I'm not the biggest advocate for Lady Gaga, for I do not understand much of her work, but in her new video, "Til It Happens To You," she had my attention the entire time. The song is about exactly what it sounds like -- something terrible that can happen to you that people can't understand. In this case, it's rape.
The first verse of the song says:
"You tell me, 'it gets better, it gets better in time.' You say 'I'll pull myself together, pull it together. You'll be fine.' Tell me what the hell do you know. What do you know. Tell me how the hell could you know. How! could you know."
There is talk about this video, and some people are even saying it is the most important music video of the year. I think they're right. People tend to overlook how prevalent something like campus rape is and, along with that, people tend to overlook how it can seriously impact someone and change them forever.
Telling someone they're fine and to pull themselves together is not something they want to hear after a traumatic experience. They want someone there to just listen or hold them. Lady Gaga is spot on when she says, "till it happens to you, you don't know how it feels." You don't know how it feels if you've never been in that situation. Every single person on this planet is different and handles situations in different ways.
What many people don't know is that Lady Gaga confessed that she was raped by a music producer at age 19. She wanted women everywhere to know that they're not alone. "One in five college women will be sexually assaulted this year unless something changes." Being a woman in college, this statistic scares the living crap out of me. Something does need to change. No one should ever feel ashamed for something like that happening to them and they should never have to worry about people believing them about it.
If you haven't seen the video, watch it. It opens your eyes. If you're someone who has been raped, or something terrible has happened to you, talk to someone. There is always someone who is willing to listen.
