Lady Gaga shut down a reporter after he asked a sexist question: 'I am just a rock star'

Editor's note: This article was originally published on August 23, 2022. It has since been updated.

Few celebrities are as outspoken and intelligent as Lady Gaga, who has become one of today's boldest cultural icons. Gaga has always been a loud, provocative pop star who didn't mind singing about sex in her songs. Not that writing about sex in music is anything new, but Gaga's music videos and lyrics somehow offended certain people and made them ask odd questions. A male journalist felt particularly compelled to inquire about the lyrics the singer-songwriter and makeup tycoon was using in her songs. During a 2009 interview, the journalist asked if she is "scared" that having "sexual references" in her songs could "undermine the music," reports Refinery29.

Gaga cuts him short and shoves his sexist line of questioning. "I'm not scared, are you scared?" Gaga replies, totally unaffected, before casually noting that she has already achieved three Number 1 singles and close to 4 million album sales. "You see, if I was a guy and I was sitting here with a cigarette in my hands grabbing my crotch talking about how I make music because I like fast cars and f**king girls, you'd call me a rock star," she continues. "But when I do it in my music and videos because I'm a female and I make pop music, you're judgmental and say it's distracting." She states assertively, "I'm just a rock star."

This is not the first time Gaga was subjected to insensitive lines of questioning. Before Gaga started appearing in Oscar-winning movies, her gender identity had been a substantial topic of gossip when she burst onto the scene in the late 2000s. She's always been pretty unbothered by the speculation, no matter how crass, sexist, or transphobic.

A perfect example also resurfaced when an old "60 Minutes Overtime" interview with Anderson Cooper gained the attention of the online audience. In a rather unsettling interview, Cooper point blank asked her about her genitalia. "There was that rumor that you had a male appendage, that you were a hermaphrodite," he said, to which Gaga replied, "Maybe I do. Would it be so terrible?... Why the hell am I going to waste my time and give a press release about whether or not I have a penis? My fans don't care, and neither do I."

Over the years, Gaga has solidified her reputation as an individual who is unphased by misgivings about her appearance or identity. She’s become an icon for members of the LGBTQ community, reports Billboard. When she came out as bisexual in 2009, she told her Berlin fans, "This is who I am and who I have always been." She has also put a lot of effort into anti-bullying campaigns to stop hate crimes against LGBTQ youth. Lady Gaga, an activist and vociferous supporter of equality, is dedicated to her followers. She also never holds back when criticizing homophobic or hateful language.

Her popular song "Born This Way" demonstrated how important representation was to the singer. She made it clear that she wanted to support the community with lyrics like "Don't hide yourself in regret, Just love yourself, and you're set" and "No matter gay, straight, or bi, lesbian, transgender life, I'm on the right track, baby, I was born to survive."

Fans have also supported her shutting down the journalist and were reminded of many such responses by Gaga. One fan on Twitter wrote, "This reminds me that back in 2009 Queen Gaga shut down a sexist remark from a racist, homophobic candidate for the 2022 French presidential election (yeah you know who I’m talking about)." Another user on Twitter wrote, "Will forever regret being so judgemental towards during this era when she peaked as an artist. Clearly a queen way ahead of her time."