276 JOALL (Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literature), 7(1), 2022 JOALL (Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literature) Vol. 7 No. 1, February 2022 ISSN (print): 2502-7816; ISSN (online): 2503-524X Available online at https://ejournal.unib.ac.id/index.php/joall/article/view/19735 http://doi.org/10.33369/joall.v7i1.20044 Feminist stylistic analysis and LGBTQA+ representation in Lady Gaga’s born this way 1Rahmadsyah Rangkuti , 2Siti Hafifah 1,2English Department, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Universitas Sumatera Utara, INDONESIA 1,2Jalan Universitas No 19, Kampus USU, Padang Bulan, Medan, Sumatera Utara, 20155 ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Article history: Received: Jan 13, 2022 Revised: Feb 11, 2022 Accepted: Feb 16, 2022 This study is intended to find out the exact meaning of the lyrics at different levels of language, and phonetic devices, as well as to reveal how these stylistic devices work on Lady Gaga’s Born This Way (LGBTQA+). This study employed qualitative content analysis. The source of the data was the song Born This Way by Lady Gaga and the data were the linguistics aspects of the song, which are the words, phrases, clauses and sentences, as well as the discourse unit of the song. It was found that the song aims to speak to as many perspectives as possible, through different races, sexualities, and gender expressions, through the language uses that are represented in the song. By then, this song has completely succeeded to not only raising up feminist voice, but also, most likely, if there was no song with all the impact and events, understanding about gender and equality would not develop as it is today. The song strongly emphasizes the equality notion by accepting who we are as we are all born this way. The choices of word, phrase, clause and sentence as well as the discourse unit credit about self-liberation, and loving every part of oneself, no matter what race, belief, or sexuality one is on. This also proves that this song is not solely an LGBTQA+ community anthem, instead, it is a song for all kind of self-acceptance. Keywords: feminist stylistics Lady Gaga self-liberation. Conflict of interest: None Funding information: Type here Correspondence: Rahmadsyah Rangkuti, English Department, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, University of North Sumatera, INDONESIA. syahkuti@gmail.com ©Rahmadsyah Rangkuti & Siti Hafifah This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA 4.0 international license. How to cite (APA Style): Rangkuti, R., Hafifah, S. (2022). Feminist stylistic analysis and LGBTQA+ representation in Lady Gaga’s born this way JOALL (Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literature), 7(1), 276-290. https://doi.org/10.33369/joall.v7i1.20044 Stylistics, as a branch of linguistics, simply defined as “the (linguistic) study of style, is rarely undertaken for its own sake, simply as an exercise in describing what use is made of language” (Leech and Short, 2007). Carter and Simpson made a distinction between two kinds of stylistics: linguistic stylistics and literary stylistics (Mills, 2005). Presumably, both literary and linguistic stylistics have something to say about the relation of language to literature. Linguistic stylistics foregrounds the linguistic over the literary, and https://ejournal.unib.ac.id/index.php/joall/article/view/19735 http://doi.org/10.33369/joall.v7i1.20044 https://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.33369/joall.v7i1.20044&domain=pdf https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ https://doi.org/10.33369/joall.v7i1.20044 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4419-8648 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8382-5993 Feminist stylistic analysis and LGBTQA+ representation in Lady Gaga’s born this way JOALL (Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literature), 7(1), 2022 277 does not merely see the application of linguistic practices in terms of their function in an analytical ‘tool kit’. Carter and Simpson (2005:4) stated: Linguistic stylistics is the purest form of stylistics, in that its practitioners attempt to derive from the study of style and language refinement of models for the analysis of language and thus to contribute to the development of linguistic theory (Carter and Simpson, 2005; Rameez et al., 2014). Thus, both forms of stylistic analysis draw on a range of linguistic models, from Noam Chomsky’s generative grammar and Michael Halliday’s systemic linguistics to John Searle’s speech acts and Malcolm Coulthard’s discourse analysis (Mills, 2005:3), depending on their objectives in undertaking analysis. Leech and Short (2007) then provided a clearer definition: ...in general, literary stylistics has, implicitly or explicitly, the goal of explaining the relation between language and artistic function. The motivating questions are not so much what as why and how. From the linguist’s angle, it is ‘Why does the author here choose this form of expression?’ From the literary critic’s viewpoint, it is ‘How is such-and-such an aesthetic effect achieved through language?’ (Leech and Short, 2007). Feminist stylistics is a bridge that links two disciplines, literary criticism and linguistics and it is mainly concerned with the analysis of how feminist ideology is expressed through the choices of language (Mills, 2005; Shah et al., 2014). As a feminist linguist, she has gained recognition for her notable works, feminist stylistics (2005). She was given a clearer definition of feminist stylistics as “a form of politically motivated stylistics whose aim is to develop an awareness of the way gender is handled in texts” (Mills, 2005). Thus, feminist stylistics uses a feminist approach in examining texts. However, feminists are concerned not only to analyze texts but to change social relations through that analysis and other forms of action (Mills, 2005; Arikan, 2016). This is the field of the study where feminism and linguistics are involved. The feminist analysis aims to draw attention to and change the way that gender is represented, since it is clear that a great many of these representational practices are not in the interests of either women or men. These definitions give predominance for style in the study of stylistics and limit the concept of stylistics to the study of literature. This enables stylistics to embrace different aims and approaches in studying texts, including a feminist perspective. Feminist stylistics introduces readers to a range of issues and skills in the analysis of texts from a feminist perspective. It is concerned not only to describe sexism in a text, but also to analyze the way that point of view, agency, metaphor, or transitivity are unexpectedly closely related to matters of gender, to discover whether women’s writing practices can be described, and so on (Mills, 2005). The feminist stylistic approach of Sara Millers differs from other general stylistics since the latter focuses only on the Rahmadsyah Rangkuti & Siti Hafifah 278 JOALL (Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literature), 7(1), 2022 linguistic unit of texts, whereas the former has broader scopes including the text itself, author, readers, publisher, and other social aspects. "Born This Way" is a song written by Steffani J. Germanotta, or whom internationally known as Lady Gaga. She explained that this song is her freedom song. It was debuted in the top five spots of every major music chart worldwide, including the Billboard 200. In the United States, the record sold more than one million copies in its first week—the highest first week album sales in five years; an estimated 440,000 copies were sold on Amazon in two days of its first week for 99 cents. According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), it was the third global best-selling album of 2011. At the time of its release, the title track was the fastest-selling single in iTunes history. The song was a huge success upon release, charting atop the Billboard Hot 100 for 6 straight weeks (as the 1000th No. 1 song). This hit was very controversial as there are many indications of movement that are raised or highlighted in the song discourse; it was known as not only a feminist anthem, but also highlight the LGBTQA+ community, or as the sign of the rise of the new world order. Society under liberal and secular backgrounds or in developed countries see this as a means of voice to be heard. An article on Billboard in 2019 claimed that it was a song that defined the decade; it gave a big voice to people who could only whisper at that time. The message of relentless activism through self-actualization permeates the track -- the song’s bridge in particular aims to speak to as many perspectives as possible, as the star listed through different races, sexualities, and gender expressions. In return, even if this track turned out to be a mega-hit, it was a very big controversy to some parts of the world at that time, especially during 2011. For instance, it was banned in Lebanon for it seems offensive to Christianity as well as in Malaysia and for its references to homosexuality and it seems offensive to a country with a majority of Moslem. This track was considered as a negative connotation to conservative countries. These controversial events brought this song to continue to rise that it is considered to be the peak moment of Gaga. Most likely, if there was no song with all the impact and events, understanding about gender and equality would not develop as it is today. Some scholars have analyzed Lady Gaga’s discourse, such as entailment (Malewa & Arman, 2018), Theme and stylistic levels (Hawa, 2019), and morphological analysis (Aprianti & Parmawati, 2020). However, there hasn’t been found any researcher who