There are so many stories about Lady Gaga’s crazy meat dress at the VMAs that it’s hard to know where to begin. Gaga topped herself with that getup and that’s really saying something. Let’s start with PETA’s response, which was to point out how disgusting the dress was. They didn’t attack Gaga or call her desperate as they’ve done to other celebrities and they previously gave her a near-complete pass for her meat dress in a magazine pictorial. I like PETA’s approach and think they went about this the right way for once – shockingly. PETA basically says the dress will attract maggots and stink, which is probably true and explains a lot of people’s visceral response to it:
Yes, for the record, PETA issued a statement supposing that Gaga’s meat ensemble—dress, boots, purse, hat—was likely hopping with little worms: “Meat is the decomposing flesh of a tormented animal who didn’t want to die, and after a few hours under the TV lights, it would smell like the rotting flesh it is and likely be crawling in maggots—not too attractive, really.”
[From E! Online]
E! Online has some analysis from a scientist about just how long it would take for the dress to attract maggots that would then hatch. I really don’t want to think about it, but if you’re interested you can read it there. (It reminds of that childhood song “The Worms Crawl In“)
The designer of that fabulous stomach-turning number, Franc Fernandez, has confirmed that the dress was real meat and that it came from the butcher! He told MTV “The dress is indeed real meat from my family butcher. Glad it went so well.” There are some photos below of the dress that Fernandez posted on his blog and they’ve really turned me off eating meat for at least several days. (I’m going to stick to dairy, eggs and fish for the time being as I’m not that hardcore.)
Gaga was a guest on Ellen Degeneres’ after-VMAs show, where she continued to wear that rancid dress. Ellen, a vegan, was uncomfortable being around it. Gaga explained her questionable fashion choice and somehow made it about fighting for our rights – to get a lot of publicity and buzz. “Well, it is certainly no disrespect to anyone that is vegan or vegetarian. As you know, I am the most judgment-free human being on the earth. However, it has many interpretations, but for me this evening … If we don’t stand up for what we believe in and if we don’t fight for our rights, pretty soon we’re going to have as much rights as the meat on our own bones. And I am not a piece of meat.”
What is Gaga going to wear next? I suggest a scrolling LCD text sign over her head designed and written by artist Jenny Holzer. Given the way her people work, though, they’ll probably just make up their own version and not give credit to the original artists.
Gaga photos from WENN.com
Why?
Just stop giving her attention…Please.
What I don’t get is why was there a magazine cover with a meat dress before the VMAs? This would have been shocking if there hadn’t been, but now it seems old news and that she’s suddenly really stuck on this idea and trying to push it on us. K, you wore a meat dress, twice. Next.
The dumbest dress yet. Talk about desperate. She ran out of ways to top herself and ‘wow’ anyone. I give people another year for them to finally get over her antics. Original, she is not.
Ok seriously….Does ANYONE use their brain anymore? The woman is DRESSED in MEAT. Why are we tripping all over this person???? Someday she will look back and see what a completely ridiculous image she put forth of herself to the public…But maybe I’m giving her too much credit in saying that.
A dress made of meat. Oh brother.
Also, am I the only one who noticed that she seemed like an immature 12 year old girl when she gave her speeches? She new she had the awards in the bag and still she gave us crocodile tears. God, she gets on my nerves.
See, this is what happens when someone without any talent gets famous. They have to keep trying harder and harder to find ways to get attention. If she’s reduced herself to wearing a dress made of meat to an award show…well, that pretty much speaks for herself.
I used to dislike her. Now I pity her.
And for the first time ever, I can’t say anything negative about PETA (IN THIS INSTANCE ONLY!). Their statements were true and not over the top-they just pointed out the obvious.
I hate when people like Gaga pretend that the stupidest thing can be explained by “art” or “freedom of speech” or “fighting for human rights”
Next time why doesn’t she wears burgers on her clothes to fight against obesity?
Or roll herself in oil to fight againt petrol industries?
The truth is: she just wanted to be talked about and that the way she found. Nothing else Nothing more.
So stop pretending you’re smart when all you want is attention!!!
She is so disgusting. Also, that’s a waste of a lot of good meat. I can’t barely touch raw meat without gagging, I can’t imagine wearing it. Ew. She really needs to just go away. I finally brought myself to listen to some of her songs and I’m sorry but I really don’t see her appeal. Whatever, sheep continue to follow…
I eat meat once a week,but I am truly digusted, this is not art, not freedom, this is famwhoring, and that poor beast died for NOTHING, this is sad.
