On the subject of NOFX

Hi, I’m @ms-demeanor but I’ll be responding as joyless buzzkill @messed-up-metal today. I’ll be specifically focusing on Fat Mike as the singer and lyricist of the band and the motivator behind a lot of the group’s political actions. I’ll also be *mostly* focusing on songs and lyrics from the most recent album, First Ditch Effort, because it came out in 2016 and there’s no “but it was a different time, things have changed” get out of jail free card.
First off, the good(ish) things:

• NoFX is a band that is genuinely interested in participating in politics and getting people to vote against conservative candidates
• The band is made up from people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds and seems interested in promoting greater diversity in the punk scene
• A special note on the song “don’t call me white” - since the lyrics specifically mention conspiracy theories and circumcision there is a reasonable chance that it’s about singer/lyricist Fat Mike’s Jewish heritage, but the way I interpret the lyrics is “white people suck and I hate them, I’m not like those other whites so don’t get mad at me for being white” which is, y’know, kind of not great.
• Fat Mike has been very vocal and public in recent years about wearing dresses and wanting to move in a less binary direction about clothing, the song “I’m a Transvest-lite” is about his GNC clothing choices and pressure to perform masculinity.
• The song Lori Meyers is unabashed about its pro-sex worker anti-white-knight stance.
• Started Fat Wreck Chords, which is a label that’s well known for being fair to its artists
• Fat Wreck Chords had an offshoot label, Pink and Black, that was supposed to be for woman-fronted bands, but that appears to have fallen apart somewhat.

That being said, onto the less good stuff:

• In spite of having in a minor in human sexuality, being a self-identified cross-dresser, and talking about lessening pressure to perform gender roles the band seems to be continually playing transphobia for laughs. The song “my vagina” is transphobic as fuck and in an interview about his cross-dressing Mike said “Transgender is really popular right now because people feel comfortable doing that, but now I feel like if a guy wants to try on his wife’s knickers she’s going to be, “Oh, you want to be like Laura Jane?” or, “Oh, you’re a transgender,” but really it’s like, “No, I just kind of want to wear your clothes.” You can have fun, and it’s not such a big deal. I think guys might be more scared to do that now because of all the transgender stuff, but if someone like me says, “Fucking have fun and don’t sweat it. If it feels good, do it.” - So he’s nominally accepting but seems to *really* want to distance himself from trans folk and make it clear that he’s just enjoying dressing in clothing that is traditionally women’s clothing
• Which gets into the fact that he’s been into BDSM vocally and openly for a long time (no judgement) and is into genderplay (no judgement) and claims to have lesbian sex with his wife. In spite of the fact that he doesn’t identify as a woman. Hey. That’s where I’ll start judging. If you’re not a lesbian you’re not having lesbian sex? That feels pretty safe to say. But fuck, I don’t know, maybe Mike’s genderfluid and not out and identifies as a woman in those situations and just doesn’t have the words for it?
• “Bye Bye Biopsy Girl” has a joke about calling INS on an immigrant who doesn’t consent to anal or ass-to-mouth sexual content. Sooooooooooooooo okay I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to be satire mocking asshole guys but like, I’m pretty sure you could get across the message that assholes exist without laughing at the fact that immigrants in the real world get coerced into having sex out of fear of being reported.
• I get that Fat Mike is recovering from years of drug abuse but the song OxyMoronic is straight-up ableist in that it puts “people who use prescription medications to manage their mental illnesses” and “people who use prescription drugs for recreation” and “people who are addicted to drugs” and “people who use medical marijuana” into the same category and labels the whole category “OxyMoronic” (by which he means “stupid, like a moron” not “contradictory like an oxymoron” which itself is an issue since “moron” is something of a slur). My spoonie ass is just over here going “fuck your “fuck pharma” attitude”

So here’s my deal: I don’t hate NoFX because of their shitty politics or their iffy stances on things or their trivialization of big major issues, I hate NoFX because I think their music is boring and juvenile and the rest of those issues doesn’t give me any reason to test their shit out again.
They are by no means big bad awful terrible monsters who must be stopped. They’re actually doing some good in the world (at least the Fat Wreck “Not my Fucking Presidents” proceeds are being donated to the ACLU, right? Right?!? It’s never actually made clear where those proceeds are donated) or trying to.
But they’re also just kind of shitty? They’ve got the 3EDGY5U thing going on with doing gross-out, over-the-top stuff that might be controversial or stand out as “standing up to the man” at a frat party or in a high school classroom but doesn’t engage with a lot of serious questions about oppression or the origins of a lot of the stereotypes they mock.
They’re just sort of generally crappy about women (for a bunch of 50 year olds they sure refer to the women in their lives as “girls” a lot) and seem to have what is a very common punk-bro attitude about systemic issues. It’s the “C’mon, man, you know I hate the man, how could I be oppressing you?” thing - they’re vocally against the status quo but reinforce the status quo with assumptions that seem so deeply held they aren’t even aware of how informed by tradition their worldviews are.
And, as a punk, I know there’s a long history of people wanting to defend and protect pop punk but for real the sound sets off every “poseur” alarm my bitter little heart has. (Lol, but seriously, mocking trans folk and making shitty immigration and sexual coercion jokes is the opposite of punk, what the fuck are you doing, is this shit just to please your fans and move units because that is the opposite of punk and does nothing to uplift anyone)
Also, *ugh* I have serious judging for people who support PETA but I get that it was a very trendy thing to do in 2003. But then again they also supported a child welfare charity in 2006, which is an actual good thing! Buuuuuuut they did it with a very classist, fat-shaming, intellectualist song.
And? In general? I’ve kind of got an issue with people who claim that being a white punk makes the oppressed in a similar way to LGBTQIA people, people of color, disabled folks, and other marginalized groups. And that’s kind of where the root of the problem is here for me - these guys agree with me on a lot of major things, we’d probably get along pretty well politically. Until I had to explain that no, being in a punk band doesn’t mean you understand the experiences of marginalized people. Having GNC clothing preferences gets you closer, but you’ve gotta stop throwing trans people and women under the bus before we can chill.
It’s a mess! But I think they fall squarely into the “problematic fave” territory for a lot of people and I don’t think they’re totally irredeemable. They genuinely seem to want social progress and a more equal world and good things all around. They just have *no idea* how to do that and keep doing things that are unintentionally harmful and happen to have a larger platform than other bands that seem to be doing a better job of improving the conversation around social justice *cough*Against Me!*cough* But at least NoFX and Fat Wreck Chords continue to support bands that are legitimately more forward-thinking. A mess I say!