Her message of solidarity
Why Clarkson stands behind women who speak up
Kelly Clarkson isn’t one to stay silent. Not about her new music, not her family life, and as a look at her Twitter feed reveals, not about the state of the world today.
In a conversation about her new album, Meaning of Life (out Friday), Clarkson told USA TODAY she has spent the past weeks watching and listening to the women responding to Harvey Weinstein’s downfall and rallying around the #MeToo hashtag, telling their stories of harassment and assault. As for her own experiences with harassment, she’s among the lucky ones in her industry not to have any horror stories.
“You know girl, I’m blessed to
say that I have not,” Clarkson says. “I’ve never, or any of my friends, been around that in this work environment.”
Clarkson shares that she has friends who’ve “gone through some horrific experiences,” and she voiced her support for the women who have been brave enough to speak out. And for the people who haven’t yet shared their story, Clarkson urges them to have strength.
“That’s why I’m all about, ‘People should talk about it if something happened to you.’ Well, the reason why I feel like they should talk about it isn’t necessarily just to bring the light on someone that might be doing it to other people,” she says.
“I don’t think people aren’t able to heal without voicing it, without having it validated that something horrible happened to them, and they suppress it. And I’ve just had a couple of friends from childhood that had some things happen to them, and they kept quiet about it for so long. And people don’t get the gravity, the weight, the longevity of that.”
She describes an exchange with her husband, Brandon Blackstock, while watching Weinstein coverage on the news one night, when she pondered what she would’ve done in a similar situation.
“I mean, my husband and I will turn on the news ... and he’ll ask me, ‘What would you do?’ ” she says. “And I’m like, I don’t even know. I might have just frozen. Because you’re in shock. Because you think you’ll just run away, but you can’t — you have no idea what’s about to happen.”
Clarkson has her own history battling powerful men in the music industry, from fighting back against characterizations of her in Clive Davis’ memoir to sharing how her label “blackmailed” her into working with Kesha’s alleged abuser, Dr. Luke. For women who are fighting harassment in the music industry, especially those at the beginning of their careers, Clarkson offers words of support.
“You know unfortunately, I think a lot of people think, ‘Well, I have to keep working with this person or I won’t be able to have a career,’ ” she said. “But like — do you want a career like that? I would give all of this away if it meant I had to be around someone that made me feel the way these women have been made to feel. I would. There’s no way.
“And I get it. People are fearful because it’s their job. ... But my advice is that, look, things are going to (get in) your way. And if you really love what you do, you need to find people around you that love and support you. ... You just have to say, at the end of the day, is this worth me putting up with? Is that worth it?
“Because I’m going to guarantee you if people are being honest with themselves, it’s not.”