come up with particular feminist stylistics research of Lady Gaga’s song Born This Way and discussing about its controversiality and therefore examine its language use. This study, thus, explores feminist stylistics analysis of LGBTQA+ through feminist stylistics theory by Sara Mills to study language use in the song, especially to explore the varieties of stylistic devices used in the verses Feminist stylistic analysis and LGBTQA+ representation in Lady Gaga’s born this way JOALL (Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literature), 7(1), 2022 279 to convey the exact meaning of the lyrics at different levels of language, and phonetic devices, as well as to reveal how these stylistic devices work in the lyrics. The study focuses on the linguistics aspects; words, phrases, clauses, sentence, as well as discourse unit. It is also expected to help interpret their contextual meanings and messages concerning social life when the song was released. METHODS The source of the data of this study was Born This Way song that was written by Steffani J. Germanotta or Lady Gaga. Precisely, the data that are highlighted in the lyrics that were analyzed by the researcher are the word and phrase, clause and sentence, as well as the discourse unit. The analysis focuses on gender bias that can be seen in the use of individual words or lexical items. Mills (2005) referred to sexism in language as the basis for examining word choice. According to Mills, word analysis could only be understood and done by first studying the general and theoretical aspects of sexism and then examining the specific types of sexist language use. She described sexist language as something that alienates both women and men, and a hindrance to effective communication and social interactions. As Mills stated by examining examples of usage such as the sex-specific pronoun use, the misuse of generics, address terms, and the negative descriptions of females in a variety of text, it is hoped to show that language use could present and perpetuate a particular view of women. (Mills, 2005) This study also explores the varieties of stylistic devices used in the verses such as the phonetic devices in the discourse to reveal how these stylistic devices mingle with each other to work in the lyrics, as well as the transitivity choices and modality used and found in the discourses in order to find out the feminist stylistics of LGBTQA+. FINDINGS Word and phrase units in LGBTQA+ The Gender-specific pronoun here used here is rooting from he as the initial phase, then she. The pronoun ‘he’ was used to referring to the creator or God, as it is arbitrarily accepted to be referred to as He or Him. Using the pronoun to represent God is arbitrarily agreed in general but she did not capitalize it. She then strengthens the ‘him’ - the prior word with another phrase ‘capital H-I-M’, preceded by the conjunction ‘or’ – functions to show parallel fact – that refers to something of almighty bigger power; God. It also functions to narrow down the possibility of the reference of the pronoun. The ‘capital H- I-M’ or God is mentioned early in the initial part of the song as in fact every existence has been created by God as he who has created the universe, the living things and mankind. Lady Gaga in the song then kept on using the Rahmadsyah Rangkuti & Siti Hafifah 280 JOALL (Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literature), 7(1), 2022 pronoun in the pre-chorus as well as in the chorus repetitively with God as reference (see the analysis scheme as shown in the figure 1. Figure 1. scheme of analysis of the word/pronoun 'he' The word ‘she’ was used to refer to her mother, as Lady Gaga specifically mention her ‘mama’ or mother. The title of the song itself is Born This Way which points out that the interrelation of which to mother is very close. The word ‘mama’ itself is an informal calling of mother and is spoken in nearly every part of the world. This can also function to show intimacy and to raise stronger bond between the writer and her fans or general music listeners out there. Lady Gaga puts the word in the beginning of the the pre- chorus to then is replaced by the pronoun ‘she’ (see figure 2.) Figure 2. word/pronoun 'she' However, we can see that there are the most dominant words that are non-gender-specific used to refer to any gender, not only specific to female or male. the function of the initial pronoun ‘he’ than ‘she’ functions to visualize the nature of existence and the cruciality of God and mother. The pronoun I, You, as well as We here are used to refer to everyone – the subject to whom Lady Gaga is encouraging and non-gender specific. The pronoun I is initially used to metaphorically strengthen the message of prioritizing oneself first - more important than anything and to show the process of accepting oneself. Lady Gaga put them in the chorus part then set it repetitively, as shown below: