Fishlock Fridays #4 – Backwards Thinking is Not Punk

Punk rock is a subjective concept, I find. There is no true definition of punk; it is what you personally feel it is. However, what is certainly not punk is backwards thinking. The punk rock movement should definitely be about forward thinking, trying to make change for the better and very much importantly not excluding anyone – especially in terms of gender, sexuality, skin colour, nationality – although feel free to not include people for right wing politics: we don’t need that shit. The real issue is that a lot of the older punk crowd (far from all of them) seem to be stuck in the eighties. It’s now 2015, there’s no room for your homophobic or sexist bullshit. There are two particular cases that have been bought to attention in the last week that I feel the need to shame and/or rant about, alongside other issues.

One issue that has been more and more conscious in my mind in the last year, is the segregation of gender in the punk scene, with many discussions held with my punk poet friend Jenn Hart. This is alongside what has been said by excellent rising hardcore punk band Petrol Girls from London, both of whom cover these things in their creative work, check them both out. I’m only going to glance over this as the aforementioned people have first-hand experience and will just express it better and I’m probably just writing the same words Jenn has said to me anyway. Many of the ideals we collectively fight for in the punk rock scene is equality, and being inclusive of everyone, yet you may notice there is a large amount of all male shows, and lack of female representation in general. Punk rock has traditionally been a boys club, apart from the exception of the much respected underground riot grrl scene of the nineties. You are more often someone’s girlfriend rather than being encouraged to start a band or get involved somehow, and there unfortunately are still a few men out there in the punk scene who feel uncomfortable when they are confronted with these points. Fortunately, there are a lot of bands in UK DIY punk gaining prominence recently such as Perkie, The Tuts and Colour Me Wednesday, so maybe things are getting better, and hopefully will continue to.

Homophobia should never be welcome in a punk rock scene, and unfortunately as you may have already seen this is not how the prominent and still touring band Anti-Nowhere League see things. Having released a track named ‘The Day The World Turned Gay” in November, which originates back to 2005 when the bands label Captain Oi! refused to release it on an album. The lyrics of the song has repugnant lines such as “’cause we’ve got poofs, queers, faggots, dykes and ladyboys and fucking transvestites” and “they’re sniffing each others arses just like dogs, they’re being dirty and hanging around in bogs.” Even outside of the punk scene most people are going to deem a song like this deeply unacceptable, let alone in a punk scene that should be a safe haven from homophobia. Again, this is the mentality of a few older punks still trying to relive their heyday, maybe punk is about “not giving a fuck,” but there is certainly a line and Anti-Nowhere League have crossed it. Looking at comments on the bands Facebook page there’s many people asking if people have no sense of humour any more or just showing their support anyway in a time where a lot of people are clearly ditching out on this outdated moronic band. If you can listen to the song and find humour in it, you are most likely a homophobe, because words like the ones they have used are far from satirical. Respect goes to the promoters at The Frog and Fiddle in Cheltenham for pulling their Anti-Nowhere League show in light of this.

For the final thing I want to rant about is going across the Atlantic to Californian “punks” The Vandals sending the wrong message completely by teaming up with a firearms company to release their own Vandals special AR-15 gun. I mean what the fuck? A band is releasing a gun as merch? Not only that but a “punk” band. I guess in America guns are seen very differently to the way we do see them in this country but it does seem so horrifically un-punk. Then you look at their announcement on their Facebook page, and see people use the word “faggot” and “gaylord” when someone calls them out on the bullshit, or see the band themselves tell someone they “don’t get it” and “we hope your band is big enough one day to have douches post negative things about you.” It’s incredibly childish of the band in the way they are responding to any criticism and is isolating their fans. Maybe it’s time for this “punk” band to disappear, along with their homophobic fans.

There’s certainly a few things still holding punk rock back as a movement, but as we keep moving forward we should still be staying ahead of society with our thoughts and mentalities. If you want to be homophobic, if you want to be sexist, you should steer clear of punk rock because these days you aren’t so welcome if you think that way.

P.S. Respect to Matty of excellent folk punk band from Warrington, The Roughneck Riot, for outing Anti-Nowhere League and The Vandals via Facebook statuses in the last week and giving me something to rant about.

Posted in Features, Spotlight and tagged .
Chris Fishlock

Chris Fishlock

Punk rock enabler at Fishlock Promotions & Seeing Your Scene sub-editor.

4 Comments

    • Cultural marxism: “It allows those smarting from a loss of privilege to be offered the shroud of victimhood, by pointing to a shadowy, omnipresent, quasi-foreign elite who are attempting to destroy all that is good in the world. It offers an explanation for the decline of families, small towns, patriarchal authority, and unchallenged white power: a vast, century-long left wing conspiracy. And it distracts from the most important factor in these changes: capitalism, which demands mobility, whose crises have eroded living standards, and which thus, among other things, undermines the viability of conventional family structures and the traditional lifestyles that conservatives approve of.”

      Famous proponents include mass murderer Anders Breivik…

  1. “although feel free to not include people for right wing politics”
    How are you planning to change anything when you isolate yourself? Sounds like an ideological circle jerk.

What's your opinion?