Disclaimer: photos featured in this post have no correlation to the topic whatsoever. They are there purely for illustrative purposes.
Starting of heavy, eh?
Allow me to start by saying I am feminist. Quite a vocal one at that. Topics like that really matter to me and it makes me angry more often than not. I wrote so many articles on this topic already and it does not look like they are going to end anytime soon.
It feels like it was a public secret for such a long time, but the truth of the matter is - the music industry has a huge issue with sexism, misogyny etc. From "small" things as lacklustre festival line-ups that rarely ever contain female-fronted or full female bands to a more serious one as treatment of female fans or any female in the business. We all heard what happened to Kesha or what R.Kelly was up to.
#MeToo was only the beginning. More and more victims of musicians are speaking up and by doing so inspiring even more other victims to share their story as well.
Unfortunately, the roots of this issue run so deep and grew quite strong because even though there were cases brought up from time to time. The perpetrator was never held accountable and most of the time got a talking to and his hand slapped.
I believe there are several reasons when violence against women is more "common" in the alternative genre. More so than in any other genre majority of the musicians are men. Moreover, the age difference between the artist and a fan is usually bigger. And finally, alternative artists have a stronger connection with fans and that gives them greater power. In many cases, the blind devotion is so strong that the person has no chance to realize they are being used.
But most importantly - they are rarely ever confronted by their peers.
We could see that when the allegations against Austin Carlile were brought up. If you are not up to date, it started by AltPress publishing an interview with him about his faith and they got heavily criticised for that, especially since they scrapped whole feature article about his abuse of women years ago.
With the initial splash, more witness stories started to come out, including Mikayla Davis, who was to be featured in the original article. It was quite widely talked about and it blew up. So much so it forced the guitar player of the band, Alan Ashby, to release a statement.
“I am speaking out now because I’m extremely disgusted with myself for not realizing this behavior sooner. The info was out there and I didn’t do the research. I had always taken his word on things and now I’m realizing how naive I was to have done that.”
Later he added:
"Absolutely disgusted and heartbroken. While I was indeed aware there was a level of promiscuity going on I want to make it perfectly clear I have never witnessed nor knowingly stood by during any instances of any alleged sexual assault regarding a former bandmate.”
In the past few years, we have seen our fair share of apologies from musicians and their bandmates, who offered their pity to women for having to live through their trauma over and over again. But sometimes it is hard to take it as anything but the last attempt to save their skin.
Of course, we cannot assume how much bands know of each other activities off the stage or outside the studio. But at the same time, it is hard to believe that when they spend days, weeks or months together on a bus, that they do not know about things that are, as mentioned, almost public secret and taking place right under their noses. How can we believe that their bandmates really knew nothing? Ashby had that he had a suspicion, but took his word for it. He knew about the promiscuity. Band usually consists of 4 people, but then there is the whole crew - merch, lighting tech, tour manager etc. There can be around 12 people in one tour bus and so many people in such a small space does not leave much space to "not noticing. They noticed, but decided to ignore it.
Groupies culture is so normalized. So much so that checking the ID or just checking if everyone's okay and/or consensual becomes too annoying.
But thankfully, the behaviour we expect (and forgive), is changing. Groupies are slowly disappearing as well as the culture of silence as I called it. But it is necessary for other men to speak up in time, aks questions, refuse working with people who could be dangerous and most importantly - listen to women. If men are not willing to chip in while being on the front lines and aware of each other's behaviours, then how will anyone get justice?
Predators are often extremely manipulative so the scene itself cannot be fully blamed. Those people will go to extreme lengths to cover their tracks, to look innocent to their friends and family. It is possible to know someone without knowing how rotten they really are on the inside. Only they are responsible for their actions. But as long as they are such people in the scene, there have to people willing to hold them accountable.
Cancel culture is not to blame either. Women, who spoke up against known/powerful/"insert adjective of your choice" men in the scene, did not do it to get clout. They have none. Instead, they are backed up into a corner, interrogated and judged. God help them if they happen to be a sex worker than that only proves to people they have bodily autonomy and it is impossible to assault them.
But if other men - bandmates, tour managers, friends - stood behind those women then maybe, just maybe, they would be taken more seriously. Because without that it is just unknown women against someone loved by X people - who are fans more willing to trust?
Fans are not without a blame either. They may not be around the band, but when someone gets exposed they are the first one to either ignore it and jump to attacking the one sharing the story. There is no evidence, they are lying... while merrily ignoring how hard it is to prove grooming or pressuring. Trying to explain to them anything is usually waste of times as they do not care about others.
I grew up on pop punk and/or emo scene and know first hand how easy it is for others to look the other way. There were shows where I made peace with being groped in advance. There are organizations such as safegigs4women or Safer Scene, which try to work with bands, managers and club to make the scene safer for women, but securing our own safety at such a normal place should not be our job.
So many poeple could have been saved/spare, if men were willing to act with integrity and confidence, when it comes to sexual harrassement. The less men will ignore "promiscuity" on tour or ignore behaviour of their bandmates the safer the scene will be for everyone.
People exposed in the last few years are only on the surface of what's really happening.
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