Monday, December 31, 2007

"This note should be pretty easy to understand."

In my last post I called out Gerard because he was telling the audience "go fuck yourselves" and a lot of people defended him by saying that it was not disrespectful to the women in the audience because he asked everyone to do it.

Then I ask you to take a look at this concert review which proves that wrong. It goes like this.

I want to hear all the ladies fuck themselves........
Because I'll have you know I fuck myself on a daily basis. It goes like this.

You're gonna touch yourself make it sound convincible

Ladies…you're gonna spend most of the rest of your lives doing this.


What can I say? I can't say anything that hasn't already been said by a friend of mine who gave me permission to quote her. That is a brave thing to do considering the way this blog itself gets treated, and the way anyone gets treated who speaks out against Gerard's behavior. Death threats. Wishes of rape. Insane fannish behavior. Kapunua I commend you for your willingness to stand up against this kind of craziness.

She calls him,
someone who verbally abuses teenage girls under the flag of "feminism"--so much more dangerous than any drunken retarded ass-slapping fratboy, because most girls at least know that they do not pretend to represent feminism.

And

Gerard Way? I probably don't have to tell you that he was what drew me to MCR. It was his feminism and his activism that made me curious about the music, with which I fell in immediate and passionate love. It was "I'm Not Okay," I cried the first time I saw the video. I thought, "These guys get it."
At least most times in the recent past, I thought he was still in there, that maybe he was going through a phase or some kind. That he was just a mess, he maybe didn't realize what he was saying or how many people he was letting down. I thought maybe he was just falling apart.
I thought for a while that maybe he didn't realize that his words were not only harmful, but hurtful, too. I had hoped, at least early on, that the guy who said such awesome things was in there somewhere. That even if he stopped needing to say them, he still actually believed them, and would not do the direct polar opposite of them.

Does someone like Gerard Way realize how much it hurts to be spoken to like that? How awful of a feeling it is to be disrespected, not because of anything you've done, but just because you're a different gender than he is? How helpless of a feeling it is to watch him verbally abuse little girls who don't know any better, who think that it's the greatest thing they've ever heard? And then for him to turn around and call it "feminism?" And that you can't say or do a thing about it, because he's rich, famous and successful and has a horde of devoted followers who would sooner piss on your corpse than let you speak a word against him?

Does someone like Gerard Way understand how much it hurts to laughingly be told "this is how it will be all your life?" This is what women should expect from men. This is what women should expect from men who are feminists. Women, this is as far as you go in life. Jerk off for me and moan for me. It's all you're good for.

He used to say that he understood how much things like that hurt, but like with so much else, he lied. There is nothing in words like that but cruelty.

I also know, as I'm sure many people would love to point out, that none of this will ever make a lick of difference to the band. Nor would it even if I said it directly to any of them. They've got their fans. They've got enough money and adulation that one girl walking away (for the right reason) isn't going to phase them in the least. Gerard Way, he's got to know that he's got all these young girls eating out of his hand, and he's feeding them a future of misunderstanding what it is to be a woman, and he's doing it on purpose now and laughing about it. "Hey, it's just a joke, I wanna see how far I can go." "Hey girls, you're just a joke. How far can I make you go?" Nothing I say or do is going to change that. Rock stars have been treating women like whores since rock and roll began, even before. A small amount of women have been asking them not to for just as long. None of them have ever listened, so it's not about to change now--I get that, I do.

Really all I can do is shake my head and hope that someday, when those girls grow up, they'll look back on their crush on Gerard Way and simply be embarrassed by it. All I can do is hope that they will figure the world out and realize that they are good for more than acting like whores because some dude with a microphone told them to.


And
And it's not as if he doesn't know what he's saying, either, because he's tried subtly to defend it. Except, how he keeps flying the feminism banner is what is so destructive. There are bigger issues in the world than one rock star and his "OH, WOE!" issues. How women are treated is one of those issues and he's spitting all over it. He knows his fanbase is comprised largely of young girls.
Now if he pulls out the "It's just a joke!" those girls will mostly go, "LULZIES oh Gerard you are so funny and hot!!" And if he pulls "I'm just pushing the boundaries" he gets "OH Gerard you are so edgy and hot!!!" Those young girls eat up everything he says and he's even said in the past that he realizes this fact.


I couldn't have said it better.

Now onto MSI, who many people defended (in terms of MCR supporting their act) by calling it satire or shock value. Here is an interview where they specify that they are not doing anything for shock value.

To quote an anonymous on my other entry,

Romana: Ok.. so I found this written in one of the articles about you where you were called: ´Shocking rockers of this generation´.
Everyone goes silent for a moment.
Jimmy: Really?
Romana: Well I was just gonna ask you if that’s like the right thing for you, or you don’t really care what you are called.
Jimmy: I don’t know if that’s like totally correct. I mean we don’t necessarily…
Steve: We don’t go out of our way to shock anybody, or to get a title. I don’t think that’s necessarily accurate.
Jimmy: I mean it’s not surprising!
Steve: If it is, it’s unintentional. I don’t like bands that are intentionally shocking; I think that’s pretentious.


So it appears that the argument for their lyrics being for "shock value" and "satire" is dead in the water.

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Quinn Alman

Can anyone tell me why he hates Gerard so much?