Being a woman in the music industry is full of ups and downs. It is fulfilling and inspiring to be around so many amazing female musicians that believe in pushing beyond the boundaries set for us by the way the music business is set up. I am always here to uplift women supporting women. That’s why I was excited to share a new single “Double Standard,” a feminist anthem by Jayelle Gerber. Jayelle shared the meaning behind the song and a new #doublestandardchallenge she started to encourage women everywhere to stand up against the false industry standard for women to “perfect” instead of simply being themselves. I asked Jayelle to talk about her new single. Check it out below.
“I started writing “Double Standard” a couple of months ago from a place of deep frustration and fatigue. I felt angry, embittered, and exhausted. Existing as a woman in our society means being constantly held to an unstable and contradictory standard of perfection that is impossible to achieve and draining to attempt. We are supposed to be sexy but not promiscuous, assertive but not bossy, attractive but not vain—the list goes on and on. I’m tired of feeling like a spectacle because of my gender, so I did what I do best, and I sat down and wrote about it. I showed the first draft to my good friend, Mel Johnson, and we ended up finishing the song together. We both agreed that we wanted to release this song on International Women’s Day as a battle cry for the angry woman, so we roped in our friend Drew Louis to help with production, asked some amazingly talented female musicians to record guitar (Alex Windsor) and bass (Sabrina Winter), and got to work!
During the recording process, I showed Shira from Shiragirl a demo of the track, and that’s how Gritty in Pink got involved! Shira emphatically supported the message I was trying to promote with the song and suggested that I use Gritty as a platform to help gain some traction and make some noise. That’s how we came up with the idea for the #doublestandardchallenge.
Essentially, the challenge is for women everywhere to make posts to social media holding up signs with sexist things that have been said or done to them and then tag other women to continue the challenge. I wanted to start a social media challenge like this to bring awareness to the fact that sexism continues to affect all women on a daily basis, and it is something that we should be actively reflecting on and working against. My hope for this song is that every woman that hears it finds some sort of solace in solidarity. Ultimately, this is an issue we all face; I’m mad about it, and I hope you are too.
Stream “Double Standard” now on all music platforms.
