Billy Braggism - please break it down for me!

[Bosky]

New to this debate and I am finding it so confusing. When I was growing up we only ever knew one Billy Bragg but now they seem to be everywhere. Is it true that they are as common as people with blue hair?
twitter.com/search?q=%22billy%20bragg%22&src=typed_query&f=user

When I say "common" I don't mean "common", you know like Coronation St common, although the old Billy Bragg, the young one really, made a big thing about being common although there was only one of him then. Or them then.

Now he is very rich, so not common, but I think that's cis Billy Bragg because I do believe people when they say that Trans Billy Braggs are an oppressed minority and should be protected. Anyway, is it that common to have blue hair or is it a bit middle class really?

I haven't got anything against Trans Billy Braggs, honestly, I just don't know why people would want to do it? They're even telling kids in primary school now that they can identify as Billy Bragg. And you've got parents taking their kids to Drag Billy Bragg Time! 😱
twitter.com/BodmassX/status/1537870221855309825

It's just not age-appropriate. If adults want to play folk guitar, that's fine, but I still think they should get psychological help first.

I tried to find out more but its like they don't want us to find out what's really going on. The only definition I could find said, "Did you actually mean ballpark or bullfrog?"
www.definitions.net/definition/Billy+Bragg

I think that's a bit rude and perhaps explains why there's so much prejudice against Trans Billy Braggs. Just because cis Billy Bragg talks bollocks and can't sing for toffee it's not fair to assume that all Trans Billy Braggs are like that.

I mean, they can wear wigs and practice smirky-swaggering condescension all they like but you can tell Real Billy Bragg a mile off!
twitter.com/Serena_Partrick/status/1538587946622029824

Are we allowed to say "Real Billy Bragg" in here BTW? I don't want to get banned for being Trans Billy Braggophobic.

😂
https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkx0NI_3Nd1FGsKm-R5SNUiSHbHFxZGG86_

youtube.com/clip/Ugkx0NI_3Nd1FGsKm-R5SNUiSHbHFxZGG86_

Finally! 😂

Five kids in my son's class now say they are trans Billy Bragg. The school have changed their names and my son says it's very confusing at registration.

I'm hoping my son won't go down this path. We've said to him look, we're active socialists too and your dad's singing voice is horrendous, but we're not Billy Bragg. You don't have to say you're Billy Bragg, just because you want to play the guitar in a folky way.

Are the school Bragg-affirmative, FunnyTalks? Have they had trainers in to teach the kids that Bragg is a spectrum and they can choose a Braggentity?

I'd be on the phone to the governor immediately demanding a meeting, probably at Wembley Arena with a few friends and a lightstick.

I'm hoping my son won't go down this path. We've said to him look, we're active socialists too and your dad's singing voice is horrendous, but we're not Billy Bragg. You don't have to say you're Billy Bragg, just because you want to play the guitar in a folky way.

That's not how we understand Braggism these days - trans Braggs (or indeed cis Braggs) don't owe you folky guitar or active socialism.

Your child being Billy Bragg has nothing to do with their guitar - maybe your other talented Thatcher-worshipping New Wave keyboardist son might also turn out to be Billy Bragg!

The absolute joy - and even genius - if this is that CisBilly will not find any humour in this at all and I imagine is getting quite cross and stamping his feet. He must be treated with respect. 🤣

I saw him ‘perform’ at a CND rally back in the 80s. He was rubbish. Very up his own bahookie.

I’m imagining the therapist making a killing, selling guitars and elocution lessons. Kitting the kids out with donkey jackets and flat caps.

I posted this on the other Billy Bragg thread the other day. He doesn't seem to be enjoying it at all!

mobile.twitter.com/billybragg/status/1537851389665284097

Can I be Beyoncé?

CisBilly is very po faced isn’t he?

Note the use of gaggle. He just can't help showing his misogyny.

'gaggle', eh?

It's a Braggle, actually, Billy.

Dance your cares away,
Worry's for another day.
Let the music play,
Down at Braggle Rock.

Work your cares away,
Dancing's for another day.
Let the Braggles play,
We're Gobo, Mokey, Wembley, Boober, Red.

Dance your cares away,
Worry's for another day.
Let the music play,
Down at Braggle Rock.
Down at Braggle Rock.
Down at Braggle Rock.

Yes I thank all the current men's rights movements (because I'm inclusive like that) for showing us who the misogynists are.

I saw him ‘perform’ at a CND rally back in the 80s. He was rubbish. Very up his own bahookie.

He threatened to come and perform at a Miners Fundraising Gala in Newcastle in 1984 but luckily we got the Poison Girls, Department S and a colliery brass band instead.

My husband has recently come out as trans Billy Bragg. It wasn't entirely a surprise, he used to be a member of the socialist workers party and has a fondness for Dorset so I thought it might be on the cards.

I am supportive of course, but was upset to hear that when he came out on twitter as Billy Bragg they suspended his account. Surely this kind of erasure of trans Billy braggs shouldn't be allowed?

I just hope the media representation of Billy Bragg will become less ciscentric. Many trans Billy Braggs, for example, feel excluded by the lyric "I was twenty one years when I wrote this song" because the vast majority of them didn't write that song and don't identify as having done so. A simple lyric change to "Cis Billy Bragg was twenty one years when he wrote this song" would do so much to promote inclusion, at zero cost to anyone.

I hope cis Billy Bragg and any event promoters that might consider booking him will do better when it comes to inclusion and diversity, and will remember the importance of trans representation. Frankly, it's time for cis people to step back altogether and let trans people have the limelight.

I've had relations with girls from many nations
I've made passes at women of all classes

While some may frown at the diminutive use of 'girls', I'm sure we can at least applaud Billy here for consistently supporting women of all classes presumably including the male sex class.

Women of all classes meanwhile, can consistently continue to say 'no, thank you', to Billy Braggs whether they be cisBilly, transBilly or nonBraggary Billy Braggs.

I hear that some trans Billy Braggs actually identify as being 21 years old or younger. They say their transition means they are literally growing up again, this time as Billy Bragg. They find the reference to age in that lyric problematic and also ownership as they feel they might in the future actually have written that song themselves.

A prominent MP was heard to decry privileged cis Billy Bragg as being a dinosaur for hoarding his royalties for songs trans Billy Braggs feel they will soon have written or certainly would have written if they had benefited from cis privilege.

Perhaps cisBillys should be engaging in a spot of self-Braggelation to atone for their trans-gressions.

I thought that if you had an acoustic guitar
Then it meant that you were a Billy Bragg-er
Oh, I can smile about it now but at the time, it was terrible

Maybe we all need to accept that a trans Billy Bragg who is a Tory-voting, tweed-wearing, Wagner-loving property developer is just expanding the bandwidth of what it means to be Billy Bragg. You can't gatekeep Billy Braggism by saying anyone who hates Corbyn or can sing in tune isn't authentic enough for you. You'll all be demanding donkey-jacket inspections next!

This thread is why I’m still on MN