Smart Dad Rules

Diversity And Exclusion

Music, Movies, Books

In recent weeks, three rock stars, Alice Cooper, Paul Stanley (Kiss), and Dee Snider (Twisted Sister),  the latter also an outspoken long-time supporter of the LGBTQ community, have come into conflict with them. Dee Snider was supposed to sing the Twisted Sister classic We’re Not Gonna Take It at the San Francisco Pride Parade but got rejected by the organizers, and Alice Cooper’s contract with the LGBTQ-owned brand Vampyre Cosmetics for the “Alice Cooper Collection” was canceled just after two weeks.

The reason was allegedly transphobic statements by both rock stars. It all started with Paul Stanley; he was the first of the trio to tweet concerns about gender-affirming care for minors. Dee Snider supported Stanley’s tweet and earned himself a cancelation from this year’s Pride parade. Then, a few weeks ago, Alice Cooper expressed similar concerns about gender-affirming procedures and got his contract terminated overnight.

The video story (if you prefer to read the story, please continue below the video):

Let me first make a brief disclaimer: I am a husband and a father, a Christian, and an avid rock fan, and I firmly support the principles of diversity and inclusion, that everyone, regardless of race, religion, gender, sexual identity, and other personal circumstances, should have equal rights. I am a big Alice Cooper fan, but I am also very familiar with the work of Kiss and Twisted Sister.

My intention is not to argue about opinions on gender-affirming care. To me, a more significant topic was the exclusionary behavior of those who, in their own words, fight for the inclusion of others, especially as the three guys are not just any rockers but are among those who have made a particularly significant contribution to a more tolerant and inclusive society.

I grew up listening to their music, but it meant much more. For me, it was learning to break taboos and prejudices, challenge rules, tolerance, free-thinking, diversity and inclusion. Today, songs like We’re Not Gonna Take It, Lick It Up, Highway To Hell, Ace Of Spades, Won’t Get Fooled Again or School’s Out, have become mainstream and are played on every occasion, for example at sports events, fairs and political rallies, Four decades ago, they were hidden behind the walls of music halls and children’s rooms, and those of us who listened to them had to bear parents’ and teachers’ comments about the noise, the long-haired junkies and the singers who sang like they had a stomachache. Thank God that most adults at that time hadn’t seen Alice Cooper or Dee Snider in concert.

Artists have always been ahead of the times, challenging the norms and pushing the boundaries. Rock music has ridden the wave of economic boom and technological development in the post-war decades, finding its way into every home and, even more, every child’s bedroom. Ordinary people without privilege or social influence could suddenly create and tell their stories through music. Over the years, norms and restrictions have slowly fallen one by one. Elvis’ inappropriate dancing on stage almost cost him his career. The Beatles wore hairstyles that got boys expelled from school in those years. And then in the 1970s came David Bowie, Alice Cooper, Kiss, and a little later Twisted Sister, who, with their shows, their alter egos, and, of course, extensive use of make-up, broke down a whole lot of taboos, and laid the foundations for the blurring of the sharp line between the sexes.

The key victory for freedom of speech and thought came in 1985 when the PMRC and politicians fiercely tried to counter-attack and purge rock music of its harmful effects on children. The problem was not domestic violence but the fact that Twisted Sister made a video about it. The problem was not alcoholism. The problem was Def Leppard singing about it. In the famous US Senate hearing, Frank Zappa, John Denver, and Dee Snider, with their maestral testimonies, managed to prevent the introduction of a rating system in music, which would have meant de facto censorship. I call that day “The Finest Moment in Rock History.” I highly recommend watching the clips of the hearings on YouTube.

These were the years when homosexuality was still taboo, even in Western democracies, hidden behind walls, and the acronym LGBT was not even in use yet. Although some musicians were rumored to be homosexual, none publicly came out of the closet in the 1980s. Needless to say, they weren’t called “gays” then.

The breaking down of taboos was done in thousands of small steps, step by step. And while many musicians have contributed to the mosaic, Alice Cooper and Dee Snider have been among the most prominent. For decades they have challenged the norms. They stood out when it was difficult and uncomfortable. So, it seems almost blasphemous that they are treated in this way today. Companies like Vampire Cosmetics forgot that they are building their business success on the wave of freedom that Dee Snider, Alice Cooper, and the like have made possible.

In doing so, they show that concepts such as diversity and inclusion are not always personal values but are often mere words and disposable phrases. And, in their fundamentalist behavior, rather than being promoters of diversity and inclusion, they act more like the extreme conservatives they are fighting against.

Stay tuned!

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