- The rape and death threats sent to J.K. Rowling
When Twitter user Vulpix60698291 was seen to have told the beloved female author to “fuck off terf,” I assume feminist ally Billy was first to rush to her defence. No? Oh that’s right, he was too busy virtue-signalling to the trans community by gender-swapping the pronouns of his most popular songs.
- ‘The Hateful Eight’
When Quentin Tarantino released his divisive Western epic in 2015, critics were torn as to whether the violence inflicted on Jennifer Jason Leigh’s character Daisy Domergue was evidence of a misogynist worldview, or simply a matter of treating her as an equal to her male counterparts. Where does Billy Bragg stand on the matter? We don’t know. And that, my friends, is the problem.
- Chun-Li
Taking things a step further, the 1991 Capcom arcade game ‘Street Fighter II: The World Warrior’ not only revelled in the depiction of male-on-female violence, but actually encouraged players to become active participants. No amount of “spinning bird kicks” could account for being outnumbered by her male competitors eleven to one, leaving her doomed to relive her cycle of abuse in an endless digital purgatory. And what of Billy Bragg? It turns out that #BillyWillWheesht when it comes to this particular subject.
- The hounding of Kathleen Stock
The relentless hounding of this lesbian academic was so houndingly relentless, that the academic lesbian was forced to flee her post as Professor of Philsophy at Sussex University and was never heard from again. Given the lack of vocal support from alleged ally Billy Bragg, one might be forgiven for assuming he was similarly silenced. Cat got your tongue, Billy?
- Catherine Howard
The fifth wife of Henry VIII and likely just a teenager, Catherine Howard found her short-lived marriage meeting as grisly an end as that of her predecessor Anne Boleyn, beheaded for the treason of adultery in February 1542. Not that you’d hear anything on the subject from our Billy, who conveniently would not be born for another four hundred and fifteen years.
- The protagonist of ‘Levi Stubb’s Tears’
In his 1986 single ‘Levi Stubb’s Tears’, taken from the album ‘Talking with the Taxman about Poetry’, Bragg paints a moving and empathetic portrait of a woman seeking solace in music after suffering relentless domestic violence. Alright, fine. That’s one.
- Allocosa Brasiliensis
While reducing females to objectifed lumps of meat is nothing new where male behaviour is concerned, nowhere is this more literally demonstrated than in the sexual cannibalism of this South American species of burrowing wolf spider. Needless to say, a quick CTRL-F search on genius.com confirms that the phrase “allocosa brasiliensis” appears not once in Billy Bragg’s entire lyrical oeuvre. Sorry ladies, you’re on your own with this one.