After months of internet chaos in the punk music community about the use of scantily clad women on punk posters, I recently arrived at my workplace to see a garish, mostly naked woman underneath a Funkys logo adorning the stage. Ugh. I know we hold Burlesque shows every month or two but I fail to understand how a naked chick represents the bar. We are not a Strip Club, Fetish Bar, or Burlesque Club. We have Karaoke 5 nights a week and punk or metal shows on the weekends. Alas, I don’t decide these things. How I wished that the original slumlord owners granted my idea to rebrand the bar by its real name, ‘The Palace’, 5 years ago. This Funky Winkerbeans name will haunt me forever. It’s the silliest. There is nothing funky about heavy music.
This world is so obsessed with being politically correct that the image of this naked wall woman is yet more ammunition for the P.C. Music Mob. They already finger point the bar for allowing bands with ‘bad’ names or concepts to play there. So I’m thinking ‘great! More stigma’. As this ever growing mob of people boycott and buzzword us to death with embellished propaganda, I fear the dream of a connected heavy music community is dead. How I yearn for the mid 2000’s where there were as many punks at metal shows and vice versa. That was an amazing time. I love both. I guess I’ll just hang with all of you, besides the cliques that ridiculously demonize me as a misogynist supporter.
In a recent conversation with my mother, I disclosed some harrowing sexual traumas from my tweenhood that definitely tempered the surly, rough and tough punk chick demeanor I manifested. It was survival mode. Maybe she now understood my suspicious nature when I adamantly outed a teacher at the elementary school I went to, as a sick diddling fuck. He sadly wasn’t held to account until the girls reached adulthood. In the late 70’s, as a naive 13 year old girl being driven to the outskirts of town, or driven into an alley with 3 guys who attempted to rape me, shitty experiences. I successfully fended off these fuckers by kicking the shit out of their vehicle. Many others were not so lucky. I endured bullshit relationships but I survived. Hopefully through my hardships, I taught my daughter that she deserves better and to not take any shit.
The women these days freaking out about being ‘assaulted’ by the band name ‘Black Pussy’ is beyond absurd. Seeing a band name in print is not assault. Your buzzword is doing a real disservice to women who have been sexually assaulted. Is the name tacky? Sure, but blowing shit out of proportion is not helping. Scantily clad punk chicks on posters. I don’t see how this represents punk bands. I’d be more of the ilk of asking why this is occurring in the free world. Everyday, I see women posting nearly naked photos of themselves on Social Media. Narcissism, low self esteem, pride, objectification vs empowerment. Which is it? Is a man who likes such pictures a pig or a supporter of a woman’s freedom to do what she wants. Catch 22. Damned if you do or don’t.
Why are female pop stars always wearing next to nothing and gyrating? Taking the fight to them would be a productive start as they influence the young girls that admire them. This is the enemy, mainstream society. They are the politicians, media, entertainment moguls, and corporate fucks that control the ‘acceptable’ world as we know it. I suppose the new world of public shaming is an attempt to reign in the chaos. Protest for the right to be as naked as you want yet balk at seeing nudity. The hypocrisy has all become very mind boggling.
SUBCULTURE 