Your Gruesome Pop Diva Publicity Stunts of The Day: Lady Gaga and Debbie Harry

Alice Cooper perfected Grand Guignol gory stage antics 40 years ago, but female pop-singers really have defined the genre and taken it to new heights of weirdness.

First up, Lady Gaga goes "headless" for a recent performance on The X-Factor (link):

And former Blondie lead singer Debbie Harry butchers a naked life-size replica of herself at a Museum of Contemporary Art gala, tearing out its heart (pics at link NSFW for mannequin nudity):

Combined with Heidi Klum's "flayed alive" costume this Halloween --

--it really does beg the question: why are so many pretty female celebrities using such gory representations of themselves? Is this a positive or negative thing? Since they seem to be spearheading the (fake) gore, is this a step up from being the female victims of slasher flicks and the like -- with them controlling the "means" of the horror in question? Is it commentary on the oft-difficult and cutthroat entertainment industry, where the women often feel like meat or literal "sacrifices" to the audience?

Or, is it just a simple fascination with the macabre that lurks in the minds of many a young girl, supressed for decades by a society that finds such thoughts "unladylike?"