Courtney Barnett, Tina Arena, Sarah Blasko, the Veronicas, Missy Higgins and Jenny Morris have signed an open letter from more than 360 leadings figures in the Australian music industry demanding “zero tolerance for sexual harassment, violence, objectification and sexist behaviours” in the industry.
The letter, organised by a group of women in the industry as they launch the #MeNoMore movement, contains anonymous first person accounts of harassment, assault and rape.
By Tuesday morning, more than 360 women had signed it, including artists, managers, publicists, booking agents and record label employees.
The open letter is just the latest moment in a movement against sexual harassment, assault and rape in the entertainment and media industries, which has been gathering steam in the wake of allegations against Harvey Weinstein. It was inspired in part by a similar open letter from the Swedish music industry, which was signed by Robyn, Tove Lo, First Aid Kit and more than 2,000 others last month.
The authors of the Australian letter write: “As Hollywood led the #MeToo movement and stories started breaking around the world, we found ourselves offering strength to our friends and colleagues who had their own stories to share – both publicly and in whispered circles.
“It’s become clear that the magnitude of #MeToo extends to our own shores and to our own industry.”
In anonymous anecdotes shared within the letter, one woman told of winning a high school music competition before being recruited and groomed by an Australian musician, who sexually abused her for months, leading her to quit the industry. Another told of a man who was “a pretty big deal in the local electronic music scene” and forced her to “do sexual things to him”, and threatened to ruin her career if she told anyone.
Other stories detailed powerful men groping women, sending unsolicited nude photos, and pressuring women for sex.
“We have listened to our friends,” the letter reads. “We have names of perpetrators. We know the same names that are repeated in unrelated circles. It saddens us that the people who hold us in fear and keep us silenced are people we work with, people who many of us have aspired to work under, and people who some of us have known as friends. These people need to be held accountable.”
Other signatories to the letter include Heidi Lenffer from Cloud Control, singer-songwriter Holly Throsby, DJ Nina Las Vegas, and Isabella Manfredi from the Preatures. In October, Manfredi detailed her own experiences of sexual harassment in the industry in two Instagram posts.
“Perhaps the greatest clarity this unfolding story has given me is some perspective on my own experiences in the music industry, mostly in, but not confined to, America,” she wrote. She told of sexual harassment from a New York indie label head, and inappropriate behaviour from a US booking agent.
“I don’t want the next generation of women coming up in the music industry to face this kind of morally ambiguous, second-guess-yourself crap. It’s not on.”
Tina Arena, who signed the open letter, has also been outspoken against sexism in the music industry.
“Women and men of all ages have something interesting to say but what I have struggled with is the complete ostracisation of a woman [in the music industry] at a certain age,” she said at the 2015 Aria awards.
In 2013 Arena told Fairfax: “It is very difficult to be a female in the industry in Australia, yes absolutely.”
