Reflections on a Thunder Emperor

Customized Lady Gaga Barbie dolls, designed by a 29-year-old Beijinger I’ve made no secret of my hatred for Graydon Carter’s society rag Vanity Fair, so guess what happened when I opened its September 2010 issue? I sliced my finger open on a subscription card; not off to a good start. I was only interested in this issue because of the feature story devoted to Lady Gaga,... Read More

REPOST: Mad Women

In honor of Kathryn Bigelow’s historic achievement in being the first woman to win the Academy Award for Best Director, this is a repost of my article about women in Hollywood, originally posted in August of 2009. An article in the Wall Street Journal profiled the women writers behind the hit AMC drama Mad Men, where they make up the majority of the staff. Such a writers’... Read More

“Pop Ate My Heart”: Lady Gaga, Her Videos, and Her Fame Monster

Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, better known to the world as Lady Gaga, has had a meteoric rise in the world of pop music with the release of her debut album The Fame. With her catchy lyrical hooks and slick electronic beats, Lady Gaga may not necessarily break any significant musical ground; she beats her critics to the punch and says that “My music isn’t me jerking my... Read More

Gossip Girl 3.12 “The Debarted” (aka Patrimony)

The time of Gossip Girl‘s pilot may seem like so long ago that it is easy to forget that it actually had a relatively sophisticated narrative structure, the highlight being the use of a fourth-wall breaking flashback to link two interconnected scenes that were separated by space but not by theme. This episode, written by Executive Producer Stephanie Savage, recalls some of... Read More

Gossip Girl 3.11 “The Treasure of Serena Madre” (aka Detournement)

Those that scaped the fire were slaine with the sword; some hewed to peeces, others rune throw with their rapiers, so as they were quickly dispatchte, and very few escaped. It was conceived they thus destroyed about 400 at this time. It was a fearful sight to see them thus frying in the fyer, and the streams of blood quenching the same, and horrible was the stincke and sente there... Read More

Gossip Girl 3.10 “The Last Days of Disco Stick” (aka The Gagaesque Modality)

Two of my recent focuses in media analysis have been Gossip Girl and Lady Gaga; the show played a large number of her tracks last season, so perhaps it was inevitable they would eventually collide. Nevertheless, it’s kind of like the Beagle landing at the Galapagos for me. While my 7200-word feature article on Lady Gaga’s videography awaits editorial approval, consider... Read More

Gossip Girl 3.09 “They Shoot Humphreys, Don’t They?” (aka Power Transition Theory)

It came as a shock to me — though it really shouldn’t have been — when I found out that the main demographic for Gossip Girl was not teenaged girls (which only make 16% of the viewership) but “18- to 34-year-old women, with a median viewer age of 27 years old.” It doesn’t change my primary analysis, and it makes sense: the kids from the Upper... Read More

Gossip Girl 3.08 “The Grandfather: Part II” (aka Categorical Imperative)

One of the reasons that it is so easy to see echoes of real philosophy and political theory in Gossip Girl is that we can see the machinations of these teenagers as reflections of the real world; their sometimes-clumsy, sometimes-petty schemes recreate adult social structures. But what about when the show attempts to actually portray those adult social structures directly and with... Read More

Gossip Girl 3.07 “How to Succeed in Bassness” (aka Mask of Command)

In contemplating which tyrant Jenny Humphrey (Taylor Momsen) most closely resembles, there are several choices. Robespierre, who initially spouted platitudes about liberty and equality and liberty yet became as bloody-handed as the monarchs he replaced? Or Stalin, who was born of peasant stock but rose through the ranks via connections, cruelty, and subterfuge? No, if you want to... Read More

Gossip Girl 3.06 “Enough About Eve” (aka Social Identity Theory)

This week’s episode of Gossip Girl is a very combative one: Vanessa versus Blair, the Van Der Bilts versus the Buckleys, aristocrats versus egalitarians — it’s all about pitting faction against faction. In an earlier review, I addressed how the American worker was pacified by getting the working class to look up and identify with their exploiters. Part of that... Read More