On Punk Rock Culture
So now that my brain is made of less lightning I suppose I will have a good ramble about punk rock culture. It is something I have a lot of thoughts on and was recently brought up by someone who is currently involved with the trans aspect of that community.
For background, I have pretty much always been around punk rock culture. My youngest-oldest brother was heavily involved in it since the CBGBs days back when that was still a thing in NYC. He was even photographed and kind of taken is as younger mascot by the people. My youngest-oldest brother is ten years older than me and even though he is/was not always in the same country as me the stories he told me stuck around. My mother listened to various forms of rock, including punk and pop-punk, and we never listened to little kids music growing up. My dad was a hippie, which were the punks of the era he was youthful.
As I grew up I surface got along with punks. I was never against them, but there were some supremely worrying traits I saw in the subculture that made me not go all in. My youngest brother, who is 2 years younger than me, got heavily into it but then transferred to hardcore rather than punk.
Which is all a very long winded way to say that I have been around the culture for decades and seen it rise and fall in several different ways even beyond that which my own age group was involved in.
So I was talking with my friend, I will call her Jordan. She is younger than me by about ten years, so that means she is now branching into punk culture for the first time but in this aspect she is in the trans-punk culture which actually takes the worst aspects of both gay and punk culture and combines them. She is t4t which means that she thinks that trans women need to look out for trans women above all else. On the surface this would seem to be healthy, a camaraderie that you can trust when all the world betrays you is the base of any punk culture. You do petty crimes, you trauma bond, and it is you against the world bound together with music. However there are three problems that get in the way, at least the main problems.
However much like the punk culture of the 80s, that comes with some very problematic aspects. See you need to support them no matter what. There are rapists and abusers that thrive, but you can't reject them because they are totally sorry and if you go against them then you are the one creating dissent in this cohesive group. There are alcoholics that need help and you are expected to help them out and pick them back up every time even if it hurts you and tears you apart. You are expected to sacrifice everything for a stranger in this group, without any concern for the self, because you are all part of one community and the world already hates you so why make it tougher on you? This of course is not sustainable as you get older, as I have witnessed in every generation of punks, but you can't really tell people within these
communities that this is bad as it only reinforces their worldview that the world is out to get them. And the thing is, it isn't coming from a bad place. Giving people with no other option a place to go is fantastic. However there is a latent expectation of you removing any of your boundaries in an attempt to be more open minded and "free".
Ah but I also said gay culture. You see gay culture, though it is now changing, had similar aspects to punk culture in the 80s. There was a presumption of polyamory and of sleeping around, that you kind of had to or you wouldn't be a part of the culture, that Jordan's subculture has taken on. You are more evolved if you are with more people, not like those normie squares. This may work for some, but the pressure to behave like this actually hurts quite a few people even to this day. (My gay dude friends trying to find one dude to settle down with bitch to me a lot about this). I am not saying you can't be with multiple people, but you are not more enlightened for doing so.
There is also, as was/is common with the punk/gay subculture, a lot of drug use and alcoholism that is expected and accepted. Even when it hurts people a blind eye is turned to it by those within the community as they go "well they are going through a tough period of life, so it's okay." If it follows the pattern of the previous subcultures, this will only curtail itself when there are massive strings of ODs and deaths. When the youth no longer realize they are immortal. They use the same needles for "stick and poke" tattoos without thinking of blood infections.
I wish I had a solution, but considering the fact that punk has been toxicly codependent and substance addicted from its inception I don't think it will change now. I suppose I would hope they would get wiser than my generation and the generation before it, but that was only wishful thinking.
I also wish that this current iteration would be less wrapped up in aesthetic and more with actual poltical change, like the very first punks in the factories were supposed to be. It was never about mohawks and leather jackets then. It was about punching people in the face til some change happened. It worked too. They got factory reform.
I do hope that makes sense. Any of you have thoughts on punk rock culture? Anything you want me to elaborate on.
For background, I have pretty much always been around punk rock culture. My youngest-oldest brother was heavily involved in it since the CBGBs days back when that was still a thing in NYC. He was even photographed and kind of taken is as younger mascot by the people. My youngest-oldest brother is ten years older than me and even though he is/was not always in the same country as me the stories he told me stuck around. My mother listened to various forms of rock, including punk and pop-punk, and we never listened to little kids music growing up. My dad was a hippie, which were the punks of the era he was youthful.
As I grew up I surface got along with punks. I was never against them, but there were some supremely worrying traits I saw in the subculture that made me not go all in. My youngest brother, who is 2 years younger than me, got heavily into it but then transferred to hardcore rather than punk.
Which is all a very long winded way to say that I have been around the culture for decades and seen it rise and fall in several different ways even beyond that which my own age group was involved in.
So I was talking with my friend, I will call her Jordan. She is younger than me by about ten years, so that means she is now branching into punk culture for the first time but in this aspect she is in the trans-punk culture which actually takes the worst aspects of both gay and punk culture and combines them. She is t4t which means that she thinks that trans women need to look out for trans women above all else. On the surface this would seem to be healthy, a camaraderie that you can trust when all the world betrays you is the base of any punk culture. You do petty crimes, you trauma bond, and it is you against the world bound together with music. However there are three problems that get in the way, at least the main problems.
However much like the punk culture of the 80s, that comes with some very problematic aspects. See you need to support them no matter what. There are rapists and abusers that thrive, but you can't reject them because they are totally sorry and if you go against them then you are the one creating dissent in this cohesive group. There are alcoholics that need help and you are expected to help them out and pick them back up every time even if it hurts you and tears you apart. You are expected to sacrifice everything for a stranger in this group, without any concern for the self, because you are all part of one community and the world already hates you so why make it tougher on you? This of course is not sustainable as you get older, as I have witnessed in every generation of punks, but you can't really tell people within these
communities that this is bad as it only reinforces their worldview that the world is out to get them. And the thing is, it isn't coming from a bad place. Giving people with no other option a place to go is fantastic. However there is a latent expectation of you removing any of your boundaries in an attempt to be more open minded and "free".
Ah but I also said gay culture. You see gay culture, though it is now changing, had similar aspects to punk culture in the 80s. There was a presumption of polyamory and of sleeping around, that you kind of had to or you wouldn't be a part of the culture, that Jordan's subculture has taken on. You are more evolved if you are with more people, not like those normie squares. This may work for some, but the pressure to behave like this actually hurts quite a few people even to this day. (My gay dude friends trying to find one dude to settle down with bitch to me a lot about this). I am not saying you can't be with multiple people, but you are not more enlightened for doing so.
There is also, as was/is common with the punk/gay subculture, a lot of drug use and alcoholism that is expected and accepted. Even when it hurts people a blind eye is turned to it by those within the community as they go "well they are going through a tough period of life, so it's okay." If it follows the pattern of the previous subcultures, this will only curtail itself when there are massive strings of ODs and deaths. When the youth no longer realize they are immortal. They use the same needles for "stick and poke" tattoos without thinking of blood infections.
I wish I had a solution, but considering the fact that punk has been toxicly codependent and substance addicted from its inception I don't think it will change now. I suppose I would hope they would get wiser than my generation and the generation before it, but that was only wishful thinking.
I also wish that this current iteration would be less wrapped up in aesthetic and more with actual poltical change, like the very first punks in the factories were supposed to be. It was never about mohawks and leather jackets then. It was about punching people in the face til some change happened. It worked too. They got factory reform.
I do hope that makes sense. Any of you have thoughts on punk rock culture? Anything you want me to elaborate on.
