Lady Gaga has revealed why she never outright denied those rumours that she was actually a man, which followed her like flies to an iconic VMAs meat dress.
The pop star discussed the widely circulated rumour, which also spawned speculation that she was intersex, during an episode of the new Netflix docuseries, What’s Next? The Future With Bill Gates.
When asked by the Microsoft founder (and TV host now, I guess?) whether misinformation had ever influenced her life, Lady Gaga mentioned the years-long speculation about her gender, which ramped up in the early 2010s.
Gaga referred to the “doctored” images of herself that were floating around online at the time, telling Gates that in “almost every interview I sat in… they were like, ‘There’s rumours that you’re a man. What do you have to say about that?’”.
While Gaga never explicitly debunked the claims — instead offering sarcastic (and hilarious) responses that now live in pop culture canon — she has now said the decision to avoid the topic was to protect her young fans.
“The reason I didn’t answer the question was because I didn’t feel like a victim with that lie”, Gaga said.
“I thought, what about a kid that’s being accused of that, who would think a public figure like me would feel shame?”.
Gaga, the mother that she is, went on to say that “fixing a rumour” like the one about her gender “was not in the best interest of the well-being of other people”.
Instead, Gaga said she responded by being “thought provoking and disruptive in another way”, and “used the misinformation to create another disruptive point”.
This led to a now-infamous 2011 interview with CNN, in which Gaga said “my fans don’t care [about my gender] and neither do I.”
Even for a singer behind an anthem like “Born This Way”, that response has aged like fine wine, far better than a meat dress that’s now probably riddled with salmonella.
In any case, the Joker: Folie à Deux star also told Gates that she has since become very familiar with “lies being printed about me”, which earlier this year included (false) fan speculation that she was pregnant.
Naturally, since the work of a mother never stops, that elicited another predictably iconic response from Gaga, who promptly denied the rumours and confirmed there’s (unfortunately) no little monsters on the way.
One rumour Gaga hasn’t yet confirmed or denied is a potential collaboration with Chappell Roan, but I don’t think any of us are truly prepared for that potential mother-off.
Images via Netflix and CNN.