Paramore singer Hayley Williams has opened up about sexism and misogyny in music - saying that she agrees with recent claims by Lorde and Chvrches frontwomen Lauren Mayberry.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Williams spoke about her experiences in fronting a band as a female in rock and spoke of her admiration of comments from her two contemporaries - with Lorde hitting out at the way that stars like Selena Gomez oversexualise teenage girls and Mayberry hitting out against comments aimed at women in music.
"I loved Lauren's and Lorde's posts," she said. "I think it's really cool that there's so many rad girls and older women in music. There's a lot of people that have different points of view and it's nice to see people coming together and being honest about something that matters and should be talked about. I'm so excited to see this stuff surfacing because it's real." "
She continued: "When I was 16 and we started touring, I looked like a 12-year-old boy with no makeup, sports bra, one of the guys' shirts, and I'd wear the same pair of jeans for a month straight. I never showered and was gross and guys that were probably a good 10 years older than me harassed me. I remember playing North Star Bar [in Philadelphia] and this guy yelled 'take off your shirt!' probably 10 times. It had happened a couple of times at this point but this guy was super aggressive about it.
Williams added: "By the fifth or sixth time, I realised that I'm the one with the microphone. I've got power here. I don't have to be quiet."
Watch Chvrches performing 'The Mother We Share' below
Last month when writing a blog for The Guardian, Chvrches Lauren Mayberry revealed how she posted a screengrab of a Facebook message from someone requesting to take her out to dinner so they could 'make superior love' - before receiving a flurry of offensive and sexist responses, including rape threats.
Mayberry responded to the flurry of messages by writing: "But why should women 'deal' with this? I am incredibly lucky to be doing the job I am doing at the moment – and painfully aware of the fact that I would not be able to make music for a living without people on the internet caring about our band. But does that mean that I need to accept that it's OK for people to make comments like this, because that's how women in my position are spoken to? I absolutely accept that in this industry there is comment and criticism."
She continued: "There will always be bad reviews: such is the nature of a free press and free speech. When you put your work out there, you are accepting the fact that people will comment on it, but it is your choice whether you read it or not.
"What I do not accept, however, is that it is all right for people to make comments ranging from "a bit sexist but generally harmless" to openly sexually aggressive. That it is something that "just happens". Is the casual objectification of women so commonplace that we should all just suck it up, roll over and accept defeat? I hope not. Objectification, whatever its form, is not something anyone should have to "just deal with".
