Lady Gaga refused to deny the rumors about her penis in order for others not to feel ashamed
Lady Gaga Photo: Screenshot / Netflix
Netflix released its new show What’s Next? earlier this week. The Future with Bill Gates. In the second episode, Gates tackles truth in the age of digital misinformation. Lady Gaga is one of the experts he turns to. She knows a thing or two about how false claims and rumors can spread online. In its second episode, Gates tackles truth in the age of digital misinformation, and one of the experts he turns to is Lady Gaga, who knows a thing or two about how false claims and rumors can spread online.
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“So, when I was in my early twenties, there was a rumor that I was a man,” the “Born This Way” singer explains to Gates. “I went around the world. They were like, ‘There’s this rumor that you are a man.’ Like, What do you have to say about that?” 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?'”
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As them notes, rumors that Gaga had — as one dubious gossip site put it at the time — “both male and female genitalia” seem to have peaked in 2009, a year after the release of her debut album The Fame. A photo taken that June during her set at the Glastonbury Festival appeared to show a bulge in her underwear, and the famously vicious gossip blogs of the decade used it to fuel wild speculation about the singer.
In August 2009, ABC News even reported on the rumors, quoting the pop star’s manager as saying that they were “completely ridiculous.”
But Gaga herself steadfastly refused to address the speculation. Anderson Cooper of 60 Minutes asked her about the rumors in 2011 that she had a “male appendage.” She replied simply, “Maybe.” 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?” she added. Gates explained on her Netflix show why she didn’t deny the rumors.
She said that she didn’t want to feel guilty for the lie. “But I thought of, like, what if a child was being accused of this, and that kid would think a public figure such as me would feel ashamed?” In that situation, I tried being thought-provoking and disrupting in another way. I tried to use the misinformation to create another disruptive point.”
“People assume
that my performance is what’s not real. To me, it’s what you’ll really see of me. The Future with Bill Gates. Now playing. pic.twitter.com/legQm24FEA
— Netflix (@netflix) September 18, 2024
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