tw // sexual assault, predatory behavior
so not sure how many people are aware of All Time Low’s (Jack’s specifically) allegations but throughout the past few weeks different people have come out and accused Jack of sexual assault. now, i have grown out of my pop-punk phase around mid-2010s but until then ATL were one of my favorite bands and i’ve kept up with them for years and have seen them live as well. the reason why i say this is because throughout the years that i’ve followed them i’ve witnessed behavior that now, as an adult, i recognize as creepy and disgusting and the disbelief in victims’ statements is angering me.
the first thing i saw about these allegations was a TikTok where a person said that the band let them into their tour bus when they were 13. although it wasn’t stated which band, there were clues in the comments that did point to ATL. it’s pretty common knowledge that a lot of the bands do take girls into their tour bus without checking their age. back when i was still a fan of them, there were a bunch of videos of them hanging out with girls in the tour bus, drinking and singing. there were also a lot of teenage girls on tumblrs and fan forums confirming that they were let in.
ATL have always had this thing at their concerts where they’ve encouraged girls to throw bras on stage. from what i know, at some point they donated the bras to shelters or have donated money to raise awareness for breast cancer depending on how much bras were thrown at them. as an idea, it does seem nice but it did gave them an opportunity to be disgusting on stage.
(also there’s this one picture of their bus from the inside where there’s tons of bras hanging around inside. that’s just to show that it wasn’t like 1-3 people throwing them but it was a thing to bring your bra to the show and throw it to the stage)
Jack was always the loudest on stage, always talking about sex and boobs. there were instances of Jack commenting on girl’s breasts from the stage or encouraging the audience to chant “show your boobs” at another fan or making other inappropriate comments, targeting random people in the audience (or like him talking about having a boner right now, wanting to get laid etc). some of the shows did not have age restriction or it had but the age wasn’t checked by the security, making it possible to have underage fans attend shows (me included).
one of the things that weren’t really talked about within the fandom was how Jack dated an underage girl for some period of time. Abigail Breslin started dating him when she was just 17 and he was 25, and they did want to keep the relationship private until Abigail turned 18, which confirms that Jack knew that an eight year gap between them was fucked up. he knew and still stayed in a relationship.
what i also find upsetting about this whole situation is how normalized it was, how grown men in their 20s were sexualizing their often underage audience and no one said a thing. how Jack’s actions and words were branded as “immature 14 year-old boy humor” even though he was a fucking grown man, very much aware of what he is doing and saying. the allegations against Jack and the band were always there, it was a known fact that there was something going on behind the scenes. it was a known fact that Jack’s behavior often could be classified as ‘predatory’. it was just never taken seriously because all was considered to be a ‘joke’.
since then the band has released a half-assed statement that basically can be reduced to “we believe the victims unless they accuse one of our bandmates cause in that case it’s all a lie”. Jack has also come out on twitter and claimed that this is all fake.
