Cirque Songstress
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Thoughts on my art
🕑 Added 2025-06-27 08:09:39 +0000 UTCI recently spoke to a producer who asked if I would take cunt gun out of Wonderfully Terrible Things for a rural show because the audience would be mostly against it in the demographic.
I said no because the point of the song is that a gun has more rights in America than a woman. It’s a song about how unsafe we are. It’s a song about the repercussions of not having access to safe abortion clinics. So I will sing it in every show.
And with the state of the world at the moment - I think it’s becoming more and more unsafe to say what we are thinking. We are being edited.
I am worried that continually sharing my opinions will or already has had negative implications for me as a performer but as an artist I don’t think I can shirk the task.
Anyway. It came up while I was writing today and I thought I would share it with you here 🙏
Love to know your thoughts 💭
28-6-25
If you want to be an artist, your opinions are your currency. If you want to be a performer… Your lack of them is an asset. Your beliefs & morals become a liability and this is what makes the commodification of art so dangerous. By design, it creates a breeding ground for the disingenuous & inhumane. I do believe it is inhumane to stay silent about what causes suffering & shows a lack of integrity when you do that to secure a booking or retain an audience. Imagine how many atrocities would have failed to occur if people had spoken about what really happened or what they really believed.
& I think I know I have no choice but to keep what I say in my real voice. And also need to do that with the knowledge that it might cost me in some uncategorised currency.
Comments
Christine Ibrahim
It’s more they would take issue with the theme - it’s the type of audience that would be happy that you panned parenthood was defunded
Rob Blowers
What an apt post on the day the US Supreme Court decided states can defund Planned Parenthood, and a day after Texas decided to scrap "Red Flag" laws that bar dangerous people from buying guns. It's funny: As an American, the word cunt is a real show-stopper. We're not shy about most words, but for whatever arbitrary reason, there's a big red line around that one. When I first moved here, I was initially shocked at how freely people used it, and taken aback every time I heard it. Over the years, I've really come to appreciate how it can be used with cheeky irreverence, but also genuine affection, but then also as the ultimate insult. Such versatility around this word in the Aussie vernacular! 😅 It surprises me to hear that an Aussie audience might take issue with it. But in any event, if it shocks the audience into sitting up and paying attention to a shocking issue, well...good. And if it shocks them into switching off out of distaste, then it's not your song or that word that's the issue with their moral compass.
