Sky Ferreira, the artist behind songs like Everything Is Embarrassing and You’re Not The One, is not an artist who takes things lying down. Just a few months ago, she called out her label on the way they handled her and her album, and now she is calling out those who are guilty of sexism and online abuse. She’s had enough of they’re shit, and frankly, it shouldn’t even be happening in the first place.
“I guess my existence/value is strictly based off of as my appearance lol,” she said recently on an Instagram post, before continuing to say, “It’s pretty petty and shitty that I’m supposed to be okay with being called a bitch or a slut or torn apart on my appearance daily (all day & every day).”
Having followed Ferreira for some time on Instagram, I can vouch for this. The comments are a cesspool of abuse, with people taking any and all opportunity to bring her down. Once again, the safety of an iPhone screen makes people feel invincible and almost entitled to tear someone down to their level – almost as if they were unworthy of their fame.
“What do you know about being the “ideal” woman? There isn’t one. It doesn’t exist. I’m either too thin,too fat,too dumb,too vapid,too troubled,too fake,too boring, too happy, too sad etc. I might as well try ice skating up a hill trying to find a solution to that one,” she went on to say. Having dabbled in modelling prior to her music truly taking off, Ferreira is absolutely no stranger to having her physical appearance judged, but it seems even she has a limit of shit she can wade through.
In the same post, she also acknowledged the overused argument that a) it’s the internet so you shouldn’t “take it too seriously” and b) that it’s her “job” to deal with this kind of thing. Blasting that apart with plain common sense, Sky acknowledged her female peers who are all extremely successful in their own right – and have also had to deal with more than their fair share of abuse as well. Citing Miley Cyrus, Alice Glass, Grimes, Charli XCX, Selena Gomez, Lana Del Rey and Azealia Banks, she went onto say that these women and many more shouldn’t have to be “okay” with online abuse, and “should be able to remind people to respect them without it being deemed as complaining.”
“It’s not part of our job. Our job is to simply create stuff. All of the negative disgusting bullshit some of you write makes it really difficult for others/positivity to shine.”
Whilst I am not disputing that some men probably deal with some, occasional online abuse themselves, there is absolutely no denying that women cop the brunt of it. When a female artist posts a photo of their new single art announcing a new song that has been released, I can almost guarantee there will be comments bringing up that artist’s physical appearance, whether they’re “attractive” or not, whether they should be wearing whatever it is they’re wearing or not, and other extremely unnecessary points that are not valid in the slightest. That is even before the trolls start getting into the art itself, and will almost always tear that apart too.
What is it about fame that makes people want to destroy someone? Is it jealousy that this “everyday person” is up on this pedestal and they’re not? Is it really a hatred of women? Is it just plain ignorance and a belief that this is just what you do to famous people now? With social media, and many artists choosing to run their own accounts, they’ve never been more accessible to their fans, and whilst – for a nice fan – that is an amazing thing that can provide someone with a connection to an artist that really means a lot to them, it also means the artist is opening a pandora’s box of bullshit they have to deal with every time they choose to post something.
The answering is blatantly obvious to me – can we please just stop being assholes to people?