Lady Gaga shocked the nation when she presented herself at the MTV Music Awards wearing a dress made out of flank steak. The dress has a popular label “the meat dress.” The meat dress took people by storm many outraged, and interpretations were farfetched from what Gaga intended. I will be exploring a relationship between Gaga’s iconic meat dress photograph and a larger public culture. By emphasizing on the iconic aspects of this photo, significance, purpose, and various impacts it had to the public’s reactions and interpretations.
To be able to understand, we must first look at how does this image relate to the idea of iconic? As emphasized by Lucaites and Hariman an iconic photo is “recognized by everyone in a public culture, a representation of a historic event, object of a strong emotional identification or response, and regularly reproduced” (37). Gaga’s meat dress is well recognized, politically it is a representation of “don’t ask, don’t tell”, it is an object of emotional response, and the photograph at the time was …show more content…
The meaning of this photo was “speaking out against a 17-year old law that prohibits homosexuals from serving openly in the US military” (Ostwald, Walters 1). It seemed like the images intended audience was directed towards the military and to bring political awareness to the issue. The law “don’t ask, don’t tell” was instituted by Bill Clinton and “more than 10,000 men and woman have been expelled since the policy went into effect” (Ostwald, Walters 1). This Information was not gained from the image, it was conveyed from textual source. Her meat dress had many confused as it was presented visually to look like an animal rights movement not in protest of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” The purpose this photo serves is advocating for repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” law making it legal for homosexuals to openly join and stay in the
To be able to understand, we must first look at how does this image relate to the idea of iconic? As emphasized by Lucaites and Hariman an iconic photo is “recognized by everyone in a public culture, a representation of a historic event, object of a strong emotional identification or response, and regularly reproduced” (37). Gaga’s meat dress is well recognized, politically it is a representation of “don’t ask, don’t tell”, it is an object of emotional response, and the photograph at the time was …show more content…
The meaning of this photo was “speaking out against a 17-year old law that prohibits homosexuals from serving openly in the US military” (Ostwald, Walters 1). It seemed like the images intended audience was directed towards the military and to bring political awareness to the issue. The law “don’t ask, don’t tell” was instituted by Bill Clinton and “more than 10,000 men and woman have been expelled since the policy went into effect” (Ostwald, Walters 1). This Information was not gained from the image, it was conveyed from textual source. Her meat dress had many confused as it was presented visually to look like an animal rights movement not in protest of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” The purpose this photo serves is advocating for repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” law making it legal for homosexuals to openly join and stay in the