I was dreading the rumour coming true that Marilyn Manson would be opening for Slipknot at their first ever UK stadium show next year. I could see the black mark forming against the name of a band I’ve loved for years, who I’ve seen live several times, who I’ve taken with me as I transitioned from a teenager to an adult. What I didn’t expect was just how many people shared my level of rage.
As a reminder of the allegations against Marilyn Manson - which he has denied - this is a great resource. As is this 9 minute instagram reel.
It's also worth noting that a lawsuit from his former assistant Ashley Walters alleging physical, emotional and psychological abuse will go to trial in November 2027, just five months after he steps on stage with Slipknot.
Although he was dropped by his label and management in 2021, he rebounded in the years that followed. Signing to Nuclear Blast, he’s since released two more albums and headlined Wembley Arena last November.
The comment sections of Slipknot’s Instagram post announcing the show was overwhelmingly negative. Multiple friends posted denouncing Manson and declaring that they would not be attending the Wembley show. It made the headlines in the BBC and The Independent. Altogether, it adds up to a picture of disaster, on a scale far larger than I anticipated.
I expected Slipknot’s fanbase to be split down the middle, as there seems to be an attitude that time and ‘laying low’ can wash away sins. Instead, there was far more unity and rage. I am pleased. When allegations of abuse result in such impunity, the assumption that’s there to make is that beyond certain pockets of the internet, wider society does not care about violence against women, not in a time where rape is so poorly convicted it’s practically decriminalised. Not when other stories, such as Kanye West collaborating with Chris Brown last weekend, each with their own heap of allegations and infractions, performing together, seemingly fly under the radar, and both can sell out huge rooms. We aren’t desensitised and neither should we be, no matter your gender.
That rage extends far beyond musical circles, given what’s played out in the news this week regarding the Cornell 7. A former student of the university is suing the college and seven members of the Chi Pi fraternity, alleging she was drugged and gang-raped for hours in Ithaca, New York, in October 2024, and that the university failed to both protect her or adequately punish the alleged perpetrators.
According to the plaintiff’s legal team – known only as Jane Doe – only two were expelled and the remaining students were handed temporary suspensions, essay-writing assignments and workshop attendance.
My social media feeds have been filled with infographics, slogans and stories, pulling me into a hivemind of dismay and disgust, the sort that turns your stomach and leaves it upside down in its cavity for hours. It’s a follow-up episode to the sort of revulsion collectively felt in the aftermath of the Epstein files. Watching it, and feeling it, has been overwhelming. The other day, I wrote two news stories about songs released by women related to sexual trauma back-to-back (one of which was the brilliant PISS track ‘blocking a scene you can’t remember’), and everything felt heavy. Nauseating, and heavy.
It’s been a horrendous year for women in the news. I can’t be the only one feeling this exhausted. I think of the Petrol Girls song ‘Sick & Tired’ – “I'm sick of serving, sick of smiling/Tired of being held up while he gets applauded/I'm tired of competition between women/I'm sick of having the same conversation/Tired of manoeuvring male fragility.” But what now? How do we turn the car around? How quickly can we turn the car around? How drastic do we have to be when it feels like the patriarchy doesn’t just have to be dismantled but burned down?
To the men reading this – we need you too. Challenging this toxic system is in your interest too, and I’d encourage you to learn about why, and to apply that to extend a listening ear to the women around you. Ask us questions. Ask the system questions. Cross the road when there’s a lone woman walking in front of you at night. Call out your mates and cut them off if necessary.
Above all, just let us have our anger. Far too often, someone wants to take it away, to undermine us, to spin it into hatred of men and deny us the space to be able to share our own fears and experiences. Some people would rather talk about the false allegations than the real ones. Some people only want to talk about violence against women in the context of demeaning another marginalised group, like immigrants or trans people, and they’ve certainly been quiet in the last week.
And so, in that spirit, here’s the angriest thing I have to say. Sometimes, in times like this, it feels like ‘misogyny’ is too soft a word to use. By loading its sentiment into a word instead of a sentence we can forget the bluntness of its meaning. Maybe the phrase to reach for, when the occasion is stark and extreme enough to call for it, is not ‘You’re a misogynist’ but ‘You hate women.’ Call it for what it is. Until society change, this rage will not boil away.
📢 If you wish to make your feelings known, Male Allies Challenging Sexism (MACS) are encouraging concerned music fans to contact the Football Association who own Wembley Stadium using this form. Or email support@wembleystadium.freshdesk.com or faecomplaints@thefa.com.
And in other news...
- The Skinny has been saved from closure, thanks to a new partnership between publisher Radge Media CIC and Scottish arts charity Outer Spaces. Hell yeah! Music journalism really is too good to lose.
- The Times has reported that the "single biggest beneficiary" of the grassroots levy is... the taxman. The Treasury's lined its coffers with over £1million that should have been used to help grassroots music, and the LIVE Trust has now called for the government to stop charging VAT on the levy. Come on, Andy Burnham - easy win, surely?
- The venue Heaven in Charing Cross, central London, has been given asset of community value (ACV) status once again to protect it from redevelopment in the next five years, owing to its legacy among the LGBTQ+ community. If the owner wanted to sell up, the community would have six months to buy it. (Fun fact, gigs at Heaven are great if you want to be in bed early after. Due to the club nights, curfew's always very early - I once went to a gig that finished, to the envy of my friends, at HALF PAST NINE.)
- A federal judge has rejected Live Nation and Ticketmaster’s attempt to dismiss a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit accusing the companies of permitting high-volume brokers to evade ticket limits with the aim of reselling on the secondary market. This means the FTC and seven states can now proceed with further allegations under the etter Online Ticket Sales Act, the FTC Act and state consumer-protection laws.