[Image description: pink-toned digital art of Steven Universe. He's sitting on a rock, strumming his ukulele with his eyes closed and a peaceful smile on his face. Behind him, rose vines grow in the shape of a heart. End description.] (image description by anistarrose)
Pull your head out your ass and wear a mask even if you’re vaccinated. The vaccine specifically reduces both the severity of covid symptoms and the length of the transmissability window, but you will still can catch and pass on covid at the rate in line wit your other behavors.
With the shady bookings and lack of time for anyone to put on an actual set, I’d lean towards not putting my non-refundable money in their pockets. They also have it pre-coded to add a second show when the first inevitably sells out so the whole “one day only!!” panic which makes people run into making a purchase isn’t even authentic 🤦♀️ https://twitter.com/__bytes/status/1483684499921809411?s=21
Idk why they don't just make it like a 3 day event. It would make more sense to model it after warped tour rather than shoving all these bands onto 3 stages for a "one day event". No wonder people think it's a cash grab.
Hello, serious post ahead. I’d like to talk about accountability, specifically with Gerard Way and Frank Iero.
I’ve been sitting on this for a little while. As someone who strives to be anti-racist and ant-bigot, I feel hypocritical being present in this fan base without holding these people accountable. As much as I love them, no amount of love can erase the things that they have done.
I’ll start with the more obvious of the two, Frank. Despite being a part of the punk scene and creating music that is holding politicians accountable and covering other controversies in the world, Frank has a history of being racist. The two most notable things that no fan can deny is his dreadlocks in 2002 and his Rising Sun tattoo that was covered only recently (past few years I think). Although we can pass off the dreads as “normal for the time”, that doesn’t mean it’s not a problem. He was an adult at the time, and still should’ve known better. The early 2000s may have been more accepting of that sort of appropriation, and less aware of its significance, but that doesn’t make it passable. His tattoo is a real problem though. Being asked about it multiple times, he blatantly stated he knew what it meant and didn’t care what people thought. The rising sun symbol is a sign of Japanese imperialism, and represents death and suffering of many Asians. He knew and he didn’t care, and has only recently had it removed. I don’t believe he has ever addressed it (correct me if I’m wrong). Additionally, he has used the n-word and r-slur on Twitter, only apologizing recently for the latter. Now, he has come to Twitter and Instagram to address Black Lives Matter and coming for politicians, which is appreciated. And of course people can change, and you can choose to believe if his now actions are performative or not, but it is unacceptable to not hold him accountable for the actions he has made before.
Now, Gerard. He himself has had some issues with misogyny and racism. It’s disappointing because, similar to Frank being “anti-racist”, Gerard has gone to Twitter, said in interviews, and gave speeches at concerts about being a feminist and a trans and non-binary ally, as well as himself being somewhere off the typical gender binary. But, at the same time, he has previously threatened to “beat a girls face in” and has said he’s “not afraid to call a 16-year-old girl a c*nt”. And we seriously can’t not address some of the obscene things Gerard and Frank have done together on stage in front of underage crowds. Yeah, fans may love Frerard and love seeing them do sexual things, but not EVERYONE finds that appropriate. It’s incredibly obscene for them to be doing it at all age concerts (Gerard masturbating, Frank grinding on him, etc). In fact, there’s been multiple accounts of underage teenage girls seeking psychiatric help after witnessing Gerard masturbate on stage. These things may have all happened in the 2000s and maybe early 2010s, and he may have changed since then, but again these things have gone without accountability.
