Lady Gaga opened up about a very personal topic during a TimesTalks panel that also included Academy Award nominees Diane Warren, Kirby Dick, and Amy Ziering. The famous singer discussed her new song “Til It Happens to You” that she co-wrote for the acclaimed new documentary about campus rapes titled The Hunting Ground. During the panel, Gaga brought up her own experience with rape when she was 19 years old. "It changed my body; it changed my thoughts. When you go through a trauma like that, it doesn't just have the immediate physical ramifications on you."
"I didn't know how to even think about it. I didn't know how to accept it. I didn't know how not to blame myself, or think it was my fault," she continued. "That was a big part of it for me. Because of the way that I dress, and the way that I'm provocative as a person, I thought that I had brought it upon myself in some way; that it was my fault." Gaga hoped her Grammy nominated song would let other sexual assault survivors know that it is "OK to feel that way." Watch a preview of the panel above. The Hunting Ground documentary is out now.
