According to UPI, the police in Manchester, UK have decided to extend hate crime protection to “subcultures such as punk rockers, Goths and heavy metal fans.”
This is the realization of one aspect of Hessian Studies, the concept dreamed up during the PC early 1990s to give the metal subculture the same respect, study and attention given to other cultures. Recent years have seen acceptance of metal as a religion, as a disability and as a topic for academic study.
Now, with recognition of metal as a sub-culture becoming formalized, metal faces both the greatest success and greatest risk of its 40-year lifespan. The success is that mainstream society has adopted it and legitimized its viewpoint; the danger is that modern society will project its own viewpoint onto metal as a pre-requisite to adopting it. As we all know, the easiest way to accept something strange is to make it into a version of the same old stuff we see everyday, like Chinese Take-Out and Italian Microwave Dinners.
“We are able to officially recognize that people who wish to express their alternative subculture identity freely should not have to tolerate hate crime — something that many people have to endure on a daily basis,” said Assistant Chief Constable Garry Shewan.
Apparently, this act was spurred by the assaults on Sophie Lancaster, a 20-year-old Goth who was attacked as she walked through a park and never regained consciousness. As a result, the courts and police are expanding the list of protected groups from “religion, ethnicity, disability and sexual orientation” to also include subculture status such as that experienced by metallers, punkers and Goths.
Hessian Studies, a movement begun in 1994 and thriving throughout the 1990s, hoped to achieve this kind of recognition for metal and acceptance of its validity as a subculture. Apparently, the dream is coming true.
Tags: hessian, hessian studies, subculture
Fuck this type of “recognition.” We cannot allow ourselves to be assimilated anymore. Metalheads need to be protected by the nanny state? Fuck that shit. I welcome metal being studied as a serious academic subject, but I want no involvement in a scene that celebrates the fact that it is now an officially protected minority. If the authorities are glad to “protect” us it’s because we no longer present a threatening ideological alternative. We’re becoming nothing but a novelty that allows socially inept kids to feel edgy.
We need a battle.
First we must cleanse our own ranks.
How could we be a functional force when Panterrible fanites plague our way of life?
We must wage battle on ourselves first, then we can attack the Hipsters, Rappists, Emo-Hamsters and so forth!
Honestly, I’m all for it. Death metal bands have been the target of terrorist acts before, and the perpetrators should be punished to the full extent of the law.
Hm. I don’t think metal should be a “threatening ideological alternative”. It’s not a political party.
Metal should, however, be about threatening alternatives.
In other words, society should accept metal as a memento mori, and protection from society may signify such acceptance.
But as Brett Stevens says, metal shouldn’t compromise its function.
Is that Trey Azagthoth photo? And is that real blood? I heard they used to cut themselves up during early live performances.
Haha the whole thing is pointless if it’s “protected”…
Good! I hate it when people call me a rapist, it makes me want to shove my tattoo equipment inside them! I mean…I didn’t rape that girl!!!
Is it safe to go to metal shows in my Deafheaven shirt and Yoshi sweatpants yet? I don’t let getting beat up by roided up Suffocation fans at shows when I try to share my thoughts on NES midi drums, drop tunings, and the Les Legions Noires albums I downloaded from some blogspot. It’s like, like, you know, um, oh ma gawd right?
Agreed. Hate crime protection is artificial, false.
Britain just needs to outlaw chavs and let the royal family start hunting chavs for sport.
The party’s over. Go home. Pure Holocaust, Blessed are the Sick, The Red in the Sky is Ours, Unquestionable Presence, Nespithe, Transilvanian Hunger, Privilege of Evil, Pentagram… it already happened. Metal reached critical mass and then the Killswitch Engages and Cradle of Filths of the world came out. It died by 1995. You keep feeding crap into the system, diminishing returns. This “inclusiveness” is the byproduct of many years of SHIT/assimilation. The process is irreversible.