Former BBC Radio 1 DJ Annie Macmanus has claimed that there’s a “tidal wave” of sexual abuse circumstances all through the music trade which have but to come back to gentle.
The broadcaster described the music enterprise as “a boys’ membership” which was “sort of rigged in opposition to girls” when chatting with a Home of Commons committee, and claimed that many ladies have but to come back ahead with their tales out of concern for his or her careers.
“There must be some kind of a shift in girls feeling like they’re capable of communicate out with out their careers being compromised, [but] I don’t know the way that may occur,” the DJ mentioned when chatting with the Ladies and Equalities Committee (by way of BBC Information).
“I really feel like there are quite a lot of revelations that haven’t been uncovered… It’s infuriating, the quantity of girls who’ve tales of sexual assault that simply sort of buried them and carried them. It’s simply unbelievable.”
She continued: “So I do suppose if one thing had been to occur, like if one particular person was to talk that had sufficient profile the place it bought media consideration, I feel there might be a sort of tidal wave of it. Undoubtedly.”
When addressing the MPs, Macmanus – who goes by the identify Annie Mac – confirmed that whereas she has not skilled or witnessed any sexual misconduct firsthand, she thinks her 19 years working with the BBC supplied her with a “defend of safety” to speak about such points.
“There are frequent threads that run by means of every little thing I’ve heard,” she mentioned, recalling how she has spoken to a number of brokers, managers, producers, photographers, artists and fellow DJs about their experiences.
“That’s that girls, particularly younger girls within the music trade, are constantly underestimated and undermined, and freelance girls are constantly put in conditions the place they’re unsafe.”
She added: “The music trade is a boys’ membership. All people is aware of everybody within the prime ranges. All of the individuals on the very prime ranges have the cash. Additionally they have the ability. The system is sort of rigged in opposition to girls.”
Elsewhere on the tackle on the Home of Commons, former X Issue star Rebecca Ferguson additionally shared proof with these conducting an inquiry into misogyny within the music enterprise.
Right here, she defined that misogynistic attitudes had been simply “the tip of the iceberg of the issues which can be occurring behind the scenes”, and that “bullying and corruption” are repeatedly “allowed to occur” by these in senior positions.
“There are many occasions if you’re positioned in conditions the place you’re being compromised and the place persons are abusing their degree of energy,” she defined.
“However in addition to that, the factor that worries me essentially the most is the rapes which can be going unreported. That’s what considerations me essentially the most – the truth that girls really feel like they’ll’t communicate up.
“One woman contacted me and mentioned, ‘I’ve needed to do that [speak out] my complete life. If I communicate up in opposition to him, he’s so highly effective, I’ll by no means work on this trade ever once more’.”
Earlier this 12 months, former X Issue contestant Lucy Spraggan got here ahead to disclose that she dropped out of the ITV collection after being sexually assaulted.
Aged 20 on the time, the singer recalled that she was raped by a lodge porter whereas competing on the expertise present in 2012, and detailed the assault in her memoir Course of: Discovering My Manner By.
