I was dressed as meat before Lady Gaga!

I've read so much about Lady Gaga... I've definitely read more articles about her than I've heard her songs. I don't care if she's better than Madonna, or if she's more likeDavid Bowie or like Marilyn Manson. My problem is: Could an anti-consumerist be Lady Gaga? The answer is no! Here are some reasons why:

1. She needs a lot of accessories. Even her dresses serve as accessories to her accessories, which means that Lady Gaga wears meta accessories!

2. Even if she wears garbage, she seems to need a lot of it. Much more than an anti-consumerist can produce. I think she must buy it somewhere.

3. She needs a lot of meat!

So, what if an anti-consumerist wants to look fabulous like Lady Gaga but doesn't really have any meta accessories, nor enough money to buy garbage or expensive meat?

Here are some of my ideas for low-budget costumes:

1. Meat

I had the idea back in 2006 and it's much deeper than Gaga's. The costume is also much more vegetarian and animal friendly. And it's reusable and recyclable.

Since I was very little, I hated the thought of dressing up as a lovable, beautiful, romantic or sexy character, such as a princess. But that's what people expect, I think. With the meat costume, I wanted to deconstruct (mentally and materially) the expected/imagined character so I wrapped myself into a plastic foil, like they sometimes do it with meat, and put stickers on to label different body parts, such as thighs, breasts, etc. Just like they do it with the meat.


Unfortunately, the costume did not make people think and reconsider their expectations of Halloween-style sexiness. In fact, it was the exact opposite: One year later, I realized that some men thought I was naked under the foil. They must have fantasized about it so much that the fantasy has clouded their memories.

2. Sausage terrorist

In 2007, again, I didn't have much money. I also didn't have much time to think about my Halloween costume so I went for my favourite, well-tested item: meat (in a foil). And a computer mouse. I don't think anyone fantasized about the sausage terrorist but people still liked it. Mostly, they enjoyed touching the sausages.


3. Homo consumiens

In 2009, I came up with another excellent idea. I only needed a plastic bag from a specific store and some garbage to represent shopping.

You might have wondered at the motto of DM drug store: It's something like, "Here I'm a human. Here I shop." (http://www.dm-drogeriemarkt.de/) That philosophy poses some serious challenge to the old "to have or to be" problem suggesting that one IS human when they shop.

I took the first part of the motto on the bag literally: If it says that that's where I'm being human, that's where I need to be, so I got inside the bag. And I realized that it is a perfect solution for a consumerist as it protects your back and it let's you get into intimate contact with your shopping. You can feel what it's like to be a product instead of to have the product.


Although, I really hope Lady Gaga will have enough decency not to steal this one from me, I will understand if the next time she receives an MTV award, she will come wrapped in a plastic bag and claiming she is not a product! From my experience, people get the idea more easily than when you come dressed as a meat claiming you're "not a piece of meat."

(Here's another bag model saying: "The best for me.")

Warning: You could get really sweaty in a plastic foil or a plastic bag.