Ethan Kath Undermined Alice Glass’ Contributions to Crystal Castles and tried to Paint her as Interchangeable
Ethan Kath has been on record saying the following:
Ethan Kath claimed that Alice Glass did not appear on Crystal Castles “best known songs” and lists Vietnam, Reckless, Year of Silence, 1991, & Good Time…he claims that these songs are more well known by Crystal Castles fans Alice Practice, Baptism, Celestica, Suffocation, Courtship Dating, Black Panther, Empathy Plague etc.; what numbers is he referring to? If the entire Crystal Castles fan base was surveyed and had to list their favorite/most memorable songs, would the majority list 1991 and Good Time over Alice Practice and Baptism? Does not seem likely.
Alice Glass responded to this statement from Ethan Kath with the following Tweets:
Ethan Kath responded with the following statements:
Though it seems as if he is trying to “see through Alice Glass’ logic” here, this statement is actually written in a very manipulative way. Rather than directly refuting Alice Glass’ claims with figures and numbers, Ethan Kath responds by telling the readers ‘it can’t be both’; trying to paint Alice as someone that does not make sense and gas-lighting the readers to question Alice’s logic. It is interesting to note that right before he also claims in the interview that “I didn’t belittle her or make any derogatory comments, I was acknowledging what she had already said herself” even though his comments did attempt to belittle her and undermine her accomplishments; he is trying to get the readers to re-interpret Alice’s words.
Gaslighting is a form of manipulation that seeks to sow seeds of doubt in a targeted individual or in members of a targeted group, hoping to make them question their own memory, perception, and sanity. Using persistent denial, misdirection, contradiction, and lying, it attempts to destabilize the target and delegitimize the target’s belief.
To be clear, it makes logical sense for Alice to have contributed almost all of the lyrics and the majority of the vocal melodies to Crystal Castles despite feeling like she was in an artistically restrictive environment filled with emotional, physical and sexual abuse.
Ethan Kath also said the following in his response to Alice Glass: “I wished her the best because despite everything, I’ll always love her and sincerely want her to do well and be happy.“
It is a tactic of emotionally manipulative abusers to say something rude, degrading, or belittling (i.e. undermining Alice’s contributions to the band) followed by something overly-sweet & loving (i.e. I will always love her and sincerely want her to do well and be happy). This tactic is called intermittent reinforcement or hot & cold behavior.
“On top of other emotional abuse tactics, like gas lighting, narcissists/sociopaths/abusers give or withhold certain needs from their partner, granting them either randomly enough to develop an addiction in their partner or giving them in response to the exact behavior they want to see in their partner. Intermittent reinforcement creates a starvation within the being, which puts the person who is in charge of the reinforcing in a position of complete and absolute control. You will always see intermittent reinforcement present in an abusive relationship..”
Patterns of gaslighting and intermittent reinforcement from Ethan Kath are also highlighted in Alice Glass’ recent statement:
“But as is sometimes the case in abusive relationships, his cruelty was often followed by kindness.“
“He kept me insecure and on edge, and then would tell me that he was the only one it the world that believed in me. He told me it was us against everyone, because everyone else thought I was a loser, a joke, a talentless dancing clown. I believed him. I was suicidal for years.“
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Ethan Kath also tried to paint Alice Glass as interchangeable and easily replaceable: Edith Frances, the new Crystal Castles singer, used to be a model in LA that went by Margo Frances. Though Edith did have some photoshoots where she adopted a more “edgy” look (see below)…
…her photoshoots actually have a wide range of “aesthetics” (which is unsurprising as she is a model). Also, in pretty much all of her photoshoots, she is blonde.
More photos of Margo Frances pre-Crystal Castles below:
Despite being a model who is used to being photographed and who has many photographs available online, many images of Edith released by Crystal Castles don’t clearly show her face…a Reddit user even commented on it after Crystal Castles changed their Apple Music Photo to include Edith:
“I’m not exactly sure what Edith looks like. She keeps hiding behind hair, and glasses, and hats, even when I do see a full face shot of her it’s hard not to see Alice. I think she’s doing herself a disservice by hiding so much” -Reddit User
Because Edith i.e. Margo Frances was a model, she is clearly not camera shy. Why would she be hiding or not fully showing her face?
The fact that Edith started to hide her face & become less active on social media after she started spending more time around Ethan follows a pattern that is seen with both Alice Glass and his current romantic partner & former Alice Glass cosplayer Autumn
It is interesting the compare the photos of Edith i.e. Margo Frances pre-Crystal Castles to her after she joined Crystal Castles. It really does seem as though Edith’s style has changed completely to more closely mirror Alice Glass. One of the most noticeable differences is Edith seemed to adpot Alice Glass’ signature haircut & dyed her hairs similar colors to Alice when she was still performing with Crystal Castles. Please see below photos:
Photos of Alice Glass performing with Crystal Castles (left) compared to Edith Frances performing with Crystal Castles (right); in some shots with sunglasses she almost looks identical to Alice Glass.
Another photo of Edith Frances performing with Crystal Castles; notice similarities in hair and makeup style to Alice Glass
It is likely that Edith (i.e. Margo) Frances is also being manipulated by Ethan Kath. Edith’s style probably so closely mirrors Alice Glass’ style in Crystal Castles to further paint Alice Glass as replaceable, interchangeable and unimportant to Crystal Castles.