The 2018 GRAMMYs Dismissing Women Is Further Proof of How Tone-Deaf The Industry Remains

When the 2018 GRAMMYs announced that artists will wear white roses in solidarity with the #MeToo and Time's Up movements, I had a feeling the sentiment wasn't going to travel too far during the actual ceremony. Last night's show proved me right, as it appeared to just be a ploy as women were notably shut out.

The GRAMMYs were yet another example of the ignorance in this male-dominated music industry, which was noticeable by the comments made by the most important person behind the ceremony—Recording Academy president Neil Portnow. When asked by Variety his thoughts on #GRAMMYsSoMale, his responded in defense of the show and not women. He was quoted from the outlet saying:

“It has to begin with… women who have the creativity in their hearts and souls, who want to be musicians, who want to be engineers, producers, and want to be part of the industry on the executive level… [They need] to step up because I think they would be welcome. I don’t have personal experience of those kinds of brick walls that you face but I think it’s upon us — us as an industry — to make the welcome mat very obvious, breeding opportunities for all people who want to be creative and paying it forward and creating that next generation of artists.”