CHVRCHES’ Lauren Mayberry has praised Emily Atack’s documentary Asking For It?, which explores her experiences with online sexual abuse.
Emily Atack: Asking For It? premiered earlier this week on BBC iPlayer and sees the comedian and The Inbetweeners star explore “why she is sexually harassed online on a daily basis, and seeks to understand why the blame for unwanted sexual attention is so often put on the victim.”
Taking to social media after watching the documentary, CHVRCHES vocalist Lauren Mayberry wrote: “Watched the Emily Atack documentary on BBC iPlayer and it broke my heart — for her to be experiencing those things, but also how relatable it all was.”
“Lots of people keep talking to us about this year being the tenth anniversary of the first CHVRCHES album, which got me thinking about a lot of things. So many of the experiences I’ve been able to have in that decade have been truly wonderful but it has also been ten years of the kinds of abuse Emily so eloquently talks about in her documentary,” Mayberry wrote.
“I used to talk about those things a lot more in interviews, but as time went on, it didn’t feel like that changed much. If anything, it felt worse trying to explain something so actually traumatic to journalists who didn’t really Get It and were just trying to get a soundbite. The number of gross or violent messages always multiplied whenever anything was posted about it.”
“I remember learning that deep fake porn of me existed and how horrible and violating that felt,” continued Mayberry, sharing images of just some of the abusive DMs she receives. “Now I just wander about my daily life and get on with normal things whilst that floats about in the background. It’s crazy how desensitised you become to things you really shouldn’t be, maybe out of a sort of jaded self preservation”
Mayberry went on to say that the anniversary of ‘The Bones Of What You Believe’ had allowed her the chance to reflect on how that abuse has impacted her as a person. “Maybe a lot of that would have happened anyway, because we all know this shit happens to women and girls everywhere”
Been a while since a Notes app moment 💀
Watched the #EmilyAtack documentary on @BBCiPlayer and it broke my heart — for her to be experiencing those things, but also how relatable it all was…
1 / 2. pic.twitter.com/hwlu56caav
— Lauren Mayberry (@laurenevemay) February 5, 2023
“None of this is meant to be ‘poor me’,” she continued. “I know that I have been dealt a really great hand and I am grateful for it. It’s more just a reflective stream of consciousness to say that this stuff happens to women all the time, always, even if you don’t hear about it. If a threatening dick pic falls in the DM woods, there is always a woman there to receive it.”
Speaking to NME in 2021, Mayberry’s CHVRCHES bandmate Martin Doherty said: “I think people need to fucking look at themselves in a lot of ways – if you’re shouting at a woman on the internet because your life sucks, fuck you.”
CHVRCHES have also recently spoken to NME about the possibility of playing some anniversary shows to celebrate the release of ‘The Bones Of What You Believe. “We talk about it in the pub. We haven’t put anything into action yet,” said Mayberry backstage at Mad Cool Festival. “It’s a nice time to take stock of things and figure out where we want to go.”
More recently, rumours have been circulating that the band could be reuniting with Hideo Kojima for his Death Stranding 2 after the game developer shared photos of him hanging out with the band.
