Lady Gaga and Joaquin Phoneix in the upcoming Joker: Folie à Deux – Photo: Niko Tavernise
Lady Gaga has explained how she became a target of Internet misinformation at the start of her career and why she refused to address rumors claiming that she had a penis or may have been intersex.
Last week, Netflix dropped its new show, What’s Next? The Future with Bill Gates, a five-episode series looking at cutting-edge technologies with the potential to reshape the world or society. The second episode addresses Internet misinformation, something that has become more prolific in the past eight years as political actors have sought to manipulate public opinion by spreading falsehoods in the hope of shaping world events.
For insight, Gates interviewed Lady Gaga about her experience with Internet rumors.
In June 2009, following the release of her debut album TheFame, the Grammy Award-winning singer performed at the Glastonbury Festival.
Some concert-goers and self-appointed Internet sleuths began circulating footage from the performance, speculating that Lady Gaga was sporting a bulge under her skirt. Rumors then spread like wildfire online, asserting that the cisgender superstar had a penis and had either been assigned male at birth or was intersex.
The rumors were so intense that there were reports by mainstream media outlets on quotes allegedly attributed to Gaga seeking to fact-check whether she was indeed born with male genitalia. Gaga’s manager told ABC News at the time that such speculation was “completely ridiculous.”
Two years later, in 2011, Gaga was asked by gay journalist Anderson Cooper during a 60 Minutes interview about the rumor that she had a “male appendage.” The clip did not air during the regular program, but was shown in 60 Minutes Overtime, a web series of bonus content cut from the broadcast.
Gaga, swirling a fake diamond around in her mouth as she responded, was confronted with the fact that she had joked about having a penis in response to the controversy.
“Maybe I do,” she responded. “Would it be so terrible? Why the hell am I going to waste my time and give a press release about whether or not I have a penis? My fans don’t care and neither do I.”
In her recent interview with Gates, however, Gaga reflects on why she was so glib about the rumors and being “transvestigated.”
“So, when I was in my early twenties, there was a rumor that I was a man,” she said. “And I went all over the world. I mean, I traveled for tours, for promoting my records, and almost every interview I sat in they said, you know — well, there was this imagery on the, on the internet that had been doctored. And they were like, you know, like, ‘There’s this rumor that you’re a man.’ Like, ‘What do you have to say about that?'”
Gaga explained that while she wouldn’t be personally affected by baseless rumors, there were plenty of other people, including members of the trans community, who would be if she acted offended by the questions.
“The reason why I didn’t answer the question was because I didn’t feel like a victim with that lie,” Gaga said. “But I thought about, like, what about a kid that’s being accused of that, that would think that a public figure like me would feel shame?
“I guess what I’m saying is, I’ve been in situations where fixing a rumor was not in the best interest of — I thought — of the well-being of other people,” she concluded. “In that case, I tried to be thought-provoking and disruptive in another way. I tried to use the misinformation to create another disruptive point.”
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"I'm always going for some kind of loud sort of expression," she says. "My illustrations tend to be very suggestive or very erotic or very cute. It's always about some kind of sensual pleasure or dramatic pain."
A librarian by trade -- she currently works at the National Institute of Medicine -- Soltian nonetheless treats her art as a full-time vocation. Her online store, which describes her as a "crafter of indulgences," sells various items based on her works, including pendants, keychains, and even life-sized pillowcases featuring popular comic book characters, such as Nightwing, with whom she admits to being somewhat obsessed.
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The 17-year-old senior at Springbrook High School in Silver Spring, Maryland, is one of nine recipients of this year's Team DC College Scholarships for student athletes. The $2,500 awards are presented annually to LGBTQ student-athletes across the metropolitan D.C. area.
This year's awardees, all seniors, include Agwu, Natalia "Nat" Alatis, Emilia Benitez-Pergola, James Hughes, Catherine "Rin" Kelley, Nadia Lytle, Shanti Osborne, Katelynne Robertson, and Jay Young. The honors will be presented at the organization's annual Night of Champions Gala on Saturday, April 5, starting at 6 p.m. at the Hilton National Mall/Wharf.
It takes two to tango, with good reason -- add one, and the footwork gets way more intricate, to say nothing of where all the other parts go. An adventurous couple and an enthusiastic third try out their footwork, and stumble through the dance, in the Brooklyn-set queer indie Throuple, a notable feature debut for director Greyson Horst.
Michael Doshier wrote the script and stars as perpetually single singer-songwriter Michael, who lives too co-dependently with best friend and fellow musician Tristan (Tristan Carter-Jones). She's getting more and more serious with her girlfriend Abby (Jess Gabor), so, essentially, Michael's already playing third wheel in their relationship.
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