FEATURE:
Time for Music’s #MeToo!
PHOTO CREDIT: MART PRODUCTION/Pexels
Making Women in Music Feel Safer
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THERE have been a couple of cases…
PHOTO CREDIT: Kat Smith/Pexels
where male musicians (or those in the industry) have been accused of sexual assault and rape. D.J. Tim Westwood, and artist slowthai are both in the news for the wrong reasons. They are not isolated cases in terms of men in music being accused of sexual assault or abuse. I am not sure how each case will play out, but it does bring to the spotlight an ugly and horrible problem that has existed for decades. It is not only sexual abuse and assault that are making women feel unsafe. I am reminded of Emily Atack’s powerful documentary, Asking for It?, she discusses her experiences with daily online sexual harassment. Even though she is an actor and presenter, this is something that a lot of women in music can relate to. That is a reason why the documentary is so powerful. From high-profile people like Atack, through to rising artists, so many women can share their experiences of sexual harassment and abuse online. It is also threats of violence and general nastiness that seems to be on the rise. I know that raising awareness – women talking about their experiences – is helping, but it should not only be down to them to bring about change. A couple of rather unsettling cases of sexual assault have made me think widely about something I wrote about fairly recently. At gigs, safegigs4women provide advice to those attending gigs. How they can be more aware and help if they see any women being harassed. They have recently partnered with The Anchoress for her tour. She (Catherine Anne Davies) is someone who has been on the receiving end of abuse and sexual harassment online.
One might say that it is a bit repetitive me revisiting something I wrote about only recently. There is one big reason why I am doing so: because nothing has really changed. Organisations and women themselves are tackling and illuminating the extent of the problem; the industry itself and those in power are not doing enough. I want to look further at sexual harassment and assault in the industry - though online bullying and sexual harassment is rife. So many women feel fearful about speaking out and maybe fearing further attacks and criticism. There is also a thing where many women do not feel supported or believed. Emily Atack shared her experiences in a recent documentary. We do need something music-based where we can hear and see just what so many women go through on a daily basis. It is sickening and completely unacceptable! I want to look at a number of articles from the past year that show, through various genres and sides of the industry, sexual harassment, abuse and assault are still very much alive and relatively unchallenged. I will end by reigniting the thought and desire many have is that, like in Hollywood, the music industry urgently needs its own #MeToo movement (in a recent feature, The Times erroneously stated that there is a #MeToo movement in music happening/starting). I don’t think one can say there is a visible, organised or active #MeToo movement in music. Although there are women raising awareness and trying to affect change, it takes the mobilisation of a lot more people and sectors of the industry. There is such a toxic and unrelenting problem at the moment, that it requires something huge! If steps are being made to make women feel safer, one can definitely not say the industry is clean and has things handled. From anonymous trolling and abusive messages to women being harassed and assaulted, why is his not right at the forefront?!
PHOTO CREDIT: Dragana_Gordic via Freepik
I will continue on that thread. First, there is proof and writing that backs up the hard truths. Many women do not feel safe or like they are being heard. The brilliant Musically published a feature earlier this year that showed it is not only women feeling harassed or unsafe – there is still gender equality and gulfs when it comes to opportunities and equal pay:
“TuneCore and Believe have published their latest ‘Be The Change’ study of gender equality in the music industry, timed to come out on International Women’s Day.
It offers the latest stats on some of the challenges facing women and gender expansive people in music, based on a survey of 1,656 industry folk and musicians.
34% of women surveyed said they had been sexually harassed or abused at work in the music industry, and that percentage rose to 42% for trans people and 43% for nonbinary people.
58% of the people surveyed disagreed with the idea that ‘everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed in the music industry’, with pay gaps, mental health, a lack of access to professional training and development, and being passed over for promotions among the challenges explored.
“We need more change. We, as individuals and as an industry must heed the calls to action and do just that – take action,” said TuneCore CEO Andreea Gleeson.
“Small changes add up and if we each do something different each day, week, month, year, we will see a sea change in the industry.”
You can read the full study, which this year was a partnership with research firm Luminate – here”.
