Eating A Salad & Dreaming of a Cheeseburger #WhatsWithLadyGaga


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I don’t really follow Lady Gaga, but one of my lovely readers sent me a link to one of her recent tweets, and it bummed me out.  The tweet read:

“Just killed back to back spin classes. Eating a salad dreaming of a cheeseburger #PopSingersDontEat #IWasBornThisWay”

Lady Gaga Europride 2011

Lady Gaga (image via wikipedia)

I’m going to do something that goes against my better judgement here, which is to parse the meaning and significance of a tweet. If this is not your thing, please feel free to check out my blog and read some non-Twitter-related post.

Okay. You’re still with me? Let’s do this.

“Killing Back To Back Spin Classes”
I’m not going to touch this part, except to say that when you work out in an intense way, you need eat adequately. #justsaying

“Eating A Salad Dreaming of a Cheeseburger”
Of course, I’m taking this to mean that she was eating a salad while dreaming of a cheeseburger, as opposed to eating some strangely sentient salad capable of dreaming about eating other food products.

But in all seriousness, this is typical dieter and disordered eater thinking.  Lady Gaga is definitely putting her diet rules about what she should eat above any possibility that she might be craving a cheeseburger for good reason.  Maybe she needs more calories or more protein or just a reminder of home.  She has a huge net worth and any number of assistants to cater to her whims and yet a cheeseburger is beyond her grasp? It’s so sad that a tastemaker like Gaga can’t allow herself tastes of the food that she wants. #eatthedamncake

woman Laughing Alone With Salad

What's her salad dreaming of? (image courtesy of The Hairpin)

“#PopSingersDontEat”
Just this February, Adele won 6 Grammy’s. She’s sold a gazillion records and has become an extremely famous pop star. I figure that she’s around a size 12/14 US which makes her epically fat by young pop star standards and just barely plus sized by real life standards. And Adele has publicly made such “shocking” statements as “I love food and hate exercise.”

This tweet came on the heels of an alleged feud between Gaga and fellow pop star Adele, wherein Gaga was supposedly going around calling Adele a “fat cow” due to her envy over Adele’s award sweep at the Grammy’s. (I had seen this reported in some fairly reputable places, but apparently the original story is from the ever disreputable Star magazine, and is probably untrue.)  But still, what did Lady Gaga mean when she tweeted “#PopSingersDontEat”? Am I the only one who saw this as a dig against Adele? #whattheactualf

Born This Way Album Cover

Born This Way Album Cover (image via wikipedia)

“#IWasBornThisWay”
This part, to me, puts the bummer icing on the tragic cake. Isn’t the concept behind the song “Born This Way” that we should all embrace and enjoy who we are, even if it makes us different or not accepted by mainstream culture? Gaga and her mom even founded the Born This Way Foundation, whose mission is, in part, “to foster a more accepting society, where differences are embraced and individuality is celebrated.” This seems like a wonderful cause.

So is Gaga saying that she was born to be fatter than she is now? And if so, why not just accept that she’s born that way? I realize that she probably feels required to stay thin to retain her pop star status, but maybe that’s not really true anymore. (See Adele above.) Gaga always seems to have incredibly devoted fans, some of whom have probably used the “born this way” concept to embrace having fatter bodies, so why not Lady Gaga herself? #sobebornthisway

One Last Thing
I realize that when Lady Gaga tweeted this (if it was even she who did so) she was probably hungry and in a bad mood and looking for some diet commiseration from her twitter followers. She probably wasn’t thinking about the fact that it might be considered to be promoting anorexia. I realize that she’s a human being who has her own issues and is under tremendous scrutiny and pressure. But I also think that it would be a truly amazing and powerful thing if she embraced body acceptance as part of the “born this way” cause.

Golda is a certified holistic health counselor and founder of Body Love Wellness, a program designed for plus-sized women who are fed up with dieting and want support to stop obsessing about food and weight.  Join her for her upcoming FREE TELECLASS: “The Goddess Path To Healing From Food And Body Image Issues” on Thursday, April 26th at 8PM Eastern/5PM Pacific. Click here for details and to register.

5 thoughts on “Eating A Salad & Dreaming of a Cheeseburger #WhatsWithLadyGaga

  1. Whoa, over-analysis much?
    Don’t you think it’s a bit overkill to take one tweet and turn it into a personal attack on another artist, and twist her words into promoting anorexia?

  2. BOO HISS for this suck-ass Tweet from Lady Gaga (who I generally love) :( I suppose we can only hope that eventually her born this way campaign embraces ALL differences.

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