CONTENT WARNING: The following article discusses sexual harassment and assault.
Isabella Manfredi, Missy Higgins, Tina Arena, Clare Bowditch, Sarah Blasko and more have become ambassadors for a campaign designed to help survivors of workplace sexual harassment and indecent assault.
NOW Australia, which is inspired by the international #MeToo and Time’s Up movements, has been launched by journalist Tracey Spicer and has 30 ambassadors with many from the music industry.
The campaign has started a crowd-funder with donations set to go towards providing the counselling and legal support needed for sufferers of workplace harassment and also work on strategies to stop it from happening in the first place.
The Preatures’ Manfredi has been very vocal with her support for the #MeToo movement, previously speaking out about her experiences with sexual harassment in the industry.
She’s advocated her support for NOW Australia in an Instagram post.
“What we assumed would be a short-lived outrage thundered on into a full-blown storm, and with each month gathered momentum, as new stories cracked down like fresh rain on a leathered old landscape,” she wrote addressing the Harvey Weinstein accusations that launched a global movement to stop sexual harassment in not only the film industry but any industry.
“I’ve pictured this storm being a bit like a cyclone that ripped the roof off my own house. Exposed my own prejudices. My own sexism. The many ways I made myself small and tolerated trespasses against my own boundary lines – my own sovereignty. I was luckier than most. I didn’t lose much. Only a crumbling old ceiling that kept me from seeing the sky.”
She further said that she and a group of “gutsy women” had “a hand” in writing an open letter to the Australian music industry regarding sexual harassment and assault.
She said that NOW Australia is not about, “WOMEN V MEN.”
“Not about Call-Out Culture. Or Fashionable Vilification. Please get informed – read the website – before you wield your stubby clubs at me, trolls.”
Bowditch told News Limited, “We demand you to change your behaviour, now.”
“The era where people could get away with sexual harassment and not be held account is now over. You now know better, so we demand you do better.”
Blasko also took to social media to address her involvement in the campaign saying, “NOW is a new support network for ANYONE experiencing this kind of abuse today & in the future, wherever they are from & whatever it is they do.”
You can read more about the campaign here and also donate to the cause.
