Lady Gaga’s R. Kelly Apology Is a Reminder That Abuse Isn’t Provocative
The artists’ 2013 duet, “Do What U Want,” was made because of, not in spite of, its creepy subtext—as are more and more works in the wake of #MeToo.
Lady Gaga lies on an operating table, R. Kelly reaches under her sheet and toward her groin, and Gaga moans. Sedatives kick in, and Kelly and a crew of scantily clad nurses start gyrating on her sleeping body.
Yikes. So went the from the never-released music video for Gaga’s 2013 single “Do What U Want.” At the time of its production, a source who’d seen the footage—which was shot by the fashion photographer Terry Richardson, who, like Kelly, had been denying sexual-assault accusations against him for years— , “It
