A scene appears to condone rape.
No stranger to controversy, Lady Gaga is now being accused of crossing the line with her unreleased music video for the song Do What U Want, because of a scene that appears to condone rape.
The music video, which is believed to have been shot in September 2013, features Gaga, and singer R. Kelly, playing a predatory physician who utters the phrase, “I’m putting you under, and when you wake up, you’re going to be pregnant.” He then places a hand under her hospital sheets prompting Gaga to moan, while he replies, “Sounds like that medicine’s starting to kick in.” She then passes out.
The video was directed by controversial photographer, Terry Richardson, who has been accused of inappropriate sexual misconduct by a number of models with whom he has worked. Some have claimed Richardson forced them into having sex with him during photo and video shoots. With Richardson at the helm, and R. Kelly, who was tried and acquitted of child pornography charges back in 2008, as her co-star, many are accusing both Lady Gaga and the producers of the video of promoting rape.
The shoot for Do What U Want suffered multiple production delays when it was intended for release back in December of last year, with Gaga blaming time constraints, bad management, and “betrayal,” according to the singer’s own blog. But many are speculating that Gaga’s team elected to pull the video from distribution because of the growing accusations against Richardson at the time, as well as a scathing Village Voice article chronicling alleged sexual assaults against young girls by Kelly in the 1990’s, many of whom had “harrowing” lawsuits against the singer.
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