Lady Gaga: 'I think I'm changing what people think is sexy'

"I think I'm changing what people think is sexy."
She parades around in underwear and vertiginously high heels, even to go to the bank. And yet Gaga is not sexy in the conventional sense. Everything is so controlled and choreographed, nothing is left to chance. She treats her body as a piece of architecture and sexuality as an add-on -wigs, veils, steel bras.

Like a modern-day Surrealist, she offers cut-ups of intimate body parts - without surrendering actual flesh. At Sunday night's Carlisle gig, she emerged from a coffin wearing a prosthetic PVC pregnant belly.

She's learned from past masters, of course - Warhol, Dalí, Bowie, Madonna. Because first and foremost, Gaga is an art student (just as Madonna trained as a dancer rather than a singer). Long before A-list designers would work with her, she created her own couture label, Haus of Gaga.

At Goldsmiths College, her pop videos are already on the curriculum. Lecturer in visual culture Dr Lynn Turner says: "I think our students can see she is really sophisticated in her understanding of fetish and performance art. She's very clever and funny and sexy at the same time. You find reference in her work to artists such as Jana Sterback, the Canadian performance artist who made her own meat dress, and, of course, French body modification artist ORLAN. The little bumps on Gaga's face relate directly to ORLAN's work, along with her yellow and blue striped hair."

Straight men don't get Gaga, of course (just as they never got Madonna). She is adored mainly by women and gay men. That nose. Those nutcracker thighs. The drag queen make-up. She doesn't mind looking alarming, grotesque even. Christina Aguilera's bitchy comment: "Lady Gaga? I don't even know if it's a man or a woman," has turned into a triumphant boast.

She walks a dangerous sexual edge. The video for Alejandro is not your average fetish video.

Telephone is a brilliant take on the lesbian prison noir film. And yet ... one wonders if some innocence got lost. Looking at photos of the young Stefani Joanne Germanotta (before she became Gaga), we see a dark-haired Italian-American girl larking around, having fun. At the beginning of her career, there was a jiggle of flesh. Now her body is a honed weapon.

What's facinating is how - like the screen sirens of the past - Gaga seems to lack a real private life. This is partly down to workaholism. But one senses she won't expose any vulnerability - lovers can get too close, see the flaws.

"It's not cool to have sex all the time. It's cool to be strong and independent," she insists. And she gets away with it - no one mocks her for being single.

Arguably her journey is more subversive. She works tirelessly for HIV and Aids projects, she has campaigned against the US military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy. In this context, Born this Way is an anthem for freaks and outsiders everywhere.

In fact, her true sexual engagement is with her fans. "Do you fancy me, Glastonbury? Because I fancy you," she roars.

And she never stops experimenting. When she segued into jazz at the Carlisle gig, Facebook and Twitter exploded. "I think there's going to be a whole lot more that we haven't seen yet," says Turner. "I don't think she's anywhere near exhausted what she can do."

We can but watch and wait.