Til It Happens to You

Deirdre Roberts

April 11, 2016

Advanced Mass Com Theory

Blog 2

Til It Happens to You

The anticipation surrounding the 2016 Academy Awards was highly covered by the media due to the lack of diversity in the nominations and the buzz about whether or not Leo would finally go home with his golden statue.  Going into the night viewers were intrigued on how the host, Chris Rock would handle the racial controversy and by who was going to walk away with the big awards. Yet, what took the audience and viewers by storm was unexpected by all. It had nothing to do with race or a winner of an award, it was the performance of Lady Gaga’s nominated song, "Til It Happens to You" that was not even an award winner by the end of the evening.  Gaga wrote the song with Diane Warren and the two were nominated on behalf of The Hunting Ground, which is a documentary about a series of sexual assaults on American college campuses (The Verge, 1). In her 2016, Oscar performance of “Til It Happens to You,” Lady Gaga was able to raise an extensive amount of awareness for the victims of sexual assault and instill the Obama administration’s It’s on Us campaign in the minds of the country.

Recently,  the Association of American Universities conducted a survey and the participants included more than 150,000 students from 27 universities, including some of the most appraised schools across the country (Wallace, 1). The survey revealed that, “Among female college students, 23% said they experienced some form of unwanted sexual contact -- ranging from kissing to touching to rape, carried out by force or threat of force, or while they were incapacitated because of alcohol and drugs” (Wallace, 1).  This is a serious and dangerous problem that young women and men are facing today and it makes us wonder whether or not college campuses are doing everything they can to help the victims and prevent these types of crimes from happening again. In an article written by Kimberly Hanson Breitenbecher, Sexual assault on college campuses: Is and ounce of prevention enough?,  Breitenbecher finds that, “Although prevention programs can result in favorable attitude change, the magnitude of such change is often small, and investigations using repeated measures designs suggest that such initial positive attitude change often decays or rebounds to preintervention levels over time”(Breitenbecher, 40). There needs to be more of an effort from not only college campuses, but the entire country in regards to the sexual assault crimes on college campuses.

On February 28, 2016 Lady Gaga reminded us that these problems are not going away and that there are victims all around us. Vice President, Joe Biden, introduced Lady Gaga and during his speech he explained the Obama administration’s It’s on Us campaign.  It’s on Us dares pledges to make a commitment to help end the nationwide epidemic of sexual assault on college campuses. When pledging to the campaign you pledge, “to RECOGNIZE that non-consensual sex is sexual assault, to IDENTIFY situations in which sexual assault may occur, to INTERVENE in situations where consent has not or cannot be given, to CREATE an environment in which sexual assault is unacceptable and survivors are supported”(It’s on Us, 1). During Vice President Biden’s speech he explained the need for a "change in the culture" of how people behave towards sexual assault and that, “Too many women and men on and off of college campuses are still victims of abuse"(The Verge, 1). When the Vice President finished, Lady Gaga appeared at a piano dressed in all white.

The haunting lyrics include, “Till your world burns and crashes/ Till you’re at the end, end of your rope/ Till you’re standing in my shoes/ I don’t wanna hear a thing from you” (Gaga, 1). Then, towards the end of the performance something remarkable happened, Lady Gaga was surrounded by dozens of young sexual assault survivors and they all held hands together for the end of song. The survivors all had messages written on their arms including words such as “Unbreakable” and “ It’s not my fault.” The audience rushed to their feet for a standing ovation with tears in their eyes to show Gaga and the survivors respect and hearts full of sympathy.

Social Media blew up after Lady Gaga’s performance and numerous celebrities spoke out on the performance and the issue. Actress Jessica Chastain tweeted, “Yes #Oscars thats what Im talking about. Great speech @VP and so moved by @ladygaga #takethepledge #ItsOnUs #IWillIntervene”(Just Jared, 1). Supermodel, Tyra Banks also contributed to the conversation by tweeting, “You continue to give me chills @ladygaga. #Oscars My love goes out to all who have been sexually assaulted #NotYourFault” (Just Jared, 1). To view all the celebrity’s reactions to the performance, click here.

It was not only celebrities who reacted to the performance; the rest of the country reacted as well. The Twitter hashtag #ItsOnUs reached 348.67 million impressions since the performance. The campaign, It’s on Us “received 37,401 pledges since Gaga's performance -- almost 10 times as many pledges as the typical 4,000 per week…There were also 231,194 visits to the website Biden mentioned” (Strecker, 1). Since Lady Gaga’s performance there has been a huge light shined on survivors of sexual assault and the major issues regarding sexual assault on college campuses. The victims now have a face and a voice.

These studies and articles I have reviewed are all discussing the sexual assault epidemic that surround young people who are the same age as my friends and myself. It was extremely emotional to watch Lady Gaga’s Oscar performance and read these articles about the high number of sexual assault victims on college campuses. I believe that as young people we think we are invincible, we think in our minds, “bad things happen to other people, they’d never happen to me.” In reality we have no control over things that are going to happen us, but maybe in regards to sexual assault we can learn ways to prevent these situations. The It’s on Us website offers tools that can help bystanders prevent an act that they feel as though may lead to sexual assault. It’s up to us as human beings to look out for one another and prevent these situations if we see something we do not think looks right, it’s on us.

Bibliography  

Breitenbecher, Kimberly Hanson. "Sexual Assault on College Campuses: Is an Ounce of Prevention Enough?" Applied and Preventive Psychology9.1 (2000): 23-52. Web.

"Celebs Praise Lady Gaga’s Oscars Performance – Read Tweets." Just Jared RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.

"Its On Us." Its On Us. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.

Strecker, Erin. "'It's on Us' Campaign Gets Almost 10 Times More Pledges After Lady Gaga's Oscar Performance." Billboard. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.

""Till It Happens To You" Lyrics." LADY GAGA LYRICS. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.

Wallace, Kelly. "Study: 23% of Women Sexually Assaulted in College." CNN. Cable News Network, n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.

"Watch Lady Gaga's Emotional Performance of "Til It Happens to You" at the 2016 Oscars." The Verge. N.p., 28 Feb. 2016. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.