Rain Perry

Dear Neil,

Yesterday you said that in order to win more Grammys, "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" need to "step up" professionally.

I am so relieved you cleared this up. I thought if I just felt creative, I'd automatically have a career.

Oh wait - I did start my own label and have released four albums and a documentary film through its imprint. I joined NARAS as soon as I was qualified. Is that what you mean by stepping up?

And then today you apologized, talking again about outreach to women who "dream of careers" in the industry.

Look, Neil, I'm not sure what planet you're living on, but you've got an industry already full of women who have careers, who are fighting for respect and professional acknowledgement. Those women have now been told by the head of their professional organization - to which they pay their hard earned dues - that he doesn't really even understand they are there.

Since you "don’t have personal experience of those kinds of brick walls," let me help by putting up one of my own. I hereby rescind my membership in NARAS and am encouraging my fellow female members to do so too. I'm not interested in investing in an organization that is so deeply clueless about the reasons women struggle for parity in their industry.

Sincerely,

Rain Perry