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MCR and the Inherent Feminism of Emo
Feb. 19th, 2019 07:11 pmAlmost all of emo's early work is about resonant pain, because emo has this aesthetic of "here is my trauma, listen to me grapple with it and try to cope". And My Chemical Romance did that better than most. In some ways they were the most distilled form of emo. Their band exists because Gerard Way was on the ferry from New Jersey into Manhattan the day the twin towers came down. He had a front row seat to our national tragedy, and he was so shaken he couldn't stop talking about it to his former garage band members at church, one of whom told him to write a song about it and he'd play it.
That legacy of bearing witness to trauma, of singing out the pain you can't keep bottled up: that's emo. My Chemical Romance was just pain on a grand but relatable scale, the pain of seeing something that left scars, of having disappointed your grandmother and yourself because you weren't there when she died, the pain of having to carry on when those you love die.
Like all music seen as "feminine" and therefore threatening to the toxic cocks of rock, My Chem, and emo in general, faced some strong pushback. Every bit as strong as the riotous backlash against disco were the attacks against emo kids and the cyber-free-for-all of terrorism against 'netizens like Boxxy. Artists like MCR had songs about ~emotions~ and that was Not Okay.
One of the basic premises of emo is that working through your trauma onstage is valid art. Having feelings in public is seen as feminine and icky in popular culture, so rebelling against that norm is punk. Doing the work of publicly processing trauma is both punk artistry and the feminist act of using your emotions to create instead of destroy. Doing it where other people are paying to watch it forces that feminism into the cultural conversation, making the world better.
Until some assholes decide that straight masculinity is all that music ever needs to represent.
But we've heard that one before. ;)
That legacy of bearing witness to trauma, of singing out the pain you can't keep bottled up: that's emo. My Chemical Romance was just pain on a grand but relatable scale, the pain of seeing something that left scars, of having disappointed your grandmother and yourself because you weren't there when she died, the pain of having to carry on when those you love die.
Like all music seen as "feminine" and therefore threatening to the toxic cocks of rock, My Chem, and emo in general, faced some strong pushback. Every bit as strong as the riotous backlash against disco were the attacks against emo kids and the cyber-free-for-all of terrorism against 'netizens like Boxxy. Artists like MCR had songs about ~emotions~ and that was Not Okay.
One of the basic premises of emo is that working through your trauma onstage is valid art. Having feelings in public is seen as feminine and icky in popular culture, so rebelling against that norm is punk. Doing the work of publicly processing trauma is both punk artistry and the feminist act of using your emotions to create instead of destroy. Doing it where other people are paying to watch it forces that feminism into the cultural conversation, making the world better.
Until some assholes decide that straight masculinity is all that music ever needs to represent.
But we've heard that one before. ;)