FEATURE:
Stage Right
IN THIS PHOTO: Marilyn Manson has been accused by multiple women of assault and rape, and yet is still performing live and releasing a new album soon, showing how little the music industry cares about protecting women
Why We Urgently Need a #MeToo Movement in Music
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I don’t think any male artist…
IN THIS PHOTO: Chris Brown
can truly be ‘cancelled’. It is a word that is tossed out there but never actually meaningful or true. Think about a T.V. personality like Philip Schofield. I have seen how he is supposedly ‘cancelled’ and yet he is on T.V. To be cancelled is to disappear and not exist ion your former guise. If you have a platform and are still allowed on T.V. or even social media then you are not cancelled! This is true of male musicians. They might not be played on radio stations, though there will always be stages and venues that will host them. Motivated by money rather than any morals or decency. Men who have committed domestic abuse or adultery are still out there. Those who have done even worse. If a female artist were to do anything of that nature, they will be attacked and actually cancelled. It seems like there are two sets of rules. Artists such as Chris Brown have enjoyed relatively little damage to their careers after committing heinous assaults. Marilyn Manson is an artist who has been accused multiple times of rape. In any other profession they would be sacked and banned. It seems that there is hope for any despicable man who commits sexual assault and rape. It calls into question whether men are immune from any punishment or consequence if they have a large fanbase. Does the music industry care about women’s rights and protection?! The Los Angeles Times reports on protests that have happened around recent Manson gigs. He is also releasing a studio album shortly:
“Outside the Honda Center in Anaheim in early September, a group of a dozen or so protesters shouted at black-clad Marilyn Manson fans as they filed into the arena.
This was Manson’s first tour in years, after at least four women alleged in civil suits and other court filings that the singer 55, sexually and physically assaulted them. Manson, born Brian Warner, has denied all their claims.
“You’re supporting a rapist!” one female protester yelled. “He tortures and rapes women!”
“It’s just brazenly siding with an accused rapist,” said Caroline Heldman, an activist who organized the protest outside Manson’s Honda Center show this month. “I’ve never seen a more blatant example of profit over decency.”
“They were asking for it!” A male Manson fan yelled back, perhaps in jest, but with enough fury that a shoving match broke out between him and the crowd outside.
Since 2021, Manson’s old record label and agency cut ties, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department raided his L.A. home and at least a dozen women came forward with claims against him. The famously transgressive artist was, to many rock fans, now synonymous with real violence.
Manson is no longer going away quietly.
On Nov. 22, he’ll release a new album, “One Assassination Under God - Chapter 1.” His return has sparked outrage from women who have alleged abuse and activists who are aghast that Manson is performing in arenas again.
“It’s so wild that Manson’s on this tour and he already has a new record label,” said Caroline Heldman, an activist who organized the protest outside Manson’s Honda Center show this month. “It’s just brazenly siding with an accused rapist. I’ve never seen anything like it, or a more blatant example of profit over decency.”
“I wonder what it is about Manson that makes it hard for people to give him up,” Heldman asked. “It really speaks to depths of how little we care about sexual violence in this culture, and how little his fans care.”
Manson’s attorney, Howard King, described the allegations to The Times as “lurid claims” with “three things in common — they are all false, alleged to have taken place more than a decade ago and part of a coordinated attack by former partners and associates of Mr. Warner who have weaponized the otherwise mundane details of his personal life and their consensual relationships into fabricated horror stories.”
“Mr. Warner vehemently denies any and all claims of sexual assault or abuse of anyone,” King added.
Most prominent among Manson’s accusers has been “Westworld” actor Evan Rachel Wood, who was in a romantic relationship with Manson for three years. After she came forward, Manson sued the actor for defamation. In an anti-SLAPP filing this year, Wood alleged: “For years, Plaintiff Brian Warner raped and tortured Defendant Evan Rachel Wood and threatened retaliation if she told anyone about it.” A judge threw out portions of Manson’s defamation suit in August, though the suit is ongoing.
In 2021 actor Esmé Bianco sued Manson, alleging sexual assault, sexual battery and human trafficking. The two settled Bianco’s lawsuit in 2023. The same year, Manson settled a suit with a Jane Doe alleging “forced oral and vaginal rape.”
