A Guide to Signs and Symbols in Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” Video

This morning brought the next stage in Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” roll out. Little Monsters and Gaga haters alike have been watching and weighing in on the music video. Us? We’re feeling a bit ambivalent. There’s a lot of cool imagery in there, but we’re still not loving the song, and we’re also getting a little sick of this self-congratulatory Gaga-as-creator-goddess/queer messiah business, too. (Plus, does anyone have an idea what “the mitosis of the future” is supposed to mean?)

In our confusion, though, one thing is clear: as is the case for most Gaga videos, “Born This Way” is packed with signs and symbols. Watch the video and follow along as we break down the video’s references, from unicorns and pink triangles to Day of the Dead, Hieronymous Bosch, and ’60s performance art, after the jump.

Pink triangle: Oh hey, does this song happen to be about gay rights? Good thing we have this big, pink triangle because otherwise we would have never guessed. And yet, as obvious as this imagery is, we’re sure some crazy people are going to use the triangle as further proof that Gaga is all about the Illuminati.

Unicorns: More queer stuff! Although it’s kind of hilarious that Ke$ha scooped Gaga on the glittery unicorn video in her ridiculous/wonderful clip for “Blow.”

Gaga’s crazy beehive: It’s a pope hat, the B-52′s, and the robot helmet from Metropolis (which, remember was the inspiration for the “Express Yourself” video) all rolled into one — but since the Oscars were last night, we can’t stop comparing it to the enormous beehive Kelly Osbourne wore to host the E! red carpet show.

Chains: Duh, guys. These are the chains of oppression.

“A birth of magnificent and magical proportions”: This image could go any number of ways, but since we’re talking about a mysterious birth, we’re going with the Virgin of Guadalupe.

“A new race”: Well, we can see why there will be no prejudice. Who needs it when everybody looks like Gaga?

Hell: The birth of evil is straight up Hieronymous Bosch, a vision of hell as humanity stacked up in misery.

Gaga riding lightning bolts: Anyone else seeing Rocky astride the RKO tower at the end of Rocky Horror? Sure, Metropolis plays into this one, too but we’re sure the campy reference isn’t lost on Gaga, either.

Guns shooting pot leaves: We’re not sure why this is happening, but that is what’s going on, right?

“Express Yourself”: This crawling-on-the-ground sequence, which kicks off the musical part of the video (a mere three minutes in), is either a direct homage to Madge or simply a shameless rip-off. Which side do you come down on?

Eastern religion: While Gaga generally draws her religious imagery from Christianity, there’s something about the throne, veils, pose, and color scheme here that feels almost Hindu goddess-inspired.

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[...] Lady Gaga’s video for ‘Born This Way’ (premiered today with so much obvious symbolism it was hard to keep track of it all. Always trying [...]

[...] Gaga copped a lot of flak for reappropriating everything from Madonna’s “Express Yourself” to Hieronymus Bosch to Michael Jackson’s white gloves, [...]

[...] up where The Atlantic and Flavorpill left off, I enlisted my science-fiction nerd and film buff friends to help me do an even deeper [...]

I was a Little Monster but thank God she releases the single Judas. I'm not a Christian, but Jesus which in my religion is Isa, was a Prophet. And, yes, Judas was a traitor. I never hate Lady Gaga, she's a freak but genius, weirdo but her passion and hardwork deserves thumbs up. I just dislike-almost-hate her musics. Most of them sounds like Illuminati's propaganda. I was curious about this song, and thank you for posting these, it's really helpful. One thing good about Lady Gaga: she's never giving up. It's an unfortunate that she's just another Illuminati's puppet.

vicisummi 5 pts

Judas is about her Boyfrien . He gave her up 3 times

Yall are honestly haters. Lady gaga is expressing her ways and actually defending gay people, & standing up for bullying. so stop critising and get a life please. :)

