Political Correctness Gone Awry

14 Jul 2011: Is this political correctness gone mad? On Wednesday night, Lady Gaga performed for an intimate crowd of 1000 fans at Sydney's Monster Hall in a one off show.

The arrival of Gaga has been dubbed one of the biggest events to hit Sydney since Mardi Gras, attracting Gaga fans from far and wide. Police even issued statements telling the public to stay out of the city overnight unless they had tickets to Gaga's show.

With tickets only available to VIP's and hardcore fans who won their entry pass, they were set for a wild night of entertainment, but some fans claim that they got more than they bargained for...

Gaga appeared after one of her many costume changes, entering onto the stage wearing a black mermaid outfit, whilst rolling herself along the stage in a red manual wheelchair. She remained in the chair for the entire performance of her song ‘You & I', which features on her latest album ‘Born This Way'.

However, this isn't the first time Gaga has adopted a wheelchair and other mobility aids for one of her performances, she uses a wheelchair and Canadian crutches in her music video clip ‘Paparazzi', after her on screen boyfriend throws her off a balcony.

False claims have been made that whilst leaving Monster Hall last night, Gaga and her entourage were attacked by an angry mob, armed with eggs, who were allegedly outraged at her tasteless use of a wheelchair during her gig. Although, after having done some research on Gaga's Australian visit, it appears that the egging occurred in an unrelated incident on Tuesday night. So that leaves us with the question whether fans were really outraged, or if it's just a publicity stunt by the media giants.

Either way, surely people expect outlandish behaviour from Gaga, I mean, who else arrives somewhere in a giant egg, only to emerge from it, before entering an awards show? Or wears a dress made from meat cuts?

Bette Midler has made a similar costume choice in her years of performing live on stage. In one show, her and her three back-up performers ‘The Harlettes' roll out onto the stage in electric wheelchairs, wearing mermaid costumes. It's a really funny routine, where they involve the wheelchairs in a choreographed dance, which had obviously been well rehearsed and perfected.

Personally, as a wheelchair user, it doesn't offend me at all to see celebrities donning wheelchairs to enhance a performance or dance. As long as they don't start taking wheelchair seating at venues, using disabled toilets or parking in handicapped parking spaces, then I have no qualms whatsoever. After all, isn't it just for entertainment value? It's not like they're hurting anyone.

I feel that it's all the ‘normy's' who are wanting to jump up and down about something, and have seen it as an opportunity to cause a fuss. But if any ‘normy's' are reading this, I'm sure I speak on behalf of most ‘crippies' when I say, we don't care, just relax!

Gaga uses wheelchair for on stage performance