the pronoun I in the chorus set • I’m beautiful in my way • I’m on the right track • Baby, I was born this way the pronoun I in the pre-chorus set • I was born to survive • I was born to be brave Feminist stylistic analysis and LGBTQA+ representation in Lady Gaga’s born this way JOALL (Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literature), 7(1), 2022 281 The pronoun ‘you’ is then used to refer to the plural amount of people. It is put after the sentence with the subject I. It is also used as a reference to the word ‘your’ and ‘yourself’. You itself refer to I but in another form to make variation in the song (as shown in figure 3). Figure 3. Scheme of analysis of the word/subject you The pronoun ‘we’ here is also used to refer not only to I, You, He, and She, but to anyone as in the sentence below: “We are all born superstars” Next, the nouns found in the song, e.g. paws, superstars, lipstick, boudoir, lover, head, way, track, baby, a queen, prudence, friends, truth, and sin are the things everyone essentially has. It is also valid for the usage of the adjective beautiful as well as perfect here refer to not only for women but also men as well as to refer to the very core of the meaning which is of a very high standard, excellent, or pleasing the senses or mind aesthetically, and everyone has the right to be one in each own way. By this, it can be can be seen that this song may start with gender-specific development, but then, it attempted to shift or develop the meanings of the above nouns which were likely to be feminine toned to non-gender specific oriented. The discourse is rhymed to have the sound pronounced /ar/ in the end, to strengthen the existence of the sentence There's nothing wrong with loving who you are by the attempt of putting the sentence We are all born superstars, even if it is ended with sound “z” /superstarz/, and French code- mixing In the glass of her boudoir, even if the sound “r” pronounces different to the French “r” sound /ar/ and the connotation of which is associated with husband-wife and it did not match to the relation of mother-daughter, and Rahmadsyah Rangkuti & Siti Hafifah 282 JOALL (Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literature), 7(1), 2022 the sentence So hold your head up girl and you'll go far /far/,in which they were all mentioned by her mother (as marked blue shown in figure 4. Figure 4. Scheme of analysis of the rhyme with sound “ar” or “r” The discourse is rhymed to have the sound pronounced diphthong “ei” in the end, to strengthen the existence of the sentence I was born this way by putting the sentence Listen to me when I say, and I'm beautiful in my way (as marked blue shown in figure 5) Figure 5. Scheme of analysis of the rhyme with sound “ei” It is also rhymed to have the sound pronounced “eik” to emphasize the sentence 'Cause God makes no mistake which is strongly supported by the sentence I'm on the right track, which denotes self-acceptance and gradually develop a basis of self-confidence (as marked blue shown in figure 6. Figure 6. Scheme of analysis of the rhyme with sound “eik” The discourse is rhymed to have the sound pronounced “et” in the end, to strengthen the existence of the sentence Don't hide yourself in regret by putting the sentence Just love yourself and you're set (as marked blue shown in figure 7). Figure 7. Scheme of analysis of the rhyme with sound “et” The sentence Oh there ain't no other way denotes that there is no other option to turn back to another way or to hold back oneself and that means the confidence in oneself had already stayed in a persistent stage. After passing through the stage of accepting oneself, the next stage in self-acceptance is to strengthen bonds with the environment, especially with Feminist stylistic analysis and LGBTQA+ representation in Lady Gaga’s born this way JOALL (Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literature), 7(1), 2022 283 friends. The discourse is rhymed to have the sound pronounced “enz” in the end, to strengthen the existence of the sentence, and love your friends by putting the sentence Give yourself prudence to can together accepting one's truth (as marked blue shown in figure 8). Figure 8. The rhyme with scheme of sound “enz” The discourse is rhymed to have the sound pronounced “uth” in the end, to strengthen the existence of the sentence I must be myself, respect my youth by the accompaniment of the sentence So we can rejoice your truth (as marked blue shown in figure 9). Figure 9. Scheme of analysis of the rhyme with sound “uth” The discourse is rhymed to have the sound pronounced “in” and “ent” which is heard pretty similar in the end, to strengthen the existence of the sentence Don't be a drag, just be a queen. It is broken down by the sentence Whether you're broke or evergreen, A metaphorical comparison - Evergreen semantically means a plant having foliage that persists and remains green throughout