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Hayley Williams has no problem calling out the toxic masculine culture that was bred by the '00s pop punk scene, and during an interview with NME, the singer lamented about what she went through during Paramore's early days. When asked where she hopes to see the scene go moving forward, Williams didn't hold back.
“Oh, my God. I hope no young female experiences the s**t that I experienced,” she said. “When we were teenagers, the way forward was to be tough all the time. Our entire scene was contributing to s****y treatment of women and anything that wasn’t masculine. We were out on Warped Tour, this little Fueled by Ramen band acting like a hardcore band on stage. It was like if I didn’t spit further, I felt like someone was going to throw me out.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Williams called pop punk nostalgia "revisionist history."
“It’s revisionist history on a less heavy topic,” Williams said. “People look back with these rose-tinted glasses. They talk about the good and forget the rest. It was an alternative scene for a reason – it was weird.”
“Those kids were bullied, that’s why so many guys in those bands wrote s***** songs about ex-girlfriends," she added. "I just get angry about the injustice of a bunch of people who were bullied, essentially creating a world where other people didn’t feel welcome.”