On February 19th, singer/songwriter Kesha Rose Sebert, known as Ke$ha in the music industry, was denied by a judge to be released from a contract with her music producer, Dr. Luke. Thousands of people took to Twitter in outrage at the outcome of the case, tweeting “#freekesha” in support. Since then, several female musicians have spoken out against Dr. Luke and in her favor. The issues of gender exploitation and sexism in the music industry have also been given a platform by Kesha’s case, making many question just how well women’s rights stand in the entertainment world.
Photo courtesy of Passion Weiss
Her case against Dr. Luke entails sexual and mental abuse. Her suit accuses him of raping her, causing emotional trauma through slanderous language, and ultimately causing her to resort to starving herself. Basically, Dr. Luke has been verbally attacking Kesha for years while she has been working with him. His cruelty about her body image destroyed her self-esteem to the point where she actually developed an eating disorder, landing her in a rehabilitation center in 2014.
Because Supreme Court Justice Shirley Kornreich denied Kesha’s request to create and record music outside of her contract, Kesha is bound by it; she must make at least six more albums with Dr. Luke. Six.
Let that sink in.
What this ruling has done is imply that a music contract may hold power over the well-being of a sexual assault or mental abuse victim, meaning that the rights of that victim are essentially void when it comes to a binding contract.
Photo courtesy of New York Daily News
Since women are a minority in the music industry, females hold very few positions in producing, managing, sound engineering, etc. and are not represented fairly. With so many men holding upper-level positions, women are susceptible to mistreatment and sexual misconduct. If anything, Kesha’s case and its outcome have given light to this fact, and have proven that we still have some progress to be made when it comes to women’s rights. Society should work towards empowering its women in all sectors of the working world in the near future. Hopefully the next time a female musician takes a similar case to court and requests creative freedom from her abuser, we will not sit back and ignore the circumstances, but act to protect everyone involved, especially the victim.
HC XOXO,
Megan Hammer
Resources:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2016/02/20/kesha/
http://www.passionweiss.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Kesha1.jpg