Like a Can Opener in a Worm Factory

Peaches is where Gaga gets a lot of her best moves. Check out her 2001 track "Rock Show", which states very blatantly what you've said above. She's also done duets with people as diverse as Pink ("Try This"), Iggy Pop ("Kick It", in a truly awesome zombie-thwacking video) and Shunda K from Yo Majesty. Plus, there are the outfits. Oh, the outfits! I don't think I even need to start on her reclamation of female sexuality, queer identity, public kink, etc. Her site is limited but pretty.

That's not a criticism of Gaga, btw. I think she's amazing at applying a pop sensibility to some complex ideas, and I think some of her stuff is frankly amazing, not to mention her thrilling visual aesthetic. But I don't think any of these ideas are new to "mainstream pop" (Beyonce & the Sugababes about 7 years ago are good examples, off the top of my head), and I personally feel it's a mistake to regard Gaga's stuff as especially envelope-pushing. She's in a grand and worthy tradition of female pop artists who use a combination of inventive image and great music to subvert received ideas about the female performance (cf also Madonna, Britney, etc).