Gaga for good works

There has been no shortage of analysis of Lady Gaga on this blog and so many others. From the meat dress, to the egg crackin’, to, well, to everything disappointing, performative, and courageous about her–she gets folks talking.

I could not be happier that her latest gimmick is actually not really a gimmick at all. She is teaming with the Robin Hood Foundation, an amazing entity, to donate $1 million to five organizations serving youth: The Door, Hetrick-Martin Martin Institute, Lawyers for Children, Safe Horizon, and SCO Family of Services.

At a time when there has been no shortage of truly bad examples of celebrities trying to make their mark for the good of humanity (oh, Demi, why?), it is awesome to see a pop icon partner with a bonafide foundation in such a substantive way.

Yeah, some of it is about leveraging fandom and Facebook followers. Yeah, they resorted to the ol’ vote-for-the-most-deserving-organization structure, which is reductionist and silly. But it’s all about raising awareness and putting some cold, hard cash into the budgets of some of the most deserving organizations in existence. It’s another reminder that changing the world is not always about figuring out how to get more power and resources in the hands of historically oppressed people, but also about seeing those with excessive power and resources to give some up in skillful, heartfelt ways. Thanks Gaga.