“Take Your Top Off,” Maggie Rogers
Maggie Rogers’ transparent call-out of targeted comments at her show draws attention to the harassment of artists and their response in the modern era.
Written and Illustrated by Emma Tanner
“be kind to each other out there.” So closes the short and to-the-point note that artist Maggie Rogers shared to her Instagram account on Sunday, Oct. 20. In the post, which includes excerpts from her Notes app and is captioned “take your top off,” Rogers addresses derogatory comments that were yelled at her from the audience of her ACL Live Austin, TX show at the Moody Theater the previous evening.
Rogers calls out two unnamed individuals by quoting their comments in her post, stating they yelled “take your top off” and “you cute though” during a particularly vulnerable and emotionally charged portion of her set. Rogers expresses that the comments rudely ruptured the segment in her show that is intended to be “just [her] and a guitar before [she says] goodnight,” in which she comments on her personal experiences with gratitude, growth, and change and how the three deeply connect with the emotional overtones of her most recent album, Heard It In a Past Life.
The show on Oct. 19 was different, and it brought with it the rudely interrupting remarks of men who viewed it as their time and place to use their patronizing commentary and gruff voices to discourteously drown out Maggie Rogers’ soft-sweet personality and harpy vocals. It wasn’t their time. It wasn’t their place. And Rogers was not afraid to tell them exactly that.
“i want to use this moment to be very very clear. there is no space for harassment or disrespect or degradation of any kind at my show,” she states as she closes out her very public address to the very public harassment she experienced during her set. By standing up for herself, her craft, and the intimate importance of her live performances in such a manner, Rogers called out harassment of every kind to all artists that have had similar experiences in their careers.
With the rise of the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements in recent years, providing more women with the platform and support they need to speak out about their experiences with harassment, Rogers’ call-out of her own encounter with harassment engages her fans and all music lovers in an important narrative that is all too often ignored.
The attitude that gave the men at Rogers’ show the misplaced brazen confidence to say such obviously belittling and abusive commentary is the same attitude that gave one ACL attendee the ill-advised idea to steal Billie Eilish’s ring during her set and another ACL attendee the belief that joining Eilish on stage for a stint dressed in copy-cat attire would be funny.
It is the same attitude that has perpetuated abuse of artists for decades, with some sort of belief that it’s “funny” or “just a joke” supporting the hecklers’ actions. It’s not funny. It’s not a joke. It’s rude, it’s uncalled for, and it negates the soul and life that artists pour into their music and their live performances. And it needs to stop.
Such acts of disrespect for artists and the art they present to their audience every time they get on stage are disrespectful to the basic humanity of the artists themselves. It may be easy to view artists as people on a different level of normality — particularly when they themselves are on a stage that’s physically on a different level than the audience but it’s important to remember that artists are people too. They have feelings, they have emotions, and they deserve the basic level of respect and reverence that we all merit — for themselves and their art. The belief that musical artists are on some heightened realm of humanity and are more of a show-piece than a person supports the dangerous perspective that toying with artists for the sake of reaction or attention is okay. But, just as Rogers communicates in her heartfelt message, it is not okay, as it violates “the deep amount of trust” that Rogers holds for her audience and that she in turn hopes her audience holds for her.
Though many artists have heard comments very much like those Rogers encountered at her show, she is one of the few to engage them head on — and shut them down with such finality. Her commentary speaks out harshly against her derogatory experience — one that, unfortunately, many artists experience at one time or another in their careers — while uplifting the ideals of respect, reverence, and appreciation for all artists and their uniquely beautiful work.
Just as Maggie Rogers says, there is no space. No space for harassment, derogation, or rudeness. No space for undermining her craft. No space for comments like those she called out. There is simply no space. May everyone hear that message loud and clear.