Chvrches singer Lauren Mayberry discusses being the victim of cyber misogyny
Lauren Mayberry, the lead singer of Chvrches, has discussed her ongoing experience of “cyber misogyny”, something she has had to deal with for years.
Chvrches formed in 2011, but it didn’t take long for Mayberry to receive sexually charged feedback from listeners online. “A lot of men” would comment on her desirability, making unwanted comments about the singer’s appearance, she revealed in a new interview.
Speaking to the BBC, Mayberry explained: “It’s all very sexual and sexualised all the time. And I look at that, and I’m like, I was a 23-year-old girl, trying to do my job, just to write some silly songs.”
Mayberry revealed that she “didn’t know that that was going to be such a big part of it”. Since then, she has only continued to receive more abuse online. It became particularly bad when the band released the video for their song ‘Leave A Trace’ in 2015. The video resulted in Mayberry receiving floods of comments regarding her appearance, with many of these including rape threats.
Her determination to call out abuse, such as when she criticised Marshmello for working with Tyga and Chris Brown, has only resulted in her receiving more virtual harassment, some of which has been extremely violent.
For several years, Mayberry was an active member of TYCI, a Glasgow feminist collective that she founded in 2012, which promoted visibility, safety and advocacy for women in the industry. TYCI made zines, a radio show, a blog and promoted shows featuring female musicians.
Even though TYCI came to an end, Mayberry is still actively trying to combat misogyny by participating in other initiatives, such as BBC Radio 6 Music’s ‘Change the Tune’. The new campaign has been set up in conjunction with the BBC’s ‘Mental Wellbeing’ season.
Mayberry told the BBC, “The internet has been such an intrinsic part of my career, positively and negatively. Social media was really baked into the way that CHVRCHES first got discovered, but there were consistent side effects to that which I don’t think I would ever have anticipated.”
A mini-documentary, Lauren Mayberry: I Change Shape, has just been uploaded to BBC iPlayer, which sees the singer speak in more detail about the sexist abuse she has experienced during her career.
Sexual harassment and abuse is widespread in the music industry. The recent UK Musicians’ Census found that one-third of the women surveyed had experienced incidents of sexual harassment, with many others stating that they’d witnessed harassment and discrimination happening to women around them.
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