The online petition created last week protesting the booking of Action Bronson at NXNE has, as of this writing, 42,843 signatures. Those numbers are evidence of how well the real issue here—standing up for women and trans people in all spaces—is understood, yet, there are those who are tearing this petition down and framing this as a matter of censorship or "freedom of speech." To clarify further: no one is saying Action Bronson should stop making music, or not play Toronto, even.
What we are saying is that it is insulting to women and trans people that he be granted Yonge and Dundas Square as his platform. It is insulting because NXNE never gave second thought to Action Bronson’s lyrics, never thought the way he routinely raps about women, most especially women of color, were out of line, because it's just music. They never thought for a moment about what they are really endorsing other than a popular rapper.
Many of us, beyond those of us who signed the petition, are tired of music that is blatantly misogynist and an obvious promotion of rape culture being supported by festivals and corporate institutions. The reactions to protests such as ours has a very clear message: that violence against women isn't a real issue, these are just songs, we should all just "chill out" and "have a good time." NXNE’s response suggests we merely go see another band and forget about something we have to live with and confront daily, as music fans, showgoers, and artists and performers—that the music scene refuses to acknowledge rape culture is real and refuses to acknowledge its part in it.
To put it plainly: How did we get to the point where we believe that violence against women is excusable if it’s "art"? When institutions and festivals refuse to be accountable for how they blindly support and celebrate Action Bronson and artists like him it normalizes it. Though women and trans people face threats, intimidation, and rape every day, somehow we are supposed to take songs that further perpetuate it lightly. The suggestion that if we have a problem with it, we should just go to another stage, another tent—that we should just look away, like NXNE—is not a solution. We want to change that.
We are living in a time where a woman on a university campus chose to carry around a mattress for two whole semesters to protest her school's refusal to punish her abuser. Where women are instructed how to avoid being raped and men are never taught about consent. Over 1000 aboriginal women in Canada are missing or murdered and our government refuses to acknowledge it’s a problem. Where only about 10% of sexual assault charges are reported to police, because sexual assault survivors tend to get blamed for what was done to them. We are living in a time where a rapper who glorifies rape in his lyrics is given a public platform to perform and we are told to plug our ears if we are offended.
I'm happy the Action Bronson show was removed from Yonge and Dundas Square because promoting violence against women should never be supported. It’s in our right to refuse to be humiliated by Action Bronson in a public place. While NXNE and other institutions assert that the women’s right to safety and respect is no big deal, we know otherwise. Our safety matters and it is crucial for the music community to understand the role it plays. This is not just about a song, and it is not just about Action Bronson, it is about the many ways that women, trans people, and women of color are made to feel they do not matter and they do not belong in the music scene. But we know the truth. And we will continue to resist.
Katie Stelmanis is the bandleader of Austra. You can find her on Twitter @austratalks.