Alanis Morissette says she opened up the conversation about emotional and sexual abuse 15-years before the #MeToo movement.
The 45-year-old singer claimed that not only was she "straight-up ignored" when she released her 2001 track ‘Hands Clean’ – which explores the power dynamic between a young woman in a relationship with a much older man – but she was also "vilified and shamed and victimised and victim-attacked" for speaking out.
Referencing the song, she told Self magazine: "It was a grenade for you, because you were listening.
"[But] it wasn’t a grenade for some. And the people who were addressing it at the time, they weren’t being very supportive. Still now, women are sort of being supported.
"It – and I – were just straight-up ignored at best. Vilified and shamed and victimised and victim-attacked at worst.
"There were moments around the #MeToo era where people would say, why are people waiting so long to speak up? And I was like really?
"But then also I lovingly reminded a couple of them ‘Oh, but you do remember me saying something 15 years ago, right? Word for word about this and do you remember what happened during that time?’ "
The ‘You Oughta Know’ hitmaker went on to explain that despite the song’s harrowing lyrics, many fans don’t know what the song is about, and felt there was "disparity" between the song’s meaning and how it was branded when it was released.
She said: "I was just talking about ‘Hands Clean’ yesterday and how some people know what that song’s about and other people just don’t know? Just singing along and I’m like … that’s the story of rape, basically.
"I think about that disparity too. I remember having brought that song, the juncture at the time of ‘Okay let’s shoot a video for this’, and a lot of people weighing in going ‘It would be great if we did this, and this element … what about a little karaoke?’ And I’m laughing."
Alanis Morissette says she spoke about abuse ’15 years’ before MeToo
