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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Jamie Roberts

Janice Robinson urges music industry to 'stop sexualising women'

Singer Janice Robinson has expressed her desire for the music industry to be more open to female leaders and urged it to stop sexualising women.

The songstress, 54, recently re-released her iconic '90s tune Dreamer and insists there must be change in the industry if we are to help those future generations.

Janice spoke to The Mirror about how men are still controlling the majority of the sector and sent a clear message that there must be a clearer balance in control, stating everyone must work together to reach a common goal.

She insisted it was not about emasculating men, but more about providing a clear and positive message for the younger generations of the world.

"I believe that we consciously have to do better at being aware of how amazing women are, and how amazing men are," she said.

"...There needs to be a shift. There needs to be more women at the head."

Janice Robinson recently re-released '90s hit Dreamer alongside DJ Lodato (janicelovesmusic / Instagram)

The star, who was also a hit in the "overs" category on X Factor four years ago, confessed she feels the music industry is guilty of "sending you out to pasture at a certain age" and says we must stop making the youth of today feel as if nobody cares once you're over a certain age.

"The beautiful thing is a woman's wisdom really radiates as they get older, and that wisdom can help," she continued.

"My experience in the '90s was that it was very clear you had to look a certain way. You had to be a certain size. You had to listen to the male record company execs, the male promoters, the male agents."

She admits that while this was the case, she was "defiant" and surrounded herself with authoritative figures who were women.

"I always love empowering women. I had a woman manager in the '90s, and a female lawyer."

She continued: "I think there's been a level of exploitation. I think women are constantly exploited for their bodies, for their looks.

"And I always say, I wish my intelligence could be more the topic, you know? I wish we could talk about how intelligent and smart and creative a woman is, as opposed to her body, who she's sleeping with, you know, it's just such a condescending conversation.

"And it translates to young girls - that's the message we're sending."

Janice insists collectively we must "see the beauty in our differences" if we are going to grow as a society and believes the best way in which the music industry can do so is to reach out to women who have been involved in the industry in the past.

"I would go and find about 100 women, women artists, or businesswomen who are retired," she said.

"I would find some of the greatest women who survived the music industry and that will put them in positions of power to work with the men. No one's saying, 'get rid of men', you just have to have the balance, there has to be a balance of men and women all working toward the common goal.

"Stop sexualising women, because now that we have the pronouns and the transgender, you know, that's really big. That is a big community. And to be fair, we have to be conscious of how we treat people."

The powerful singer doesn't just believe sexualising women is the problem, though, and claims the viciousness of people - particularly online - is getting out of control and is having a hugely negative effect on youngsters.

Currently working stateside as a teacher, mum-of-two Janice said: "I'm seeing it first hand how the behaviour of adults is destroying their [young people's] confidence.

"It's making them behave towards each other in such a negative way. It's just crazy to see the level of hatred in young people in the way they treat each other in such a negative way...

"...We have to be mindful of what they're seeing, what they're listening to, because this generation will be running the country."

But, she is adamant change for the good can happen if we want it to. She concluded with a positive message, saying: "Life is never picture perfect, but what is beautiful about life is knowing at any moment you can pick up a different colour and you can shade it any colour you desire."

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