most likely part of the storm,
Canadian singer Alanis Morissette says “it’s only a matter of time” before the music industry will be rocked by an “explosion of stories” of sexual misconduct.
“Almost every woman in the music industry has been assaulted, harassed, raped,” she told the Sunday Times Magazine. “It’s ubiquitous — more in music, even, than film. It’s just so normalized.
“Sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll? By definition it’s crass, sweaty and aggressive.”
Without naming names, Morissette said she has experienced her share of #MeToo moments. The 45-year-old Ottawa native launched a pop music career while in her teens before making a global breakthrough with the edgier sound of Jagged Little Pill in 1995.
“Many things happened: sexual abuse, exploitation, financial undermining,” the singer said. Pressure to lose weight as her career exploded lead to depression and an eating disorder. “Unsolicited feedback is a form of violence against women,” said Morissette.
In the song “Hands Clean” on her fifth album Under Rug Swept, Morissette sang from the perspective of a man. “We best keep this to ourselves and not tell any members of our inner posse / I wish I could tell the world / ‘Cause you're such a pretty thing when you're done up properly / I might want to marry you one day if you watch that weight and keep your firm body.”
Morissette, now a mother of three, told the Sunday Times Magazine praised women who have come forward with their experiences of abuse.
“I mean, please. First of all, they didn’t wait,” she said. “Second, they face the threat of losing their job, reputation or not being believed. At best it’s swept under the rug, at worst you are admonished or fired.”
Morissette said her goal is “to take away the normalization and the structures that allow it.”