Of course, any discussion of Gerard’s unaccountability must include Lyn-Z. For those that don’t know, Lyn-Z is Gerard’s wife since 2007, who is the bassist for the band Mindless Self Indulgence. The band MSI is very, very, VERY blatantly racist, as all of their lyrics contain slurs and hateful, racist speech. Although Lyn-Z is not the singer or lyricist, she is a part of the band and clearly stands by it. There is an insane amount of bigotry behind the band and her part of it but I won’t get into that. Additionally, there was the hate page she made against Mikey, the rude things she has said to fans, how dismissive she is of Gee, and much much more. Fuck, even the MSI fandom wants to kick her out of the band. All in all, Lyn-Z is a horrible, shitty person, and Gerard seems fine with it. For a long time they would stand up for her and praise her on social medias, even going as far as threatening to bring in their lawyers over the shitty teen t-shirt thing. He’s kinda made an ass of himself over her, and she clearly has been not as loving and using his fame to her advantage. Recently, Gerard has not been as defensive, and as many of us have seen, has spent more and more time away from her and in the lab. Regardless of what this entails for the future of their relationship, this is still 14 whole years of a relationship where they have never once held her accountable. The passiveness can be argued as an act of racism as well, and is completely unacceptable. And again, you can argue the initial silence and later message about BLM could’ve been performative or forced, and we can’t really tell. Another thing that I’ve never seen anyone mention is the love Gerard (ik Mikey too but) has for Morrisey. I know most of this fandom has no idea who that is, but he was the lead singer for The Smiths. This guy is fucking TERRIBLE. He is super racist, islamophobic, and has a literal god complex that is actually terrifying. I know that the generation Gerard is a part of is not one to typically hold the artists they like accountable, but this is just a sort of red flag to me, because Gerard posts about him all the time.
Anyways, I’m sorry this is all over the place. I’ve been sitting on these thoughts for months and I feel like once a week I find out something new about Frank or Gerard that upsets me. I wish these things weren’t real. The thing is, I don’t feel comfortable NOT addressing these things as a fan. If this ruins your opinion of me, if I lose my followers and friends, that’s fine. I’d rather that than be a hypocrite. I hope anyone who reads this actually internalizes the things I’ve said, especially if you’re a white fan.
I’m open to discussion, as long as it is open minded and not hateful towards me.
I tried to find as many receipts as I could, and I mean no disrespect to OP, but a lot of these lack context.
Both Frank and Gerard have done problematic things in the past and it's important that we talk about it. Our faves are far from perfect and I don't want to come off as if I'm making excuses for them. I just want to point out that there is more to these instances than "Gerard/Frank did X problematic thing".
We can be angry about what Frank and Gerard have done, but we also need to acknowledge any atonement, changed behavior, if they have ever apologized, or explained their actions. It is never too late to grow as a person and change your behavior. We don't need to drag out the guillotine each time someone missteps, but we don't need to make excuses for them either.
Frank has explained the dreads he had when he was 19. I took screenshots of where he talks about it, so you don't have to comb through the whole transcript.
John: Welcome to Casual Interactions, a show about old friends getting together and telling stories. I'm John "Hambone" McGuire, and with me
It is in poor taste. But this action alone doesn't necessarily make him racist, just a stupid 19 year old. Frank wasn't fucking up his hair with ill intent.
Many people from the early 00's used to say the r slur to the point that there had to be psa's made about it. This does not in any way excuse Frank using the slur, but we should also acknowledged that he did apologize and that he has not used the slur in years.
“You are absolutely right and I am completely ashamed that it ever left my mouth. I apologize, it was completely wrong and fucked up... http
The person who @ Frank also had this to say:
“@FrankIero whoa shit wasn't expecting u to reply to my tweet but thank u for apologizing! really means a lot!”
Listing to the Smiths doesn't mean they condone Morrissey's behavior, or that they even agree with him. It just means they like the Smiths. Enjoying media created by a problematic person does not mean you share their thoughts and opinions.
Liking the Smiths doesn't make them problematic any more than liking mcr would make us problematic. I don't really like the 'canceled by association' thing either. It's a bit of a reach to call this a red flag.
I haven't seen a single quote from Frank saying he knew what the meaning behind his tattoo was and that he didn't care, and I'd love to see a source for this.
But the fact that he started to get it covered up not long after getting it means that he obviously realized his mistake. He began covering the tattoo before he started leathermouth, I think it was shortly after the black parade tour.
