Are Lady Gaga and Mother Teresa cut from the same cloth?
Mother Teresa, probably one of the most venerated individuals in recent memory and seen by many as infallible, is hailed as a true saint. Lady Gaga, a pop diva, epitomizes absurdity with her gravity-defying hair and borderline offensive wardrobe of animal innards. The Economist wrote an article last Thursday comparing the two as leadership icons in their respective eras and the century as a whole.
Leper-treating nun and record-breaking, grammy-winning singer apparently share more in common than two X chromosomes (though some might dispute that) and a wide fan base.
Mother Teresa, or Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, was born in 1910 and died in 1997. Throughout her life she practiced and preached poverty, chastity and obedience. She believed God’s will called her to India where she opened mission homes and hospitals throughout the nation—her base being in the disease-ridden cesspool of the big city Calcutta—to treat those who doctors abandoned and society shunned. She spread her humanitarian efforts internationally and for her intentions, not to mention years of 4:30 a.m. masses and tireless hours of manual labor, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and the Bharat Ratna, India’s higest honor, in 1980. No task was below her; she was cleaning toilets like a champ.
So yes, Mother Teresa casually tried to save the world, singlehandedly.
Stefani Joanne Angeina Germanotta (maybe it's no coincidence these two women changed their names…) later changed her name to Lady Gaga when she entered, or should I say attacked, the music industry. Her name transcends the term “house-hold name” because I swear I heard homeless people singing her songs and discussing her latest fashion while I served them at the Soup Kitchen. Her rookie album reached the top of the record charts in six countries. Her second album did just as well and her third album, which featured her hit single “Born this Way” that was the fastest-selling single in iTunes history, selling one million copies in five days.
So let’s start with similarities. For one, who hasn't heard of these two?
Mother Teresa is everyone’s idea of the “nicest person ever,” but better because she actually existed. Lady Gaga, through songs, speeches and sex, encourages the world to embrace its inner freak because we all have one.
These are two rather relatable concepts, no? Mother Teresa: someone whose kindness we can forever try to emulate. And Lady Gaga: at the end of the day, there’s comfort in knowing that we can embrace our true inner weirdo and still not be the biggest freak there ever was because she takes the cake for that one.
However, as The Economist astutely outlines, the similarities don’t end there.
Both women work some of the most tiring schedules imagineable. From dawn to well past dusk, they work endlessly to improve themselves, achieve their goals, then set new loftier ones. These qualities sound like your parents’ dream kid—the kind of ethic you always heard about but didn’t believe anyone who had a life actually possessed.
One began an international movement of altruism and awareness while the other is breaking stereotypes by way of flooding (the psychological method of mercilessly bombarding someone with what makes them most uncomfortable).
Well, I’m here to take this one step further and say that not only is Mother Teresa not as angelic as she seems but Lady Gaga may deserve more credit than our ruthless, censure-happy world gives her.
No, it is not the heat getting to me.
Lady Gaga is the hero for a larger audience. She works tirelessly and makes music that is played in middle school dances to retirement parties worldwide. There is no evidence of her breaking the law or defaming her name as many “sex, drugs and rock n roll” type celebrities do. She spends Christmas with her family and fights for her own modern causes, from Haiti relief to the medical battle against HIV and AIDS.
Gaga makes waves. Gaga is fallible. Gaga is like you.
Or, should I say, you (and I and everyone) have a shot of being like Gaga.
Yes, Mother Teresa was a saint. Definitively, as in, she was actually “beautified” by Pope John Paul II for being as close to perfect as one can be, at least in the eys of the Catholic Church. But, for that reason alone, she is more of a mythical creature than a role model. She is someone who’s tales of glory make legend, not headlines. Mother Teresa can do no wrong.
Because Mother Teresa lived in a time without Facebook, Twitter and paparazzi (I’m your biggest fan, I’ll follow you until you love me…), life was not under nearly as much scrutiny as Gaga’s is today. Mother Teresa’s lived in a period of technological dearth of India, a time of minimal media espionage and gained from a society that warmly embraced the “benefit of the doubt” gift afforded to respected religious figures. So, it is not surprising that most people don’t even know, let alone discuss, any flaws Mother Teresa might have had.
Least controversial is the fact that Mother Teresa often and fervently doubted her faith. Forigvable, because many religious figures do, but still rarely discussed. Secondly, Mother Teresa called abortion the “greatest destroyer of peace today” in her Nobel acceptance speech. Forgivable, sure; many people oppose abortion and are entitled to their opinion. However, how often do we discuss Mother Teresa’s controversial stance on abortion? Thirdly, the homes that Mother Teresa and her Sisters set up were largely undersupplied, overcrowded, unhygienic and understaffed. The children were sometimes neglected and in the case of rowdy individuals, tied to their beds or a tree to free the hands of nurses so that they may attend to other individuals. The intentions were good and the reasoning understandable, but many consider this degrading behavior. Finally, Mother Teresa is known for having denied many a patient that walked through her door pain medication claiming that their suffering was a gift from God that they should graciously accept and endure, and for which they should be eventually rewarded. This again is not unheard of among religious missionaries but most likely shocking to those who saw Mother Teresa as a woman who could not bear to see others in pain.
Let me be clear, I am not trying to demean this great woman or anything that she has done for the world. She has made strides that few have done before or since and we are all better off for it.
However, can you imagine if she had the news coverage Lady Gaga faces today? The constant criticism, scrutiny and conspiracy theories, tempered photographs and fake video footage that inundate the media daily?
The bastardization of news coverage by social networks such as Twitter and Facebook confuse fallacy for fact and sully the name of even the purest individuals. Gandhi would have had a hard time keeping up his street cred in today's world.
Lady Gaga has raised millions of dollars for humanitarian causes and seizes every opportunity to fight for causes she believes in, most notably the LGBTQ population. Her methods divert slightly from Mother Teresa’s nun-like ways in that they are a tad more extravagant, but at the end of the day, both women set out to achieve certain goals for themselves and others and did it in the best way they knew how. And both have been hailed for it.
So, my final point is that maybe we should refrain from scoffing quite as hard when The Economist compared Lady Gaga and Mother Teresa. Living in the time period that she does, facing the challenges that she has, Gaga has done an incredible job adjusting to and remaining above the petty controversies that outside parties have created around her image. She knows what she wants and how she wants to get there. Whether or not we agree with, or even like, her beliefs, she will go for it with everything she’s got. That is commendable. I’m sure even Teresa would agree.
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