Comparisons: Emma Frost and Lady Gaga

Ever since my first viewing of Lady Gaga's music video for "Bad Romance" I've been finding similarities between Emma Frost and Miss Gaga. In the end, I found myself with a list long enough that it deserved a post (plus I never intended this blog to be solely reviews, they're just easier to do). Now be warned, personality-wise these two women could not be more different: Emma Frost is manipulative and snarky, and Lady Gaga is more of a passionate and calm figure (publicly, at least). However, they do share a number of similarities that should be noted:

Pasts

Both women attended private school where both experienced difficulty. Lady Gaga has been quoted as saying, "I didn't fit in in high school, and I felt like a freak," [Source]. As can be found in the first arc, "Higher Learning," of the Emma Frost series, Emma too found herself not fitting in during her high school years, and was especially tormented by one bully. As can be seen, they both have brown as their natural hair color, and from there they went to sport white-blonde hair.

Another tidbit is that they both used to work as dancers, though the difference there is that Emma was an actual stripper and I'm pretty sure Gaga wasn't [Video here]. Details on Emma Frost's past as a dancer can be found in New X-Men #139 and the backup story of X-Men: Deadly Genesis #5.

Habits

Speaking- Something that's been mentioned as recently as Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis #1 is that Emma speaks with a fake English accent even though she's originally from Boston, MA. Lady Gaga also at one point was interviewing with a sort of British accent which is reminiscent of Madonna back in the late 90's (she mentions it @41:28 in this video). Also, they both enjoy French it seems, Gaga has demonstrated enough to speak a few phrases while interviewing and also include French in "Bad Romance,": "Je veux ton amour et Je veux ta revanche." In terms of Emma, she used to vacation in France with her family (and she sometimes visits there for lingerie as seen in Uncanny X-Men #502), and she's been shown to speak French a few times where I doubt it's her just mimicking the language centers of another French speaker. Also, during the New Mutants' first run, Emma would insert French words and phrases into her speech every so often.

Smoking and Drinking- Back in the days of the first New Mutants run, Emma was often shown to be smoking. Usually it was with one of those cigarette holders that always leads me to think of Cruella DeVille. She was depicted with a cigarette in the same manner as recent as New X-Men #128 [Here]. This appearance however seemed to suggest her as an occasional smoker, and I've always taken the little wands to mean the same. Gaga has also been shown to be an occasional smoker, having said, "I don't smoke. Well, maybe a single cigarette - with whisky - while I'm working, because it just frees my mind a little bit," [Here]. Concerning drinking, Emma's been shown so often to be having a drink that I don't need to cite any specific issues or runs. Quite frankly, I'd imagine she's had a bout with alcoholism at some point or another. And in terms of Lady Gaga the same is true, her enjoyment of stopping by a pub for a few drinks has been reported often, and she often interviews stating that she enjoys a casual drink to help her creativity.

Appearance

By far their most striking similarity is their appearances. Both have white blonde hair, and Emma tends to wear exclusively white clothing. Lady Gaga also tends to wear a lot of white costumes, and there are many that can be found to be Frost-esque, a simple Google search can reveal that. Probably Frost's most Gaga-esque costume is her New X-Men costume which was A. Pantsless B. Included ridiculous footwear (platforms are NOT as simple as they seem, trust me) C. Had a symbol behind it (the skin bared on Emma's chest make an X) And D. Simply came off as different and weird. Both also tend to use a lot of makeup to go with their costumes which somewhat leads me to the second strongest similarity...

Personal

Centers of Controversy: Both these women have found themselves at the center of everyone's gossip and dislike. For Emma, it was when she "stole" Scott Summers from his wife Jean Grey when they had their psychic affair. Seriously, message boards are still having a shitty day over it, which makes me ask, was there anyone that obsessed with Jean and Scott's relationship? Or was it simply comfortable? For Lady Gaga, what was one of the most-discussed topics of last year was whether or not she is a hermaphrodite, and it was revealed she is not (and I am not linking material for either part of that here). And while not a huge talking point, at times we've had to wonder about Emma's gender considering both Bianchi and Cassaday have layered Emma's makeup so thick and made her jaw so strong that she often ends up looking like a transvestite (a la Lord Fanny of The Invisibles, actually).

In support of their gays- Another one of those things that's widely known is that Lady Gaga LOVES her gays. She loves each and every one, she interviews often on her love of gay people, and she's even given a speech at a Gay Rights March [Here]. Something you may not know though is that Emma too loves her gays. During Emma Frost's first arc "Higher Learning" we learn that her brother, Christian whom she's closest to, is gay, and she accepts him, even staying at his place with his boyfriend at one point. Also, in the panel above I think it's pretty clear what she thinks of reversing homosexuality. There's another point where she speaks on her support of gay people, but I can't remember where it is. And it just fits, look at how bitchy she acts and how she dresses, it'd be weird if she didn't have gay friends having her back. Actually it currently is weird, but she's also been leashed by that manchild, but I think it'd help "redeem" her in the readers' eyes if they saw her as the fag hag she truly is. It's always been bizarre to me that her fans aren't all together as a group while Dazzler has got the biggest gay following of the X-Men.

Appreciation of the arts- While already displaying knowledge in music and fashion, Lady Gaga has also displayed an appreciation of artists such as Andy Warhol and performance artist Marina Abramovic (who she knows). She also attended NYU's Tisch School of the Arts for a time. Emma Frost has been frequently shown to make reference to artists such as Damien Hirst in Astonishing X-Men #33, and Hieronymus Bosch in X-Men #170 (as well as Leroy Neiman here in Astonishing X-Men #2 or 3). Emma also enjoys a good opera (during New X-Men's "Riot at Xavier's" arc).

Students/Fans- Students are to Emma as fans are to Lady Gaga. Lady Gaga speaks of her fans every two seconds, about how much she loves them, and enjoys the conversations they have. She is sort of obsessed with them, and I imagine she's sort of dependent on them. Emma has a need to have students, specifically certain favorites that she specially mentors (Hellion, the Stepford Cuckoos). She's said before that teaching is her life, and has shown that she loves her students very much as one of the biggest weapons used against her time and time again is the deaths of several of her students.

Now we've come to conclusion of this post, and to finish it I've posted Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" music video which is so Emma Frost I don't even need to get into it: