Some of us enjoyed this new release or should we say the remake of the remake. Great soundtrack. Naomi wrote this essay about the star Stephanie Germanotta a couple of years ago which provides some great reasons to respect the resplendent star - Lady Gaga. Should we try to catch her in Vegas?
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Ask your neighbor, hairdresser, or even grandmother who Lady Gaga is and in all likelihood, all three of them will give you an answer. A wacky pop idol, famous for bold, catchy music and even bolder outfit choices; she is one of the biggest performers of this century. Other than that, however, Lady Gaga, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, has remained rather mysterious in our current world where full exposé is the norm. This has all changed with her new Netflix documentary Gaga: Five Foot Two. One of the largest topics addressed in this film her experience with fibromyalgia. is the reason for the rescheduling of Lady Gaga’s world tour:
Fibromyalgia is a chronic condition whose symptoms are invisible to others. It is characterized by distributed pain in muscles and tissues all over the body. Other symptoms include fatigue, sleeping problems, depression, issues with memory, and overall grogginess. Although it typically persists for an entire lifetime, there have been cases of people recovering from the illness (Sugarman, 2014). Fibromyalgia affects 2-5% of the population in developed countries, predominantly young and middle-aged women, characteristic of Gaga, who is a 30-year-old woman (Guymer & Littlejohn, 2013). The overall incidence of fibromyalgia in the United Kingdom from 2001-2013 was 33.3 per 100 000 people (Collin, Inger, Irwin, Crawley, & White, 2017).
I have always regarded Lady Gaga as an inspiration, even before I watched this film because she has always encouraged her listeners to be true to themselves no matter the consequences. True to her song ‘Born This Way’, she runs a youth empowerment organization and is also an active LGBT advocate. (Lady Gaga, 2017). I chose to discuss this film because I knew Lady Gaga would have a strong and positive message to its viewers. I was not surprised to discover a theme of strength and persistence despite hardship in this film.
Gaga: Five Foot Two, released September 22, 2017, is a very current film. The movie follows Lady Gaga ’s life in 2016 through her perspective, from her learning that she will be performing at the Superbowl right up until the moment she steps on the Superbowl stage. Between the footage of large-scale performances, the camera also follows her through everyday tasks: cooking, shopping at Walmart, and visiting her grandmother, to name a few. Lady Gaga spices up these seemingly mundane tasks with monologues on diverse topics such as her experience with overpowering men in the music industry, her enhanced self-confidence with age, and her incorrect coping mechanism with depression through drugs and alcohol. Most importantly, the film is spliced with raw, honest scenes of Lady Gaga dealing with her chronic pain. Her luxurious and fabulous lifestyle is paradoxically shown with scenes of her sobbing, coping, and overcoming her illness. One of the most important themes drawn from these moments is that although it is difficult, the disease is manageable with the proper resources. Although deceased, an important character in the film besides Lady Gaga is her aunt, Joanne. Joanne passed away at the young age of 19 after being diagnosed with lupus. Lady Gaga explains that the doctors wanted to amputate Joanne’s infected hands and while in surgery, Joanne’s mother prayed that she would pass away so that her last moments would not include her absence of hands. Lady Gaga identifies with Joanne, naming her fifth studio album and world tour after her, as Joanne had great creative talent and was positive until her last moments.
exclusive distribution rights through Netflix, Gaga: Five Foot Two is a documentary intended for the general population aged 15 and over. It does an excellent job in sustaining the interest of the audience, as the film provides several relatable scenes that one may not expect from a performer with such a high level of fame. These scenes allow the audience to understand that Lady Gaga is a human just like the rest of us – she experiences profound loneliness, depression, heartbreak, and disease.
Personally, I had not seen any other movies or read any books in which the characters experienced fibromyalgia until viewing this film. I think Lady Gaga brings great awareness to this chronic pain condition. It is known as an invisible disease because others, even doctors, are not able to physically see the symptoms that the individual is experiencing and they also lack knowledge about the disease itself. Many people with the disease are not taken seriously for this reason, but I think this film may put an end to this problem by witnessing Lady Gaga’s struggles first hand.
One of the theories that is clearly displayed in the documentary is a biographical disruption. Biographical disruption, as described in Tembo’s (2017) article “Critical Illness as a Biographical Disruption”, is the combination of an illness and its impedance, interruption, or even stoppage of one’s life progress. This theory is evidently displayed by Lady Gaga. Her everyday life as she was accustomed to was disrupted by the onset of her illness: suddenly she was no longer able to practice a dance routine without taking time to stretch and massage her aching hip, for example. Her illness also created uncertainty for Lady Gaga’s future: she expressed never knowing whether she would be able to perform because the onset of her pain was so erratic. Lady Gaga, at this point in her life, however, was experiencing the beginning of biographical repair. She had already mobilized her resources, one of the steps towards biographical repair (Bury, 1982). To do this, she recruited a team of doctors (both psychological and physical), purchased various treatments that help with the pain, and also mobilized a large support system consisting of friends and families to assist her.
