Online trolls make our lives hell, say Scotland’s top female stars
They call for social media anonymity to be scrapped
SOME of Scotland’s most influential female musicians have spoken out against the online trolls who make performers’ lives a misery.
Chvrches singer Lauren Mayberry and solo stars Amy Macdonald and Be Charlotte are among the artists to reveal they have been victims of online hate – and say they do their best to support one another.
Miss Macdonald – who topped the charts with her debut album This Is The Life in 2007 – said making people register online using their true identity would prevent ‘faceless’ trolls.
The 33-year-old, from Bishopbriggs, near Glasgow, said: ‘Being able to say my new album’s coming out and you can instantly reach a million people that are following you because they like you, that’s an amazing thing.
‘But it also gives people a direct link to you and there are a lot of people who just use social media to be horrible and direct hate at people. That side of it we could improve so easily by making people register properly on websites. There’s too many faceless accounts.’
When Dundee singer Charlotte Brimner, aka Be Charlotte, was targeted online, she was contacted by Miss Mayberry, who had herself been helped by Edinburgh-born Garbage star Shirley Manson.
Miss Brimner, 22, said: ‘Lauren Mayberry reached out to me a few times when I was dealing with things online. Having her support and guidance was incredible.’
Miss Mayberry, 33, from Stirling, said: ‘Our manager had emailed me to say that Be Charlotte had been having a rough time online and a bit in real life, and that was a couple of years after the first incident of that stuff that we had.
‘When people have reached out it reassured me that I wasn’t insane, I wasn’t being oversensitive or blowing it out of proportion. It made me feel better when people acknowledged... it’s not just hurtful and offensive, it’s f****** scary.
‘Saying “it’s just online” doesn’t really cut it… people are like, “Well it’s anonymous, it doesn’t matter”.
‘I don’t think a lot of people can relate to the volume and specific nature of things people are saying.
Shirley Manson has been incredibly kind to me over the course of being in this band – even before we met in real life she reached out.
‘She’s just like the wise fairy godmother of rock.’
The singers spoke out during a documentary celebrating Scotland’s female musicians, God Save the Quine. The hour-long programme explores the journey taken by stars including Annie Lennox, Sharleen Spiteri, Clare Grogan, KT Tunstall and Emma Pollock.
Texas singer Miss Spiteri said: ‘The lack of females in top bills not just in Scotland but worldwide is always a bit of a joke. There is a big boys’ club out there.’
Singer and actress Miss Grogan, 58, who shot to fame as a teenager with new wave group Altered Images, now tours as a solo artist with an all-woman band. She said: ‘We still sometimes arrive at venues and they say, ‘Hmmm, where’s the drummer?”. I’ll be like, ‘She’s there... Lesley”.
‘I find that extraordinary that even now they’re like, “Wow, it’s an all-girl band, and you really play the instruments”.’
Miss Pollock, singer with the Delgados, said: ‘Something as incredibly advanced as Nasa, you wouldn’t be surprised at all to find a raft of female astronauts, mathematicians, physicists.
‘Yet when you walk into a venue in many parts of the world you’ll expect that a guy comes forward to basically start making your gig happen for you, from a technical point of view, and the only women you will see will still be behind the bar.’
‘A lot of people just be horrible and direct hate’