Gender Fluidity in Harmony: Lyrics of Born This Way as The Manifestation of Body without Organs

Abstract

Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" (2011), inspired by 1990s music about empowering minorities, women, and the LGBTQ+ community, is a song about the view that identity, including gender, is dynamic and changeable. The song is also used as the national anthem of Americans for LGBTQ+ people. To explore this statement, this study uses Judith Butler's (1990) theory of Gender Performativity and the concept of Body without Organs Deleuze and Guattari, as a framework to analyse gender fluidity and to understand the body in lyrics as a non-hierarchical space, and free from the normative constraints of society. The method used is qualitative text analysis, where the lyrics of the song are analysed in depth to identify the representation of gender fluidity and Body without Organs. This study intends to investigate how the song BTW represses gender fluidity through the analysis of its lyrics. This research shows that the lyrics of the song are not only as musical works but as a medium to voice or support gender identity. The results of this study show that the reflection of the values of freedom, self-acceptance, and respect for diversity of identities is in the lyrics of BTW. This research contributes to the study of gender and popular culture by showing how art can be a transformative medium to break down the boundaries of traditional identities and celebrate fluidity as part of human existence.