Dead Girlfriends Stepped In It

I learned today the word kyriarchy, which seems to be an extension of the concept of intersectionality, the idea that a person with multiple minority identities can be oppressed according to different -isms.  Taken as a whole, those -isms are called the kyriarchy.

Got it? Now you can avoid people who use the term, lest you end up like white-male-probably heterosexual-maybe crypto-Christian-almost certainly cis-musicianist and exploiter-of-his-privilege-as-a-successful-performer James Brooks.

Brooks is currently recording under the name Dead Girlfriends. He recently released a new song entitled "On Fraternity" and will probably be dragged before the Soviet Council and summarily shot.

His crime? The song appears to be an anti-rape culture screed that makes the mistake of trying to draw parallels of the pain a rape victim feels with being victimized by the same culture. And being part of a similar culture in the record industry and feeling the same kind of...

Here's what he said to Flavorwire:

“On Fraternity” is specifically supposed to leave it open to dealing with any kind of oppression. When I wrote [the song], I was attempting to focus on experiences that are common across the entire spectrum of oppression and how I feel about that as a white male.

As the first flames of hysteria began, Brooks decided to offer a brief and vague defense. It did not help:

That’s where the “women aren’t the only people who get raped” comment came from, the statement is factually correct but it’s really harshly worded and might have made some women feel like their rape experience had been trivialized, which is why I apologized for it. Especially on the Internet, debates about feminism often get really contentious and labyrinthine — for example in a lot of circles the phrase “feminism” by itself is often taken to basically mean “white feminism” because women of color don’t feel like their interests are being properly reflected by mainstream feminists. A lot of people find the word “patriarchy” inadequate to describe the nature of society because they feel oppressed on the basis of class or race or sexual orientation to the same extent that they feel oppressed because of their gender, and so they use the word “kyriarchy.”

I think--think--the story is that Brooks has been seeing all the liberation and righteous thought over in the Academic Revolutionary Front and wanted to join in using his thoughtful sensitivity as a membership card. They took one look at the skin color of his penis and shouted, "YOU DARE TO PRESUME TO SPEAK FOR ME?!"

It doesn't help that he'd been exposing himself to poisonous thinking:

The entire “men’s rights” movement on Reddit and elsewhere is predicated on the idea that feminism is about being pro woman at the expense of all others, that it’s about replacing one hierarchical power system with another. I believe that sexism hurts everybody, so when I was writing the song I wanted to take into consideration the fact that the person whose heart speeds up when they hear somebody walking behind them could be anybody, about how I don’t want to be complicit in creating a world where anyone has to feel that way.

Oh, I see. Brooks wanted to join in the conversation with the point that the very people labelled as oppressors by virtue of their identity could, in fact, be victims as well.

Kind of an "Everybody Hurts" kind of message. Kind of being against divisions of identity.

"WELL, WE'RE NOT BUYING WHAT YOU'RE SELLING, MISTER!"

James, you stepped into an endless battleground. People who use terms like kyriarchy are fighting to be the most prominent victim. Is it worse to be black or gay? A woman or Hispanic? What about a black-Hispanic woman who wants to become a man so she can have gay sex with furries? They only unite in order to scream at people who look just like you.

These aren't problems to them, so you shouldn't try to solve them. And especially with a message of universality.

You're probably a crypto-Christian, anyway.