“Unfortunately, in 2016, no one speaks louder than people like you.”
On Friday night, July Talk were playing a show in Buffalo. During a hushed acoustic rendition of “I’ve Rationed Well” — a moment co-lead singer Leah Fay would later call “one of the most fragile and silent moments to ever emerge on our stage” — some drunken asshole decided to yell “show him your tits!”
“Who the fuck said that?” she said, walking towards the crowd. “Are you fucking kidding me, dude? Do you listen to our music? Do you have any idea what this band is about?”
Fay is an avowed feminist and she’s been open about the misogyny she experiences as a woman in a band. This is the kind of everyday sexism, though, that happens to all female performers onstage. Artists like Lauren Mayberry of CHVRCHES and Bethany Cosentino of Best Coast have led a movement to resist its normalization.
The morning after the incident, Leah Fay posted a measured, surprisingly empathetic open letter to the heckler explaining why the incident was so sad and traumatic but, also, why it was unsurprising. (In short: the patriarchy.)
“I love you because you were brought up in a fucked up society, under broken systems that taught you this kind of behaviour is okay,” she writes. “If I hate you, these norms will never change + you will never learn to move over for, converse with, or ever really listen to anyone who doesn’t naturally speak as loudly as you do.”
“Unfortunately, in 2016, no one speaks louder than people like you.”
“So here’s to a softer 2017, everybody. But that’s enough taking shit now.”
