Trigger warning: discussion of sexual assault
If you are an Australian who keeps a pulse on the local music scene, I am sure that yesterday your feed was inundated with content from this year’s ARIA Awards: from voxpops asking people what the most iconic Australian album is, to street style photos, and the standout speeches from acts ranging from Amyl and The Sniffers to Baarka.
But there was one topic that received barely any coverage at yesterday’s Awards: the ongoing and prevalent issue of sexual abuse and misconduct in the Australian music industry.
So – you might be wondering why mainstream music media is seemingly so hesitant to discuss the prolific issues of sexual abuse and misogyny in our own country.
Australia has some of the most stringent defamation laws worldwide. The New York Times called our country the defamation capital of the world. It is extremely tricky to navigate reporting on these issues, and the horrific fact is that I am unable to even write exactly who we are all thinking about when talking about the systemic issues of sexual abuse in the industry. This is due to the country’s rules surrounding defamation and reporting. It’s not a new issue, and a common conversational topic with my journo friends at the moment is how genuinely appalling these laws are.
But yesterday, when reporting from the ARIAs red carpet, we engaged in conversations with different artists about women’s safety and equality. What we found is that a lot of the artists we spoke to were hesitant to comment on the topic, seemingly in fear of retribution from either the industry or their management. One artist became teary when we raised the topic and said that they were not allowed to say anything, motioning to their management.
They said they wished they could say more, but were unable to speak freely.
Now let me ask this: how on earth are we as a society meant to break down systemic barriers of oppression and abuse if no one is allowed to speak about it?
For artists, there is rarely a positive outcome when speaking out about abuse they have experienced or witnessed. At the end of the day, women and victims’ careers are the ones impacted when these topics are raised. A woman’s whole career can be marred and muddied by the actions of a man, and no woman wants to be defined by a man, especially not one who has been accused of abuse.
From an international perspective, Kesha’s career defining moment will always be her speaking out about the abuse she allegedly suffered at the hands of Dr Luke. She will be remembered in equal parts for her music and the court battle.
And the very notion that managers are telling their talent not to speak publicly on these topics is deeply worrying. Women and victims need places to speak about misogyny and abuse without fear of being dropped by their management.
And journalists should be allowed to speak more openly about the corruption plaguing not just the entertainment industry, but misconduct across all sectors. These defamation laws are making people complicit in abuse and are silencing victims. Essential (and chilling) reading this month for everyone in the industry should be Jennifer Robinson’s and Keina Yoshida’s Silenced Women: Why the Law Fails Women and How to Fight Back – which shines a light on the ways our system keeps women voiceless.
Three years ago we had the groundbreaking Raising Their Voices report, which found that sexual harm and harassment were “experienced and perpetrated by a range of music professionals.” We’ve had Tina Arena, The Veronicas, Missy Higgins and many speak publicly as part of the #meNOmore movement in 2017 off the back of #MeToo and #TimesUp. We also saw musician Jaguar Jonze (Deena Lynch) bravely break her silence on her sexual assault and join other figures in the music industry to establish a Temporary Working Group to drive cultural change in the industry.
But despite these movements, corrupt men are still being platformed in the industry, from awards, to roles, and celebrity cameos in music videos.
Nothing much has changed. And who knows if it ever will.