ME TOO MOVEMENT AND HALL OF FAME HONOUR Singer Annie reveals her goal to win equality for all women
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Now she has set her sights on helping women all over the world to achieve equality.
But the legendary Eurythmics singer believes, for that to happen, men will have to be enlisted as feminists.
Annie, 63, said: “The global feminist movement must include boys and men. It must be inclusive. It cannot be that men are the enemy.
“I totally believe that for evolution to take place and progress to be made that boys and men must be included in the dialogue, in order for their minds and attitudes to shift.
“Fighting ultimately just creates polarities and disagreements. We need to understand that men can be feminists too.
“The misogynist, repulsive behaviour that ends in abuse, physical violence and sexual abuse must be stopped and accounted for. It must be society that says no, that a man would never dream of abusing a woman in that way.”
Annie, who lives in Los Angeles, was disgusted by the revelations of president Donald Trump’s rhetoric against women prior to him becoming US president.
Yet she says little has changed since the Me Too movement emerged in the wake of sexual assault allegations against powerful Hollywood men such as disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.
Annie said: “Women and men came out in their millions marching in the streets after Trump’s p***y-grabbing comments.” “Ordinary people who maybe hadn’t given much thought to it were deeply offended and outraged and said, ‘ Enough of these misogynistic attitudes,’ and that’s great. “I’m very encouraged by Me Too because I think it is good as a platform and issue.
“But there’s still so much to be done. The world was a chauvinistic place and is still a chauvinistic place.
“It is not history. Just because we have had a Me Too movement, it doesn’t mean to say that things have changed that much.” Having been inducted into the Scottish Music Hall of Fame at last night’s Scottish Music Awards in aid of the Nordoff Robbins music therapy charity, Annie dedicated her honour to her music teachers. Having previously won an Oscar, eight Brits, four Grammys and a Golden Globe, she said: “What makes this award special is the connection to Scotland and, when I think back on it, I have a lot of gratitude for music lessons and an exposure to music-making in Aberdeen.
“It is an award to be proud of, not necessarily for me but for those teachers who sow seeds in young people, whether in something like music or sports.
“It is only when you are older that you start to appreciate the benefits of something rooted in you as a little seedling when you were a child. So I have to thank my music teachers in Scotland.”
Far from resting on her laurels, Annie is back with the theme song to the film A Private War, based on the story of war correspondent Marie Colvin, who died in 2012 while covering the siege of Homs in Syria.
Annie said: “The query that people will always raise is what does it take for an individual like Marie and many more war correspondents to run into a place of danger and risk their lives rather than run away from it?
“They are motivated to run into the core, the heart of darkness in order to get that story out.
“In her case, she took massive life risks and that was the level she operated on.
“What I’ve heard was that she was there and Assad made sure that border was targeted.
“What she was trying to get out to the world was
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that AsAssad was targeting innocent civilians. This is why we havehav millions of refugees coming from countries like SySyria seeking shelter, seeking another life, so there are mamany more deep questions to be asked that run througthrough your mind after you watch a film like this.” HavHaving formed The Eurythmics with Dave Stewart in 1981980, the duo went on to sell 75million records, includincluding hits such as Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) and HHere Comes The Rain Again. The Eurythmics disbanded in 1990 but Annie went on to have a successful solo career with hits such as Why and Walking On Broken Glass. Yet she admits that she might never have become ScotScotland’s most successful singer-songwriter had she nnot overcome stage fright as a child. AnnieAn added: “We had a music centre in Aberdeen that I went to every Saturday with a little band and I sangsan in orchestras and they ran a music festival. “FromF the age of seven, the teacher would give me songsson or piano pieces that had to be performed in a competitivecom way at these music festivals. I was performingperrforming evenev then but in a very different way.” SheS admits her countless worldwide tourstou and hits with The Eurythmics becamebec a blur at times and some of the eventseve are largely forgotten. AnnieA said: “There are certain things I remremember and cer ttain things that need to be joggedjogge or I don’t rememberremem them. “WhenWh it came to touring,tourin there were so manyman gigs and so many concertsc one night aftera another and we werew going in a van or cars or tour buses, it’it’s a bit of a blur. “I saw the world through the windows of cars anand hotel rooms and dressdressing rooms.” But she does recall plenty of sexism ono occasions The Eurythmics visited the BBC. Annie said: “Talk about the music industry, I don’t think it was any dif ferent to other industries. Who knows what is still out there to tell? There were always rumours about Jimmy Savile. There were DJs who made the jokes about parts of women’s bodies. That was the times. “It was offensive but you made allowances for it because that was how the zeitgeist was. “It was the culture in the BBC that was machismo. Maybe now they have to change. “Young people come up and things evolve and change and it is wonderful. It is good that people think again about their language and their behaviour.” Appointed Chancel lor of Glasgow Caledonian University in June, Annie is also the founder of the Circle organisation, who have branches worldwide and help women out of poverty and into education. She added: “My interest lies in global feminism and the lives of gi rls in developing countries who have no rights whatsoever. I discovered the big gap comparedp to how girls and women are treated when I wentw to countries like Malawi and Uganda. Women are treated aas third-class citizens. “They have very few rights. Girls are very often not givengive opportunities for educationedu in comparison to thet younger brother in the family. “TheyT have very little protectionprot when it comes to sexuals , v iolent and physicalphysic abuse.”