Chvrches singer Lauren Mayberry calls for shift in attitudes towards women after being targeted by misogynistic trolls for wearing a dress
The singer was attacked in a 4Chan thread over her new video
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Your support makes all the difference.The Chvrches singer Lauren Mayberry has called for a cultural shift in society's attitude towards women after misogynistic trolls labelled her a “slut” and “whore” online over her band’s new video.
Mayberry said she was threatened with physical and sexual violence on a 4chan thread which has now been taken down after the video for “Leave a Trace” premiered.
Users accused her of being a “hypocrite” for claiming she is a feminist while not featuring the other two male members of the band in the video and for "objectifying" women by wearing a short dress.
The Scottish singer has taken a defiant stance by addressing the abuse she received on threads and forums attacking her.
Appearing on Channel 4 News, she told presenter Cathy Newman the response to the video and after she spoke out against her trolls was “ludicrous”.
“Somebody tweeted me the other day ‘if you can’t learn to deal with this sort of s*** stick a gun in your mouth before the record even comes out. I have one and I’ll give it to you,’" she said.
“I am a 27-year-old woman wearing a minidress with wet-look hair. If you don’t like it, that’s fine, but there is a difference between criticism and hatred. For me, it is sadly predictable, you fall back on the base argument.
“If you don’t like what a woman is wearing, you don’t like her opinion, you don’t like what it is she represents, then you fall back on the basic caveman arguments of threatening with physical and sexual violence because it is your trump card. Because that’s the way you get somebody to shut up. And I just think that is a very sad state of affairs.”
Mayberry said this form of abuse happens to many women and this influenced her decision to speak publicly.
“I don’t want them to feel isolated, I don’t want them to feel like it is just happening to them, because it happens everywhere.”
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