It’s being swept under the stage, gig after gig, weekend after weekend, in the bars, clubs and basements that weave together New Jersey’s local music scene.

Female musicians say they have been stalked, groped and relentlessly demeaned in an arts community with no controls in place to report such abusers. They feel collective frustration and invalidation. They are sick of being diminished and ignored.

While the #MeToo movement has infiltrated the highest levels of culture and most high-profile industries, the way in which harassment exists on a local level is less widely discussed — and speaks to just how insidious the problem is. Harassment in the arts does not trickle down from Hollywood; it begins in bars like Paul’s Tavern in Belmar and venues like The Stone Pony in Asbury Park, where male-dominated power structures continue to cripple some of New Jersey’s most talented musicians.