Sunday was Oscar Night, the 88th Annual Academy Awards. The show drew buzz with controversy about the lack of diversity in all the main categories nominations. I must say Chris Rock was a great host and pointed out facts with humor. It is the best way to talk about issues in a non – offensive way.
I thought the best part of the show was Lady Gaga performing “Till it Happens to You” from the movie The Hunting Ground a film about sexual assault on college campuses. Diane Warren and Lady Gaga co-wrote the song; both ladies share the same pain of being sexually assaulted during the college years. Neither reported the assault, because they thought that no one would believe them and automatically take the assailant’s side.
Vice President Joe Biden had the honor to introduced Lady Gaga and talked about The White House new initiative program It’s On Us for resources and for people to pledge to stop sexual assault.
Here is Vice President Joe Biden introducing Lady Gaga (from New York Daily News) “We must and we can change the culture so that abused women or men like the survivors you will see tonight never feel they have to ask themselves, ‘what did I do,’” Biden asked, before adding his response. “They did nothing wrong.”
I have to say Vice President Joe Biden said it best!
Vice Pres. Biden on victims of sexual assault. “They did nothing wrong.” #Oscarspic.twitter.com/AkbLt40w9A — Good Morning America (@GMA) February 29, 2016
After the performance, Kesha tweeted the following:
thank u @ladygaga and VP @JoeBiden for bringing attention to sexual assault at the oscars. it hit very close to my heart for obvious reasons — kesha (@KeshaRose) February 29, 2016
Kesha is going through her own sexual assault legal problems with Sony and producer Dr. Luke. The lawsuit has turn into a she said / he said with all the of stereotypical legal outcomes. Such as Kesha and her mother changes their stories due to threats from the assailant after seeing a therapist. That is very common in these cases. When survivors finally have the courage to say they were sexually assaulted, but everyone makes them feel that it was their fault and that they are lying to get attention. The reality is only a very small percent of the cases reported have been false. That is for another blog post.
Lady Gaga reply is so not only fitting for Kesha but for all survivors!
.@kesharose I’ll be thinking of u 2nite. This is not over we’ll stand by u until you are free to live a HAPPY life. Everyone deserves that. — Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) February 28, 2016
Bravo to all the women and MEN survivors who came on stage during Lady Gaga’s performance. Yes, I did capitalize MEN, because they rarely report being sexuality assaulted. I firmly believe it is much harder for men to come forward due to many stereotypically responses, such as you can defend yourself or it does not happen to men. WRONG! Again, Bravo for everyone on stage to show their Survivor Scars!
Thank you for standing next to me on stage. Thank you for all the things you said, for listening to my story and sharing yours. I will never forget it. 50 survivors, so brave, relentless determination. A photo posted by Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) on Feb 29, 2016 at 1:50am PST
I am very happy that Vice President Joe Biden & Lady Gaga did shine a light on sexual assault. Hopefully the conversations keep going and hopefully one day it brings sexual abuse, assault, & rape to an end. One thing it did do, make people cry. There was not a dry eye in the audience and social media responded in kind too!
Thank you for stopping by!
Later Days
Angelique~
English