Sexual harassment is defined as harassment in a workplace, or other professional or social situation, involving the making of unwanted sexual advances or obscene remarks. One in four women and one in six men will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime.

In previous years, numerous male and female celebrities have been sexually assaulted by both men and women. One such celebrity was Lady Gaga. The 280-million-dollar singer is known by her infamous, and sometimes,  preposterous outfits but under the insane clothing is a young adult who used to be harassed sexually by her own record producer. This occurred when Lady Gaga was 19 years old and her record producer was 20 years older. It took her nine years to confess her story on December 2014 to radio host Howard Stern. She admits, “It didn’t affect me as much right after as it did about four or five years later,” she said. “It hit me so hard. I was so traumatized by it that I was like, ‘Just keep going,’ because I just had to get out of there.”

As a result, she wrote a song called “Swine” to illustrate what she went through. Lady Gaga stated, “The song is about rape. The song is about demoralization. The song is about rage and fury and passion and I had a lot of pain that I wanted to release and I said to myself, ‘I want to sing this song while I’m ripping hard on a drum kit and then I want to get on a mechanical bull, which is probably one of the most demoralizing things that you can put a female on in her underwear, and I want this chick to throw up on me in front of the world so that I can tell them, ‘You know what, you can never ever degrade me as much as I could degrade myself and look how beautiful it is when I do.’”

Does her fame and success separate her from allegations and put her in a higher level of support and acceptance? No, because a celebrity should not be treated any more or any less than any man or woman reporting harassment or sexual assault. However, celebrities should use their status to demonstrate the importance of speaking out and to further a cause. They have the capacity to reach more people and their voice carries greater weight–thus having a significant impact.

This has become a hot-button issue and there is a long list of celebrities who have been accused of sexual assault and have lost their jobs.

What our society needs to do is learn from this and manage the impact. We are seeing a lack of separation from their status and the accusations. It has become a no-brainer for people like Matt Lauer, Charlie Rose and others to immediately get terminated, whereas people in public office continue to hold onto their positions. The litmus test should be more about the leveled accusations. For instance, Roy Moore is accused of child molestation and yet he is permitted to stay in the Alabama Senate race, whereas the accusations presented against actor Dustin Hoffman seem benign.

The response from the celebrity community is normally swift but could also be an over-reaction, yet in the public sector it is the victim who becomes the outcast. Furthermore, no one, no matter what their status is within our society, should be above the law. Each person, should be held accountable for their actions, and the consequence should be based on the severity of their actions. Regardless of whether you are a public figure or not, it is important to engage in the dialogue and speak out and up about sexual assault and harassment.

For many years and in many different societal sectors women, and some men,  have been victims of sexual harassment and assault and have been accepting since it was always considered the norm.  Many assume it is the only way to keep a job or even get a job. In Hollywood it was well-known that many women had to sleep with top executives to get their big break or even take the casual rude remarks in order to get the part. Who ever is accused, no matter who they are, should be met with the appropriate punishment, even if they are a talented artist. We cannot condone bad behavior no matter what and no matter who.