Photo: Screenshot
After she was at the receiving end of misogynistic abuse over the release of the 'Leave A Trace' video, Chvrches' Lauren Mayberry has discussed the issue on Channel 4 News, saying, "There has to be a shift in the cultural approach to women."
The band released the video for 'Leave A Trace', the first single from their forthcoming second album Every Open Eye, earlier this month. The video focuses more heavily on Mayberry than the other two members, and sees her standing, Jesus-like, atop a pool of water while multi-coloured storm clouds raise hell behind her.
Watch the video for 'Leave A Trace' below
Shortly after the video went online, a pretty vile 4chan thread was set up, accusing Mayberry of hypocrisy for taking centre-stage in the video, calling her a "whore" and a "slut" and discussing extensively whether they would have sex with her.
When Mayberry was, ludicrously, asked to join the discussion by a Twitter user, she tweeted, "Dear anyone who thinks misogyny isn't real. It is and this is what it looks like."
Dear anyone who thinks misogyny isn't real. It is and this is what it looks like. http://t.co/cLC97T8MxU pic.twitter.com/2bBZtw4yoL
— Lauren Mayberry (@laurenevemay) August 17, 2015
Last night, Mayberry appeared on Channel 4 News to discuss the misogyny she faces - explaining that she is merely a more high-profile, more intense example of the sort of thing all women must face throughout their lives.
"If you don't like what a woman is doing," she said, "then you fall back on the basic caveman arguments of threatening with physical and sexual violence, because that's your trump card, that's how you get women to shut up."
Addressing the video specifically, she said, "I'm a 27 year old woman wearing a mini dress with wet look hair. If you don't like it, that's fine, but there's a difference between criticism and hatred."
She added, "When we first started to get more visible it did take a psychological toll... I've got to a point where it's helpful for me to have a persona. Somebody tweeted me the other day, 'If you can’t learn to deal with this sort of shit, stick a gun in your mouth before the record even comes out. I have one and I’ll give it to you.' Personally, that's horrifying, if somebody put that through your door, you would go to the police with that."
Watch Lauren Mayberry on Channel 4 News below
Responding to suggestions that she stop drawing attention to the 'trolls', Mayberry said, "They want to scare and they want to intimidate and they want to silence people, so ignoring it to me doesn't make a difference, and I can hand on heart tell you that we get just as many of those comments when I wear a baggy t-shirt and shorts at a gig as when I wear a dress in the video. So to me it isn't necessarily based on what you're doing in that particular moment."
Back in 2013, the musician wrote a viral comment piece for The Guardian on the misogyny, both explicit and subtle, that she has encountered during her time in the music industry.
Earlier this year, she took a stand against the daily rape threats she receives online, saying, "Women will not be shamed and silenced and made to disappear."
