Annie Mac tells MPs about the music industry’s “tidal wave” of sexual abuse cases
The DJ met with a House of Commons committee today alongside singer Rebecca Ferguson.
Image: Andrew Benge/Redferns via Getty Images
Annie Mac has spoken to MPs about cases of sexual abuse in the music industry, claiming that it has a “tidal wave” of sexual abuse.
The DJ met with a House of Commons committee, and told them that an “unbelievable” number of stories are yet to come out.
At present, the Women and Equalities Committee is conducting an investigation into misogyny in the music industry, and both Mac and singer Rebecca Ferguson have given evidence.
Mac described the industry as a “boy’s club” that’s “kind of rigged against women”, according to the NME. The BBC reported that Mac also expressed the need for “some sort of a shift in women feeling like they’re able to speak out without their careers being compromised.
“It’s infuriating, the amount of women who have stories of sexual assault that just kind of buried them and carried them. It’s just unbelievable.
“So I do think if something were to happen, like if one person was to speak that had enough profile where it got media attention, I think there could be a kind of tidal wave of it. Definitely.”
Mac explained that, while she hadn’t experienced or witnessed sexual misconduct herself, her long BBC career gave her a “shield” to discuss these issues. And she said that she’d spoken to a range of female DJs, artists, managers, producers, photographers and agents before speaking to the committee.
Meanwhile, Ferguson, who finished second on The X Factor in 2010 and has criticised the show, as well as ITV and Simon Cowell in recent years, said that “bullying and corruption is being allowed to happen” in the industry, and described the misogyny in music as “the tip of the iceberg of the things that are happening behind the scenes”.
She continued, “There are plenty of times when you’re placed in situations where you are being compromised and where people are abusing their level of power.
“But as well as that, the thing that worries me the most is the rapes that are going unreported. That’s what concerns me the most – the fact that women feel like they can’t speak up.”
