Lady Gaga gave such a powerful speech as an honoree at the 2018 Elle Women in Hollywood celebration held on Monday night (October 15) at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif.
The 32-year-old A Star Is Born actress took the stage and ended up explaining why she opted to wear an oversized Marc Jacobs suit instead of a skin tight dress to the event.
“I tried on dress after dress today getting ready for this event, one tight corset after another, one heel after another, a diamond, a feather, thousands of beaded fabrics and the most beautiful silks in the world,” Lady Gaga explained. “To be honest, I felt sick to my stomach. And I asked myself: What does it really mean to be a woman in Hollywood? We are not just objects to entertain the world. We are not simply images to bring smiles or grimaces to people’s faces. We are not members of a giant beauty pageant meant to be pit against one another for the pleasure of the public. ‘We women in Hollywood, we are voices. We have deep thoughts and ideas and beliefs and values about the world and we have the power to speak and be heard and fight back when we are silenced.”
Gaga continued, “So, after trying 10 or so dresses, with a sad feeling in my heart, that all that would matter was what I wore to this red carpet, I saw an oversized Marc Jacobs suit buried quietly in the corner,” she continued. “I put it on to a resounding view of eyes glaring at me in confusion. ‘But the Rodarte was so beautiful!,’ one said. ‘But the Raf Simons for Calvin Klein was so stunning on you!,’ said another. ‘But what about the Brandon Maxwell? What about the Dior?’ Lots of questions. They were all dresses.”
She continued, “This was an oversized men’s suit made for a woman. Not a gown. ‘And then I began to cry. In this suit, I felt like me today. In this suit, I felt the truth of who I am well up in my gut. And then wondering what I wanted to say tonight become very clear to me.”
“As a sexual assault survivor by someone in the entertainment industry, as a woman who is still not brave enough to say his name, as a woman who lives with chronic pain, as a woman who was conditioned at a very young age to listen to what men told me to do, I decided today I wanted to take the power back. Today I wear the pants,” Gaga added.
