The double standard of Terry Richardson

[PartySick 166,830]

2 hours ago, 27monster27 said:

I actually didn't know about Terry Richardson also doing XO and Wrecking Ball, but I agree 100%. The only thing is that Lady Gaga had him and R Kelly combined, which was probably a lot. That plus the public not fully understanding the meaning behind "Do What U Want with my body", which had another meaning deeper than the surface level one.

 

2 hours ago, artdoll said:

I think this explains what was going on in the heads of people at the time pretty well. People saw Gaga was making a music video with an unsavory character and directed by another. I feel that the meaning behind DWUW went over a lot of people's heads, the GP included. They just assumed that because of the line, "Do what you want with my body," the song couldn't possibly be about anything more than sex.

Gaga also poked the bear with the whole "the media tells lies" thing. That's one of the main reasons she had him on the song. She was basically defending R. Kelly's innocence years after we knew what he was really getting up to. When the sh*t hit the fan with him, of course she got swept up in it. 

[Emvee 8,680]

Wrecking Ball was a huge success, so the criticism got drowned out by the GP who really didn’t care about it let alone know who the **** Terry Richardson was. 

Edited January 12 by Emvee

[artdoll 46,816]

2 minutes ago, PartySick said:

 

Gaga also poked the bear with the whole "the media tells lies" thing. That's one of the main reasons she had him on the song. She was basically defending R. Kelly's innocence years after we knew what he was really getting up to. When the sh*t hit the fan with him, of course she got swept up in it. 

I forgot about that, thank you for bringing it up. This also adds a lot of context to be honest. I do remember those interviews where she said that.

[Bronco 16,951]

53 minutes ago, artdoll said:

I believe he also filmed the Born This Way Ball & artRAVE documentaries that never got released?

I have definitely seen he was the principal for BTWB

[hELXIG 44,353]

Wow I didn't put that timeline together but you're RIGHT, it was the same time as Wrecking Ball. Pretty ironic actually considering the meaning of the song. I remember everybody was so 'betrayed' when the video was cancelled but in hindsight thank GOD it didn't come out in full. It would've been a stain on her career that I guarantee would still be brought up and used against her to this day

One thing though. I do have a vague memory that some of the controversy around him started bubbling up around the time Gaga was actively working with him, which was after Wrecking Ball, so that would've put eyes on her

 

Miley also underwent unfair treatment though, but for her it was different because she took all the flack herself for her 'provocative' video, and Terry took none of it. It wasn't 'how dare she work with Terry Richardson' it was 'how dare this 20 year old girl show so much skin'

Just women in the industry getting treated completely unfairly and being blamed for men's wrongdoings. Tale as old as time

[hELXIG 44,353]

25 minutes ago, PartySick said:

 

Gaga also poked the bear with the whole "the media tells lies" thing. That's one of the main reasons she had him on the song. She was basically defending R. Kelly's innocence years after we knew what he was really getting up to. When the sh*t hit the fan with him, of course she got swept up in it. 

23 minutes ago, artdoll said:

I forgot about that, thank you for bringing it up. This also adds a lot of context to be honest. I do remember those interviews where she said that.

I have always had a theory that as someone who was treated so disgustingly by the world herself, she developed a kind of bias where she decidedly judged people solely on how they acted in front of her, and 100% ignored all media noise. Which obviously backfired because some people might come across as the most genuine, kind, misunderstood people directly to your face but then be monsters behind closed doors. I think Gaga met R Kelly and Terry Richardson, thought they were good people, and deemed them 'misunderstood artists who the world is out to get'. I also think this is part of the reason she doesn't like to reminisce on the ARTPOP era. As an abuse victim herself it must be triggering to look back at a time where you actively worked with abusers and gave them the benefit of the doubt

Also sidenote, remember it was Tara who convinced Gaga to bring R Kelly on the track because Tara was a megafan of his. And I'm also very convinced it was Tara who kept Gaga high all that time. I watched Tara's livestreams every day during covid, and was there during her scandal using young Gaga fans in exchange for giving them tea on Gaga, not paying them for work etc. She was sketchy and a bad influence on Gaga imo

[PartySick 166,830]

1 minute ago, hELXIG said:

I have always had a theory that as someone who was treated so disgustingly by the world herself, she developed a kind of bias where she decidedly judged people solely on how they acted in front of her, and 100% ignored all media noise. Which obviously backfired because some people might come across as the most genuine, kind, misunderstood people directly to your face but then be monsters behind closed doors. I think Gaga met R Kelly and Terry Richardson, thought they were good people, and deemed them 'misunderstood artists who the world is out to get'. I also think this is part of the reason she doesn't like to reminisce on the ARTPOP era. As an abuse victim herself it must be triggering to look back at a time where you actively worked with abusers and gave them the benefit of the doubt

Also sidenote, remember it was Tara who convinced Gaga to bring R Kelly on the track because Tara was a megafan of his. And I'm also very convinced it was Tara who kept Gaga high all that time. I watched Tara's livestreams every day during covid, and was there during her scandal using young Gaga fans in exchange for giving them tea on Gaga, not paying them for work etc. She was sketchy and a bad influence on Gaga imo

Gaga was a grown woman, her words were her own and she was simply wrong  I won't blame anyone whose name wasn't in lights like hers were tbh.

She apologized though, all is forgiven.

[Guillaume Hamon 6,771]

47 minutes ago, PartySick said:

Gaga was a grown woman, her words were her own and she was simply wrong 

Tbh I doubt she went into his mess details before to add him on the song claiming he was a victim of media lies as hers hence the song etc.

It's her mistake. She probably thought no condemnation at the end of his trial meant he was innocent but, obviously, it wasn't the case. 

More digging from her would have forced her to see how his own itw answer were semi-confessions... 

Edited January 12 by Guillaume Hamon

[PartySick 166,830]

21 minutes ago, Guillaume Hamon said:

Tbh I doubt she went into his mess details before to add him on the song claiming he was a victim of media lies as hers hence the song etc.

It's her mistake. She probably thought no condemnation at the end of his trial meant he was innocent but, obviously, it wasn't the case. 

More digging from her would have forced her to see how his own itw answer were semi-confessions... 

Yeah, she was careless in the moment, suffered the consequences for that mistake, and made her apologies. Imo, it's all good from every side of it.

[elijahfan 26,995]

Isn't it kind of a niche controversy? The video wasn't even released, so as far as I remember, she dodged that bullet and the only people that actively talked about it were fans. If she ever got heat about Richardson, it's because of how regularly and repeatedly she worked with him in the early 2010s.

Edited January 12 by elijahfan

[Ziggy 12,741]

Tbh I don’t think he was the reason for the blowback. It was R Kelly and her flagrantly saying idgaf and grinding on him. But THEN the other two would work with Terry as he was big then but they didn’t associate so much with him like Gaga did. People never really cared aside from pop stans and they only cared bc she made it VERY known by dressing like him, bringing him out at shows, referencing him, etc. that he was her good friend. Other stars merely worked with him. I think that’s a lesson Gaga has learned in time.

[Ziggy 12,741]

3 hours ago, Guillaume Hamon said:

Tbh I doubt she went into his mess details before to add him on the song claiming he was a victim of media lies as hers hence the song etc.

It's her mistake. She probably thought no condemnation at the end of his trial meant he was innocent but, obviously, it wasn't the case. 

More digging from her would have forced her to see how his own itw answer were semi-confessions... 

sweetie…you didn’t have to dig to know this about r Kelly lol idk if you’re young or not American but if you’re even younger than Gaga, it was known he was a pervert. The collab was part of an effort to relaunch his career. The full extent wouldn’t be known until later ofc but it’s very evident that she was feeling isolated and backed against a wall and made a very poor judgment call out of anger and fear. 
 

it is what it is. She apologized and has tried to move past it.

[gagzus 17,820]

The hate comes mostly because of the song title and people not looking into the meaning of it, having a song with the lyrics “do what u want with my body” featuring 2 sex offenders as a SA victim herself. People don’t care to look into the song actually being about media criticism specifically her weight at the time.

 

[TheFrenchGuy 3,024]

« My intention was to create something extremely defiant and provocative because I was angry and still hadn't processed the trauma that had occurred in my own life. The song is called Do What U Want (With My Body), I think it's clear how explicitly twisted my thinking was at the time. »

I think it’s clear she was in a very dark place, and that both DWUW and working with Terry were attempts to reclaim her sense of agency as a traumatized woman. She knew these men were perverted, and she chose to work with them in an aggressively defiant way where she was (on the surface) in control. It was like putting herself in the mouth of the wolf in front of the world as a provocative attempt to take her power back.

Because her relationship with Terry lasted several years, I think she may have come to like him, or at least feel validated by him, since that defiance probably earned her a form of respect in his eyes. The SXSW vomit performance also fits into this pattern (obviously not calling the artist involved perverted).  She was publicly degrading herself as a way to externalize her pain.

She even acknowledges this tendency in songs like Replay and John Wayne. It was unhealthy and damaging, but I’m not going to blame a victim of abuse for the way she tried to survive and make sense of her pain. 

[gagzus 17,820]

44 minutes ago, elijahfan said:

Isn't it kind of a niche controversy? The video wasn't even released, so as far as I remember, she dodged that bullet and the only people that actively talked about it were fans. If she ever got heat about Richardson, it's because of how regularly and repeatedly she worked with him in the early 2010s.

People also forget that TMZ never actually had the full video they only had the behind the scenes docu from the BitTorrent collab that had SCENES from the video and the bts in it. People seem to forget the absolute fallacy of lies TMZ made up including a scene they claim where Kelly got her pregnant and she gave birth which I mean come ON that’s clearly not what happened.