The problem is twofold. I’ll repeat once again that he used “girly” as a pejorative. And the comparison was made before to how many people used to say something was “gay” when they thought it was dumb or weak (I include myself among those people). That’s not ok anymore. It’s also not ok to call something “retarded”, as I’m sure most of us were guilty of at some point.
The other part is that he implied, however indirectly, that were wasn’t any female rage in rock & roll, or that a revolution in rock could only happen with the return of male rage. There’s a lot wrong with this statement in terms of not being aware of the entirety of the music scene; he should know at this point how diverse people’s interests are in this area and how niche-driven rock music has become. Now I agree with Bono that’s it’s a good thing for young men to have an artistic/musical outlet for pent-up energy and emotion, and this is something that is relatively absent, at least on the charts and radio compared to the days of classic/cock rock. But there was a way to phrase this sentiment that doesn’t disenfranchise or ignore women in rock.
We all know the band’s history, how important women are to their organization, how they championed female heroes on the last tour, how they are big admirers of poet of rage Patti Smith, how he’s had lyrics like “women of the future have the big revelations”, his charity work with Poverty is Sexist, etc. But the general public doesn’t, and so he comes off like yet another man scared of the long-controlling patriarchy starting to crumble.
This isn’t about people overreacting, it’s about considering your choice of words when you’re speaking from a large pulpit and position of power and influence, regardless
of what your past actions and words have displayed.
