Lady Gaga, Fergie and the Pussycat Dolls were just a few of the names brought up at the first monthly “Pasta and Pop Culture” event, put on by the Liebens Center for Women. The topic for this month: “What Are They Really Saying?” a discussion about how women are perceived in the lyrics of many recent Top 10 songs.

The event, which took place in Harper Center room 2066, started off with a dinner of salad and pasta, with cookies for desert. After the small group had time to get to know each other, the discussion got started, with only one setback: The fire alarm went off halfway through the event, meaning every person had to leave the building for around 15 minutes.

Once the event got back on track, Lori Durako, director of the Liebens Center for Women, and Jessica Daugherty, Resident Director of Swanson Hall, had the lyrics of several songs on the projector, from “Don’t Cha” by the Pussycat Dolls, to “Love Story” by Taylor Swift. Conversation pursued about how these lyrics portrayed women in our society today, and two music videos were shown and analyzed: “Glamorous” by Fergie and “Bad Romance” (which won 7 VMAs two nights before) by Lady Gaga.

“Regardless of what type of impact they’ve decided to make, they’ve influenced our society in one way or the other,” Durako said.

This series of discussions about women in today’s media will take place four times during the semester.

“The goal is just to have a conversation about what’s really happening in society through a more critical lens,” Durako said.

The next “Pasta and Pop Culture” event will focus on “The Women of Harry Potter” and will take place Oct. 5th from 6-8 p.m.

“It’s a great way of looking at things, and having challenging conversations in a fun way,” Daugherty said. “And there’s food. Who doesn’t love food?”