Lady Gaga’s description of her illness is very accurate with regard to the most current research on fibromyalgia. Lady Gaga stated that the pain all started three years ago after she broke her hip while performing. This aligns with research stating that fibromyalgia is often triggered by physical, psychological, or sexual trauma. Although not directly referred to in the film, Lady Gaga has a history of sexual abuse which is also common with fibromyalgia patients (Chakrabarty & Zoorob, 2007). Fibromyalgia involves pain originating from various tender points on the body (Chakrabarty & Zoorob, 2007). Lady Gaga described several sites when asked where the pain was coming from: her abdomen, hip, ribcage, back, and face. The disease is also associated with chronic fatigue due to not being able to fall asleep or experiencing disrupted sleep patterns (Sugarman, 2014). One qualitative study interestingly noted that while participants found the chronic pain to be a dramatic part of their life, the chronic fatigue was much more debilitating (Sim & Madden, 2008). This is evident in Lady Gaga’s actions. Although it could be due to Lady Gaga’s extremely busy schedule, she often complains of being tired. In one dramatic scene, Lady Gaga hits her friend’s car while trying to park on her way to work. Proclaiming that she had never been in a car accident before, she admits that she is exhausted and credits the accident to the disease.
The disease also has interesting psychological-physical connections: symptoms tend to increase with psychological strain (Mannerkorpi, Kroksmark, & Ekdahl, 1999). Lady Gaga stated early in her film that when she gets depressed, as she was at the time because she was fighting with her fiancée, her body goes into a full body spasm. In terms of management of the disease, Lady Gaga is shown using many different treatments. Firstly, at an appointment with her doctor, she is asked what medications she is currently using and lists approximately 15 different medications. The doctor recommends that Lady Gaga do blood-spinning therapy as well as psychological therapy. She is also frequently portrayed getting massages, getting stretched, performing various physical exercises, rolling out her muscles, and using a heating tent. This mixture of treatments is highly recommended by the American Pain Society Fibromyalgia Panel, who recommend education, exercise, medications, and cognitive behavioural strategies as a multi-disciplinary approach for managing the illness (Goldenberg, Burckhardt, & Crofford, 2004).
The occupational impact experienced by Lady Gaga is analogous to other qualitative studies focused on women aged 36-66 years old with fibromyalgia. The women found that even though they loved their jobs, physical and cognitive disabilities prevented them from functioning to their full ability (Wuytack & Miller, 2011). In one of the scenes where Lady Gaga is recording her music video for her song Perfect Illusion, she has to limit one of her dances due to her aching body. She expresses dismay that she wanted to get more than two shots recorded because the sunset was perfect, but her body would not allow it. In a different scene during a dance rehearsal, Lady Gaga has to stop once again due to her pain, declaring that she did not want to complain about it but just wanted to fix it. In contrast, after one of her long performances, she comes off stage with a radiant smile announcing that that was one of her best and most fun shows because she was able to play the entire concert without feeling pain in her hip. She usually has to worry about her various dance moves and body positions while performing in an attempt to avoid pain. Considering her occupation mainly involves very active, physical performances, fibromyalgia has a huge impact on Lady Gaga’s success in her career. In the same study, the women also expressed concern over their financial situation if they were unable to continue their work. This is a missing component of Lady Gaga: Five Foot Two, presumably due to her wealth, reminding viewers Lady Gaga is not a typical patient.
One of the significant issues that fibromyalgia participants in Wuytack and Miller’s study (2011) witnessed were issues with a diagnosis from healthcare practitioners. Fibromyalgia is difficult to diagnose and is often done by the elimination of all other possible causes of the patient’s symptoms. Furthermore, there is currently no official diagnostic assessment to identify fibromyalgia (Walker, 2016). Oftentimes, patients felt as though healthcare practitioners did not believe the symptoms that they patients described actually existed. This can be associated with the stigma of the disease. According to Goffman (1963), fibromyalgia would be considered a disease with a high degree of stigma because the public does not understand the disease well and the disease is progressive and incurable. Diagnosis often takes years to be successfully completed, as patients must see multiple specialists until a result is finally reached (Sim & Madden, 2008). Lady Gaga touches on this in a scene with her doctor. After her doctor lists multiple techniques to help Lady Gaga cope with her pain, she sighs with relief and remembers an appointment with a previous doctor where she spent several hours lying in pain in an MRI machine only to receive the doctor’s final advice which was to take Advil. Finally having access to a doctor that understands and knows how to treat fibromyalgia is a huge relief to Lady Gaga.