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I JUST WATCHED THE VIDEO AGAIN I SEE THAT SHES YOUNG AND HER STATEMENTS ARE ABOUT SHOCK VALUE THERES NO SECRET MESSAGE YOU PEOPLE HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO THAN JUDGE PEOPLE WHO GIVES YOU THE RIGHT TO DO THAT ARE YOU PERFECT TELL ME YOU NEVER DONE SOMETHING AGAINST GOD IF YOU DO YOUR A LIER HE KNOWS THE TRUTH AND HES THE ONLY ONE WITH THE RIGHT TO JUDGE UNLESS YOU ALL THINK YOUR GOD

I THINK YOUR ALL STUPID AND YOUR COMMENTS ARE VERY IMMATURE NOBODY KNOWS WHAT THE HELL THERE TALKING ABOUT WHY DONT YOU ALL GO GET A LIFE YOUR JUST JEALOUS THAT SHE PASSIONATE ABOUT HER GIFT DO YOU REALY THINK GOD WOULD APPRECIATE YOU JUDGEING ANOTHER PERSON NO ONES PERFECT THATS WHY WERE ALL HERE I THINK HE WANT US TO LEARN TO FORGIVE ONE ANOTHER EVERYONE ITS ALL ABOUT HATERED SHE TRYING TO MAKE A NAME FOR HERSELF WHY DONT YOU REALY GO GET TO KNOW YOUR LORD JESUS HE FORGIVES US ALL

Lady Gag Gag, ga ga get over yourself!!!

Gaga is the biggest wet muppet I've ever seen. Take a talentless, unattractice woman who is very ambitious, advertise her and make her famous in return of being an illuminati puppet. Disgusting human being that woman. I wouldn't given her a penny for what it's worth.

The NWO has already begun! Did you see her hatch at the awards show... now giving birth in this video. Capitol H.I.M. has arrived. It is blantent this video is announcing the birth of the antichrist. The end has begun.

illuminati symbolism all the way...did you notice at the end the illuminati hand signal over her eyes wake up people she is a illuminati puppet being used to get the word out that the end is near and the new world order is about to begin

I'm with Blare and LG:TSM one this one... also the room of heads reminds me of that scene from Return to OZ, where the witch has a huge collection of heads to choose from.

I can't wait for Vigilant's take on this video. It has sooo much symbolism, that one cannot ignore that there is an agenda behind it all. The occult imagery is so repetitive in music videos, that it is amazing that anyone calls these artist's genius. They aren't coming up with this stuff folks! There is an agenda to dumb down society, to get you to stay asleep...in order to control you, number you, make you consume. It isn't a conspiracy, it is a well crafted design to keep the rich richer. It's time to WAKE UP.

Alrighty peoples...here's the link that's been dropped a few times: http://vigilantcitizen.com/ Educate yourself, because ignorance may sort of be bliss, but like being high on sugar, trust me, you're going to crash eventually...better to become wiser to the symbolic imagery that is used in pop culture in order to influence the masses, especially the youth...and it isn't just coincidence that Gaga, Kanye, and Janelle Monae have similar videos...Read and educate yourself!!!!!!!!

These interpretations suck! Vigilant Citizen does a much better job.

WHAT ABOUT MATTHEW BARNEY'S ENTIRE CAREER? Creamaster anybody??? Also 3 leaflets does not a pot leaf make.

I thought the lightning bolts looked like mega-stirrups like at the ob/gyn.

Pls describe me in an easy way.

mitotic (M) phase of the cell cycle - the division of the mother cell into two daughter cells, genetically identical to each other and to their parent cell. Mother cell = lady gaga / mother monster Daughter cell = little monsters She has an agenda and she is making it clear Her fans have become somewhat of a religious cult and eat every theory/point of view she tells them If you bother to go tO one of her concerts your might be in awe/scared with the type of relationshiP she has sort of build with her fans, genius but scary. I'll never say she int brilliant and talented, but it's not cool what's going on and the fact that her fans rather deny then realize what's going on isn't good/ healthy. Definite propaganda of mk ultra at work...

