I wish I were a ghost

So, I have a quite a few articles (MCR, Frank Iero, Gerard Way) from Alternative Press now and while I TRY and have them so you can find them with search, I thought a page of dates and issue numbers would be nice.

Obviously I don’t have everything from every Alternative Press, this is just what I’ve accumulated so far.

This will get updated frequently (I hope).

Unknown just means I personally don’t know/haven’t found out yet.

List below the cut/read more

I use ‘ap#’ for example: Alternative Press # 210′s tag is: “ap210″

Alternative Press #177, Issue label: April 2003

https://callmeblake.tumblr.com/tagged/ap177

Alternative Press #192, Issue Label: July 2004

https://callmeblake.tumblr.com/tagged/AP192

Alternative Press #193, Issue Label: August 2004

https://callmeblake.tumblr.com/tagged/AP193

Alternative Press # 197, Issue label: December 2004                                                      (reissued in 2013 as AP #300)

http://callmeblake.tumblr.com/tagged/ap197

Alternative Press # 210, Issue Label: January 2006

http://callmeblake.tumblr.com/tagged/ap210/chrono

Alternative Press # 221, Issue Label: December 2006

http://callmeblake.tumblr.com/tagged/ap221/chrono

Alternative Press # 242, Issue label: September 2008

http://callmeblake.tumblr.com/tagged/ap242/chrono

Alternative Press # 243 Issue label: July 2008

http://callmeblake.tumblr.com/tagged/AP243

AP 247 (leathernouth) Issue Label: February 2009

https://callmeblake.tumblr.com/tagged/ap247

Alternative Press # 258, Issue label: January 2010

http://callmeblake.tumblr.com/tagged/ap258/chrono

Alternative Press # 272 Issue label: March 2011

http://callmeblake.tumblr.com/tagged/ap272/chrono

Alternative Press #283 Issue label: Februray 2012

https://callmeblake.tumblr.com/tagged/ap283

Alternative Press # 292, Issue Label: November 2012

http://callmeblake.tumblr.com/tagged/AP292

Alternative Press # 299, Issue Label: June 2013

http://callmeblake.tumblr.com/tagged/ap299/chrono

Alternative Press # 300, Issue Label: June 2013 (a reissue of AP #197)

http://callmeblake.tumblr.com/tagged/ap300/chrono

Alternative Press # 307, Issue Label: December 2013

http://callmeblake.tumblr.com/tagged/ap307/chrono

Alternative Press # 312, Issue label: July 2014

https://callmeblake.tumblr.com/tagged/AP312

Alternative Press # 315, Issue Label: October 2014

http://callmeblake.tumblr.com/tagged/ap315/chrono

Alternative Press #324 (sweetpea) Issue Label: July 2015

https://callmeblake.tumblr.com/tagged/AP324

Alternative Press #326.1, Issue Label: September 2015

https://callmeblake.tumblr.com/tagged/ap326

Alternative Press # 332, Issue Label: March 2016

http://callmeblake.tumblr.com/tagged/ap332/chrono

Alternative Press # 334, Issue label: May 2016

http://callmeblake.tumblr.com/tagged/ap334/chrono

Altentive Press #338 Issue Label: September 2016

https://callmeblake.tumblr.com/tagged/AP338

Alternative Press # 339, Issue Label: October 2016 (James Dewees)

http://callmeblake.tumblr.com/tagged/ap339/chrono

Unknown Alternative Press, October 2016:

http://callmeblake.tumblr.com/post/159923111825/mcrscans-my-chemical-romances-frank-iero (maybe #339?) 

Alternative Press # 341, Issue label: December 2016

http://callmeblake.tumblr.com/tagged/ap341/chrono

Alternative Press # 347, Issue Label: June 2017

http://callmeblake.tumblr.com/tagged/ap347/chrono

Alternative Press #349, Issue Label: August 2017

http://callmeblake.tumblr.com/tagged/ap349/chrono

Alternative Press #352, Issue label: November 2017

http://callmeblake.tumblr.com/tagged/ap352

Alternative Press 370, Issue Label: May 2019

https://callmeblake.tumblr.com/tagged/AP370/chrono

Alternative Press 382, Issue Label: May 2020

https://callmeblake.tumblr.com/tagged/AP382

Alternative Press 386.2, Issue Label: September 2020

https://callmeblake.tumblr.com/tagged/AP386.2/chrono

Alternatie Press Issue #389 Issue Label: December 2020

https://callmeblake.tumblr.com/tagged/AP389

Fall 2023 Issue Label: Fall 2020

[If you saw this post twice no you didnt shhh]

@current-mcr-news

I want to offer one way of reading these outfits. Not the only way, of course. Also, I don’t mean to reach any concrete conclusions about Gerard’s gender, though I don’t think that anything I’m saying here contradicts anyone’s attempt to do so in any direction. Often I see dissections of these outfits supporting the point of Gerard’s gender non-conformity without addressing how or why he chose a specific manner of playing with gender.

