CHVRCHES‘ singer Lauren Mayberry has spoken out about the #MeToo movement – saying that she’s happy that progress has been made against misogyny, now society needs to act upon the dialogue.
Mayberry has made headlines in the in the past when she came under fire from sexist trolls having been very vocal about feminism. Now as the band prepare return with their hotly anticipated third album, she’s said that the conversation around misogyny needs to be turned into action.
“It’s great that people are speaking up, but I want to see what happens in the next couple of years – if people actually put their money where their mouth is,” she told Pitchfork. “So many people are being fully genuine about it, but there are some people who are definitely using it as a way of finding some kind of branding niche and that’s kind of fucked up.”
Mayberry went on to argue that unless the message is translated from “symbolic gestures into actual action”, then the whole movement will be no more than “service” if society doesn’t change the way that it treats people.
“Maybe it will make my job easier,” she continued. “There’s definitely a lot of praise being given out for behaviour that five years ago was getting me called a horrendous cunt. Maybe you won’t get called a horrendous bitch anymore for speaking out. I do think that’s progress.”
She added: “There were definitely times on the last couple records where I thought, ‘There’s a certain point in time where I think I’ll get tired of doing this’. Not playing in this band or saying those things, but being the person that has to say that obvious thing and then has to take the kicking. That takes a toll because you’re still a person. You’re a performer, but you’re still a person.”
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In 2015, Mayberry faced misogyny and criticism online for their video for ‘Leave A Trace‘. As a response, she told NME that real freedom was the best form of revenge.
“It’s not about winning – it’s about whether we choose to let ourselves be beaten,” Mayberry told NME. “You see stories on the news about teenage girls who kill themselves because they were slut-shamed on the internet, then people turn around and say it’s not real, that we should just ignore it. Is this not what riot grrrl was talking about in 1992? That they could wear whatever they wanted, because it was about their expression and their lives?”
This week saw CHVRCHES confirm details of their third album ‘Love Is Dead‘, as well as release new single ‘My Enemy’ featuring guest vocals from The National’s Matt Berninger.
‘Love Is Dead’ will be released on May 25 via Virgin / Glassnote. Mayberry states that the record is about “coming to terms with the fact that there are great things in the world and there are awful things in the world and that you can’t get one without the other.”
Iain Cook adds: “We’re fucked, the world is fucked. But there’s an ellipses at the end. It’s ‘Love Is Dead’. Like, how did we get to this point? And how do we move on from this point? It’s ‘Love Is Dead, we’re fucked, what’s next?’”