IN THIS PHOTO: Keke Palmer/PHOTO CREDIT: Unique Nicole/Getty Images
Before getting to a more general feature, actor and musician Keke Palmer discussed her experiences in the music industry. There is a lot that needs addressing and tackling, that is for sure. So many women are reporting such shocking things – and there are many more who have not spoken about it yet. It is clear an organised movement needs to happen sooner rather than later:
“Keke Palmer is opening up about her experience in the music industry and the change she wants to see.
While talking with People magazine, in an interview published online Friday, about her new album Big Boss and its self-written accompanying film, which follows her journey within the music industry, the Nope actress said the #MeToo Movement “hasn’t happened in music, and it should.”
“Bad shit happens in all industries, obviously, but specifically entertainment,” Palmer, who has been in Hollywood for more than two decades, added. “We know bad things happen in all of them, but it’s almost like the acting world represents a union and the music industry represents non-union.”
The #MeToo movement, which brings awareness to sexual harassment and abuse in the workplace, grew to prominence in 2017 following multiple allegations of sexual harassment and abuse against former movie mogul Harvey Weinstein. He was later convicted in a New York and Los Angeles trial.
“It’s happening in the actor world but eventually, it’s going to come to a damn halt,” the singer said. “Somebody’s going to get called out. Something’s going to happen. At some point, we’re going to come to some kind of understanding. With music, it’s like everybody is being paid, and everybody’s a crooked cop. So, it seems like nothing will ever really come to a head.”
When discussing her personal experiences in the industry, Palmer said she has learned to stand up for herself over time, but that the “sad thing is that you learn these things from being in bad situations. It almost feels like it’s a coming-of-age story for a woman.”
“Being a woman is like, ‘Damn, the biggest mistake you can make is trusting somebody.’ Damn, I just shouldn’t have trusted someone?” she told the outlet. “I wish that there was more that we could do, but it seems like we can’t even really expect for people to respect our boundaries.”
When asked if she’s ever considered moving away from the music industry, given all the setbacks, she said, “Yeah, all the time. All the time I’ve thought about stepping away and somehow would find myself back again”.
Musicians such as Ashanti have discussed their experiences. It does give confidence and impetus to other women to come forward, knowing they will have the understanding and support of their peers. Although there are a lot of men also asking for change, there is not enough constructive and positive action from higher up. How long before the ongoing and horrifying realities of sexual harassment and abuse in music becomes serious enough to warrant something huge?! One musician I am a big fan of is Jaguar Jonze. The Australian-based artist has shared her experience of sexual assault. This article from The Guardian explored sexism and discrimination in the Australian music industry. It uncovered – via The Raising Their Voices report – that there was an alarmingly high degree of sexual harassment and assault too:
“More than 50% of respondents to a long-awaited report on sexism and discrimination in Australia’s music industry have experienced sexual harassment or harm in the workplace, with the report’s authors describing their findings as confronting, but not unexpected.
The Raising Their Voices report was released on Thursday, the result of more than 1,600 interviews and survey questionnaires that asked musicians, technicians and record label employees about their experiences of sexual harassment, bullying and discrimination in the industry.
The independent investigation was commissioned last year after a roundtable of music industry professionals was called to address mounting allegations of sexual harm, sexual harassment, alcohol and drug abuse and systemic discrimination in the industry.
Fifty-five per cent of respondents alleged they had experienced some form of workplace sexual harassment and sexual harm in their career. The report defines sexual harm as “behaviour which constitutes sexual harassment, sexual assault, indecent assault and rape. It also includes attempted sexual assault, attempted indecent assault and attempted rape.”
More than one-third said the alleged sexual harassment or harm had occurred within the past five years.
Three out of four perpetrators of alleged sexual harassment were men. The most common places where the harassment occurred was at music venues (45%) followed by the office (21%) or work-related events (17%).
Almost 80% of respondents said they had experienced some form of “everyday sexism” in the course of their career, and just as many – the vast majority being women – said they had experienced workplace bullying.
The report concluded that women do not thrive to the same extent as men within the Australian music industry, and that young people and people of diverse backgrounds, particularly First Nations people, were at higher risk of harm and poor employment practices.
The report also found that women were being kept out of “key decision-making arenas that determine what music gets played and who gets signed, supported, nurtured and profiled”, affecting the industry more broadly.
MusicNSW managing director, Emily Collins, said the findings revealed a strong appetite for widespread and sustainable cultural change across an industry where outdated models of behaviour were still largely tolerated.