The pink triangle originated in Nazi Germany. SS segregated Jews with a yellow star on the prison uniform and Gays with a Pink Triangle. The symbol reminds us of persecution, intolerance, and genocide. Let's not reduce it to a Gay Pride symbol, it's much more profound and should not be forgotten.

Janelle Monae was referencing the movie Metropolis. One artist also referencing the film doesn't mean they're copying the first artist. I enjoyed the video, but I don't think it's up there with some of her other ones, upon first viewing. But I didn't like the snarky tone of this article, either, or the fact that it only touches on the surface level of the video with the good vs. evil concept. Even if it's not as exciting as some of the others, there's still a lot going on there. Why not mention her body mods (horns, cheeks), or the fact that she's a top Billboard artist giving shoutouts to the transgender community?

Wow, I really hope "sold out"'s comment wasn't ironic. If it was for real, then the delicious Illuminati madness is starting already...

My take on the "Single tear" shot following the Michael Jackson imagery is more homage to her music icons that have passed and she misses. The gapped teeth, the slight protrusion surrounding the mouth, the dark cropped hair, looks a lot like Freddie Mercury to me.

Isn't the gapped tooth also a reference to Madonna? Or is she naturally gapped?

The official "whore of babylon"

"It doesn't matter if you love him or capitol H.I.M" aka His Infernal Majesty. She is just a puppet of the occult illuminati. The amount of symbols used to brainwash have been played over and over in many videos. be careful who you pray to. The music industry has sold its soul.

im not a regular (so hi! lol) you missed the madonna reference at the end, she has a gap between the front teeth, that has to be madonna! maybe the tear is an insult to madonna.

Lady Gaga's shock factor has allowed us to become jaded to her videos. I consider myself a Little Monster, but am disappointed that she was so unoriginal in this video. I totally agree about the Janelle Monae and especially Madonna references. I really enjoyed a cover of Born This Way by a young girl named Avery. She sings and gets the lyrics across without the fancy and obscure costumes and imaginative set designs. Here's the video: http://bit.ly/emYRzD I really hope Lady Gaga can shock us with something simple like this in the future. Obviously this is a dance number, but maybe do a stripped down acoustic version of a song soon. PLEASE LADY GAGA, you don't need to be half-naked to hold our attention!!! Who else agrees?!

leave the video decoding to Vigilant Citizen...

I totally missed the pot-leaves... I figured it was like, final-cut's "machine gun blast" feature.

Damnit, judy, writing the post Soldoutmusic.com was going to write after we finished working at our non-pop-culture-blogging jobs. damnit all. PS J/K

This video is a lot to take in! I thought it was really awesome, although I didn't really understand it at first..I guess this helped a little..? And for sure the Illuminati enthusiasts are gonna go wild with this video..Cant wait! lol

The opening music is actually from Hitchcock's Vertigo, score by Bernard Herrmann. Vertigo is about identity and confusion, but I think the link is tenuous at best. She must have just liked that way it sounded.

What about Grace Jones' "Strangè" commercial from the movie Boomerang? I see a bit of that as well.

um....can't believe you guys missed the "crying Madonna" in the single tear shot - gapped front teeth didn't give it away?

didn't like.. the video is just too much! and i still think madonna is queen!

The whole opening sequence was like a mash up of all of Janelle Monae's ArchAndroid styling, and Kanye West's Power. Throw in some Express Yourself, and random tattooed skull guy, and you've got this video. Unhip; for all I love the Gaga.

Trackbacks

  1. [...] Lady Gaga’s video for ‘Born This Way’ (premiered today with so much obvious symbolism it was hard to keep track of it all. Always trying [...]

  2. [...] Gaga copped a lot of flak for reappropriating everything from Madonna’s “Express Yourself” to Hieronymus Bosch to Michael Jackson’s white gloves, [...]

  3. [...] up where The Atlantic and Flavorpill left off, I enlisted my science-fiction nerd and film buff friends to help me do an even deeper [...]