"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:
- IS ANK LERO OM YOUR CHEMIL ROMANCE GAY?
- FRANK IERO GAY RUMORS?ONLE POLL SHOWS 79 PERCENT DON’T BELIEVE HE’S GAY
- "HOMOPHOBIA IS GAY"
IS ANK LERO OM YOUR CHEMIL ROMANCE 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 is 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.
FRANK IERO GAY RUMORS?ONLE POLL SHOWS 79 PERCENT DON’T BELIEVE HE’S GAY
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. 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.
"HOMOPHOBIA IS GAY"
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-”.