TORONTO — Singer Charlotte Church says the “male-dominated music industry with a juvenile perspective on gender and sexuality” is forcing young female artists to be “over-sexualized.”
Speaking at a radio conference, the 27-year-old British star said there is a culture of demeaning women in pop music.
“What this industry seems to want of its women increasingly is sex objects that appear childlike,” she said. “Take your clothes off, show you’re an adult.”
Church, who released a number of classical albums before moving into pop music, said stars like Miley Cyrus, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera “encouraged to present themselves as hypersexualised, unrealistic, cartoonish, as objects, reducing female sexuality to a prize you can win.”
She added: “The irony behind this is that the women generally filling these roles are very young, often previous child stars or Disney-tweens, who are simply interested in getting along in an industry glamourised to be the most desirable career for young women.”
Church said she allowed herself to be sexualized in some of her videos — a decision she regrets.
“I found myself…being pressured into wearing more and more revealing outfits and the lines that I had spun at me again and again (generally by middle aged men) were ‘you look great you’ve got a great body why not show it off?’ or ‘Don’t worry it’ll look classy. It’ll look artistic,'” she recalled.
“Whilst I can’t defer all blame away from myself, I was barely out of my teenage years, and the consequence of this portrayal of me is that now I am frequently abused on social media, being called ‘slut’, ‘whore’ and a catalogue of other indignities that I’m sure you’re also sadly very familiar with.”
Church also took aim at the public feud between Cyrus and Sinead O’Connor.
“If women are to become free agents of their gender’s destiny in a music world that is reliant upon shouting loudest over the clamour,” she said, “it stands to reason that online pissing contests only serve to detract from strong messages put forward by such artists as Janelle Monae and Erykah Badu.”
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