At the Oscars, Lady Gaga, lost out on an Oscar for best song when Sam Smith trumped her to the statue. She’d been nominated alongside legendary sob-song writer Diane Warren, for a song called ’Til It Happens To You.
The song is from The Hunting Ground, a documentary about campus assault and rape, which you can watch on Netflix from 1st April. It might sound grim and serious. And that’s because it is - serious, at least. Because there are huge positives: the film, the song, and Gaga’s performance (she sang at a piano before dozens of sexual assault and rape survivors walked onto the stage with powerful messages such as ‘unbreakable’ written on their wrists) brings awareness to a subject that needs to be heard.
Plus, Vice President of the United States Joe Biden was there to show that American politicians are more than the current GOP race. Introducing Gaga, he said: ‘Despite significant progress over the last few years, too many women and men on and off campuses are still victims of sexual assault.’
He then asked people to take a pledge which goes: ‘“I will intervene in situations when consent has not be or cannot be given.”'
‘Let’s change culture. We must and we can change the culture, so that no abused woman or man like the survivors you will see tonight, will ever feel they have to ask themselves “What did I do?” They did nothing wrong. I really mean this and I’m sincere.’
If that doesn’t get you welling up, check out Gaga’s performance. FYI, she'd earlier tweeted Kesha, who is currently in a legal wrangle with Sony who won't let her record any more music unless she does so with Dr Luke, a man who she alleges raped her (he denies the allegations). The tweet read: '
And afterwards, as the survivors who’d joined Gaga on stage filed off one by one, Brie Larson, who later that night won Best Actress for her turn in Room, a film about a woman kept captive by a sadistic rapist, hugged each and every one of them.
If you're moved by any of this, you might want to check out It's On Us, the site where people can sign up to the anti-sexual assault pledge.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.