Imagine this: You leave your dorm room in the morning to go to classes. You leave your dorm room unlocked, which is fine because you trust the girls in your hallway and have never experienced any trouble in the past. You get through two of your classes and then you decide to head back to your room to grab your textbook for the next class. When you get to your room you are shocked when you find that all of your belongings are almost completely destroyed. The sheets are ripped off of your bed, your favorite books are completely torn apart, picture frames of your family and friends are shattered in pieces on the floor, many of your most personal aspects have been tossed aside like garbage, and the overall damage has you wondering just why someone would do this to you. What could you have possibly done to deserve this?

You hesitantly go to file a report for destruction of property and possible robbery to the police. You are nervous because you don’t want to get in trouble with your parents, but you go anyway. When you get there you explain all of the damage that has been done to your room and even show them images of your room. You are visibly distressed and plead them to help you find the person who did this. Now imagine this: Rather than give you sympathy and offer their help, the police instead doubt you and turn the situation on you. They say things like, “Well, you did leave the door open…”, “Maybe if you didn’t have your stuff laying around everywhere this wouldn’t have happened…”, and “It’s college, people do stupid stuff. It’s no big deal…”. They offer no kind of help and show no consideration for your feelings on the matter. You leave the police department feeling defeated and alone, and you have no choice but to go back to your wrecked room and to pick up the pieces by yourself.

Does this situation sound utterly ridiculous and unfair to you? Well, it certainly is. Now how about this: Rather than destruction of property, the situation is centered around sexual assault/rape. Rather than being shamed for leaving the door open, you are shamed for wearing a revealing dress or drinking too much. Rather than cleaning up shards of glass, you are left alone to pick your life back up and try to move forward knowing that the person who raped you is still out there without consequence.

1 in 5 women will have experienced some form of sexual assault in their four years of college. This unsettlingly high statistic is also matched with the very low percentage of 5-16% of rape cases that are actually reported to the police. This makes rape and sexual assault cases the most underreported crimes in the United States. Furthermore, most forms of sexual assault and rape cases qualify into a category known as “acquaintance rape”; this means that most of these cases occur between people who actually know each other. These kinds of instances take up more than 75% of reported cases. As one of my favorite spoken word poets said, “The stranger in the alley is real, but not as real as we are” (Friend Zone, Dylan Garity).

How does this relate to Lady Gaga’s new music video? It’s simple really. The song’s lyrics are dedicated entirely to survivors of sexual assault. The music video is a tribute to those who have experienced the hell that is being raped or sexually assaulted, and it breathes life into the reality of the situation. You could never truly understand what it is like until it happens to you; so rather than make excuses for those who rape, everyone should stand beside the survivors and support them through their struggle. It is not an easy thing to deal with overall, but it makes an immense difference to have an army behind you as opposed to being forced to stand alone.

I want to thank Lady Gaga and her art that has evoked both the dark and the hopeful emotions that surround sexual assault. I hope that one day, every individual, every community, every city, every continent, and maybe even the whole world will stand against rape and instead stand for each other.