When Lady Gaga took the stage at MTV's Video Music Awards, she didn't look particularly strange to many people watching the show.  It was hard to say what she was wearing at first, but considering some of her more outlandish outfits, this one seemed pretty sedate.

Until she remarked that "I never thought I'd be asking Cher to hold my meat purse."  

That's right: her entire outfit, from demure hat to big clompy boots, was made of meat.  Raw meat.  

Cher (dressed in a classic outfit from her 1980s videos and looking FANTASTIC) actually had the guts (har har) to give Lady Gaga a little hug as she presented her with an award.  Lady Gaga swept the awards ceremony, but who even noticed?  She is wearing meat!

I have to give Lady Gaga props for wearing an outfit that everyone talked about the next day from a philosophical perspective.  It's hard for a mere outfit to inspire the level of conversation that's abuzz today, both online and off.

Ellen DeGeneres, who hosted the awards ceremony, happens to be a vegan.  When she questioned Lady Gaga about the outfit, Lady Gaga said that it wasn't meant to insult vegans and vegetarians. But regardless of its intent, vegans and vegetarians have certainly found it offensive.

Lady Gaga stated that the point she was making is that "I am not just a piece of meat."  That's a bit shallow and obvious, frankly, and it strikes me as a bit of post hoc reasoning.  

The outfit does seem to be made of actual meat, which raises a lot of questions.  I wonder about the sanitary aspect, personally.  Would you want to sit in a chair, knowing that a piece of raw meat had been lying on it?  I think not.  It's unsafe.  (Won't someone please think of the children?)

I can't decide which would be more disgusting: wearing cold clammy cuts of raw meat all over your body, or wearing gently warmed wet cuts of meat all over your body.  Maybe the worst thing would be putting on a meat suit fresh from the refrigerator, only to feel it slowly warm with your body heat and the intense heat of the studio lights.

PETA predictably protested the outfit, and cited the smell and the lure of flies as two additional layers of offense.  I doubt the outfit was around long enough for that to happen.  I imagine it was kept in a cooler until just before she went on stage.  This isn't the kind of thing you'd wear around for the evening, although she was photographed with it on the red carpet.

Personally, as a vegetarian, I am secretly happy about Lady Gaga's outfit.  I'm willing to bet she turned a lot of people off meat, by wearing a bunch of it around on stage.  Even non-vegetarians think raw meat is disgusting, and putting it on center stage is a great way to convince someone to opt for a bean burrito at lunch the next day.