Hayley Williams doesn’t “dare” play guitar on stage for fear of sexist comments
Hayley Williams recently sat down with Wet Leg to discuss sexism in today’s music industry, During the conversation, the Paramore singer revealed she doesn’t “dare” play the guitar on stage for fear of receiving sexist comments.
At the height of pop punk’s popularity, Paramore was one of the few outfits fronted by a female singer. Surrounded by her male, guitar-wielding contemporaries, Hayley Williams stood out not only for her astonishing stage presence but for her vulnerability. She was, after all, the only member of the band without an instrument.
But during a recent conversation with Wet Leg for The Face, Williams confessed that she would have liked to play the guitar live onstage. Sadly, the threat of misogynistic online comments put her off the idea. Discussing the expectations placed upon women in the world of guitar music, Wet Leg vocalist Rhian Teasdale said: “I think, for us, one of the hardest or most irritating things about being women is probably just the stupid comments on the internet like, ‘Oh she’s holding that guitar, but she’s not actually playing it’”.
She added: “Like, for example, when I am just not using my guitar, but then I need to play it in the chorus or something, there will always be a comment being like, ‘Girls shouldn’t play guitar, women shouldn’t play guitar,’ and it’s just like… it’s so dated, but it’s still there! And I just hate it so much. It’s so frustrating.”
Humming in agreement, Williams said: “I know those people so well, and I don’t even play guitar on stage. I don’t even dare, because I love to play guitar, but I don’t know if I could handle… man. I feel you so hard. I just hate that people even need to point it out,” she said. “I don’t even really think about my gender at all, when we play the music, especially. It’s just not part of the picture.
Williams concluded: “I’m trying to lean into femininity and empower that part of myself more in this era of my career, but do you ever get on stage and feel ‘other’? You feel like this alien thing that’s powerful and beautiful,” to which Hester Chambers of Wet Leg replied: “It’s a scary thing to be confronted with. When it’s just us being ourselves in a room, I’m not thinking about it at all. But as soon as you have a gig and an audience, you become a bit hyper-aware.”
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