US musician Maggie Rogers has taken to social media to hit back at sexual harassment after being catcalled at her own gig over the weekend.
If you’ve been paying attention to the headlines over the years, you would more than be aware that the topic of sexual harassment is rarely far from the minds of musicians and fans at gigs.
While we’ve seen numerous stories about how audience members have been on the receiving end of unwanted actions from people, it’s not something solely restricted to those off the stage.
In fact, artists such as WAAX, Kira Puru, and Alex The Astronaut all shared individual accounts of harassment that happened in the space of one weekend back in April, while Make Them Suffer followed this up with their own account of how keyboardist Booka Nile was groped by a fan while onstage.
Now, US musician Maggie Rogers is the latest artist to hit back at such behaviour, taking to social media to share her thoughts after being catcalled at her own gig over the weekend.
“take your top off” pic.twitter.com/pqTmWlYIQ6
— Maggie Rogers (@maggierogers) October 20, 2019
Taking to Twitter this morning, Maggie Rogers explained how she was nearing the end of her performance in Austin, Texas as part of Austin City Limits Live when she received some unacceptable comments from members of the audience.
“Every night before the ‘Alaska’ acoustic encore, I speak about gratitude and growth and change,” she explained. “It’s the most vulnerable part of the set. Just me and a guitar before I say goodnight.
“Last night, in the middle of this speech a man yelled ‘take your top off.‘ Another joined in and yelled ‘you cute though.‘
“I was stunned. Furious. Fuming. Confused. And also—on a really basic level—it really hurt my feelings.”
As she continued, Maggie Rogers explained how such behaviour has no place in a society, let alone when she is on stage and connecting with fans through music.
“I step on stage every night and give every part of me,” she added. “And my community shows up every night and together, we create a safe space to amplify each other. To allow relief. To allow release. There’s a deep amount of trust there.
“I step on stage every night with a deep reverence for the stage, my craft, and the privilege that is making music for my job. I’ve been writing and producing music for 10 years—my body is my greatest tool for communicating that work.
“I want to use this moment to be very very clear. There is no space for harassment or disrespect or degradation of any kind at my show,” she concluded. “Be kind to each other out there.”
Check out ‘Alaska’ by Maggie Rogers:
