Roisin Murphy

[WarriorN]

Is it true? Did did say this?

"Puberty blockers ARE FUCKED! Big pharma laughing all the way to the bank!"

I'm still fucked off that Roisin Murphy's private comments were screenshotted and shared publicly by one of her Facebook 'friends', and then re-published over and over again without her permission or consent.

Doesn't she have a reasonable expectation of privacy? Ok, maybe not strictly legally, if she has a lot of Facebook 'friends' - I think this was raised in a court case previously - but it's immoral.

However, people have succeeded in legal actions in using claims of breach of confidence and breach of copyright.

Yes, me too - and lazy presenters talking about it on their shows without mentioning that it was a private screenshot (I'm talking about you Jeremy Vine and guests). Someone mentioned a favourable chart position for Hit Parade, but I can't find where it has charted.

If anything ever disproves the idea of social media friends, this is it.

@RealityFan

Maybe we'll do ?

https://thecritic.co.uk/farewell-to-the-counterculture/

While I understand this, and in an ideal world it would be true, unfortunately Roisin must have known there was a risk. I wouldn't consider anything I put on Facebook ultimately 'private' even though my account is as locked down to friends only as can be.

Charts seem to be a bit complicated these days. There's streaming, or CD, or UK or US or whatever.

Anyway.

#9 on Amazon's CD& vinyl chart.
#5 on Official Chart's new releases.

https://www.officialcharts.com/new-releases/

Looks pretty good to me.

@Biffology Interesting, thanks. In all honesty, a week ago, I'd never heard of Roisin Murphy. But of course I've heard that song; it's on every juke-box in the world. And now I've got one of her records!

The person who publicised Roisin's private comment, I think, was named in the Me Menno video. I think @Biffology pointed out the leaked comment reads like it came from the middle of a conversation. It wouldn't surprise me if Roisin's imo perfectly reasonable and compassionate remarks were something she'd been goaded into making.

Pure speculation on my part and, obviously, the screenshotter ('Fuck Pigs'?) wasn't necessarily the same person that Roisin was having an argument with (assuming that's what happened) but it seems very 'gotcha', and I'm sure this kind of thing has played out this way before.

Yes it is, that's my point. Gill did far worse than Roisin, who actually is speaking about child protection.

Ah, well always exceptions to the rule.

Unfortunately, the music industry and probably art generally, is a cesspit of hangers on, narcissistic boosters, unreliable characters, people who'll fawn at you one moment and stab you in the back the next...and that's just those closest to you, lol.

Once you get beyond "trusted" family, friends, bandmates, management, all gloves are off.

It also doesn't help that modern showbiz is all non disclosure agreements, manicured PR, interviews only covering pre arranged Qs, ie an artifice where messaging and "insights" are superficial at best, totally fake at worst.

So, for a star like Róisín to have a moment of pure confession, a deeply held personal opinion made public, light shone upon her as a person, made known to the unwashed masses in such an abrupt and surprising way, goes on to shake people's preconceptions of her. And it was jarring for the trans ally fans of hers, all that they ever hear is Róisín the queer ally, Róisín the champion of LGBTQ+.

One of the great takes on Michael Parkinson's passing was that all his interviews were off the cuff, anything goes affairs. Interviewees had no advance warning, nothing off limits.
You couldn't imagine him today if alive quizzing Róisín about her post. It wouldn't happen. In the 70s? She'd have to expect it.

What do we have today on interviews? Over manicured, organised to the nth degree, all Qs agreed in advance with publicists, not a single interesting take elicited. Just a bunch of faceless designer suits and backless dresses with nothing to say.

So yes, in this age of blah blah blah, where noone takes a stand publically on TRA, for Róisín's unvarnished views to be outed is the shock of all shocks.

@RealityFan

'..all that they ever hear is Róisín the queer ally, Róisín the champion of LGBTQ+.'

My question is, who is saying this ?

‘Problematic’ male stars have done all kinds of things, from committing violent assaults, rape and even murder, to grooming underage girls and treating female fans as sex objects to be used and discarded.

The really bad ones, like paedo Gary Glitter and killer Phil Spector, are rightly seen as having a “stain” on their musical history. Many other male stars can enjoy having their music reviewed without their character being called into question. Iggy Pop slept with a 13-year-old girl, back in the day? Ah, those were different times man, the guy’s a legend!

‘Problematic’ female stars can do as little as like the wrong tweet to get the full fury of the mob crashing down upon their heads.

In Roisin’s case, she privately expressed concern about children being harmed. Nothing hateful or bigoted there, but the ensuing pile-on was beyond ridiculous.

I hope a million people are peaked by this.

@CorruptedCauldron

Let's go for the car and make positive change.

Well, her queer blue hairs for a start. I suspect she's been disproportionately promoted to the Alphabetti Spaghetti Pink Pound subset, gay/trans festivals.

It may be that most of her older fans are you GC women, but her younger fanbase are trans identifying/trans allies, and since they're the ones disproportionately on Twitter and FB, Instagram etc, and at maximum decibels, they're the ones we're hearing from.

If you believed the world started and ended on Twitter, you would think she's the Second Coming of Hitler, Pol Pot, Mao, Stalin, Atilla The Hun, and Rosemary West & Myra Hindley for good measure.

Of course, Twitter is to the world as The National Enquirer, so maybe my conflating Róisín with the queer community means the PR has really worked.

@RealityFan

'most of her older fans are you GC women'

I suspect the demographics are quite broad..?

Ultimately, it comes down to :

(1) Is a mother entitled to have motherly concerns for children ?
(2) Can those concerns be expressed in private ?

And it seems there's only a minority who are not prepared to sign up to both of those.

The 'activists' probably consider themselves an 'elite' of some sort, so that will probably involve them in quite a rigmorole of 'vetting', when it comes to identifying an 'ally'.

I wonder if Blathnaid is related to Damien Corless who used to write for the Hot Press music magazine. Where Graham Linehan got his start. I still remember his byline.

Most of his peers are well stuck into the liberal Ireland Establishment. Or keeping shtum if not.

Imagine social media existed in the 70s, and a star left on a private post that there should be no interracial marriage, or that kids should stay away from gays.

I'm not conflating what she said to that, but the blue hairs and TRA lobby uniformly do, saying anti trans attitudes today are the equivalent of anti black and anti gay rhetoric of the 70s.

Would a star be able to get away with it? Well, they routinely did back in the day (check out John Wayne).

Today, the pendulum swings if you even whisper a non approved view.

@RealityFan

Also, as I've hinted above, is there a level where 'identifying with' merges into 'identifying as' ..?

Morality relies on 'me' and 'you' being distinct - fair enough, a transcendent experience in a concert might seek to go beyond that, to a sense of 'us'..

..In a way, I've kinda relied on that on here - I've a feeling we can all relate to what I'm talking about. And I'll say no more about it, as I reckon that to be something that is very important indeed, to Roisin Murphy. I'll leave it to her to tell us more about that.

Getting back to the proper subject of this post, there they are, with the headphones on - very easy to fall into what they've fallen into. They are imaginative people, for sure (😄) and, in a way, I can't blame them for allowing music to capture their imagination and take them places.

That is the first part of my comment on this subject - the 'nice bit' ..

all that they ever hear is Róisín the queer ally, Róisín the champion of LGBTQ+.

My question is, who is saying this ?

It was genuinely news to me, but then I'm gen x.

Looks like she was also hanging out / clubbing in NY the first time I went there. I saw the Charlie Mingus band and bumped into Spike Lee carrying a canvas.

I know they would compare this to the struggle inter racial couples or gay couples experienced in the 70s but It's not like today we have unapproved views versus approved views, we have one outraged, offended, mobilised, brazen 'army', spewing their perceived violation all over social media. As if black couples and gay couples ever did that in the 60s and 70s, they kept their heads down.

And the other army is dozing in the rec room wondering how they lost this battle when every sane person they know agrees with them.

The power of being The Victim. I totally understand why people and groups use this strategy. It works. If you are the most outraged, you've won, the other person is The Offender.

<was dragged to the band and it wasn't me who spotted it was Spike. I did spot Sue Perkins in the MOMA gift shop though>

@WarriorN

This goes out to Cuddles the Monkey

2

Yes, there is an "us"... transcendent at a concert, England footballers in a major final, nation in mourning when a much loved figure dies, Ukrainians pulling together when the Big Bad Bear invades, pandemics etc.

No pulling apart our politics or gender then.

And "us" in terms of fitting into society. So, no matter how outré queer you are, you can't turn up to work, let alone teach kids, in a Z Cups bra, nipples showing. For example, lol.

I used to be quite insular and libertarian, didn't feel much of the "us", only the "me". Indeed, I could be pretty selfish. Three decades as a therapist and working to fit in has made me more communitarian minded. Now I laugh at my old singleton attitudes, and realise there's a bigger society out there.

Now I look at TRA and trans allies in particular, and see they've lost the plot. Youngsters lost with no adult world that sets the rules, no setting of boundaries, no moral leads.

Older individuals who are allies, pushing societal mores to destruction for the most selfish of outcomes. And other older individuals thus let off the leash to behave nefariously while ally behaviour gives them a bye.

Weirdly, the "me" trans allies are conflating this with "us", and that's why this ideology is so hard to put back in its box. To its adherents, it's universal human rights, to us, it's the narrowest of narrow narcissistic cults.