Response Post - Jess (GLAM!)

First off, I'm continually amazed and impressed at everyone's comments, thoughts, and interpretations of our readings. So, yay us!

Now, on to the task at hand: glam rock + opera.

Iris' introduction of the confounding and mesmerizing Lady Gaga is particularly appropriate to our discussion. Do we ever see Stefani Germanotta? Or is all we see Lady Gaga, La Gaga, Gaga, and various iterations of her persona? In this, I'm seeing another parallel in a recent Vanity Fair article about President Obama, and how he remarks that "one of the things you realize fairly quickly in this job is that there is a character people see out there called Barack Obama. That's not you. Whether it is good or bad, it is not you." There are tons of links between incredibly disparate areas via performing, theatricality, character, and spectacle. The presidency is an overwhelming mishmash of history, tradition, spectacle, performance - - - you name it. The president's image is critical to the public's understanding of the person and the office; Obama talks about only choosing between gray or navy suits each day, but why those two? Why not a finely tailored suit in aubergine? That would be downright un-presidential. They are relegated to "safe" colors of black, navy and gray with tie colors in the red, blue or neutral families. No president would ever be allowed to surface in a pink silk tie. That would not only subvert the masculine power of the office (a problem in and of itself), but it would confound the audience/public. 

Glam rock, opera, and the presidency are dependent on image and spectacle. Glam rock subverts, opera and the presidency conserve/uphold. I think the biggest thing we're asked to forget, as spectators, is the inherent humanity of the performer. They are transformed into objects to be consumed, or embodiments of power/sexuality/fabulousness/etc. It's like with my ramblings on monuments - - - they become monuments themselves on stage in view of the public. Their peculiarities, especially their faults, are hidden from view (I could expound on how public figures lose their monumentality, but that's another story altogether).