To me, it’s incredibly obvious how intentional and deliberate these choices are. And I think a failure to recognize these outfits as a specific artistic choice does Gerard a disservice. Exploring the layered motivations for a specific kind of gendered expression does not preclude these costumes from being an important, interesting, and personal manifestation of gender nonconformity. In fact, I’d say it supports that interpretation even more.

Okay, all that said! As I mentioned earlier, the Manson Girl costume triggered these thoughts. I saw very little discussion of the costume at all, which I think is a shame.

[source: Trish Badger]

I know why; people struggle to talk about cults and the people involved in them. Obviously, it's a complex issue that requires nuance. Full disclosure, I am a cult survivor myself—and thus am uniquely acquainted with the complexity of victimhood and culpability for cult members from my own deconstruction journey.

But I think that Gerard intentionally chose to dress up as a female cultural symbol that embodies this uncomfortable gray area. Actually, I don’t think it’s the only one meant to evoke that frustrating moral ambiguity. The First Lady, The Nurse, The Teacher, The Cheerleader, The Devoted Follower—all of these important American archetypes symbolize feminine power, victimhood, and violence. When Gerard performs these identities on stage, he offers commentary on his own role in American society. 

[sources from left to right: Laurie Fanelli; Steve Pedulla; Jess Williams; Scott Raymer]

Sophia @sendmyresignation pointed out to me that these are not just important figures within general Americana; they hold significance within rock music specifically. Rock relies on the convenient metaphor of these women at their worst. The cheerleader stands in for every girl who never saw successful men for their worth; the female teacher stands in for oppressive authority figures holding men back. The Manson Girls, too, have become a cultural icon for music to evoke. Their violent, mindless devotion to Charles Manson (and more overtly, their beliefs surrounding the Beatles and Helter-Skelter) is an obvious parallel to the crazed devotion of fans to celebrity musicians. 

These representations of women are generally pretty misogynistic, as the songs that invoke them create distance between the successful male musician and the women who don’t understand them. But not here. Not right now.

Gerard, the rockstar, the cult leader, the most powerful person in the room when he’s on stage, takes these figures that are traditionally degraded by people in his position, and takes on their societal role. He’s not the president; he’s the president’s wife. He’s not the cult leader; he’s the cult leader’s devoted follower. He’s not the doctor you respect; he’s the nurse you trust. He’s not the man looking back with scorn at the popular girl who never noticed him in high school; he’s the cheerleader drowning in equal parts admiration and ire.

My Chemical Romance occupies a position within American society that allows them to wield substantial economic and social power. But every ounce of power they gain from their position in the industry further constricts them to specific roles, a specific life. And with more power comes the ability to cause real harm.

The female figures of Gerard’s costumes represent the only socially prescribed and socially approved avenues for women to obtain power. These women can’t be the politician, but they can exert influence over him as his wife. They can’t control the adult men in their lives, but they can teach children. They can’t go to medical school, but they can make many of the life-or-death decisions for their patients.

These positions—the First Lady; the Nurse; the Teacher; the Manson Girl; the rockstar—allow for violence, intentional or otherwise. In a horror context, these figures unsettle because of the blurred lines of culpability and victimhood they convey. This uncomfortable feminine danger is obvious with the Manson Girls, who committed brutal murders in the name of the abusive man who brainwashed them, but these other female archetypes exert power over others as a reaction to more abstract misogyny.

The nurse costume, for example, references in part the Nurse Ratched character, the heartless, sadistic caretaker of the all-male psychiatric care facility in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Even the adored Jackie Onassis, benevolent as her image is, represents a strata of American society akin to an untouchable nobility, an American aristocracy that only occasionally reached out to those below them.

Their violence cannot be separated from their victimhood. Their victimhood cannot be separated from their violence. The condition of their subjugation lends them the very power it limits.

Just as Conventional Weapons used military service as a metaphor for the predatory music industry, Gerard’s choice to wear these outfits can be read as specific commentary on his own institutional power, on his own ambivalence about his role as cultural nobility. He arguably occupies one of the highest positions in society one could achieve; yet as much as this empowers him, as much as this is the life he chose for himself, it also constricts him. It is uncontrollable. It can cause harm. Not so long ago, after all, the media demonized MCR as creating a subculture that glorified self-harm and suicide. Gerard wears the same dress and cardigan as members of a violent cult as someone who has been accused of starting a violent cult himself on multiple occasions and by no small number of people.

I think, too, that it shouldn’t be taken as a coincidence that he has chosen to perform as these specific women, these feminine figures who find power through their compliance in and performance of constrained, gendered roles. There’s something to be said about the stage, by nature a confined space, being a place where gender nonconformity can be expressed safely, where the costume can be put on and taken off, where it is expected to be put on and taken off.