than the bigger pictures, which in this case is the performance.
Why do people always point out physical flaws? There are many reasons and perhaps we won’t really know them all, but what we do know is that Gaga looked amazing and any petty criticism should be ignored. Moreover, we should all advocate for body confidence and accept the fact that everyone’s body is different. Everybody has some fat on them because it’s natural, but that doesn’t mean it’s ugly.
It’s like Gaga says, “I'm proud of my body and you should be proud of yours too."