The importance of support from family, friends, and peer groups when dealing with not only fibromyalgia but any illness cannot be emphasized enough. According to Wuytack and Miller (2011), family support and understanding of fibromyalgia is rarely addressed, but its benefits are invaluable. Lady Gaga is extremely close to her family. Her parents accompany her to most of her performances and she often visits her grandmother. In the film, she declares that she would not know what she would do without them being constantly available to support her. Marital support has mixed perceived advantages and disadvantages in qualitative studies. Some women find the support from their husband, both emotionally and physically through aiding with everyday tasks, to be of extreme value. On the other hand, a lot of women, especially those with children, felt guilt over putting such a great ‘burden’ on their partner. As a result, some women felt less stress when they were living alone as they did not experience these feelings of guilt (Sallinen, Kukkurainen, & Peltokallio, 2011). At the beginning of the film, Lady Gaga admits that she and her fiancée were fighting, and later on in the film she breaks up with her fiancée. Although viewers are never informed of the reason why they break up, one can assume that her illness plays a role in it, as illness can place great strain on relationships (Sallinen, Kukkurainen, & Peltokallio, 2011).
In many respects, Gaga: Five Foot Two accurately reflects the topics discussed in class. Lady Gaga experiences the negative impact of the stigma surrounding the disease due to the public’s lack of understanding of fibromyalgia as well as its lack of noticeable symptoms to outsiders. She also experiences obvious biographical disruption as well as biographical repair, resulting in a change of self after the onset of symptoms. In terms of challenging the material about disabilities learned in class, Lady Gaga does not experience any difficulties with her sexual life due to her chronic pain but instead declares that she feels sexier than ever. Lady Gaga also does not depict any attitudes of blame or seem to relate to hopeful stories of personal triumph after receiving her diagnosis, as JoAnn LeMaistre (1995) theorized. Instead, she explains that she knows she is strong and will use whatever resources she has available to cope with the disease.
The film highlights several topics that were not covered in the course. For example, the class does not cover the effect of disabilities on one’s occupation, even though this is one of the biggest components in most people’s lives. For Lady Gaga, not being able to perform due to overall pain and fatigue would cost not only her income but her source of joy as well. The psychological component of disability is also not well explored in class studies, even though most illnesses have a large mental portion to them, as Lady Gaga explained with her connection between depression and full body spasms. Finally, the plethora of treatments for disability are not mentioned in the course but are frequently demonstrated in the film. Learning more about treatments for disabilities is vital for the future healthcare students of this class in order for them to aid patients with disabilities in the future. Overall, Gaga: Five Foot Two does an excellent job of bringing awareness and educating the public about the little-known disease, fibromyalgia. I would recommend this film for leisurely viewing to students for a course about people with disabilities as it does a very realistic portrayal of a human, despite being a celebrity, learning to cope and accommodate to the symptoms that fibromyalgia presents.
References
Bury, M. (1982), Chronic illness as biographical disruption. Sociology of Health & Illness, 4, 167–182. doi:10.1111/1467-9566.ep11339939
Chakrabarty, S., & Zoorob, R. (2007). Fibromyalgia. Am Fam Physician, 76(2), 247-254. Retrieved from http://www.aafp.org/afp/2007/0715/p247.html#afp20070715p247-b22
Collin, S. M., Bakken, I. J., Nazareth, I., Crawley, E., & White, P. D. (2017). Trends in the incidence of chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia in the UK, 2001-2013: A Clinical Practice Research Datalink study. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 110(6), 231-244. doi:10.1177/0141076817702530.
Gaga, L., Parry, H. (Producers), & Moukarbel, C. (Director). (2017). Gaga: Five Foot Two [Documentary]. United States of America: Netflix.
Goffman, E. (1963). Stigma. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
Goldenberg, D. L., Burckhardt, C., Crofford, L. (2004). Management of Fibromyalgia Syndrome. JAMA, 292(19), 2388–2395. doi:10.1001/jama.292.19.2388
Guymer, E., & Littlejohn, G. (2013). Fibromyalgia. Australian Family Physician, 42(10), 690-694. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/docview/1492871183?accountid=14701
Jay, G. W., & Barkin, R. L. (2015). Fibromyalgia. Disease-a-Month, 61(3), 66-111. doi:10.1016/j.disamonth.2015.01.002
Lady Gaga: Charity Work, Events, and Causes. (2017). Retrieved from https://www.looktothestars.org/celebrity/lady-gaga
LeMaistre, J. (1995). After the diagnosis : From crisis to personal renewal for patients with chronic illness. Berkeley, CA: Ulysses Press.
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