“if we don’t fight for our rights, pretty soon we’re going to have as much rights as the meat on our own bones”
What? Am I getting old or does this “statement” make no freaking sense whatsoever? Is she on crack?
it’s just gross dude… and doesn’t really showcase any talent of hers other than putting her arms through the sleeves of a “dress”… I’m pretty sure any schmuck can put on a dress… made of meat or not…
Also, it would probably take a few days (At least) for maggots to hatch and all that… she was probably only there for a few hours… PETA is so full of crap…
seriously, just *eyeroll*… people will just get sick of her really soon… mark my words… this is just like that one guy we have in our department who’s always trying to wow us with his “talents”… after a while people get bored and just want to focus on their own conversations and he ends up looking like a clown… the novelty will soon wear off…
There was a maggot wearing it so what’s the difference?
nice,something a cannibal would were to an award show.
nothing related to it, what about mila winning at venice? no post….
I love eating meat but if I was standing next to her while she was wearing that I really would have been disgusted.
I felt bad for the people who had to hug her when she won an award.
Whatever ‘statement’ she was trying to make wasn’t clear at all, I was as baffled as Ellen was when Gag Gag was trying to articulate it.
i hope to see she wears shit clothes one day.
“As you know, I am the most judgment-free human being on the earth.”
really. REALLY?! No-one is taking her to town after this asinine comment came out of her mouth???
she is truly pathetic.
*Yawn*
Bored now Gaga. And they’ve been making meat clothing for magazine shoots for yonks!
I mean, we all can eat meat and thats not bad. We can be one hell of a lot more kind to the animals than we now are, but, that aside:
This is probably the most disrespectful thing you could do. Prantz around wearing the meat of a slaughtered animal…. how horribly rude and insensitive towards the animal. its like someone walking around in a coat made from human skin, as though it were a’la mode.
Maybe it just illuminates the conditioning of society- because no one thinks much of elather coats or purses, but a meat dress is too much because its something we havent seen before.
But I mean, come on. Thats definitely pushing it too far beyond respect.
“As you know, I am the most judgment-free human being on the earth”
So Gandhi really is an asshole!! I FREAKING KNEW IT!!!
I must be slow, but I fail to see how a meat dress shows you are fighting for gay rights.
I want to like Gaga, and I do, but often I think she comes across as a victim, and I do not know enough about her to know what she is a victim of? New York’s Upper East Side? Private schooling? NYU? I agree with #18’s remark, “Yawn.” And I would like to add a, “Get over yourself, honey.”
I love Ellens style. She lets everythign be, never takes anything down, … just goes alog with it. And if the subject or person winds up looking ridiculous as a result, well, thats because it was already ridiculous LOL
Ewww. I was really hoping that wasn’t real meat.
Poor Cher, having to hold the meat purse.
Incidentally, what would one carry in a meat purse?
I meant to mention this yesterday: The meat dress was done years ago as an exhibit at a Toronto art gallery.
So again, it’s been done already dear, now sit the fuck down.
She’s a cultural cherry-picker.
tl;dr.
peta should really have given her a round of applause. the dress is disgusting (and god, only getting more disgusting if it’s making multiple appearances, please tell me they change the meat). having said that, i think disgusting is the point. i’m kind of disappointed that no one in the extensive discussions of gaga over the last few days here has pointed out that she’s clearly working deliberately at the blurry boundary of sexuality/commerce/grotesqueness. the doll face, insect hands, meat dress … she’s pushing to their logical conclusion the principles that produced heidi montag.
gah. i’ve nowhere to go with this except an academic essay on the vocal phrasing of the line ‘i don’t want to be friends’ in bad romance. or, y’know, to say that just because you don’t like a particular piece of process art doesn’t make it bad or wrong or stupid or meaningless. if you want to just write off the entire field of preserved cows and vaseline-coated whaling ships and whatall, fine. but don’t dismiss the possibility that’s there’s meaning and worth in something that you’re not willing to engage with.
Oh My God Where Is My Coffee?
@chasingadalia: Incidentally, what would one carry in a meat purse?
i’m hoping a bottle of steak sauce.
Didn’t they do this on an episode of ANTM a couple of seasons back?
This is totally disgusting. Im a vegetarian and i have nothing against people who choose to eat meat..BUT TO WEAR IT..gross..im less of a fan now.
I can’t believe what a waste of good meat and this just for shock effect because she can’t seem to find anything else. I’m absolutely disgusted! And to think that there are poor people who can’t afford the tiniest piece of meat, heck, there are people who don’t have food at all! And there she is prancing around trying to convince us how open minded she is. What a stupid b*tch! And I saw a video of her on Ellen Degeneres and I just thought she was absolutley ridiculous and childish and had absolutely nothing interesting to say. Wearing meat is to defend our rights??? really??? how??? More rights than the meat on our bones??? WTF does that mean??? And she’s not a peice of meat??? Really??? Then why are you wearing it and acting like it you dumb b*tch!!!
Gross!
