Callie Beusman pulled from my critique of Lady Gaga’s song “Burqa Swag” in her own coverage for Jezebel.

Lady Gaga’s increasingly daft and desperate attempts to be “shocking” and “thought-provoking” have reached a new nadir. The Italian-American singer/conceptual fashion embryo has been trying to make “burqa swag” happen for a while by traipsing around in burqa-like garments; now, a track that’s allegedly leaked from her forthcoming album ARTPOP indicates that she’s planning on unleashing her cultural appropriation on the innocent ears of America…

“Burqa swag” is not accepting — or even normalizing — of the burqa as a cultural/religious symbol. As Carmen Rios argues at Autostraddle, as a song, “Burqa” effectively minimizes the POV of those women who actually non-ironically wear burqas (and aren’t given a choice as to whether or not they want to):

“Instead of giving insight into a heritage that already exists, she superimposes her own desires — to be seen as sexual in a specific way — onto women who never asked for it. She reduces a religious and cultural tradition to a sexual ploy; the burqa becomes a way for Gaga to seem coy and mysterious. To Lady Gaga, the burqa is a sexual accessory, instead of a garment with layers of significance that she doesn’t have the experience to understand or the right to play with.”

You can read the full piece on the Jezebel website.