Manson’s former assistant, Ashley Walters, recently revived a lawsuit against Manson alleging sexual assault and harassment. Hearings are scheduled for 2025.
IN THIS PHOTO: Marilyn Manson performing in Camden, N.J. several years ago/PHOTO CREDIT: Owen Sweeney/Invision/Associated Press
In November 2021, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department raided Manson’s home after a nearly two year investigation into the assault allegations. In 2022, the Sheriff’s Department gave its investigation to the Los Angeles County district attorney, though Manson has not been charged.
Wood and Bianco’s claims of abuse helped to spur the passage of California’s Phoenix Act, which extends the statute of limitations on domestic violence to five years, so survivors have more time to come forward. Two recent documentary series, Wood’s own “Phoenix Rising” and “Marilyn Manson: Unmasked,” explore the many claims against him.
Nonetheless, Manson’s comeback is underway.
After his old label, Loma Vista, dropped and disavowed him, he signed to the underground metal label Nuclear Blast and released new music. On this arena tour, he opened for the hard rock group Five Finger Death Punch.
For the women who have accused Manson of assault, seeing him back onstage playing to adoring crowds is frightening and demoralizing.
“If he doesn’t go to prison or get in any trouble for what he’s done, how do other survivors feel?” said Bianca Kyne, who alleged in a 2023 lawsuit that Manson sexually assaulted her multiple times in the 1990s, beginning when she was a minor. “If the most obvious case gets off scot-free, this must destroy the hope of women who have been assaulted by other people in the music industry.”
“If he doesn’t go to prison or get in any trouble for what he’s done, how do other survivors feel?” asked Bianca Kyne, who has sued Marilyn Manson alleging sexual assault. Manson has denied all claims.
Manson is “as vile and violent as he is cunning,” said Jeff Anderson, Kyne’s attorney in her lawsuit against Manson. “He’s a predator that presents more of a danger to youth than few I’ve encountered in 40 years of working with survivors”.
IN THIS PHOTO: “Right now is the best time for disgraced heavy metal musicians to come back into the limelight,” metal scholar Laina Dawes said. “We’re now in a post-Me Too era, when people are retracting from taking issues like assault seriously”/PHOTO CREDIT: Leanne Lagoyda
It is horrifying that anyone in any industry can be accused of such depraved and extreme actions and be allowed to continue. The women who have come forward bravely to speak about their experiences should be commended. They deserve justice. Seeing Marilyn Manson still on stage and his album going out into the world soon is going to have a devastating impact. Almost like they are being mocked! It does seem that men in music can get away with anything is they have commercial appeal and lure. It is harrowing that this is not an isolated case. So many men through the years have been shamed because of their sickening acts. The industry should stop giving them second chances! In fact., acting like nothing has happened. Venues are responsible for Marilyn Manson performing. A record label and people in studios ensuring he can complete and release an album. How does any of that make any sense?! It is so infuriating that we are in a position where this can happen. Where protestors are being mocked. Where fans of Manson can say that the women accusing him of rape deserved it. That there is this toxicity and privilege that protects men from the law! Unless they actually go to prison then they can pretty much slide back into their regular routines. If a woman was in the position Marilyn Manson is, venues would refuse to support her. Labels would drop her and there would be no way that she would get a moment’s peace. Men like Marilyn Manson walk free and unhindered. This needs to be a wake-up call for the music industry! That women should not have to see their abuser perform on stage and continue their career. That these men need to be punished and stripped of their careers. I hope justice does come and Marilyn Manson is jailed. Until now, there is this sickening circus where he gets to brush off the allegations and enjoy his career. So disrespectful to the women who have suffered at his hands. It makes me think whether now more than ever, we need a music #MeToo movement – something that has never really happened. There are no excuses. This movement needs to…
IN THIS PHOTO: “It’s just brazenly siding with an accused rapist,” said Caroline Heldman, an activist who organized the protest outside Manson’s Honda Center show this month. “I’ve never seen a more blatant example of profit over decency”/PHOTO CREDIT: Leanne Lagoyda
HAPPEN right now!