Just seeing this f-d up ‘meat dress’ is enough to turn me into a full time vegetarian, although I doubt that was GaGa’s intention.
yeah, revolting
I’m soooo over this disgusting pig of a woman! She has no morals or standards! She really makes me sick!
Bizzy…ha!
I know we have a few hungry lions here at the National Zoo who might like a piece of that. No, don’t take it off…just hop on in the cage…
@delusional,
Yes its pathetic. I think this woman is talented and amusing, until she opens her mouth. It will be fun to watch her implode someday. She is only about twenty three? Twenty Four? When she speaks it is obvious.
@bizzy
No one forced Heidi Montag to do what she did or become what she is. Same goes for all the others like her.
“just because you don’t like a particular piece of process art doesn’t make it bad or wrong or stupid or meaningless.”
When it’s disrespectful, yes it does! We teach our kids not to play with food and to respect food because alot of people are dying of hunger.
And we all thought she jumped the shark a long time ago.
Too bad she became a walking, talking cartoon version of a person.. she really does have great voice when she just sings.
We should stop recognizing insanity. People are hungry and a jackass has meat for clothing.
After reading all the comments, I think it’s better if I don’t say anything at all.
karin you aren’t getting old that statement made no sense; in addition to not having much talent as most posters here agree, she is like so many young celebs quite vacant and uninteresting when you scrape beneath the hype/pr/management team handler orchestration. Her “music” is going to have to get much better much faster if she hopes to be around – and i’m with most others she needs to go away so true musicians can get some attention.
B*tch has a steak on her head.
There is a line in the sand, and you just jumped over it. Go away.
@Karin, I’m around the same age as Gaga, and I can assure you that statement is complete and utter drivel.
Bit wasteful like…
If she really were making a point about women being viewed as a ‘piece of meat’ it seems she could have made more of an impact wearing a dress made out of leftover body parts and lipo fat from all the ‘stars’ that keep altering themselves to look ‘perfect’.
“We teach our kids not to play with food and to respect food because alot of people are dying of hunger.”
Somewhere in that statement is a reason why obesity in America is an ever growing problem (literally).
Gaga is an incoherant idiot.
WTF, where are the health & safety regulations when you need them? All my life I have been told to always and without fail wash my hands and all surfaces that come in contact with raw meat, and this inane chick was left to parade around in this hive of deadly bacteria?? EEEEWWWW. I hope she didn’t sit anywhere while wearing this :/
Ok, from going to school with a bunch of drama-queen artists, I can sort of vaguely understand the idea behind the dress as “the artist being treated or viewed as a piece of meat”, if that was the intent. But oh, the thought of wearing that thing makes me cringe.
I know she wears some really crazy stuff, but I feel sorry for Ellen having to be right next to that. But I’ll bet she kept her poise, and that is admirable.
This woman is not edgy…she is evil. Google Lena Morgana & you will start putting the pieces together.
i am no gaga fan. corporate puppeteers hold her ‘avant-garde’ strings & try to sell it to us as ‘art’.. it’s bullshit.
that being said, there were plenty of leather dresses at the VMAs. no one complains about them. skin, meat.. still comes from cattle. non?
Not that i care. i have a vegan diet but am just as likely to buy leather shoes as i am to buy a matt & nat bag.
that meat dress was boring. but the shoes were pretty sweet. i’d rock em if they didn’t rot in like 3 hours.
@ TaylorB: Good comment! Lol
Wearing meat is not different from wearing leather shoes or jackets, it’s just less hygenic.
What’s next? Probably Gaga wearing a dress made of used tampons. I second the idea of a Jenny Holzer’s lcd text sign over her head, or a neon sign stating how dumb and untalented and pretentious she is.
Solveig, I beg to differ… it’s quite different. You can put that meat to much better use by eating it…
dumbass.
Wow, you guys didn’t give Gaga a chance AT ALL. Think more about what she’s saying.
I saw her on Ellen yesterday and she comes across stunted, immature, and completely wrapped up in her own “strangeness.”
The dress was made to shock and it has given her lots of press. Sadly, the animal(s) that died for it aren’t given the same respect.
There is a line to be drawn for art and the meat dress crossed my line.
Not a fan.
Side note, kept wondering if they had to dispose of the chair she was sitting in. How about spreading some e-coli along with bad taste?
“Think more about what she’s saying.”
@ shawna: yeah, yeah…we get it, we get it. how can we not? the point she’s trying to make is very obvious. she’s wearing meat to symbolize either A) women being treated like meat by men or B)artists being treated like meat by their record companies. in either case, she is boring beyond words.
Why oh why couldn’t there have been some hungry tigers roaming loose at the VMAs?
All I know is that if I were a poor perhaps malnurished person in another country, this would strike me as an incredible display of American excess.
