"Cover Up, Carry Yourself Like a Woman" (Says Prince's Drummer)

Hannah “Ford” Welton, the drummer in Prince's 3RDEYEGIRL, has been in the music industry since the age of 12. The only female to win the Louis Bellson Heritage Days Drum Competition (in 2006), she has played in her own band (The Hannah Ford Band), with the crossover Christian band Bellevue Suite, and on her own in a one woman inspirational Peace Love & Drums multi-media show. She is young, beautiful and out there in the public eye, so when she talks about how women need to be classy rather than trashy, she's saying it as someone who has men staring all the time - not as some prude who no one with even near-decent eyesight would even glance at.

Hannah recently spoke to The Guardian and shared what she thinks of many of the women in music today who treat their bodies like a "piece of meat." She said that she, along with the other members of the band, have all taken style guidance from Prince himself. "We’ve been inspired by his style and him telling us how he wants people to see us. There’s a way to be portrayed as beautiful, and even sassy and sophisticated, yet still powerful. None of us will ever compromise our look and feel as if we have to go out there wearing next to nothing to be noticed. That’s what the industry has become these days and the music is suffering; people are over-compensating for their music not being very good." She continued, "We have way too many young kids looking up to artists that are putting out music with terrible, vulgar messages and also walking around with next to nothing on. There are misogynists everywhere in the music industry. But if women are getting sick and tired of men talking about them in their music like they’re a piece of meat, they can’t then walk around treating their body like it’s a piece of meat. Cover up, carry yourself like a woman, and then hopefully the men will take the hint and start treating you with the respect you deserve. But women first have to stand up for themselves and stop degrading themselves, stop compromising. We talk about these things with Prince a lot."

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