Activist Group On Tyler Cancelled Tour: "He Will Not Be The Last"

In an op-ed piece penned for the Sydney Morning Herald, activist group Collective Shout has spoken out about the recent cancellation of US rapper Tyler, The Creator's Australian tour (and speculated visa denial), the movement's Campaigns Manager Caitlin Roper has admitted, "Tyler the Creator was not the first artist we targeted and he will not be the last."

Roper writes, "As an organisation campaigning against the objectification of women, we opposed Tyler the Creator's sexually violent lyrics. But why? Because they detailed rape, strangling, mutilating and chopping up women, stuffing their bodies into car boots, trapping them in his basement and raping their corpses."

Working against the sexualisation of girls in media, advertising and popular culture, Roper explains she and the organisation have been receiving rape threats, abuse and other arguments targeted at them on their website: "The arguments are much the same, that we "just don't get it", we "don't understand hip hop, it's 'art", and that lyrics reducing women to bitches and hoes and glorifying violence against them "don't have any bearing on real life attitudes to women".

"Tyler's fans tell Collective Shout this while calling us "bitches" and "whores" and telling us we "deserve to be raped", and that "this is what happens when women are allowed out of the kitchen"."

Roper also details other artists they have "called out" for their promotion of rape culture: "These include Robin Thicke with his rape anthem Blurred Lines and pornified music video and Brian McFadden's Just The Way You Are which was quickly pulled after uproar over his lyrics describing preying on a drunk woman. Earlier this year we petitioned the X Factor to dump Redfoo after his misogynistic Literally I Can't song release."

Wrapping up her piece, Roper says, "Here at Collective Shout, we continue to fight, bearing in mind the dictum 'the standard you walk past is the standard you set'. We must hold to account those artists and entertainers who promote and profit from the exploitation of women. We must demand better - and we will. Tyler the Creator was not the first artist we targeted and he will not be the last."

You can read Collective Shout respond to common arguments from Tyler's fans here and the entirety of Caitlin Roper's op-ed here.