And, as I said on a different post, bacteria!
She is as disgusting as the meat hanging off her.
Solveig wrote: “What’s next? Probably Gaga wearing a dress made of used tampons.”
Cheese and rice! Don’t give her any ideas, she probably would do that and we wondered if the meat dress smelled bad… My g*d, Can you imagine?
Sooo…..that was real meat??? Oh man that is bloody disgusting. I thought it was cool when I thought it was just material. I thought it was her saying, “This is what I ultimately am to you, a piece of meat,” but then she went and said, “I am not a piece of meat.” Soooo she wasnt even making the more obvious, cooler point I thought she was making? Terrible.
People still hugged her? Hahaha that’s funny, just goes to show how far the celebs will go to keep a good popular opinion – they will even hug the girl draped in raw meat.
RE: maggots – from the pictures I saw she switched outfits a few times. I doubt she was wearing it long. The question is: Did she wash herself in between?
If I wasn’t a vegetarian before, I would be one now.
wearing a raw meat dress is A LOT different than wearing leather.
in our “reduce, reuse, recycle” mindset, a one-wear meat dress is the ultimate plastic garbage bag. i might as well go to the grocery store and double bag my pack of bubblegum, then walk out side, open the gum, and throw the empty plastic bags onto the nearest beach i can find. oh, and then call it art– you know– “i’m throwing these bags away in an attempt to represent how we throw our money away when we support these idiot “artists” by purchasing their music.”
This would have been more interesting if it was made of human flesh.
“Wearing meat is not different from wearing leather shoes or jackets, it’s just less hygenic.”
Really???? I can not believe you actually believe this!!! Am I the only one who is profoundly shocked by such a waste of meat (food) caused by this dumb bitch just to prove a point that makes absolutely no sense at all? Who cares about the fact that the dress must smell bad, or bacteria or even maggots…what about the waste of good food?
I grew up in Egypt and believe me I’ve seen poverty, I’ve seen people who would kill for a tiny slice off that dress. This “judgement free” b*tch has no respect for those people. It kills me just looking at her. I’m horrified, please forgive my rant.
Gaga is truly heinous & disrespectful
I don’t care what she is pretending it represents…
Notice she said “It has many interpretations, but for me this evening” aka “the meaning changes depending upon my mood” aka “I dont have a real reason, i’m actually just an attention whore”
“pretty soon we’re going to have as much rights as the meat on our own bones. ”
WTF does that mean?! If you are going to get on your soapbox at least have it make sense.
Here are my soapbox points:
Firstly this has been done before and is just a rip-off of Jana Sterbak’s meat dress.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/30/49147006_ef6c3bcc1e.jpg
Secondly she talks about not being treated like a piece of meat. Ironic from a woman who parades around half naked on stage or body surfs crowds wearing pasties.
Thirdly it is unfortunate that something had to give up its life for her to wear its flesh in order to get attention. Immoral.
In 1982, Ann Simonton wore a meat mini dress to protest the Miss California Pageant. At the time, it was held in Santa Cruz. LOL
I can’t get over how cold and slimy it would’ve felt when she first put it on. Urgh.
this is the most disgusting thing i’ve ever seen. i used to have respect for her as a human being but since she did this, no way. this is blatant disrespect to animals, vegan, veggies, hungry people, etc. it’s disgusting. if you want to “take a stand” have a fundraiser, a rally, something to draw attention to ur cause. don’t waste a bunch of beef carcass for PUBLICITY. she is disgusting.
I love her music and think she’s really talented, but I think this meat dress is ridiculous.
What a disgusting, self-absorbed pig she is. Wearing the flesh of that animal just to get even more attention goes beyond mentally ill. There is evil in there somewhere. I am not a vegetarian. I wish I didn’t like a good steak sometimes, but I do and it is what it is. However, this dress seemed to disprespect the anmial it once was because it was not used for sustenance or warmth, but just to get her picture on as many newpapers, magazines and online websites as possible. She’s a miscreant of the highest degree. Pig.
I’m so fed up with PC bullsh** and nothing-statements like, “I am the most-judgement free human being on the earth.” You have to stand up for something otherwise you’ll fall for anything and everything! There is such a thing as positive discrimination where, yes, shockingly, you make judgements about what’s good and bad, right and wrong. It’s OK to believe in absolutes and for some things to be black-and-white. You can’t please everyone; somebody’s always going to be offended!
For a celebrity who relishes controversy, fame and gossip, Lady Gaga is very PC-savvy. I don’t believe a thing she says about herself in interviews anymore because there’s something worse than hypocrisy going on with a person who tries to be everything to everyone.
so lady gaga’s meat dress – i wonder where she put the roast beef ba dum dum
@72–one HUNDRED AND TEN percent agree…
I’m over lady gaga.