Kathy Griffin’s Attorney Wonders Why GWAR, Marilyn Manson, and Municipal Waste Haven’t Gotten in Trouble Over Their Violent Anti-Trump Imagery
Kathy Griffin has finally acknowledged that metal musicians have been faux-decapitating Donald Trump long before she did… sort off.
In a press conference about the comedian’s recent controversial photo of herself posing with a severed head of Trump, Griffin’s attorney, Lisa Bloom, cited several metal bands’ violent, anti-Trump imagery as an example of what she believes to be a double-standard (transcript via Metal Injection):
“Many male artists have created far more disturbing imagery. A Marilyn Manson music video shows him beheading a Trump figure. The band Municipal Waste has an image of Trump with a bloody gunshot to his head on a band t-shirt. The band G-W-A-R has violent images like this of president after president for years. They’re all just considered bad boys. Unlike these male artists, Kathy apologized. Unlike these male artists, Kathy has endured the most powerful man in America and his family using their family to target her and her employees, after she apologized.”
Although I have no doubt that there is, generally speaking, a double-standard for male versus female artists, I suspect Bloom is pretty off-base here: Griffin took the most flack because she’s the most famous in the mainstream arena. The right may very well have been just as outraged by the violent images of GWAR and Municipal Waste (and Brujeria!) if they had any idea who GWAR or Municipal Waste (or Brujeria!) were, but they don’t, so they weren’t. Marilyn Manson is easily the most famous of the artists named, and even his brand doesn’t carry the cachet it once did (does anyone doubt that Marilyn Manson would sell his soul to be at the center of this media brouhaha instead of Griffin?).
ANYWAY, for their part, GWAR have responded thusly:
GWAR doesn't apologize. Ever.#kathyGriffinapology
— GWAR (@GWARofficial) June 3, 2017
GWAR’s Beefcake the Mighty also told Style Weekly (of all publications!):
“We’d like to invite Kathy Griffin to join us on stage in decapitating Trump, then we’d like to kill her. She and her lawyer need to learn how to say ‘GWAR.’ It’s not an acronym. It’s a guttural feeling. You just have to belt it out.”
We’ll see if Griffin takes GWAR up on their offer, but I doubt she will. It would be bad for business if people realized she’s not as entertaining as a metal band whose live show hinges on killer toilets and cum jokes.
Here’s video of Lisa Bloom’s statement:
