The now infamous skinny indie kid rumble in Brooklyn between Black Lips’ Jared Swilley and Wavves’ Nathan Williams hasn’t been fully digested by the blogosphere just yet, as controversy is still brewing over Swilley’s use of the slur “faggot” in his account of the incident to Buddyhead. Being that this was also the week of the Roman Polanski scandal, Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein brilliantly drew on the two incidents to ask questions about our ability to forgive some artists for their faults. And in so doing, she offered her opinion on Swilley’s rant.
“If you read through the comment threads, as I did,” Brownstein writes, “you will find that many people have a problem with Swilley’s pervasive use of the word ‘faggot.’ I, for the record, have a problem with it, as well.” Later, she adds: “Swilley needs a dictionary, and to find a new insult.” Oh, snap!
I’m not going to offer much of an opinion on this one (went a little editorial overboard last night), but I will say that hurling harmful slurs at people is never a good idea. Just ask Perez Hilton, Isaiah Washington, or even Ann Coulter. Actually, skip that Coulter bit.
Either way, be sure to check out Brownstein’s interesting take on this week’s scandals thataway.