CONTENT WARNING: The following article discusses sexual assault.
Trapt’s Twitter has been suspended for ‘violating community standards’ following a series of Tweets that seem to show the band defending statutory rape.
Frontman Chris Taylor Brown tweeted “I don’t call a 24-year-old woman who takes advantage of a 15-year-old-boy who is entirely through puberty a paedophile,” instigating a predictable, sizeable and justifiably savage response from the Twitter community. In the most Trapt move ever, instead of learning from the feedback received or taking a moment to reconsider the statement and the harm that it could bring to others, Brown doubled down on his opinion stating, “A 15-year-old male and a 25-year-old female is not paedophilia, you f***ing moron,” and saying “Oh I would be giving the kid high fives! Only if the teacher was hot though.” before linking to Van Halen’s ‘Hot For Teacher’ which he called a “great coming of age song”.
Remember the song Headstrong? I forgot who sang it… oh yeah, it was @TRAPTOFFICIAL, I wonder what’s going on with the band these da…. oh. Ohh no. ? pic.twitter.com/vmZVeEPgiY
— Sophia Narwitz (@SophNar0747) December 7, 2020
Brown continued to defend his stance, challenging anyone who disagreed with his definition of paedophilia, choosing instead to argue semantics rather than address the rather loud and obvious elephant in the room: he was defending statutory rape.
This is just the latest misfire by Trapt in 2020, a year that has seen them fall into many a trap of their own making, causing chaos in the Twittersphere and even having Facebook delete their account for ‘violating community standards’ after several rather vile pro-Proud Boy posts. Adding to this, their heavily promoted record ‘Shadow Work’ was a commercial and critical failure moving only 600 units in the first week and experiencing little to no industry or fan support. Seemingly unbothered by this, Trapt has continued to stir controversy, inviting the Proud Boys (who US Intelligence Officials have called a ‘dangerous white supremacist group’) to a show in Dallas, while continuing to post venomous and problematic messages on social media under the guise of being ‘anti-censorship’.
How it started How it’s going #Trapt pic.twitter.com/NjZ2slq2kY
— Tara Dublin (@taradublinrocks) December 8, 2020
Trapt were last in Australia in 2019. We can only hope that’s the last time they step foot on our shores.
If you need assistance, 1800 RESPECT – the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service — can be reached on 1800 737 732.
