5 Reasons Why Lady Gaga’s “Body Revolution 2013” Matters

Today Lady Gaga launched a response to the fuss over her recent weight gain. She recently acknowledged she gained around 25 lbs. but has made some conflicting comments about her attitude about her body in the past few months, sending mixed signals about body image acceptance for those who follow the mantra “Born This Way.” In April, she Tweeted: “Just killed back to back spin classes. Eating a salad dreaming of a cheeseburger #PopSingersDontEat #IWasBornThisWay” while this month she responded to the commentary about her weight gain with, “I really don’t feel bad about it, not even for a second.”

But today Lady Gaga set the record straight by announcing a “Body Revolution 2013” on LittleMonsters.com. She revealed her personal battle with anorexia and bulimia since 15 in a caption to a series of unretouched photographs of herself in underwear. She wrote:

“But today I join the BODY REVOLUTION.
To Inspire Bravery.
and BREED some m$therf*cking COMPASSION”

Lady Gaga also Tweeted naked photo of herself today, honoring her body in spite of the recent press about her weight gain, and announced call to action on Facebook.

Here are 5 reasons why Lady Gaga’s “Body Revolution 2013” matters:

1.     Lady Gaga is actively confronting the prevalence of fat-shaming prejudices in our culture as represented by the media. Her photographs on Twitter and LittleMonsters.com provoke rethinking of “fat,” “fat shaming,” and ultimately body image in general. Lady Gaga is using her celebrity to not only reveal a prejudice but to create a call to action.

2.     “Body Revolution 2013” reiterates the affirmation, “Born This Way,” in the context of body image and self-love. As Dodai Stewart observes in Jezebel’s breakdown of Gaga’s “embodying bravery”, “By posting these homemade, raw, here-I-am-with-all-my-flaws (not that we see any) images, she shows that her struggle is the same struggle millions of other men and women have everyday: Learning to love yourself just the way you are, finding and believing you are beautiful when the media is hellbent on making you think you're fat and ugly (and that fat is the same as ugly).”

3.     It made Terry Richardson, who isn’t always the poster child of positive portrayals of women, speak up. Richardson defended Gaga and, whether he meant to or not, defended the acceptance of bodies by posting “Lady Gaga Unretouched #1” on his online diary.

4.     The portraits from LittleMonsters.com acknowledge the body beyond its aesthetics by celebrating physical ability. In one photo, Lady Gaga is in the yoga pose, Anyvittasana, or Standing Backbend, honoring her body in physical practice.

5.     Today’s announcement creates awareness about eating disorders because Gaga gives voice to the realities of anorexia and bulimia. Lady Gaga gives a face to this often typified reality with her self-portraits in her underwear, and the juxtaposition between the distorted, unflattering photos of her in Amsterdam and her personal photos suggest that society’s warped perceptions of beauty have in part been caused and perpetrated by the media that recently fat-shamed the singer.