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The lead singer of Australian band The Preatures has detailed her experiences of sexual harassment in the music industry in an open letter to fans.
Isabella Manfredi said recent allegations levelled at Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein had given her perspective on her own experiences, "mostly in, but not confined to, America".
"There was the touchy feely US booking agent whose behaviour became so inappropriate that the boys told our manager to keep him away from me (I felt embarrassed to do this myself)," she wrote on the band's Facebook page.
"Or the head honcho who, when meeting the band, looked me up and down and licked his lips before turning to the guys to shake hands and talk 'business' (we were all stunned).
"Or the multiple executives at a corporate gig in Vegas who slipped their hands up my dress while taking a photo with the band."
Manfredi told of a "New York indie label head" who made her feel respected and accepted among other musicians, before later suggesting, in a cab, that they go back to her hotel and have a bath together.
"When I refused, politely and then firmly, he said my band was a joke," she wrote.
Manfredi said she was sharing her experiences because she did not want the next generation of women in the music industry to second-guess their worth because of the way they were treated.
"On this album cycle I've been asked, does sexism in the music industry still exist, and what does it look like? I think it's time to compile our experiences, however subtle, and give it a face," she wrote.
The Preatures have enjoyed success at home and overseas, having been nominated for several ARIAs and scoring a spot in the top 10 of the 2013 Hottest 100 for Is This How You Feel?
The ABC has reached out to the singer for further comment.
Public discourse around harassment is 'powerful'
Lady Gaga and Shania Twain have been the most prominent musicians to join the #MeToo social media campaign, which has seen thousands of women share their stories of sexual harassment in the wake of the Weinstein revelations.
In Australia, the Victorian Government has been attempting to make music more inclusive and safer for women.
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Earlier this year it announced a pilot program to train bar and security staff at venues to make them more aware of the issue and what they can do to combat it.
Elly Scrine, a musician from the band Huntly and a coordinator with the grassroots organisation LISTEN, which is involved in that work, commended Manfredi on her post.
"Having public discourse around safety and inclusion in the music industry is really important, and the normalising of women and gender non-conforming people sharing their stories ... is wonderful, and it's very powerful," she said.
"But more importantly, we need to start having conversations around men's responsibility, and men's experiences of realising when they have been responsible for perpetrating this kind of behaviour."
She pointed to the #HowIWillChange hashtag, which emerged this week, as an example of men recognising the structural imbalances that exist.
Topics: music, music-industry, sexual-offences, australia
First posted