I live sweat...

“I was just a bit worried my camera would get hit.” - Maryam Hassan (Punktastic.com) on moshing.

(Andy’s note: Maryam originally posted this piece here. It’s a response to this piece, that I linked back to and commented on last week. If you feel you could add something to the debate, please get in touch at ilivesweat@gmail.com)

(Photo by Maryam Hassan, used by permission from Punktastic.com)

I read a piece recently that described moshing as something that asshole men do. I was generally confused by it, to be honest. It seemed to be bouncing between the fact that everyone who moshes is an asshole, and also a sexist.

I’m a 5’3 Asian girl (I’m pointing that out because everyone who writes about moshing is obsessed with race.), and from what I read I am the sort of person who should be scared of the mosh pit, and people who mosh. I assume you expect to find me cowering, with my arms stretched out in front of me, in the back of a small venue, praying none of the rowdy, selfish, sexist, men come anywhere near me and push me, or touch me, in any way. I don’t like to mosh myself, but that is not at all what I do at shows.

I’m a photographer ,and I shoot shows where the crowd is mental, the band is mental and there is no barrier. I’m right up in the middle of the mosh pit at times, but I usually find that the people around me take this into consideration, and look out for me, if anything. I can give you an example; I was at LetLive at the Old Blue Last. If you don’t know about LetLive, I’ll say they are one of the most insane bands I have ever seen live. At Download the singer kicked a security guard in the face. Anyway, the Old Blue Last is a tiny venue in East London, and the stage doesn’t have a barrier. I was at the front, and rather than having loads of asshole guys smash into me whilst I tried to take photos, I had the group of them around me pushing people away, making sure I didn’t get squashed. I didn’t ask them to do this, I didn’t even know who they were, but they saw that I would probably need a bit of help, and proceeded to help me and mosh all at the same time.

I wasn’t scared. I didn’t feel like I was having my personal space violated. I wasn’t annoyed that people were shoving me. I was just a bit worried my camera would get hit. I had someone come up to me at the end and say “I can’t believe you were down the front for so long! You know you were the only girl there?” but these are things I have to put up with. If you don’t go to a show with an attitude about moshing, and instead work along with it, you’ll find that it’s all a lot easier to deal with. The only time I’ve ever got hurt in the mosh pit was when a girl elbowed me in the face at The Wonder Years, and she did it on purpose because I was taking photos.

I’m not going to say everyone who moshes is a saint, though. There are always going to be idiots who take it too far, or who have no care for how what they are doing is affecting the people around them, but I think it is unfair to generalise moshing as a selfish act. The majority of the time it is people getting excited about the music, and a lot of the time it’s encouraged by the bands playing. How many times have I heard people shout for circle pits, and walls of death? Too many to count. It seems to me that moshing is something that people just assume goes along with shows. It always happens, and you can really choose whether or not you want to be a part of it.

Really, the only point I agreed with from the piece I read was “consideration for others is punk fucking rock.” Yes! Consideration for others is amazing, but it doesn’t work one way. Saying that moshers need to fuck off and learn to dance isn’t really constructive at all, but neither is wearing a t-shirt saying “It’s a show, you’re going to get hit. Shut up and stop being a bitch”. Surely what we need to do is watch out for each other a little more to make sure we all enjoy shows! That’s what I think anyway.

Maryam Hassan is a 26 year old photographer from East London. When she’s not busy being Visual Media Editor at Punktastic.com, she enjoys big hair, red lipstick, Say Anything, and marmalade on toast. You can find her photography blog here, or email her here.

Source: missmaryam