Photo: Wenn
Chrissie Hynde has continued to throw gasoline on the fire by labelling modern pop stars "prostitutes" in a new interview.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour, the Pretenders star launched an attack on modern pop icons, making for some very tense conversation. She suggested that today's popstars dress over-provocatively and send a wrong message about over-sexualisation.
In a thinly-veiled reference to the likes of Miley Cyrus and Rihanna, Hynde branded them "sex workers" for selling music by "bumping and grinding" in their underwear. The singer-songwriter also accused them of committing "a great deal of damage" to women through their suggestive performances.
"I don't think sexual assault is a gender issue as such," Hynde said: "I think it's very much all around us now".
She continued: "It’s provoked by this pornography culture, it’s provoked by pop stars who call themselves feminists. Maybe they’re feminists on behalf of prostitutes – but they are no feminists on behalf of music, if they are selling their music by bumping and grinding and wearing their underwear in videos. That’s a kind of feminism – but, you know, you’re a sex worker is what you are."
Hynde has been under fire for her controversial tirades on rape culture after claiming that she thought that what she said was 'common sense'.
"At the moment, we’re in one of the worst humanitarian crises in our lifetime," Hynde said to The Washington Post: "You see that picture of a Turkish policeman carrying the body of a 3-year-old boy who got washed up on the shore. These are the heartbreaking images we have and we’re talking about millions of displaced persons and people whose families have been destroyed and we’re talking about comments that I allegedly made about girls in their underwear.”
Her original statement that incited this backlash read: "If I’m walking around and I’m very modestly dressed and I’m keeping to myself and someone attacks me, then I’d say that’s his fault. But if I’m being very lairy and putting it about and being provocative, then you are enticing someone who’s already unhinged – don’t do that."
