In the mid-00’s there were a great number of alternative bands dominating the emo and pop-punk scenes producing anthem after anthem that we still sing at the top of our lungs in 2019. From “Sugar We’re Going Down” to “Check Yes Juliet” there is a full decade of hits available at our disposal that we can all recite perfectly word for word.
This includes “Misery Business” by Paramore and “I Write Sins Not Tragedies” by Panic At The Disco who both have a number of things in common. They’ve both gone through various members leaving, grown up and evolved as musicians as time has gone on, AND both aforementioned songs contain the word ‘whore’ yet only one has ever been criticised for it.
Hayley Williams, lead singer of Paramore, has openly admitted it was something she was not proud of but you have to remember she was still a teenager when penning the lyrics to MisBiz. Which of us DIDNT have angst-y feelings inside of us at the same age where we felt anger towards certain people, and situations, without considering feelings or consequences of our actions? The song received criticism over 10 years after its release for its supposed anti-feminist line – “once a whore you’re nothing more. I’m sorry that’ll never change“.
“I was a 17 year old kid when I wrote the lyrics in question and if I can somehow exemplify in what it means to grow up, get information, and become any shade of ‘woke’, then that’s a-okay with me” said Williams in an interview. “It’s made me more compassionate towards other women. We’re all just trying our damnedest.”
Yet, where is the criticism of Brendon Urie saying the exact same word – “What a shame the poor groom’s bride is a whore” – in “I Write Sins Not Tragedies”? You could even claim the word is shouted louder than any other during every live performance of the song.
The silence is deafening for a situation that completely matches that of Hayley Williams but receives more acceptance. Is it less to view a woman calling another female a whore because we push for girls to support each other more? I don’t disagree with the need for woman to support each other but I find it remarkable that Urie seems to get away with singing it yet Williams has felt the need to apologise on more than one occasion for using the word.
This is by no means a criticism of Urie, far from it. It Is a criticism of those who judge the use of the word by Hayley Willliams but blatantly ignore that Paramore aren’t the only band in the world who has used the word in a song.
It certainly gives you food for thought in an industry that constantly scrutinizes females for the way they look, the things they say, and judges them on every action yet men will be given a lot more leeway simply because sexism in music is rife from top to bottom and nobody will speak up about it.
Whore is not a word I approve of using but you have to hold two people accountable based on the same subject if you’re going to criticize it’s use. Not based on the gender of the person who uses it.