“Every workplace, no matter what part of the Australian workforce you’re in, should be safe and respectful,” she said.
“One of the findings is that some parts of the music industry aren’t obeying [workplace] regulations. This report provides a watershed moment for the industry. Despite the findings of the review, the fact that the review exists is a good sign.”
The 76-page report includes multiple first-hand, anonymous accounts of music industry employees’ experiences.
“No one looks at your CV, they look at your chest and your bod,” one respondent said.
“As a young single woman, you are immediately objectified and othered,” said another.
“It’s an industry built on the idea that women are entertainment … women have to work 10 times harder to prove themselves,” said another.
“I can’t progress here because I’m good at making my male manager look good. I’m too useful to him,” said one respondent.
“There is no career path. 100%, there is a very low glass ceiling. There are heaps of women at mid-tier levels, then further up, it’s mainly men,” said another.
Multiple female performers reported being mistaken for a girlfriend of a male bandmember, the report said, with many women saying they felt pressured to appear sexy, accept being paid less and put off having children, in order to succeed.
“Until the people who have been there for [many years] are gone, there’s only so much that can change, because they are the most powerful and they are set in their ways. They’re gonna have their boys’ lunches, they’re gonna have their golf days … It’s habitual almost,” one respondent said.
In July, the newly appointed arts minister, Tony Burke, told Guardian Australia he would leverage his position as employment and workplace relations minister to tackle sexual harassment and discrimination within Australia’s cultural industries.
He cited the 2021 allegations of sexual assault by singer songwriter Jaguar Jonze, and the workplace culture at major recording label Sony Music, exposed by Guardian Australia, which resulted in its long-serving chief executive Denis Handlin being removed after more than 25 years leading the Australian arm of the global corporation.
The Raising Their Voices report found that only 3% of survey participants had made a formal report alleging sexual harassment in the past five years.
The perceived lack of accountability for perpetrators was cited as a major barrier to formally reporting misconduct, the report concluded, and an overhaul of reporting and investigation mechanisms in the industry is one of the inquiry’s 17 recommendations”.
Jaguar Jonze will begin a new show at Sydney Opera House, Vivid LIVE, from 1st June, which she hopes will put the audience in her shows regarding her experiences. It has just been featured by ABC in Australia. It will be a moving, extraordinary and possibly cathartic show that you should see if you can:
“It's something she has been reckoning with ahead of her Sydney Opera House debut for Vivid LIVE, part of the Sydney-wide Vivid festival.
The genre-bending performance will blend music from her debut album BUNNY MODE and two earlier EPs with film and shibari, a Japanese rope bondage practice. Titled The Art of Broken Pieces, the show is a reclamation of bodily and artistic autonomy for Jonze, who has been unable to speak freely about her alleged assault and has found herself increasingly defined by her advocacy over her artistry”.
I have sourced this article before, but VICE investigated the issue of sexual assault in clubs and bars affected female D.J.s. A campaign was started off of the back of DJ Rebekah’s experiences. It makes me think that this is a good catalyst for something bigger and industry-wide:
“When DJ Rebekah read about the allegations of sexual assault surrounding fellow DJs Erick Morillo and Derrick May in 2020, she saw the same instances of sexism and harassment that she experienced early in her career. “I just realised shit, this stuff hasn't changed,” Rebekah told me. “I've been around this industry for over 20 years and nothing's changed.”
As a survivor of sexual abuse in the industry herself, Rebekah set up #ForTheMusic, a campaign to expose the music industry’s sinister underbelly and was inundated with stories from people who left the industry. “I've had many women contact me and say their experience has pushed them out and they've lost so much confidence,” says Rebekah. “There's cases of women DJs having residences in clubs and bars and suffering from harassment, and then they've just stopped their residences.”
The cases Rebekah found align with industry reporting that points to an alarmingly widespread issue that has yet to be fully dealt with. In a 2019 report, the Musicians’ Union, which represents 31,000 musicians in the UK, found that 48 percent of respondents said they had experienced workplace harassment, and the union were aware of cases where artists left the industry completely after experiencing sexism or abuse. The prevalence of abuse in the industry was so widespread that according to John Shortell, Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at Musicians’ Union, many people saw sexual harassment as an “occupational hazard” that was “part and parcel of the job”.
