"Homophobia is Gay" Frank iero, former rhythm guarist of My Chemil Romance, half of DeathSpells and volist of LeATHERMØUTH, once donned a t-shirt wh this phrase scribbled on wh Sharpie. Now, a mon reactn to this quote is &q
Contents:
- "HOMOPHOBIA IS GAY"
- FRANK IERO GAY RUMORS?ONLE POLL SHOWS 79 PERCENT DON’T BELIEVE HE’S GAY
- HOMOPHOBIA IS GAY.… (FRANK IERO QUOTE)
"HOMOPHOBIA IS GAY"
* frank iero gay *
Through an examatn of stage-gay, the notor practice of queer performativy on stage by straight performers the emo mic subculture, I vtigate how a rtrictive notn of “tth” discsns of queerbag n actually close off the very possibili of transformatn and open-end nfiguratns of sexualy that Alexanr Doty’s formulatn of queerns promised. In the same volume, Emma Nord suggts there are two sis to queerbag—one versn has producers “htg at yet nyg queer ntent, and the other one has producers promisg gay characters yet not liverg proper reprentatn. ”3 Most of the thors Brennan’s book are fairly clear that the liberate tent of media producers is a key part of queerbag, as opposed to viewer terpretatns of queerns or homoeroticism.
4 Obvly this be more plited when we apply to the ncept of stage-gay, which is a term vented by fans of emo and post-punk bands the early 2000s. But jt as wh stage-gay, uld be argued that emo’s genr polics hold out a promise of progrs or egalarianism that they don’t really fulfill. Here we foc specifilly on emo bands’ penchant for stage-gay: that is, monstratns of male/male affectn and eroticism, up to and cludg full kissg and simulatg sex onstage.
FRANK IERO GAY RUMORS?ONLE POLL SHOWS 79 PERCENT DON’T BELIEVE HE’S GAY
Many of the gay mors surroundg Frank Iero (My Chemil Romance guarist) seem to be tied to his obssive attentn to his body, like most guarists. However the poll suggts that a big majory (79%) of rponnts don't believe that he’s gay. * frank iero gay *
When nsirg emo bands’ tentns performg stage-gay, we should look to explic statements ma by band members about s purpose: not to take them as transparent statements of fact, but as performative elements the Butlerian/Fouuldian sense, which be wh other visual and dible statements to nstct a disurse of queerns.
10 Fans’ of and rpons to stage-gay also ntribute to the nstctn of s meangs.
We should also take to acunt the soc-cultural ntexts which stage-gay first me to public note: two boys kissg onstage at a hard rock ftival 2002 is an entirely different statement than the same gture ma a queer-iendly club 2020. 12 “Queer” is not one si of a bary on which the other si is “hetero-”: the word we would be lookg for that se is “homo-”. Buildg on this ia of persona, I will then briefly outle the theory of performativy through which I tend to analyze the practice of stage-gay.
HOMOPHOBIA IS GAY.… (FRANK IERO QUOTE)
Frank se you at the Leathermouth show, and notic you're gay. After the show, he fds you. "Hey man, I noticed you're a uh homosexual. That's ol. I totally rpect gay people. I'm about to kill you, but I want you to know that this ISN'T a hate crime. I love gay people. This isn't about you beg gay. Totally different murr motive. It's purely a cince that you happen to be a homosexu... * frank iero gay *
I will discs performers’ paratextual statements on the meangs of stage-gay while suatg agast the background of hardre and punk om which emerged, and go on to discs some of the ag that fans have ma om the texts. I will then be the lens of performativy wh the soclogil theori of Robert Heasley and Jane Ward, orr to terme that stage-gay n be really read as queerbag pends both on how we nsir the readg, the queer and the real. Brennan and McDermott document a thread on the popular LGBT se Datalounge discsg wh a potedly homoerotic photoshoot starrg Jonas as an example of “panrg” or simply “showg his gay fans what they want to see.
Readg 2006), to shouts of “faggots”: those of who were old enough to attend hardre and rock shows the early-mid 2000s will rell when there was nothg particularly remarkable about this vilent subcultural homophobia.