According to Bauer, the source of our 'age-old investment in norms of femininity and masculinity' is the media. What we see on TV and in the news is who we want and need to be- that's how it's always been. We need people telling us who to be and how to look and what to do.
The 'genius' of Lady Gaga is, in fact, the point she makes every day with every flamboyant outfit she dons and every controversial song she produces. Gaga is telling young girls that it's okay to be both yourself, and an object of sexual desire. It seems contradictory, but Gaga is doing something that women have been trying to do for years and years. It tends to complicate natural views of feminism, because the principals of feminism are not to give in to the opposite sex. Femininity is questioned as well, because women like to think of themselves as feminine, and so does Lagy Gaga. But what they see when they look at Gaga is a girl in a meat suit, or dressed up as a man. Gaga is changing the rules, and people are getting confused.
When Bauer claims that 'women are still heavily rewarded pleasing men.....we get what we want, or at least what we thought we wanted.' Men will give women anything, as long as they get what they want, and women fall into this trap all the time. Bauer references the age-old college 'hook-up hangover', which prompts a woman to do what a man wants her to, and still feel feminine and powerful. It's a vicious, confusing cycle. We think what we want is power, but what most women really want is respect. This point does a lot to advance her argument because it brings her claim full-circle, proving that in this day and age, sexuality and respect are coming closer together.
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