Gerard in Rock Sound

[ofyourdeath.livejournal.com]

MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE
Interview: Andrew Kelham

Have you thought about how My Chemical Romance will reintroduce themselves to music fans in 2010? Do you ever wonder if your band is still needed in music?
Says Gerard Way (vocals):
"It's funny because the musical landscape is ever changing, but I think there's always a place for us and I think we're absolutely needed, especially now. I don't say that with any arrogance, I just really believe in my band and I believe that our band does what it does better than anybody else. There's no one that can do this like us. I feel a gap when we are gone and I hope people do too, if they don't then we're not doing our job properly. I think we're absolutely needed, but I'm glad we're coming back in 2010 because, as much as people need us, I think they needed a break from us too. I hope we got the balance of that right."

What have you tried to achieve with your forthcoming fourth album? How is it different from you past work?
"With this record we tried to ignore all the cosmetic nonsense and focus on becoming a truly great rock band. We felt that the world needed a really straight and pure rock band, you're hard pressed to find a lot of those these days. It was less about the theatricality and more about how we become the greatest young American rock band musically."

How are you adapting to fatherhood?
"It's great, it's amazing. Obviously we just wanted a healthy baby, but I was excited to have a girl as there are things I can see myself helping a girl with that I could never do with a guy, things like picking out clothes and stealing eyeliner, all that sort of stuff!"

Mod note: As happy and excited as we are that people are starting to discuss and converse in the comments, we'd like to remind everyone to play nicely.

Comments

[manhattan-blue.livejournal.com]

Not that I don't think having opinions is a good thing, or that I think any gender stereotypes are good things, but to me it's pretty clear that Gerard's comment was meant to be taken with a dash of irony. I consider it to be pretty obvious that he was kidding. I mean he, along with Lindsey, chose to call their daughter Bandit, which plays with stereotyped gender roles in itself and as he himself is a man, could he not have been making a comment on the social structures of modern life?

Another thing: I've read comments from Frank Iero about women (such as him not liking women with tattoos) that fall much more into the offensive side of gender stereotype.

[(Anonymous)]

That's what you read into it. I do not. I don't think the answer is that well thought out or reasoned, which is part of my issue. It was an off the cuff joke that STILL plays into gender roles and stereotypes.

Further, just because someone says something else that is also offensive or more offensive (3 or so years ago, btw. Not that Frank hasn't said anything recently that isn't offensive because he has! So has Ray since we're bringing all of this up or Bob! Or you could bring up the connections to MSI which has a long track record of being offensive towards women and minorities "irony" or not) doesn't make anything more or less bad. These arguments strike me as defensive and distracting when there really isn't anything to be defensive about, people say stupid things sometimes it happens. And how you interpret them is how you interpret them, all interpretations are valid.

[(Anonymous)]

And if it was supposed to be a joke or a play on gender roles it was not done very well since many people aren't viewing it that way. That's all I have to say about this.

[manhattan-blue.livejournal.com]

It probably wasn't that well reasoned, it's true, but I am choosing to take his comment in context. What he said wasn't offensive in my opinion, though it definitely is sad that gender roles and stereotypes are so ingrained into our culture.

It does not bother me when Frank said the offensive comment, he didn't take it back, it was pretty hypocritical and, as you acknowledged, he has added other offenses to his track record. I have never taken offense to anything said by Bob or Ray, but I am perfectly prepared to believe that there must be some quotes out there that they have said that play into the realm of sexist or what have you. I myself have made some stupid comments without thinking about it first.

I don't really have anything to say about your comments towards MSI, because as you said, all interpretations are, indeed, valid, but, to me, including "irony" makes a huge difference. It's meant to be offensive, but it's not supposed to be sincerely bigoted, so I think (again, another interpretation that no one has to agree with) that it actually is made "less bad".

In a way, I don't actually see the harm in making jokes about gender roles, because it makes people think about them and it acknowledges their existence, which is how we are enabled to fight against them and be ourselves. Sure, I see how it sucks that it is so engrained into our subconsciousness, and I'm not saying Gerard intended such a thing to be raised.

