Maintaining MacKaye

by Kenneth Fury

Years after Minor Threat and Fugazi, Ian MacKaye’s immeasurable level of impact is a spectre over the DIY scene. Dischord Records remains a prime example of what labels can do to be positive. The ethos that would fuel punk is still in the veins of modern scenes, but how do we preserve the relevant or helpful aspects while consistently adapting it into modern concepts? Not only does this affect direct operation of scenes, but follows people outside. Yer Scene references this and treats it as a waypoint, never betraying it but continually consulting it and questioning it.

Let us take a few massive points of the MacKaye doctrine and examine their modernity over the course of a few issues. Perhaps not everyone's first thought when standing next the giants of “five dollar tickets” or “Straight Edge” but MacKaye’s involvement in Riot Grrl is essential to discuss.

Kathleen Hanna, an essential person behind the Riot Grrl movement herself brought up a chief principle that must be remembered through the entirety of this article. When working on the documentary about Hanna and Riot Grrl, she intentionally left out Mackaye because, “I didn’t want men to validate me.” As a male writing this, this is neither my inspiration nor intent. I knew it was essential to reach out to for thoughts amongst my team members and friends.

If we are to be responsible to MacKaye(ian?) ethics, it is clear to me that not only respect, but the continued support of women, both cis, trans and nonbinary people is essential to pushing our scene forward. In doing so, we must carefully avoid some issues that would entirely derail and demean our attempts. When discussing this with my female and nonbinary friends, I found recurring thoughts and suggestions. Firstly, our support is to be genuine. While initially this seems obvious, there’s easy mistakes to be made if not carefully watched for. Never are we to commodify or overall exploit people for their sex, gender or anything in their identity in order to portray our scenes as more inclusive than they may initially be. However, while this feels like something that should be watched for, my friend William Sinclair chimed in and made an essential point:

“I tend to wanna go to shows more if I know bands specifically care about marginalized groups. So if I know someone on a lineup played a fundraiser for Coulton Boushie's family, or to support Code Red or something I'll make more of an effort to go see them. And generally as a rule, if there are no women playing a show, sometimes it's tough depending on the scene but a lot of the time it comes off as lazy booking. And one pet peeve I've heard and agree with is that when the one lady or marginalized voice on the lineup is just the opener, that really feels like tokenism to be honest”.

In the case of booking, the honest attempt to be active and helpful to people not only in their scene, but the surrounding community at large demonstrates altruism that can be trusted. For me, the most striking one that must be absolutely followed came from an internal social relations conversation

“To be honest, the one biggest thing for me is hearing about something a guy did that got swept under the rug - once you hear about one bad experience that happened at a place or within a scene it's always on the back of your mind. To be honest it deters me from some spaces when I'm checking out upcoming events”.

Thus, the importance of accountability and action once situations occur in spaces or scenes as a whole is essential. Without reaction by those who claim to care, we are nothing more than “paper tigers” in Mao Zedong’s words.

“I said all allegedly powerful reactionaries are merely paper tigers. The reason is that they are divorced from the people.”

How we not only interact but support or promote individuals in the scene affects those who are show-goers in not only their likeliness to participate, but how they feel about being in venues or spaces. As we saw in the 80’s, women brought a riveting and foundational aspect into punk with Riot Grrl and not only developed the scene but empowered it. With the modern scene consistently creating a helpful, safe and genuine space for trans or nonbinary people, we too are laying empowering and referential frameworks.