‘BE STRONG AND BRAVE’
Singers speak out after ‘shaming’
This spring, Nashville duo Jill ( Pickering) and Kate ( Rapier) were on tour as backup singers for a male country artist when a friend snapped a goofy picture of Rapier and texted it to a group. It was all in good fun until one tour crew member (unaware Rapier was on the text chain) sent back a message calling her a “#huge” singer.
Rapier immediately recognized it was a jab at how she looks in the photo. Naturally, she was upset. Rapier posted a blog entry about the incident on the duo’s website, using it as a jumping-off point to slam the all-too-common concept of “body-shaming.”
A couple of days later, they were asked to delete the post because it could “reflect poorly” on the artist with whom they were touring. Though they hadn’t named names, Pickering and Rapier removed the post. The following week, they say, they were let go from the tour.
The official reasoning? They were told the tour no longer needed female singers. But shortly after their departure, a new female backup singer was hired. ( While Pickering and Rapier declined to confirm who they were touring with, their original blog post was written in spring 2015 when they were backup singers for longtime country singer Trace Adkins. A representative for Adkins had no comment.)
Though changing up background vocalists isn’t unusual, it was hard not to note the timing. A major cultural conversation of 2015 focused on the particular challenges women have in the male-dominated music and entertainment industry. Pickering and Rapier’s take-away from this year is more than just promoting a body-positive message — to them, it’s also the danger of women being afraid they’ll be deemed “troublemakers” if they speak out.
In an interview, Pickering and Rapier say they have no desire to call anyone out. Rather, they feel compelled to let their fans to know why they kept so quiet this year. They also want to use their platform to raise awareness about the negative effects of body-shaming, and hope they can empower other women when they encounter similar tough situations.
“If we have a mission out of all of this, it’s to share this experience and encourage other women to be strong and brave and share their experiences, too,” Rapier said. “That’s the way that these types of issues will be brought to light, and people will have courage to stand up when they need to.”