Lady Gaga Says Sexual Harassment Was The Norm When She Started in Music
Lady Gaga has never held back about experiencing sexual assault when she was 19. Still, the singer says she wishes she’d spoke out sooner.
“When I started in the music business when I was around 19, it was the rule, not the exception, that you would walk into a recording studio and be harassed,” she said at a roundtable by The Hollywood Reporter. “It was just the way that it was. So I do wish that I had spoken up sooner. I did speak up about it. I was assaulted when I was young, and I told people.”
She added that the “boys club” culture in music protected abusers:
“Nobody wants to lose their power, so they don’t protect you because if they say something, it takes some of their power away,” she said. “What I hope is that these conversations come together — that it’s not just about equal pay on one side … or equal billing over here … and then assault on this side. But that it all comes together and that this movement is all of those things.”
Read more at THR.