Animal-Friendly, Anti-Facist, Gay-Positive, Pro-Feminist or: How Less Talk, More Rock Changed My Life

I once wrote about the worst of Winnipeg. Now I’ll write about the best.

I had heard Propagandhi’s first record “How To Clean Everything”, after some enterprising individual obtained a copy (read: stole it) for me from a chain record store in my hometown. Take that Capitalism! I remember not really being into it. It was heavily skate-punk influenced, and even though I, A) rode a skateboard every single fucking day, B) listened to punk rock every single fucking day, and C) worshiped the entire Fat Wreck Chords roster, it just didn’t do it for me. Then, after a couple years passed, I heard “And We Thought That Nation States Were A Bad Idea”

That was the first Propagandhi song that did it for me. I’ve got that second Fat Wreck Chords comp, Survival of the Fattest, to thank for that one. That one was obtained legally from The Record Works, my local, independently owned record store, with my hard earned lawn-cutting money. Fucking capitalism, eh?

My crowning Propagandhi story is this: Once I saved more lawn cutting money, I bought one of their shirts for back to school ’98 – from the The Record Works, of course. Whatever logo was on the front happens to escape my near perfect memory for total nonsense, but I remember what was on the back. The list from the border of the CD jacket covering the entire back the shirt…

Animal-Friendly, Anti-Facist, Gay-Positive, Pro-Feminist.

…or something to that effect – I believe there were more. The existence of said shirt has been erased from the internet, save for a brief mention in a podcast I listened to once. Now, at 15, I actually understood maybe 2 of those issues, and to be honest I didn’t even fully know what a some of those words meant in context. I wore that shirt to school freely and on a weekly basis for about a month or two, until one day, every single teacher who walked in my vicinity saw it, gave me shit for it, and told me to take it off. I naturally refused. Queue the inevitable trip to principals office, where I asked/back-talked to The Principal what problems he had against women? Or those who happen to be gay? Or Animals? These were clearly the only issues/words I understood, as stated above. Then…silence. Beyond being told to never wear my Propagandhi shirt on school property ever again.

And thus, so began my lifetime love of being a prick, and making people feel awkward.

Throughout my days, I’ve had several drunk conversations with my Colombian girlfriend, among many others, over which Propagandhi album/era is their best. I tend to float between Potemkin and Less Talk, but I think Less Talk is the winner here. Maybe I’m just a sucker for those melodic John K. Samson backing vocals (RIP, you sweet souls in The Weakerthans)

Or maybe, it’s been the realization that it’s a song from Less Talk that really, truly reaffirmed my outlook on life.

This flawless banger of an album ends on what is truly one of it’s strongest songs, ‘Refusing to be Man’. In it Chris Hannah discusses shedding everything he’s been taught about views on treating women, and how to be sexual in a respectful way. There’s one line in the song that really spoke to me…

“At six years of age, you don’t challenge their claims. You become the same, or withdraw from the game and hang your head in shame.” 

…due to my upbringing, I had developed vastly different views on sexuality than my other peers at 15, but was afraid to truly express them to said peers. Girls were being objectified, strictly for their looks. I couldn’t stand that. Slut shaming had already begun, though it didn’t have a name yet. I fucking hated that. I wanted no part of any of it. This song put everything I had felt at that time into lyrics, with a flawless melody. The song is a great one and, sadly, it still remains an important song 20 years later in our still-patriarchal society. It speaks to me at 32, just as much as it did at 15. It should be required listening, and is quite the primer for ‘How to not be a total fucking asshole’.

And I guess for that, I have my mother to thank. She was very smart, open and honest with me when discussing boundaries, consent and respect for, not only women, but other human beings in general. Which, in hindsight, really shouldn’t be that hard.

P.S. Pride weekend is coming up soon. Love will always win, so go love someone.