Singer Olivia Ruiz is back after eight years of musical absence.
During an interview with La Tribune, where she talks about her new album, her tour and her novels, she also spoke about a current subject: sexist and sexual violence.
She revealed that she was subjected to chemical subjugation and escaped two sexual assault attempts in the past.
A chemical submission “less than ten years ago”
“I suffered a chemical submission from a collaborator.
It was less than ten years ago.
Things are still quite unclear, but I know that there was no sexual assault.
I was sleeping, I woke up and I took it out straight away.
I was lucky not to be stunned enough and to be able to defend myself,” says Olivia Ruiz.
The artist is also involved in the “M’dors pas” association, which intends to fight against chemical submission.
An organization born from the movement launched by Caroline Darian, whose mother had been raped and drugged for ten years without her knowledge.
An “ambient machismo”
The singer and novelist also explains that a man tried to abuse her when she was a minor.
“When I was 17, a conductor, a terrible man who had a habit of hiring young female singers, tried to sexually assault me.
Fortunately, a courageous man, a technician, had stuck it to the wall,” she confides.
While the cinema is shaken by a new wave of the MeToo movement, after the revelations of actress Judith Godrèche and the accusations targeting Gérard Depardieu, the music industry remains relatively spared by the revelations.
But it's only a matter of time for Olivia Ruiz, before the floor is freed.
“It’s already there, it’s starting to move.
I don't know if the silence is greater in the music world, if it's just a question of time or if this scourge is less present... At the same time, I don't see why a professional body would be spared”, underlines the singer, pointing out an “ambient machismo”.
“I remember this prime time during my participation in Star Ac, the pressure I was subjected to for me to wear a fairly suggestive outfit…” says the one who was revealed by the telecrochet.
“It still carries a little something of the myth of the
brainless singer.
We're always either totally brainless or intellectual, as if we couldn't have substance and be fun at the same time,” she laments.