IN THIS PHOTO: Sarah Hildering
Many in the industry believe these figures are a lowball estimate. “I think it's higher,” says Sarah Hildering, the Director of Dance & Electronic at Ingrooves Music Group. In 2020, she helped write the code of conduct on sexual harassment for the Association for Electronic Music. “Women discount sexual harassment for themselves, because they know there will be repercussions.”
Over the last few years, music fans have had to come to terms with allegations of sexual misconduct and abuse directed at some of the biggest names in the industry. These include the late Morillo, who was accused of sexual assault by numerous women; techno DJ May, who was accused of assault by four women and Def Jam co-founder Russell Simmons, who has numerous allegations of sexual misconduct against him detailed in the HBO Max documentary On The Record. In 2021, actor Evan Rachel Wood and four other women named Marilyn Manson as their abuser; in 2022, multiple women came forward to accuse former BBC Radio 1 DJ Tim Westwood of sexual misconduct. Westwood, Manson, Simmons and May have all denied the allegations against them.
Women may be starting to come forward, but the music industry still seems behind the times when it comes to tackling abuse. Why are people leaving the industry and what can be done to stop this exodus?
Stories of artists who quit music after being harassed are commonplace at Good Night Out, an organisation that helps bars and venues better respond to sexual harassment – so much so that many have questioned the mark such a loss has made on the industry. “You mourn the lost potential of the survivors who've been harmed to the extent that their creativity just ended there,” says Kai Stone, the head of communications and partnerships at Good Night Out. “All of those records and gigs that didn't happen because of somebody else's abusive choices and us not having the set up in place to either prevent that or respond to that”.
IN THIS PHOTO: Nomi Abadi
I will finish with an article from Rolling Stone published back in February. Melissa Schuman (an American singer and actor) spoke at a press conference in the U.S., calling out predators and abusers. Let’s hope that this helps keep a ball rolling that needs cooperation and pledges from labels, heads and, of course, men in the in the industry:
“NOMI ABADI HAS been a piano prodigy since she was three years old and has toured around the word as a classical pianist, releasing numerous albums and EPs. But as she stood at a podium in a downtown Los Angeles hotel conference room Friday afternoon, she wasn’t there to talk about her accomplishments.
“I dream of the music industry where there are no sexual predators of women,” the advocate and founder of the Female Composer Safety League said at the press conference ahead of Sunday’s Grammy Awards. “I dream of a music industry where no little girl will ever encounter a sexual predator again … The time for sexual predators in music is over. The time for respect for all women begins now.”
Abadi and other sexual assault survivors gathered to call out the music industry for what they see as a pattern of enabling and profiting off sexual predators.
Jeff Anderson, the lawyer who for decades has filed suits against the Roman Catholic Church over sexual abuse of children and raised widespread awareness of the scandal, organized the press conference and is representing women suing Steven Tyler and Marilyn Manson for sexual assault of a minor. (Tyler and Manson have denied the accusations.)
“We’re here today because this is a time for a reckoning,” Anderson said. “It’s a time for us and the survivors and their allies to call the industry to account. The entertainment industry and the music industry has [permitted], and continues to permit, sexual violence. It continues to protect those that commit it and it continues to profit from [it].”
Anderson went on to compare the music industry to the Catholic Church in terms of what he feels is widespread abuse and protection, with speaker and advocate Alexa Nikolas adding, “Mark a survivor’s words: the music industry is the Catholic Church on steroids.”
“Predators will come and go, but as long as institutions like the music industry enable and participate in the abuse and silencing towards survivors, then it won’t matter if ‘one bad apple,’ as they love to say, gets let go,” she added”.
With each passing month, we hear of men in the industry accused of sexual assault or harassment. There is a big issue on social media where women feel threatened and abused. From live gigs through to events behind closed doors, there are far too many incidents of women being assaulted. If individuals are called out, found guilty and punished, what are the consequences?! I am aware that there are men falsely accused, but the majority of those accused are found culpable. They are not banned from the industry, nor is there an uprising and call for change from those who hold power – or those men in executive positions. There does need to be a #MeToo movement in music that matches that we saw in Hollywood – which, in turn, has brought about change and greater awareness of a massive problem. Things have been bad for so long, so it is long overdue that the industry needs to galvanise and create their #MeToo. Let us hope that…
IMAGE CREDIT: GLAMOUR
THIS happens soon.