Pop singer Lady Gaga's newest music video, for the song “Alejandro,” is earning praise from the media. Others are calling it blasphemy.
Gaga described the video to Rolling Stone as, "a celebration of my love and appreciation for the gay community, my admiration of their bravery, their love for one another and their courage in their relationships. In the video I'm pining for the love of my gay friends--but they just don't want me to be with them."
The Wall Street Journal summed up the video as “plenty of both S&M and religious imagery (not surprisingly, often at the same time).”
“Surrounded alternately by half-naked, monk-haired male dancers in high heels and uniformed soldiers, "Alejandro" avoids one defining plot, opting instead to wow viewers with its intense, provocative political and religious imagery, “Rolling Stone reporter Daniel Kreps said.
MTV suggested “Alejandro” is Gaga's way of striking out against organized religion's “oppression of sex,” “especially gay sex.” In interviews Gaga, born Stefani Germanotta, says she attended Catholic school as a girl.
The network's “Buzzworthy Blog” praised “Gaga's version of stomping out gay persecution, homophobia, and intolerance.”
But Gaga's supposed social statement via graphic sexualization of religious figures and symbols, including the singer dressed as what MTV called “a hot lady version of the Pope.”
In a statement, Catholic League President Bill Donahue accused Gaga of “abusing Catholic symbols.”
“Dressed occasionally as a nun in a glossy-red habit, the Madonna wannabe flashes the cross, swallows a rosary and manages to get raped by her S&M boyfriends,” Donahue said. “Hence, she has no become the new poster girl for American decadence and Catholic bashing, sans the looks and talent of her role model.”
Prominent Catholic defenders are not the only ones speaking out against the video. Musical artist Katy Perry let her disgust for the video be known. Perry accused Gaga of using cheap tactics and blasphemy to get attention.
"Using blasphemy as entertainment is as cheap as a comedian telling a fart joke," the singer said on her Twitter account.
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