It did take him a while to cover the tattoo. But in my experience with getting tattoos covered, you should wait at least a year for the skin to fully heal, and to let the color fade. (I've heard red is one of the harder colors to cover up.) Since Frank was already getting smaller tattoos around the area, I'm assuming that's what he was doing.
You can see that Frank started to cover it up here:
In comparison to when he first got it:
More discussion about his tattoo here:
This is so extra. He isn't racist. Maybe he made a mistake getting that tattoo without knowing every little detail behind it, but Frank hasn
And more mentioning of the tattoo being covered here. The photo is from 2018, but Frank has slowly been covering that tattoo since around 2007/2008:
smth i noticed recently is that frank actually HAS gotten the rising sun covered up and i just never noticed cause it was so...subtle. it wa
We're still allowed to be mad about it, but Frank has obviously changed as a person within the last 15 years.
As for Frank saying the n slur, all I can say is yikes. He deleted the tweet, and I believe he did apologize. From what I remember he was quoting song lyrics, which is not an excuse. He can't use that word and should have known better.
I couldn't find a source for this.
But Frank saying the n slur in a tweet isn't the same as msi having a song called n slur, or having countless songs with slurs thrown in as filler words. Pretending their the same is a false equivalence. We can acknowledge that Frank fucked up, but he isn't on the same level as Jimmy Slurin.
Gerard pretending to masturbate on stage and kissing Frank is no more graphic than what is shown in most tv shows and movies. Acting like we are never exposed to anything sexual prior to turning 18 is weird and dishonest. And claiming that concert goers had to seek psychiatrist help after seeing someone be provocative on stage isn't really Gerard or Franks fault. Pop singers do roughly the same thing while performing. If a fan had to seek psychiatric help because of what they saw on stage, there is more going on with that individual. I feel bad for them, but that has nothing to do with Frank or Gerard personally.
I also could not find a source for this.
And let's not pretend everyone was okay with Frank and Gerard's stage antics, they got a lot of backlash for what they did on stage and for damn near everything else. People weren't as accepting back in the 2000's as we're pretending. Real people can't queerbait, neither of them need to be held accountable for whatever they did on stage.
Gerard was being a dick on twitter, but the person in question repeatedly @ him gross comments about his body, and mentioned his daughter several times. They were also saying ableist and homophobic things. This person was looking for a fight.
There are other things Gerard could have done, I agree. But if I were constantly being @ stuff about my kid and being body shamed, I can't say I would have acted perfectly either. Expecting anyone to be composed while being degraded is unrealistic.
These are some of the random @'s I found, plus the Dr Pepper tweet:
#dieslow is taking it too far, we get it you're edgy, you made your point.
This person did not have their age or pronouns in their bio at the time. So, claiming misogyny while also saying homophobic and ableist things makes it's pretty obvious what their goal was. They also used to seek out mcr fans and bully them until they deleted their twitter.
The Party Poison account (it wasn't Gerard's official twitter, and idk if he had any involvement in the party poison one?) calling them a cunt was still uncalled for. There were better ways this could have been handled.
Lindsey not being the one who writes the lyrics for msi does not mean she doesn't bare responsibility. She is still in the band. She was there when the lyrics were written, and knew that the songs she would pretend to play bass to contained slurs.
Lindsey allegedly auditioned using a song with the n slur in it. She knew from the begining that msi had racist lyrics and was unbothered by them. She has also on several occasions defended the lyrics as well as Jimmy's behavior. The fact that she has current racist actions (in comparison to Frank and Gerard where we have to go back 10+ years to see theirs) means she has not changed her behavior or learned from her mistakes. And that is the key difference.
Lindsey being a woke feminist was always an act.
Gerard's contenued silence on Lindsey's/msi's brazen racism, ableism and so on is at least questionable. And we can absolutely hold him accountable for that.
No one in mcr is anti racist, they are simply not racist, and there is a difference. You can't truly stand against racism if you still have racist friends and a racist wife.
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