Paramore’s Hayley Williams Applauds Chvrches’ Lauren Mayberry’s ‘Misogyny’ Piece

Paramore frontwoman Hayley Williams has commended the leader of Scottish synthpop trio Chvrches, Lauren Mayberry‘s recent editorial on “online misogyny”, published in The Guardian earlier this month.

In the editorial, Mayberry described the feeling of being a female in a band “born on the internet.” In particular, Mayberry expressed disgust at the reaction to a request to cease lewd Facebook comments, writing “Comments [ranged] from the disgusted and supportive to the offensively vile.”

Williams has now come out in support of Mayberry’s article, as well as a similar editorial penned by 16-year-old New Zealand singer Lorde. Writing for The Age, Lorde described the pressure put on her by label management to focus on her looks, writing “I’m not a spreadsheet with hair.”

Speaking to Rolling Stone, Williams said:

“I loved Lauren’s and Lorde’s posts. I think it’s really cool that there’s so many rad girls and older women in music. There’s a lot of people that have different points of view and it’s nice to see people coming together and being honest about something that matters and should be talked about.

“I’m so excited to see this stuff surfacing because it’s real.”

Williams also elaborated on her own experiences with misogyny as a female in a male-dominated field, saying:

“When I was 16 and we started touring, I looked like a 12-year-old boy with no makeup, sports bra, one of the guys’ shirts, and I’d wear the same pair of jeans for a month straight. I never showered and was gross and guys that were probably a good 10 years older than me harassed me.

“I remember playing North Star Bar [in Philadelphia] and this guy yelled ‘Take off your shirt!’ probably 10 times. It had happened a couple of times at this point but this guy was super aggressive about it.

“By the fifth or sixth time, I realised that I’m the one with the microphone. I’ve got power here. I don’t have to be quiet.”

Back in April, Canadian electronic artist Claire Boucher a.k.a. Grimes, in a missive posted on her personal Tumblr page, expressed similar sentiments, writing “I’m tired of creeps on message boards discussing whether or not they’d ‘fuck’ me.”

(Via NME)

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