the year. No wonder if sometimes Evergreens is associated with the symbolism of immortality as well as freshness because they retain their leaves throughout the winter. In business, evergreen is a term to indicate a profitable market-leading business that are designed to remain unsold and independent for a long, long time. Meanwhile, broke means having completely run out of money and about to be separated into pieces as a result of a blow, shock, or strain. Unlike evergreen, broke is a characteristic of being crashed and ruined, not fresh and eternal nor profitable. It is the antonym of the word evergreen. The comparison of words denotes the endurance of people in terms of bullying, whether they can stand still or crashed and ruined psychologically, and they do not only stand for the term of one’s wealth condition (as marked blue shown in figure 10). Figure 10. Scheme of analysis of the rhyme with sound “in” Then, as a reference to the race, skin color; black, white, beige, Chola descent as well as directly addressing kinds of race; Lebanese, Orient are used. She refers to races issues above not to show how contradictive races are, but Rahmadsyah Rangkuti & Siti Hafifah 284 JOALL (Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literature), 7(1), 2022 to show diversity and uniqueness to support the main idea of the song, that God created humans were all born unique and, in their way, (as marked blue shown in figure 11). Figure 11. Scheme of analysis of the rhyme with sound “ent” The discourse is rhymed to have the sound pronounced “iz” in the end, to strengthen the existence of the sentence Whether life's disabilities by the attempt of putting the sentence Left you outcast, bullied, or teased, even if it is ended with sound “zd” /tizd/, which means whether or not one’s life is not perfect and is made fun of due to their certain condition (as marked blue shown in figure 12). Figure 12. Scheme of analysis of the rhyme with sound “iz” Sentences unit of LGBTQA+ Referring to the list of transitivity choices based on Halliday’s systemic functional grammar, the text, the most dominant transitivity choices chosen is the relational process – intensive attributive, then the material process – action process – intention process, then the mental process – internalized. The function of using the relational process – intensive attributive is that the process construes that an entity has some quality attribute which everyone has equal right to be or to have; everyone was born their own way and thus is beautiful in their own way. Meanwhile, the function of using the material process is that within which there are two further choices, between ‘material action intention’ and ‘material action supervention’: with material action intention, there is a clear will to do something, but with supervention there is an attempt to capture for analysis those verbal processes where things are not done intentionally (Mills, 2005). By the study, it can be seen that it means that God made the mankinds perfect and has made no mistakes, and with the chosen transitivity we can clearly see that the writer understands that God has clear will and undeniable strong power in doing so. Then, the function of the mental process used there is to show that the writer embraces her own self and there is nothing wrong about it (see the brief in figure 13) Feminist stylistic analysis and LGBTQA+ representation in Lady Gaga’s born this way JOALL (Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literature), 7(1), 2022 285 Figure 13. The list of transitivity choices of the song Born This Way The writer is then able to speak up of it and encourage other people using modality (just as shown in figure 14). Figure 14. The list of modality found in the song Born This Way Referring to the list of transitivity choices made from the text, the most type of modality used in the text is the modulation – imperative– high value (obligation), then the modulation – imperative– high value (required/determined). The writer encourages people using expression of command in high scale to embrace their own selves as it is important. We can see the writer herself is struggling with herself to do so after accepting herself mentally. By then, she has the power to encourage other people, in this case, the listeners as well as her fans, and many other people. Discourse unit of born this way Referring to the text, the breakdown and the bridge part is the peak of the song. The notion of loving and embracing our own selves would be so much easier if there are no stereotypes, stigma, nor social standards that society has created. Fragmentation does occur not only to female but also to male due to toxic masculinity issue. One of the techniques of describing people become done in terms of their bodies in fragmented parts, e.g., their skin color, their sexual preference, and other human anatomical parts and due to this as one of