Performers are not our Property

For performers, creatives, and anyone who feels the pressure to trade their wellbeing for an audience.

The cultural appetite for watching artists unravel in public has always been voracious.

From the relentless media surveillance that hounded Amy Winehouse to the legal battles of the Free Britney movement, society has a long history of consuming a performer's talent, then demanding their trauma as an encore. We look on with voyeuristic fascination as young, highly visible artists are placed under intense scrutiny, treated as public property, and discarded when they collapse under the weight.

It's easy to shake our heads at the tabloid press or blame predatory managers, yet this dynamic points to a wider issue inside the performance industry itself. The very qualities that make someone a compelling artist – emotional sensitivity, a porous relationship with feeling, and an instinct to connect – are the exact traits commercial systems routinely exploit.