NB on the date. This was originally posted in the early hours of 15/2/14 but the post went down, so I've reposted.
Dear lovers of music, dear worshippers of freedom of speech, dear fellow freedom fighters, dear attackers of the appalling censorship of Odd Future, today is a wonderful day. It's so heartening, so great you've spoken out in such vast and articulate numbers about Odd Future. I had no idea New Zealand was filled to the brim with champions of free speech. You'll of course be horrified to learn that the banning of Odd Future is just the tip of the iceberg. Yup, if you think stopping these poor 'anti-establishment', grammy-nominated, critically-acclaimed, chart-topping artists from coming into the country(1) - probably winning them a hefty compensation package and a few thousand more fans - is a travesty, wait until you hear this. Seriously. Last year about 11(4) New Zealand women were censored. They weren't banned from playing some concert 12,000 kilometres from their home town. No. They were censored globally and permanently. Not a single country opened their borders to them, and not a single council let them play in their concert hall. They were denied their freedom of speech and their freedom of movement. The year before last the same thing happened to another 11, and the year before that, about the same. This year, maybe another 11. Because every year, on average, 11 women are censored by their male partners or ex-partners who decide it's a good idea to shut these women up for good. They kill them (2). They probably kill them because they talked too much and said stuff that the establishment (these boyfriends or partners or ex-partners or the fathers of their children) didn't like. Or maybe they killed them because the women had said they didn't want to be in a relationship with them any more. Whatever, the men didn't like what the women were saying so they censored them. They stopped them from talking to anyone, ever again. For every women irrevocably censored each year, there are hundreds more who are censored through rape, assault and fear. Who don't talk because it might cost them their lives, or their kids' lives. And guess what? Some of those dead forever-censored women may have been or might be extraordinary musicians. They may have been astonishing rap artists, or DJs or poets. They might have sung like goddesses and danced like the devil. Or maybe not. Maybe they were just women going about their lives. Doing their best. Being nice, being horrid. It doesn't really matter. What what they weren't was an elite bunch of globe-trotting musicians who write and perform lyrics like I fuck bitches with no permission… Rape a pregnant bitch and tell my friends I had a threesome/Starve her 'til I carve her then I shove her in the Rover/Where I cut her like a barber. What they don't have is a vitriolic and possibly entirely new fan base foaming at the mouth at the violation of human rights afforded by denying a few people entry to our country. One country, once. They don't have a bunch of liberal men getting all romantic about disagreeing with what they say but defending to the death the right for them to say But keep your motherfuckin' daughter's mouth shushed boy and every girl I deal and fuck/it's always against her will. It would be tempting to think some men feel it is a lot, you know, more radical and open-minded and muso-hip to defend a man's right to say he kills women for fun, than it is to defend the women's right to be alive. But no, I know I must have that wrong. Yup, awesome job on the freedom fighting today guys. Man, those really successful, wealthy, profoundly popular artists who are saying the same old hackneyed women-hating shite, really need your back. And I'm totes looking forward to you proving that you're not just a bunch of needy blokes who are shocked to the gills with the idea that maybe you won't get to go to a gig you want to go to, or that your mates might want to go to. Or maybe your mates' mates (3). I am utterly convinced you're not just having a little freedom speech tantrum because you're so astounded things aren't going your way this once. I can see with the fire in your belly, you'll be launching incredible freedom campaigns that will stop the irretractable censorship of around 11 women a year in this country. And stop the daily and widespread violation of women's freedom of speech and movement by men. Police won't be called out to a domestic violence incident every six minutes. Thousands of protection orders won't need to be issued each year. And the Women's Refuge volunteers who are used to answering some 60,000 calls a year will instead be waiting around getting bored. Maybe they'll surf YouTube, find some blistering new artist, and get to listen to the whole track, start to finish, without some tragic interruption. Maria (1) On admittedly spurious grounds of possibly causing riots (update 