Disabled Slam Gaga for Mermaid in Wheelchair Act
Mega rockstar Lady Gaga is under fire this week after rolling onto a stage in a wheelchair dressed up as a mermaid. Advocacy groups for the disabled are demanding an apology from the popular rocker and "The Divine Miss M" is correcting Gaga even after she and her entourage were “egged” when leaving a night club in the area.
Media reports are calling this week’s egg-throwing incident in Sydney, Australia, “nothing less than shocking.”
Gaga made her rounds close to the Sydney nightclub scene after the wheelchair incident, which was performed during her concert at the Sydney Town Hall on Wednesday.
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She performed the rock ballad "You and I" while dressed up as her new mermaid alter ego Yuyi.
After the performance, she hit the clubs for a night out on the town. It was then that the small group was pelted with eggs.
Media reports say Lady Gaga "took it well" and just kept walking to her car with a smile on her face.
However, Roman Reed, a lobbyist for research on spinal cord injuries tweeted his anger about Gaga’s wheelchair stunt this week saying “Dear @ladygaga how about using your celebrity status 2 try 2 get us out of wheelchairs. Instead of cruising one. Cool?!”
Reed later requested Gaga to help fund the research to get them out of their chairs permanently.
Adding to the outrage over the mermaid in a wheelchair act was Jesse Billauer, a founder of the quadriplegic advocacy group Life Rolls On.
Billauer took to the media so Gaga would get the message that she offended those in wheelchairs.
“Since this isn’t the first time she has used a wheelchair in her performances, I invite her to learn more about the 5.6 million Americans who live with paralysis,” Billauer said in a recent interview.
“They, like me, unfortunately, don’t use a wheelchair for shock value.”
Meanwhile, the pop singer is also getting some negative publicity from movie mogul Bette Midler who started a tweeting war on Friday reminding Lady Gaga that she created the mermaid in a wheelchair act more than 30 years ago.
Midler tweeted several comments about Gaga stealing her act to her some 112,000 followers.
“I’m not sure @ladygaga knows that I’ve performed my mermaid in a wheelchair for millions of people – and many of them are still alive,” Midler tweeted this week.
“Dear @ladygaga if you think a mermaid in a wheelchair seems familiar-it's because it is! You can see it on youtube 24/7-with ME performing it,” she said.
One of Midler’s final tweets was sent out on Saturday and got a little personal. “Dear @ladygaga Ive been doing singing mermaid in a wheelchair since 1980-You can keep the meat dress and the firecracker (stuff) -mermaid's mine,” Midler tweeted.
Lady Gaga did not have any public tweets in response to Midler or the egg incident for her millions of followers she refers to as “my little monsters.”
Her latest news said “More MonsterNews! The ban on sale of BORN THIS WAY in China has been lifted! Our trip to Asia has been enlightening + promising. Stand strong!”
As if the wheelchair incident was not enough, fans who looked to see Lady Gaga on Youtube this week were shocked to see a harsh message: “This account has been suspended due to multiple or severe violations of YouTube’s Copyright Policy.”
Time Out Tokyo reports that Gaga’s official YouTube account was suspended because, without proper permission, the pop diva (or one of her managers) posted her performance on Fuji TV’s SMAP x SMAP, which is illegal and violates copyright laws.
The posting prompted Media Interactive Inc. to request that the footage be taken down off the Internet on Tuesday for copyright infringement.
In the segment, Gaga sings several cuts from her latest album, Born This Way. Gaga has not commented about the Youtube suspension so far.
But she did, however, tweet about her excitement for the SMAP show airing a few days back writing, “My performance+cooking show appearance on SMAP SMAP is airing now in Japan. Kawaii Monsters!”
Joe Brooks, a conservative blogger, recently wrote about Lady Gaga, her songs, and performances.
He said what Gaga and others who think like her, represent is another attempt by mankind to usurp God’s moral authority.
“Regardless of how we are born, God intends so much more for us, and The Gospel According to Gaga won’t get you there,” he said.
