The Men Against Gender Injustice Collective hosted a music event at Brisbane on Sunday in order to encourage themselves to confront their role in sexism. Leanne de Souza, the executive director of the Association of Artist Managers, gives her part of contribution by sharing her thoughts on sexism in the music industry. After 25 years in the music business, Leanne de Souza has seen plenty of “men at their finest, and men at their worst”.

“Back in the day all the power and influence sat with those men,” she said. “You couldn’t work around them”. De Souza began her career as a band manager in Brisbane. The anti-sexist group came forward to host this event in thought to let the world know the impacts caused by a sexist in the music industry.

Leanne De Souza (www.leanne de souza.com.au)/ (The new yorker)

“I remember being in a meeting and a man asking the band whether my tits were real,” de Souza said. “Then there’s the late-night culture. I could rattle off dozens of examples of being touched by men without my permission. I have had my breasts squeezed; my arse grabbed and batted away dozens of wandering hands and tongues over the year, often at shows, at times in front of their colleagues, staff and even once a wife. Any woman in the industry has a list a mile long”, says De Souza as she tends to share her miserable experiences in her field.

Researchers from Edith Cowan University released a study that found most people “personally disapproved” of sexual behaviours in pubs and nightclubs but that it was “commonplace for patrons, especially men, to engage in these behaviours”. Hence, it is said to prove that whatever career it may be, Men still dominate and peddle the most influenced. In this moment of #MeToo era, one could not agree that sexual harassments, abuse have all come to an end - as in when the nightlife and music festival culture, remains the main scene of behaviour for men that couldn’t be tolerated in other workplaces.

As reported by The Guardian, Michael Flood, an associate professor from the Queensland University of Technology who researches men and masculinity, said more men were reflecting on their own behaviour in the wake of #MeToo. “I think large numbers of men are ... reconsidering how they’ve treated women in the past,” Flood said. “That’s good but at the same time there’s a lot of defensiveness. A lot of men bristle at the idea they’ve done something wrong.”

Flood’s thought is that men often overestimate other man’s comfort zone with sexism and abuse. “We assume that every other bloke thinks its fine as well,” he said. “The first thing for men to do is to look at our own behaviour ... to look at how we treat women. The second thing men can do is challenge other men not to behave in those sorts of ways. Call out sexist and creepy comments. Speak up when a promoter is being sleazy.” Flood challenges all those men out there with their own behaviours.

De Souza concluded her address by stating, “If it’s not being touched or harassed, it’s just being minimised and trivialised and just being shut out of the conversation,” she said. “Men might be able to keep their hands to themselves a bit better, but a lot of that unconscious sexism still seems to go on.” Souza comes forward with a point that it is already ‘overdue’ to this issue of confronting men to their roles in sexism.

De Souza further ends by stating, “It’s time for men to talk to each to each other rather than waiting for women to educate them.”