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Kidz Bop version of "Born This Way" removes all mentions of gayness
By James Brady RyanAugust 4th, 2011, 3:00 pmComments (24)Nothing says "accept and celebrate yourself for who you are" like awkwardly changing the lyrics of a song so that the word "queen," "gay," or "lesbian" need not fall on young ears. (Also, oddly, "Lebanese.") One might say there's no point in taking issue with this — if Kidz Bop wants to change some lyrics so children can finally, finally listen to "Big Pimpin" or "Fuck the Pain Away," who cares? But to change the lyrics in a song specifically connected to a moment in our culture in which we're trying to get kids to not kill themselves because of their sexuality seems particularly thoughtless.
This is another instance in which the simple fact that homosexuality is a thing that exists is deemed somehow too sexually explicit for people under the age of, say, fourteen to be exposed to. If the song referenced, for instance, crazy gay S&M orgies, I could see the reason for some tweaking. Go check out And Tango Makes Three, Kidz Bop; children can handle the fact that gay people are a thing without ending up as prostitutes with crippling drug addictions.
On the other hand, the line "a different viewpoint is not a sin" will keep me laughing for days. That sounds like a really awesome meeting of the debate club, Kidz Bop.
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Lady Gaga
Commentarium (24 Comments)
Boudoir is ok and so is capital HIM which no one knows what that means.
I always thought it meant capital H-i-m. As in only the H is capital, referring to God. Believe Him = believe God.
the poet's got it. Him = god, him = a dude, she's making a parellel
and a parallel, but whatevs
Well Boudoir means bedroom, and capital Him is God, so I'm not really sure what you're getting at. They only took out the glbt references.
I just love the "when I was young" part. Like what - last week?
that made me ponder a bit too, lol
kid's face at 2:43. what.the.fuck.
How about this, JBR - they're kids and their audience consists of children. They need not be exposed to sexuality since they're not equipped to handle it. Simple, no?
Erm, no. Have you seen the other 234562 videos and songs they've covered? The majority of them are ALL about sex. It's obviously not the homosexual references that they're covering up.
I'll make this simple - kids don't need to be confronted with sex. It really is simple.
Homosexuality is just as much about relationships as sex. Presumably children are aware their parents are in a relationship and this song merely presents the option of a same sex relationship as a valid and equivalent alternative.
Every time I hear this song I think that Gaga must not have thought it all out too deeply. I wonder what trans people think of the notion that "God makes no mistakes" and that you must accept yourself exactly as He made you, which, according to the song, is perfect just the way it is. Maybe God does make a few mistakes, and it takes modern medicine to fix those mistakes?
I'm just asking questions is all. (For the record, I don't even believe God exists.)
And I doubt you exist, John.
Well this is awful. The kids aren't great either...
I believe you exist, God, I just think you're a lousy person most of the time.
@Categorizer
Plenty of 10-12 year old kids (which I believe is the target audience for this; I might be wrong) realize that they're gay. Being aware that it's a perfectly fine way to be is not bad. It's not like the song is a three minute description of gay sex (or any kind of sex) -- it has no lyrics more explicit than the words "gay" and "transgendered." Compared to the many songs that kids are exposed to -- E.T. comes to mind -- it's incredibly mild, unless you buy into the bullshit that being gay is somehow inherently more explicit than being straight.
"Kids don't need to be exposed to sexuality" ... I've come across this argument a lot when it comes to GLBT issues and I don't think these folks realize it's incredibly homophobic. Why? 1) If you're looking for it, you can't miss it; American society is saturated in sex, both explicit and subtle (even though this usually does go over kids' heads) and 2) more importantly, being gay is more than "just having gay sex." We don't look at a man and woman in a relationship and immediately think, "they're promoting straight sex!"
Yeah. It's this notion by some that believe that being gay is inherently more sexualized than being straight. That gay = only sex based relationships. So, those people would likely say that singing a song about accepting gay people would be equal to singing a song about accepting pedophilia.
Or, that's what I have seen.
doesn't Lady Gaga have signoff on KidzBop using her songs? Shouldn't the writer be taking her to task for selling out?
yeah like, the whole weird al thing kind of blew up but this, which deliberately changes the lyrics lady gaga intended, can slide by
If it upsets you that they changed some words for kidz bop you need to get a life.
baby I was born this way -- in 2008
Why would she sign the contract to let them use it? They have to pay her royalties for every sale. Did the label go over her head or something?