Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: Fix up, young men, in reply to Lucy Telfar Barnard,
Well, I guess it’s something that it took until page six before we got to the “hey, women abuse men too” post.
Whoa. If Cam has, as on older man, been “spat at, pushed and abused” by young women, surely that’s not great either. There’s a difference between whataboutism and saying what has happened to you personally.
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Meanwhile, on Facebook, from Jacinda Ardern:
I am quite used to feeling angry (it’s an opposition thing) but this post though, it really got me. It talks about what happened to the journalist who was interupted during a live feed at a music festival, but it also describes an ‘older woman’ who was grabbed and bullied in a really appalling way at the same event. This isn’t about music festivals, it’s not about alcohol, it’s about the basic principle of respect, and more explicitly, respect for woman. A huge part of me wishes that I was standing there, in that moment. I am not sure what I would have said, but I can only hope that one, two, maybe a whole crowd of women and men might have joined in and called out that kind of behaviour. But that didn’t happen. We have a long way to go, and we should all be mad about that.
And Northern Bass promoter Gareth Popham:
Does anyone have a pic and names of the two guys that did this to Richie’s girlfriend? Sorry if they are already online but am currently in Malaysia and not online much. Will happily ban them from Northern Bass and any events Fuzen Entertainment run as this sort of behaviour is disgusting and needs to be stopped!
Maybe we’re getting somewhere here. I would really like more music people to come on board with this.
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Hard News: Fix up, young men, in reply to Joanna,
It’s why many of the people I know are seething with rage on their private twitter accounts right now. It’s why a Laneway-loving guy who thought he was a feminist dateraped me because obviouslty he’s not one of those people. .
How women are treated, by everyone, is EVERYONE’s responsibility. And the very best first thing you can do is actually listen to what they are telling you about their own experiences.
Oh shit, Jo, I'm really, really sorry about that. I'm just trying to convey how people in my culture are feeling angry about it.
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Hard News: Fix up, young men, in reply to Rageaholic,
Honestly. We’re not trying to annoy anyone and we’re not lying about this. This has been going on for a long time. Now it needs to stop, and blaming the youths or the bros or gigs these days isn’t part of this process. Listening to women is
Fair enough. But my impression, and that of the women I've spent the evening talking to (IRL, not online) is that something bad has happened in recent years.
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Hard News: Fix up, young men, in reply to Joanna,
I’m real sorry that’s inconvenient for you. This must be the most anyone has ever had to suffer because of the way men treat women.
It's clearly not an inconvenience and and you're being ironic in saying so. I understand that. Jo, I am not for a second debating that the behaviour of men towards women is the societal issue here.
But you've ignored or rejected any and every suggestion that there has been a shift at big music events or that the behaviour of young men in this respect has become more problematic. I've been to every single one of these events, both BDOs and Laneways, and my impression is that that something has happened. That's all.
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Hard News: Fix up, young men, in reply to Emma Hart,
We can say ‘this stuff seems to be getting worse at this particular gig’ AND ‘this stuff has always happened’.
This is honestly what I’m trying to say. I know this is a long-term societal problem.
But there’s been a shift in recent years at big music events, and I think music people should be allowed to grieve about it. We thought we were separate from boofhead culture and it turns out that now we’re not.
I’ve actually thought about this quite a lot over the years, and I remember the change in mood at the Big Day Out, when it quite suddenly went from the only time you saw girls was when they were schlepping around after their boyfriends (the first two or three years) to young women running around gloriously in girl-gangs, and ditto at urban music venues.
And now it seems we have douchebro culture, a la Rhythm & Vines. My Twtter timeline is full of women saying they’re wary of going to these events now. I’m kind of annoyed at being told it has always been thus, because I genuinely don’t think it has.
Example, from Aroha Harawira on Facebook:
After reading Richie Hardcore's post, I read this equally appalling account from Russell Brown, where a group of guys and girls were harassing an "older" woman at the same event (Laneway). It's not the kind of festival which would usually attract this type of behaviour, so perhaps the issue is more about this kind of bullying becoming more mainstream in some younger circles.
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Hard News: Fix up, young men, in reply to James Littlewood*,
Lilian or Lilith? I agree it would be really interesting to support the artists to hold things up until the undesirables get ejected.
Some artists do that already, but they're not always in a position to see things.
Sometimes, ironically, they have to stop shows because the security guards are too violent. The front rows of a concert are a complex, physical place.
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Hard News: Fix up, young men, in reply to Deborah,
So if it’s going to be hard, think of some tactics. Approach another man in the nearby crowd, and ask for his support. Call out to the surrounding crowd and ask for support. Whatever you do, don’t leave a woman (or a gay man, or a disabled person, or whoever it is) to wear it all on their own.
If you do just leave it quiet? Decide it’s better not to intervene? Well, that just reinforces to the perpetrators that their behaviour is perfectly acceptable. After all, no one is objecting, are they?
I had a frustrating Twitter conversation this morning with someone who insisted any attempt to intervene as a man was “white knighting”, or just further male violence. I continue to think that bystanders should intervene as they are able to prevent sexual assaults.
I agree: just one man, up against a posse of dickheads – that’s a dangerous situation. But could the ordinary decent men talking to each other on this thread perhaps talk about tactics for dealing with exactly that situation, and perhaps rehearse in their heads what they might do?
Don’t start a fight, for a start. I’ve occasionally found that just being there, or more particularly, getting in the way, can work. But I’ve just driven home rehearsing along those lines too. I think defining the behaviour would help: “What are you doing man? That’s creepy. Do you want people to think you’re some sort of pervert? Just stop.”
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Hard News: Fix up, young men, in reply to B Jones,
I read Hunter S Thompson on Hell’s Angels and gang rapes a while ago. This shit isn’t new.
Kinda. In the context of this festival and others like it, this behaviour – and in this environment it really is committed by a certain profile of young man – is new, or at least getting markedly worse. It really did start to emerge around Rhythm & Vines. Australia is seeing it too, as noted.
That is not to deny the societal pervasiveness of such a culture, but people who actually go for the music are starting to feel invaded.
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Hard News: Fix up, young men, in reply to Mark Easterbrook,
I hate that this shit happens. And I honestly don’t remember it being like this when I was in my teens/twenties either. Maybe it was the environment I was in. Who knows.
I don't think you need to pretend everything was rosy to feel that way. I don't recall it either.
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