>>Nostalgia For Infinity

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There have been no genocides targeting people who like Dungeons & Dragons. Liking comic books does not mean you are at a vastly higher statistical risk of domestic violence or rape. Playing video games will not result in your being legally disallowed to marry your partner, and nobody has suggested a constitutional amendment restricting the rights of people who read fantasy paperbacks. Nobody has ever murdered a sexual partner and subsequently given, as the legal defense for said murder, “I found out that he liked Doctor Who.” America is not built on a history of enslaving people because they attended Comic-Con.

I could go on here, but you get the point. Social snottiness is all over; there are jokes about nerds, there are jokes about hipsters (and whole blogs based around goofy pictures or mean blog posts about hipsters), there are jokes about frat-boys and bros and Dave Matthews fans, there are jokes about Goths and metal doodz and everyone else. People judge each other on grounds of taste. That’s life. But — crucially — these are jokes based on choices. Nobody chooses to have a marginalized, oppressed identity. And the historical consequences of having a marginalized, oppressed identity are far more serious than belonging to a subculture that people make jokes about.

(From the comments)

TigerBeatdown.com is my new favourite blog. It is the best. I cannot get enough of funny, right-on feminist writers.

That is all, thanks for reading.

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Whoops, apparently I have neglected to post these for the past few weeks. Sorry!

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Via the I live sweat… zine (ezine? tumblrzine? tumbline? Help me, my portmanteaus are terrible) is another great piece about the lived realities of sexism in the punk scene.

It’s the male band members who don’t take you seriously, and when you get upset with how you’re treated, ask you if you’re menstruating. It’s the promoters and planners who screw you, then call you a diva when you assert yourself.  It’s the kids who don’t talk to you after your set, but talk to your male bandmates because they assume you’re only there for show.  It’s the people who think you’re sleeping with the guitarist, the people who assume you’re queer,  or the journalists who mention your weight in reviews.  It’s every single time a producer has told me I can’t play guitar on my own record because “sweetie, you’re not a studio musician” or “sing it again, but naked.”

Most importantly, it’s the baggage I have to carry that my male bandmates don’t. I have to worry about walking to the car alone to grab my guitar; I have to worry about where we are staying and if the strangers who own the floor I’m sleeping on will assault me in the middle of the night, even though it’s unlikely. I can’t tell you how many nights I’ve clung to the side of my male bandmates when we’re sleeping, just to feel safe. I can’t drink too much or take a drink from a stranger at an after-party wherever we are staying, because I can’t be out of control.

I’m quoting this bit because it’s among the most immediate and powerful, but I should emphasise that a big part of this article is about not wanting to present oneself as, or be perceived as, a victim. Read the whole thing here. It’s written by Mariel Loveland, who sings and plays guitar in Candy Hearts (reviewed at the tail end of last year, here).

If you’re new to I live sweat… then you may also be interested in this piece by Lauren Denitzio, ex-The Measure [SA] (I think ex-that band, since I read that they were splitting up – which saddened me. They were one of the first bands I reviewed here, all the way back in March 2009). Here’s an excerpt:

I’ll start off by saying that I’m a white cis-female in her late 20’s who identifies as queer, feminist, radical and punk.  I’m speaking from my experiences being a part of a largely DIY poppunk scene for the majority of my life and in a touring band for over six years. A large part of the time, I feel welcomed, supported and accepted within the “punk” circles that I’m a part of.  However, nothing makes me more angry then hearing someone, men specifically, say that the scene isn’t sexist, “because we’re all punks and obviously that’s not cool.” I am far from the only woman-identified person in the room who would like to call bullshit on that statement.  While yes, most of my friends and the spaces I go to do not tolerate obviously sexist, homophobic, racist, able-ist, etc. speech, saying those concepts do not exist in our community is just flat out wrong.  What offends me is not always just the action itself, but the excuse that if you wear the “punk” label that you’re absolved of having done anything wrong because you “didn’t mean it that way.”  I can’t think of a rationale so unproductive.

Both pieces should be read by every punk, whether you’re an arsehole or an ally. There’s always more to learn, more you can do, to make punk rock better for everyone. You dig?

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