[(Anonymous)]

Joking about racism or presenting it ironically does not actually make it okay. It leaves open a lot of problematic things and interpretations that actually can perpetuate stereotypes needlessly.

http://www.earthling-concerned.com/social-studies/ironic-racism-is-still-racism/
http://contexts.org/socimages/2009/05/17/amy-sedaris-and-hipster-racism/
http://www.racialicious.com/2009/02/12/stuff-white-people-do-think-that-racism-is-ok-if-youre-being-ironic-about-it/

[spuzz.livejournal.com]

Do I think Gerard is better at gender issues than Frank? I think that's kind of a no brainer, of course he is. Frank has many issues with women of which I have discussed at length. But does that mean that Gerard should be without criticism or critical thinking when he says something that pings my radar? I don't think so. It just shows me that he is human and he makes dumb statements (or jokes, which I don't find particularly funny). Such is the nature of being in a fandom based off of real people without filters.

For me, it just helps when I'm reading something to state when I find something weird or curious or that I want to debate because I find it interesting. Gender roles and how we play into them is one of those. This is mainly because I am still learning myself, still struggling with these ideas and so when I spot them it helps me to talk through them or to debate them because it makes me more aware in the future. For me, that's what this community is about, discussing things that are posted here and congregating with fans to either discuss issues that come up (such as the larger discussion on race that came from Frank's twitter that I found very interesting and helpful) or squeeing when I see a great picture posted or Frank posts a picture of his dogs or whatever.

Did I find Gerard's comment "offensive"? I'm not sure, I found it more of an odd comment to make, one I don't think he thought through very much. This is the way I've thought of the comments that Ray or Frank or Bob or whoever have made, I don't think they think through them or don't mean them to be anything but off the cuff remarks. But that doesn't mean that they still can't be problematic or bothersome but at the same time doesn't mean they can't be discussed or debated. But saying that I was offended because I decided to discuss it at length is a different interpretation.

What offended me more, to be honest, were the comments that I responded to in which I was told gender roles didn't really matter, that this wasn't the place to discuss it etc etc.

Sorry for the TL;DR, I just am invested in this band and this community and also am fascinated by this subject. :D

[manhattan-blue.livejournal.com]

I think the subject is certainly very interesting and there isn't a place where it shouldn't be discussed, because it all spreads awareness doesn't it, and the right of free speech is every bit as important as equality between men and women etc etc.

I agree that Gerard's comment certainly was odd. It was really fucking weird if you ask me and it didn't make all that much sense, which is part of the reason why it has caused such a division between us who have read it. It does send out very mixed messages, really, and it's clear he didn't put a lot of thought into what he said.

And you totally shouldn't apologise, I find people's views on this topic to be very interesting, and I hold some pretty strong ones myself, it just happens that what Gerard said didn't really send up any warning to me, but that's because we all have our own personal hang-ups and opinions.

What I find most fascinating, and almost slightly degrading really, is that even in this community, which I think we can safely say is mostly constituted of females, every rushes to the defenses of this hypothetical male baby, instead of voicing outrage for the very real Bandit, who may have absolutely no interest in make-up and clothes what-so-ever.

[spuzz.livejournal.com]

Your last point is really interesting as well. I wonder if that's because he DOES have a girl that people already believe he kind of knows her enough and that it's easier to use a hypothetical baby as an example because it doesn't exist? I'm not sure if that question made sense, oops. But I think what I'm trying to say is it may be easier to go the opposite route instead of the route based more in "reality" (eg what Gerard is presenting as reality) because you can say "what if [insert possibility]"? Because it does present both sides of the gender issue because one side (the "girl" side if you will) was already given (by Gerard).

It's really early so I'm not sure any of that made sense. So to sum up: the point about Bandit may not even liking eyeliner or whatever is super problematic, good point!

Edited: wow reading over that it really made no sense.

[manhattan-blue.livejournal.com]

I have to disagree with that tbh because Gerard himself represents the male side of the gender roles in the way that he's broken them. This fandom seems to be pretty hard-wired to defend men, because it is so male-dominated, and their right to break stereotypes. Women don't play a large part in bandom and maybe that's why we're all so eager to rush to the aid of the repressed, but hypothetical, baby boy. Or maybe it is, once more, our larger society.

[spuzz.livejournal.com]

Fascinating way to put it and I absolutely agree both with the fact that this fandom itself defends men as well as our larger society.