If You Think Lady Gaga's Super Bowl Performance Wasn't Political, You Missed the Point

Tonight, Lady Gaga literally took a leap of faith (via some very trustworthy suspension cables) when she opened her Super Bowl halftime performance with a riff on patriotic classics. After her epic (and already memed) dive toward the stage, our Lady fearlessly sang her anthe, "Born This Way," resplendent in crystal eye makeup and a glittering ensemble. If ever there were a time for "Yas Gaga," this was it.

So I tweeted this:

And was almost immediately met with this:

I'm sorry — but did the trolls on Twitter miss the memo?

Clearly, many people watching didn't realize that the song "Born This Way" is designed for the LGBTQ community. If you've been to a Pride march in the past four years, you know a thing or two about dancing to "Born This Way" while you're surrounded by a ton of glitter, bare skin, and glorious, rainbow solidarity. Let's just be clear here, though: Performing a song that's so blatantly gay in front of an audience that includes Mike Pence, one of the most anti-LGBTQ politicians today, is absolutely political — especially when it contains lyrics like "No matter gay, straight, or bi, lesbian, transgender life." (P.S.: According to USA Today, that was "likely" be the first time the word "transgender" was said onstage at a Super Bowl.)

Furthermore, as our friends at The Hive pointed out, the Woody Guthrie song "This Land Is Your Land" is inherently activistic. Gaga omitted certain lyrics from the piece, which The Hive printed for your convenience. Here's a sampling:

As I went walking I saw a sign there / And on the sign it said "No Trespassing." / But on the other side it didn't say nothing, / That side was made for you and me.

Nobody living can ever stop me, / As I go walking that freedom highway; / Nobody living can ever make me turn back / This land was made for you and me.

"This land was made for you and me," she sang, in the same weekend that Donald Trump's executive order — one that was designed to fulfill his campaign promise of banning Muslims from entering our country — was essentially (if temporarily) rendered moot by a judge in Washington state.

The Super Bowl is a massive display of capitalism, contracts, and fragile masculinity. We can only assume that Lady Gaga had to deal with these constraints as she planned her performance — especially following the accusations Beyoncé received last year for displaying black pride on a national stage. So in this case, rather than not show up at all, she allowed her art to be the activism. She played within the confines and outwitted them as best she could. It's up to us to read between the lines.

Related: The Black Panther Party, Explained by a Former Black Panther

Editor's Note: This piece was updated to insert lyrics from the Lady Gaga song mentioned.