Maren Morris feels women in country music are too often "stereotyped" as innocent and "virginal".
The Grammy-winner – who is married to fellow country star Ryan Hurd – thinks it’s naive that artists in the genre are often put into "religious" or "virginal conservative" boxes and she has called on her peers to join her in releasing "sexy" songs to prove they can be just as "sexual" as pop stars.
She said: "The stereotype is you’ve either got to be this religious, virginal conservative, or the wronged woman burning the house down.
"People in pop and R&B are confident and sexy and sexual, and they’re celebrating it – so why don’t we, in country, write these songs?"
The ‘The Middle’ hitmaker’s recent single ‘Make Out With Me’ is about making love to her husband.
She smiled: "It’s just a really fun, sexy song about wanting to jump someone’s bones.
"Real life stuff!"
The feminist star also opened up about the lack of "popular" female artists getting airplay on the radio and how she named her album ‘GIRL’ to make a stand.
She added to the BBC: "As a woman in this industry, I wish that radio would come into this century and honour the the songs that are actually popular.
"I was looking at the country radio chart in the US and, for the first time in 20 years, there were no women in the top 30.
"Then I took a closer look at all the dudes and the titles of their songs, and the word ‘girl’ was used in more songs than there were actual girls on the chart.
"So I was like, ‘I’m gonna name this album, ‘GIRL’; and [the song] ‘GIRL’ is going to be my first single.’ "Just to put a middle finger up to that statistic.
"And ironically, in the States, on the country chart, ‘GIRL’ has been my fastest-rising single."
Maren Morris: Country stars can be sexual too