the reasons why embracing oneself is so hard to do (just as shown in figure 15). Rahmadsyah Rangkuti & Siti Hafifah 286 JOALL (Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literature), 7(1), 2022 Figure 15. The peak part of the song Born This Way DISCUSSION According to the study above, it can be said that the song aims to speak to as many perspectives as possible, through different races, sexualities, and gender expressions, through the language uses that are represented in the song, which will be broken down one by one below. First, based on the analysis in terms of words and phrases above, it can be seen that the pattern for the development of this song moves from rooting to specific gender, especially from the pronoun he to she, then to non-gender specific. The pronoun he is placed first and is found in the early parts of the song owing to the fact that based on studies above, the pronoun refers to The Creator or The Almighty or The God, which has so much power that is able to create the universe and everything within, including mankinds. Then, the pronoun she is found after the word he is placed. The word she itself refers to mother, who is someone close, especially to Gaga, the songwriter. Based on the study above, it can be seen that Gaga considers her mother or a mother in general as someone who is very capable of understanding and wholeheartedly accepting her own child more than others. Then, based on the study above as well, even though a mother is someone who has tried hard to give birth to a human, the pronoun will still be mentioned after the word he owing to the fact that a mother only gives birth, whereas God created mankinds as well as mother. Pronoun I plays a lot in this song. Pronoun I actually refers to Lady Gaga herself as a songwriter. Nonetheless, based on the study above, the pronoun I itself also functions to represent people as if they feel the meaning of this song using a first perspective and can experience being the actor or main character of this song. In addition, based on the study above, pronoun selection can function to make the song sound more intimate, especially from Gaga to the song listeners, as evidenced by the pronouns found other than I, namely we, then you. The nouns found in the song that has been highlighted in the above study refer to not only for women but also men as well as to refer to the very core of the meaning which is of a very high standard, excellent, or pleasing the senses or mind aesthetically, and everyone has the right to be one in each own way. Feminist stylistic analysis and LGBTQA+ representation in Lady Gaga’s born this way JOALL (Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literature), 7(1), 2022 287 From a linguist perspective, it has been argued that pronouns changes more slowly than other words because they belong to the so called ‘function words’ or ‘closed words classes’ (Milles, 2013; Paterson, 2014). Function words are used to organize the grammatical structure in a sentence and their meaning is only derived from how they are used in context (Chung and Pennebaker, 2007; Milles, 2013). Pronouns are organized in a grammatical system, thus adding a new word challenges the whole system (Paterson, 2014), which is not the case when nouns or verbs are added to a dictionary, or when feminine forms of professional roles are added to masculine forms. (Gustafsson Sendén et al., 2015), Stylisticians doing transitivity analyses formulate their tools from Halliday's (1971) framework. Mills (1994) used Burton's (1982) framework which is considered the first of its kind in feminist stylistics. Burton's (1982) processes include three types; material, mental and relational. Material processes are "elements which are actions which can be observed in the real world and which have consequences". These can be either Material action intention (MAI henceforth), in which "there is a clear will to do something", or Material Action Supervention (MAS), in which "there is an attempt to capture for analysis those verbal processes where things are not done intentionally". Mental internalised (MI) and mental externalised (ME) processes, on the other hand, are those containing elements "which take place largely in the mind", while relational processes include elements "which simply relate two elements together" (Mills, 1995, p. 142). (Al-Nakeeb & Mufleh, 2018). By this, it can be seen that this song may start with gender specific development, although the female and male bodies are almost equally fragmented, they are depicted differently (Saif Al-Nakeeb, 2018), but then, the song Born This Way shifts or develops the meanings from nouns which were likely to be feminine-toned to non-gender specific oriented. Then, although the pronoun he can be found at the end of the song, it no longer functions as gender specific, but as a repetition which emphasizes the meaning that God has created mankinds the best as