17/2/13 as information has emerged it's looking less spurous to me - not just an incident when a policeman hurt his arm but a far more serious incident in Australia but that's another story ( or post?) (2) This and other stats come from http://www.nzfvc.org.nz/data-summaries/family-violence-deaths and http://www.areyouok.org.nz/files/statistics/ItsnotOK_recent_family_violence_stats.pdf. It's quite hard to get the exact statistic I was trying to extract but I think from both these sources the 13 a year for partner and ex-partner male to female murder is not far off. Gendered analysis of violence fell out of flavour for several years in New Zealand so getting a good understanding of what was going on has been difficult. My number crunching wise friends may be able to be more specific (see note 4, I updated this from 13 to 11) (3) Edited on16/2/13 from "...music you might want to listen to" etc, as I realised "gig" better reflects the situation with Odd Future that I am referencing. Anyone, of course, can listen to OF, they just weren't able to listen to them at one particular concert. (4) Edited on 17/2/13 from 13 to 11. One of my wise number crunching friends did indeed say the official stats would make the figure closer to 11. My initial reasoning can be seen in (2)
12 Comments
Graham Barnes
15/2/2014 08:24:04 am
Yes. I agree. Odd Future know better and need to grow up, but more important ALL THOSE WHO SUPPORT women-hating music need to recognize what those acts say about them and their own beliefs. But this isn't about hip hop- it's about male culture, all men have work to do
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Scott
15/2/2014 08:45:40 am
Genius - this is a glorious, and achingly painful, incision into the manner with which freedom of speech remains an inequitable domain protected by a few, and denied to many (if not most). Thank you for writing this.
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Maria McMillan
16/2/2014 02:25:00 am
Thanks Scott. It's nice to know my post resonated.
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Thank you. Not just for the specific comparison made, but as a vehicle for wider discussion... Like when the US was up in arms over the loss of twinkies, but thought it fine to forget about child slavery for a while, for example. I.e. why are we still getting so angry at the wrong things?
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Maria McM
16/2/2014 02:26:44 am
Exactly James. And the choices we make about what we get angry about are themselves giving weight and perhaps power to particular groups in society over those that we are less interested in. Thanks for your encouragement.
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lamea
15/2/2014 09:15:27 am
Amazing woman, amazing words. I agree, seems people get angry at the wrong things. Thanks Maria.xxxxxx
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Maria McM
16/2/2014 02:28:12 am
Love you La. I feel so grounded in what I think partly because of coming of age and figuring out feminism in good company with people whose priorities were sound. xx
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Ian
15/2/2014 11:39:53 pm
I have been arguing with people for 24 hours on Facebook on this subject. "freedom of speech is down the drain" "NZ goes back to the 50's" "moral police" etc. Thank you so much. This is great and important and i am spreading your words.
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Maria McMillan
16/2/2014 02:24:22 am
Thanks Ian. This made me think about the discussion around moral conservatism. Eminem and Odd Future are incredibly morally conservative. They clearly think women should be the chattels of men, and are less than men, and it's permittable for men to do what they want to them. They police women's speech and behaviour. Fairly Victorian values. Me, on the other hand, and I'm presuming you, think men and women should be equal and argue for human rights for all people. Whose really the moral conservative?
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Maria
16/2/2014 02:30:45 am
Good grief, Who is I meant Who's not Whose. Where's that edit function?
hello
16/2/2014 05:26:15 pm
Good on you for writing this. I do have one criticism that from what i've seen on facebook there's surprisingly less discussion coming from woman, some support odd future and surprisingly few denounced them, maybe its because of how vocal the male fans are? There's been more brutal debate between men who care about woman's struggles and men who are threatened by them. So from my limited experience it hasn't been a case of men against woman as is portrayed in this article... Lots of my male friends are strong supporters of woman's issues, lots of men generally hate thug culture and that's because many peaceful men are also victims of male violence...
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