you find god in pain

2. Gender plays a major role on The Black Parade album. The story of The Patient as narrated by The Parade serves as a beautiful genderqueer allegory, one that I know I clung too when discerning my own genderqueerness as a teenager.

3. Mama gets her own special section because its the song that's most overt, aside from The End.

Also this quote from an October 2006 NME interview with Gerard about Mama (found in 2006 scans/102006-NME):

Basically, its about any son's relationship with his mother in the sense that the relationship is very intense. And being raised Catholic, its about all the awful shit you do, the things you do to make you a 'man' that your mother would probably cry about if she found out.

4. Gerard has consistently used war and gun-related imagery as an exploration of masculine violence and the violence of hegemonic masculinity throughout their work. In particular, I have not been able to get Gun. out of my head this whole tour. I would argue on The Black Parade, the gun is specifically representative of the phallic (replaced by the knife and dagger in the stage production). The fact that during SWARM they would replace "shirt" witch "skirt" in Teenagers is worth mentioning here (dressed as The Secretary too, I believe, but could be wrong).

6. Back to the current stage production. The characters are named stuff like THE GENTLEMAN (directly gendered masculine) and THE SECRETARY (traditionally gendered feminine). We were first introduced to The Secretary during SWARM when Gerard portrayed her. Also worth mentioning is the fact that Sylvia is a nurse (although Gerard occasionally refers to her as a doctor, her costume appears to modeled after a nurses uniform as pointed out by this Tumblr user).

7. Perhaps the most obviously gendered moment from the elexecution setting is when Gerard is forced back into the parade jacket, serving as a metaphor for being forced to take on a masculine persona throughout their career (their masc voice that they finally dropped as one of countless examples). The recent swap of jackets between the Clerk and Gerard are also interesting to consider. The Clerk is overjoyed to put on the Parade jacket, in Nashville even mimicking Gerard's fist pumps that they do during WTTBP. The Clerk appears enamored by the performance of masculinity which comes with the jacket and becomes upset when Gerard fails to produce this- most likely a product of his own failure to live up to DRAAG's standard of masculinity (I also believe this is part of why they both end up being reconditioned in the MOAT). The Clerk returns to the stage in Clown drag during The End. (Reprise). When Gerard sings "If you look in the mirror and don't like what you see, you can find out first hand what its like to be me" they mirror each other- mutual acknowledgement that this fantasy masculinity is about to kill them both.

8. The MOAT setting is a genderqueer goldmine! In particular, I think the monologue that plays before WTTBP furthers my above point regarding DRAAG's fantasy masculinity that Parade is meant to emulate:

“The humorous thing about learning to be what you hate and learning to do what you fear, is that someone you've been your whole life doing something you've always been good at could feel so entirely new. That brutality, so second nature, could feel so alien, so foreign to you, it’s astounding to witness first hand. So let's remind you, for a moment, exactly what you are, and the thing that you do best. The lesson is, a man knows how to forgive, but a leader knows how to instruct. And since, through pain, we learn, let's be student then be a teacher. Now take a breath, use your words, and produce, for the crowd, a display."

As well as the monologue before Sleep:

“There is a planet -- so it spins. And it's moving so fast, it's not moving at all. Very busy. People? People hurry. And the child who has the chalk and says, ‘let me see.’ So we see them. We say, ‘let me see who loves you.’ And the chalk, it moves in circles, many circles, great big circles, hugging arms and smiling eyes. And we tell the child ‘let's subtract. And again, And, what if we subtract them all?’ Whose left to love you as long as the hands that wipe the chalkboard clean? And I feel, all this time you’re making drawings someone else must now erase. But I’m glad that we are friends. And that now you understand: this is the worst day of your life, but the first day of yourself.”

Worth considering along side this is the recent middle finger to the eye in Madrid, reminiscent of when they said: "In the face of extermination say, fuck you" in this 2023 performance, again dressed as (what I believe is) The Secretary.

gif from @secretaary (I can take this out if you would like)

9. I don't feel the need to go in depth into Mama and the dagger penis as I feel that's been adequately discussed, however there are some interesting screens in the background saying, "How will you ever love yourself" and "First you must die unto yourself." Also the fact that its The Gentleman that teaches Gerard the innuendo riddled Dagger song.

10. GENTLEMAN'S CASTLE (or Castle Gentleman- whichever way its supposed to go). The children's TV show reminiscent of Mr. Roger's Neighborhood, which was a show aimed at teaching children, in particular boys, better emotional skills. Mr. Rogers presented an alternative masculinity built on compassion, and encouraged children to be themselves. You can watch his testimony to the US Senate, what he says starting at 4:10 is particularly relevant. In contrast, Castle Gentleman places an emphasis on strength and conformity, as can be seen here. Unlike he gentle compassion of Mr. Rogers, The Gentleman presents a cold, violent vision- representative of DRAAG's fantasy masculinity. "They're gonna clean up your looks with all the lies in the books to make a citizen out of you."

11. The Secretary hands Gerard a flare while The Gentleman says: "A figure sits in a chair made of wood. And it’s sobbing. You think It’s you. You’re pretty sure it’s you. But it’s weak, it’s broken, and it's covered in gasoline. Now, picture yourself lighting the match." Gerard lights the flare and begins Famous Last Words. As I pointed out above, The Secretary, The Gentleman, and Gerard are the only three characters seen sitting in the same red, wooden chair.

gifs from @badymaru (I can take these out if you would like)

The camp of the whole performance too is great.