possible human being and there is nothing that is unacceptable. Furthermore, the phonetic elements contained in the songs, based on the above studies, can be seen that they are designed and found rhyme which serves to emphasize some important morphological elements such as the phrase born this way and the words superstar that led to self-love, self- embrace, and self-freedom. Adult attachment security has been linked to the ability to regulate one’s emotions and seek support in fear-provoking, challenging, and conflictual situations (Kobak & Duemmler, 1994; Lopez & Brennan, 2000; Mikulincer & Florian, 1998; Simpson & Rholes, 1994), which are precisely the types of situations that characterize the LGB identity Rahmadsyah Rangkuti & Siti Hafifah 288 JOALL (Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literature), 7(1), 2022 development process (Mohr, 1999). This process also presents challenging situations (e.g., seeking information about sexual orientation, participating in one’s first LGB event, introducing a romantic partner to one’s family of origin) as well as conflictual situations (e.g., conflict with one’s romantic partner or parents regarding public disclosure of sexual orientation) (Mohr et al., 2017). But then, the song shifts by bringing not only self-attachment to particular community such as LGBT, but as well as bringing feminism movement then equality. Then, based on the study of the sentence’s unit section, the sentences in the song can be seen from the transitivity choices and modality contained in the song lyrics. Transitivity analysis can provide comprehensive linguistic evidence for the readers regarding “who/what does what to whom/what?” thus, to arrive at a better understanding of the characters in a literary text (Zahoor & Janjua, 2016). Transitivity choices which are the relational process - intensive attributive, then the material process - action process - intention process, then the mental process – internalized, refer to the message that God made the mankinds perfect and has made no mistakes, and also can be seen that the writer understands the fact that God has clear will and undeniable strong power in doing so, then to show that the writer embraces her own self and there is nothing wrong about it. The message is supported by modality the modulation - imperative– high value (obligation), then the modulation - imperative– high value (required / determined) which refers to the writer encourages people using an expression of command in high scale to embrace their own selves as it is important. Finally, based on the study above, it is also found that the highlighted peak in this song which is also the key to the most major reasons that give rise to stigma and stereotypes that appear in public circles found through the technique of describing people become done in terms of their bodies in fragmented parts, e.g. their skin color, their sexual preference, and other human anatomical parts and due to this as one of the reasons why embracing oneself is so hard to do. By then, this song has completely succeeded to not only raising up feminist voice, but also, most likely, if there was no song with all the impact and events, understanding about gender and equality would not develop as it is today. The song is strongly emphasizing the equality notion by accepting who we are as we are all born this way. The choices of word, phrase, clause and sentence as well as the discourse unit credit about self-liberation, and loving every part of oneself, no matter what race, belief, or sexuality one is on. This also proves that this song is not solely an LGBTQA+ community anthem, instead, it is a song for all kind of self-acceptance. Feminist stylistic analysis and LGBTQA+ representation in Lady Gaga’s born this way JOALL (Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literature), 7(1), 2022 289 CONCLUSION Based on the analysis, it can be concluded that the song aims to speak to as many perspectives as possible, through different races, sexualities, and gender expressions, through the language uses that are represented in the song. By then, this song has completely succeeded in not only raising up a feminist voice but also, most likely, if there was no song with all the impact and events, understanding about gender and equality would not develop as it is today. 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Trames Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences, 20(1985), 201–213. https://doi.org/10.3176/tr.2016.2.05 THE AUTHORS Rahmadsyah Rangkuti is a senior lecturer at English Department, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Universitas Sumatera Utara. He obtained his Ph.D. from Aligarh Muslim University, India in the field of Linguistics. He can be contacted at syahkuti@gmail.com. Siti Hafifah is an alumnus of English department, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Universitas Sumatera Utara.