Step 1 -My approach: I am analyzing the song “Til It Happens To You” by Lady Gaga. This song was featured in the 2015 documentary about rape on college campuses “The Hunting Ground”.
Step 2-Research: History of the song and film- The film “The Hunting Ground” was written by Kirby Dick and the song “Til It Happens To You” was written by Diane Warren but performed and produced by Lady Gaga. The documentary is about many girls who have been raped on college campuses, specifically Annie Clark and Andrea Pino who started a movement for college students that have been raped and have had college staff try to quiet them. What the activists found- Annie and Andrea found that many campuses across America are in violation of Title IX which states "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance." Mission of “The Hunting Ground”-The mission of the film is to “sound the alarm on campus sexual assault as loudly as our voices will carry.” There are many campus screening of the film. Are they successful?There are currently 316 cases in over 200 college and university campuses under investigation of violating Title IX. Step 3: Analysis What I love-
I love how well the lyrics of the song capture how a sexual assault survivor might think when they are told to “just move on”.
I love that you can take the pledge “It’s On Us” on the film’s website to help stop sexual violence.
I love that you can access resources for sexual assault on their website.
Limitations:
There are so many universities in violation of Title IX and only some are under investigation, but some is better than none.
Many sexual assault perpetrators strike more than once before there is an appeal.
Ways I will apply this to my proposal- I will look into the song lyrics and meaning behind them.