Chvrches singer hits out after threats of rape
Mayberry calls online hostility to band’s new single ‘a sad state of affairs’
WOMEN’S rights groups have called for better policing of social media and internet forums after a pop singer stood up to a stream of sexist abuse over her band’s latest music video.
Lauren Mayberry, lead singer with Chvrches, hit back at online trolls who threatened her with rape and branded her a slut and a whore following the release of the video for the song Leave A Trace, in which she wears a short black dress and has wet-look hair.
The singer, 27, said she was horrified at the hate-filled tirades and said those responsible are ‘cavemen’ who threaten sexual violence when they do not like what a woman is doing or saying.
As some trolls gloated over the publicity and crudely claimed she was using the controversy to promote the band’s new album – released next month – women’s rights groups praised her actions, and said more should be done to deal with online trolling.
Ms Mayberry s aid: “The response to the video, that to me just seemed ludicrous really.
“I am a 27-year-old woman wearing a mini dress with wet look hair. If you don’t like it that’s fine, but there is a difference between criticism and hatred.
“For me, it is sadly predictable, you f all back on the base argument.
“If you don’t like what a woman is wearing, you don’t like her opinion, you don’t like what it is she represents, then you fall back on the basic caveman arguments of threatening physical and sexual violence because it is your trump card. Because that’s the way you get somebody to shut up.
“And I just think that is a very sad state of affairs.”
The singer said she had decided to speak out because many women have been subjected to the same kind of abuse, and the ‘just ignore it and it will blow away’ argument is not working.
Revealing the sickening abuse she has received, she said: “Somebody tweeted me the other day: ‘if you can’t learn to deal with this sort of s*** stick a gun in your mouth before the record even comes out. I have one and I’ll give it to you.’
“Personally that’s horrifying, if somebody put that through your door you would go to the police with that.”
Sandy Brindley, national co-ordinator of Rape Crisis Scotland, said the abuse should be subject to an investigation and a criminal prosecution.
She said: “The abuse women are all too often often subjected to online can be horrifying. Threatening to rape someone – whether online or in real life – is hate speech, and a crime, which should be subject to a police investigation.
“Perpetrators need to know that they can’t hide behind online iden- tities and that there are serious consequences to behaving in such an abusive manner.”
Dr Marsha Scott, chief executive of Scottish Women’s Aid said: “Hoorah for her for having the guts to call it out for what it is – which is misogyny and sexism at its most base level.
“And every woman who dares put their head above the parapet in the media, whether it is in print, internet-based or whatever, is likely to experience this.”
‘‘ If you don’t like what a woman is wearing and you don’t like her opinion, then you fall back on threatening physical and sexual violence. It’s sad