AMETHYST SPEAKS ON FEMINICIDE AWARENESS IN NEW SINGLE ‘BOYS’
Following the release of her debut EP ‘Get Comfortable’ earlier this year, London based soul/R&B singer-songwriter Amethyst returns with her latest single ‘Boys’, out everywhere now.
London soul/R&B singer, songwriter Amethyst‘s single ‘Boys’ is out now and was written shortly after the news of Sarah Everad’s tragic death and is a call out for men to change how they act towards woman, queer, trans, non-binary and all LGBTQIA+ people.
Naming Ella Fitzgerald, Donny Hathaway and Gregory Porter to Beyoncé, Lianne La Havas, Jazmine Sullivan as her main influences, Amethyst’s sound encompases modern R&B production, old school soul instrumentation all tied together with a luscious and soothing soulful jazz vocal.
With more singles to come in 2022, Amethyst’s poignant lyrics and captivating vocals combined with her distinctive sound certainly makes her one to watch.
Story behind Amethyst’s single ‘Boys’
Femicide occurs because the continuum of violence against women continues to be accepted, tolerated and justified. Like all violence against women, the many causes of femicide are rooted in gender inequality, gender expectations, and systemic gender-based discrimination. (source)
“I wrote this song shortly after the news of Sarah Everad’s tragic death. I was sick and tired of seeing men, (boys), being able to get away with anything and abusing their power, whether that be within the workplace, relationships or just day to day life and seeing no repercussions. Of course there are elements of my own heartbreak and experiences in there as well, but I was sadly inspired by the fact that every woman I know has gone through one of the above scenarios in her life.
Men need to start changing how they act towards woman, queer, trans, non-binary and all LGBTQIA+ people. I hate the fact that so many people will resonate with this song, but I hope it will help to create change.”
Produced by HYLNU (Rachel Chinouriri’s producer), the pair wrote and recorded the whole song in one day. “It was such a different experience because it really pushed me to sit with my feelings and focus on exactly what I wanted to say whilst also challenging me to come up with interesting lyrics and melodies within a short time period. It clearly was a good exercise for me, because we came out with a song I absolutely love.”
The harsh reality behind Sarah Everard’s tragedy
Across the world, gender-based violence is terrifyingly common. In the UK, Everard’s home, a woman is killed by a man every three days; 97 percent of women aged 18-24 have experienced sexual harassment; and 80 percent of women of all ages had been harassed in public. Globally, across their lifetimes, one in three women will be subjected to physical or sexual violence, and six women are killed by men every hour of the day. For the LGBTQ community, it’s even worse, with one in two transgender people sexually abused or assaulted at some point in their lives, as just one example (source Hello Giggles’ article on Sarah Everard and toxic masculinity).
“This is a human rights crisis. It’s just not enough for us to keep saying ‘this is too difficult a problem for us to solve’ – it needs addressing now,” said Claire Barnett, executive director of UN Women UK.
Sarah Everard’s murder a year ago sparked a nationwide reckoning and revolutionised how the British public understand male violence against women, according to research.
A story that calls out men on their behaviour
Reality check, men need to educate themselves about the historic oppression of marginalized genders so that they can untangle the deep roots of the toxic masculinity that contribute to gender-based violence.
“Many men realise they shouldn’t walk behind a woman late at night because it scares her,”
And a work is in progress. We count to this day more and more organizations that aim at empowering boys and men to understand and show how they can help women. In the UK only, you have Men at Work, White Ribbon Scotland, the Being ManKind project, and the Feminist Men Project (source The Guardian).
Moreover, in the music industry, more male artists address toxic masculinity in their music, to educate the ‘Boys’, in these last years. Aware of the saddening rate of feminicide, rapper D Smoke wrote a song that pictures a world with no more Black women: The Rapture (read our article). Brent Faiyaz released a full-length album exposing toxic masculinity in WASTELAND (read the review). More recently, the most influential artist of our time, Kendrick Lamar, has just been officially eligible of an Oscar for the We Cry Together short film, alongside Taylour Paige, whose track depicts the typical scene of domestic violence, psychologically, and physically.
This may be not enough, but this gives hope for the next generations.
