Late last year, Lady Gaga first opened up about a rape she suffered as a teenager by a producer she was working with. The singer elaborated on her experience at a Times Talk panel that promoted The Hunting Ground, and shared just how challenging it was to overcome.
"Because of the way that I dress, and the way that I'm provocative as a person, I thought that I had brought it on myself in some way, that it was my fault," Gaga told the panel, and Lady Gaga hadn't told anyone for seven years.
According to Hollywood Reporter, the singer said the consequences have resulted with a long-lasting physical trauma. "When you go through a trauma like that, it doesn't have the immediate physical ramifications on you," Gaga said.
When anyone is going to re-experience sexual abuse for the second time, it can trigger patterns in your body of physical distress. Many rape victims suffer from not only emotional and mental pain, but also physical pain of being abused, raped, and traumatized afterwards.
Lady Gaga concluded that she was encouraging frank discussions on the topic. She doesn't want to keep pain and let it rot. She added, "It's like, just get rid of all that trash. Let's get rid of it together."
Since Lady Gaga came out about her own rape when she was just 19-years-old, she became a stalwart advocate for victims of sexual violence, through non-profit and musical works. The Hunting Ground which features her recent song "Til' It Happens to You," documents a story about campus rape, as reported by Music Times.
Lady Gaga has said, "I didn't know how to 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. It was something that really changed my life. It changed who I was completely."