This is the question I want to raise - in our countries, Russia and Kazakhstan, metalheads are often targets for drunk casuals or marginals, in nineties longhaired guys might be beaten sometimes to death for their image (or haircutted). Is it often happen in other countries?

I'm from Germany and I get caught in "random traffic checks without suspicion" on a regular basis... Several times the policemen made fun of my music and actually told me:"You don't have any drugs?! What kind of metal fan are you?!". The next time they stop me, I'm gonna ask them if they do offer a "get stopped 10 times, win a free hamburger" option or something xD

I however didn't encounter bullying in school or elsewhere besides some suspicious looks here and there.

How does that work, exactly? Do you wear spikes and corpsepaint everywhere you go? Do you have a Baphomet figure painted on your car?

Anyway, Germany sounds like a fucking nightmare. Getting stopped because you seem like the kind of person who might do drugs? Is this a common thing in other countries?

I don't know about the rest of the world, but I've heard that happens quite a lot in the US...

It's very unlikely that you'd get stopped. Most people in the US don't have the nerve to actually do anything. Worst case scenario they'd just give you dirty looks.

It's more coincidence of who you are, I think. I was never bullied for my music tastes, but more my attitude, personality, how I was generally different, etc., that went along with who I was in general, and I just happened to enjoy The Metal. I was also not severely bullied for it, my bullshit was mostly of the verbal variety.

[url]How does that work, exactly? Do you wear spikes and corpsepaint everywhere you go? Do you have a Baphomet figure painted on your car?[/url]

Well, aparantly long hair, beard, bandshirt and an old, rusty car is enough to trigger them. They actually we busy check another car and when I drove past them, they immediately stopped that, jumped in the car and caught me xD

Got a new car though, let's see how that works out.

Metalheads also tend to be white, which means the odds of being randomly stopped by cops here is much lower. There might be a black guy driving to his office job or something, and cops will be watching him instead.

I always thought Germany was one of the best places to be when you're into metal as this culture seems to be way more impregnated in the country than anywhere else besides Finland. When I was in Germany visiting Seinen wunderbar Europa Park I saw plenty of metalheads.

Here in France it's... mixed. I would have difficulties actually to tell how things are. It's not a clear mainstream trend since we always have a lot of strange gazes at our hair or shirts. Got banned from a catholic high school because of the coffin on my Metallica's Death Magnetic shirt lol, by the end of the year I came back to see a few friends of mine and I deliberately clad myself in a Cattle Decapitation shirt just to trigger them. The year after in another high school someone tried to burn my long hair (for real, just for the """fun""". I cut them since). But these are usual bullshit plebian reactions that no one should give a damn about. Like "you're music is always about violence" or "you have strange tastes, can't you be like anyone else?".

But in the same time in my current city there are a lot of metalheads (I don't have any friends so I don't know them) and fun places for gigs (Lich King touring there next July, can't wait) so it's just a question of location. But generally speaking people don't despise us... They prettymuch don't care... An I think that's the best choice.

Besides those policeguys who seemed to have just finished school and felt like some sort of superheroes in uniform or something, Germany is actually great for metalheads imho. We are even drowning in bands and concerts over here and even the underground concerts have "regular" plebs chillin around or enjoying the party even though they are not that much into metal. As long is you don't wear Marduk's "Fuck Me Jesus" or Cradle's "Jesus is a Cunt" shirts you should be fine

Because I don't live in a late 80s hair metal clip I was never bullied for being a metalhead.

The only times I've experienced any kind of negative looks or some shit is when I'm dressed like an absolute piece of white trash. And that's my fault for breaking the social contract and heading into the outside world looking like some derro that breaks into cars to steal change for cigarettes - it has nothing to do with "being a metalhead". Beyond that, 99% of society here really, really, does not give a fuck about metalheads one way or the other. The sooner metalheads en masse dial back the persecution complex the better. Thankfully I'm pretty sure it is dying out anyway I guess...

Unfortunately THAT is a legit problem here... sucks hard.

It really depends on what part of the US you are in. If you are from Utah, or some of the more rural parts of the "deep south" (Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, or some parts of Texas) you are far more likely to get randomly fucked with by authorities for having long hair and a general "Metal" dress than if you live near a big city or anywhere on the west or east coasts.

As far as being bullied, you have your general assholes everywhere you go, who would probably fuck with you no matter what your musical or clothing tastes are- just because they are assholes. They'd start shit with you if you were a hippie, rap dude, or even if you were a white-trash redneck like them but "not redneck enough." (And for whatever reason, there are also some people who tend to be "Asshole magnets," since they just have a way of bringing out the sadistic impulses of people like that, without even trying.)

It does, but to black and Hispanic guys, not metalheads.

That was what I meant. No metalheads mentioned in the quote.

I always kinda figured that accepting victimhood was antithetical to "being metal," but the bullshit OP's describing isn't bullying. It's full on harassment.

Burn their villages down

I was never bullied for being a metalhead , however I did get into lots of " not so pleasant " situations in my high school days for being a metalhead , along with my cohorts . Namely verbal battles , fistfights , police questioning , etc . .


Also I don't wish to get into a racially charged debate or anything , but the cops in my former neck of the woods ( Sussex County DE ) were much more likely to harass biker looking white guys than anyone else . Things might have changed now , but back then most local cops ( and even some stadies ) really had it in for us . Which we ( to a great extent ) brought upon ourselves as a result of our delinquent habits/fraternizing with one of the most infamous 1%er clubs in the US , but being pale didn't make us less likely to get rousted than the local black guys . In fact it seemed they got rousted a lot less than us .

As for the issue of discrimination against metalheads in general , I don't think it's much of a problem throughout much of the US . That said I'm willing to concede that my experience is limited , since I've never lived outside of the greater Mid Atlantic region , and I most certainly have no clue about the situation in other countries .

Never had problems, had funny remarks however just like anyone else. Still do but it makes perfectly sense. We all make fun of each being the looks, the hobbies or their taste. Never had any serious problems, though I think most people who do kinda provoked it. I know people who got bullied, it sucks, but I think they were bullied if they listened to a different style of music as well.

Worst I get here is the general, "Oh you like metal? I like >insert crappy non-metal band< too!".

I've never heard of "bullying on metalheads" being a common thing where I live. A lot of people dislike or don't care for metal here or think metal boils down to liking Slipknot and Metallica, but bullying?! Never heard of such thing in my life. In fact, I can't think of any genre that's a taboo to listen to here. And I find it hard to believe that that might be a thing in most developed nations.

I suppose it's a lot tougher to be a metalhead in parts of the world like the Arab countries and such due to the whole religious thing...

You've clearly never visited the countryside/rural places of Bavaria. Just kidding

Old Portuguese people from rural areas can be quite religious as well, so I doubt Bavaria would be much different. That being said, I've never been to Bayern.

In all seriousness now, I don't think liking metal is considered a taboo in most of the developed world anymore. Most people don't see to be phased by songs and album art involving imagery of Satan anymore.

A common thing with old French people that remember me what you just told is the rural aspect, I was walking by an old street in a very pretty village in the middle of the countryside and everyone gazed at my Decrepit Birth t-shirt with a strange look that would read "oh my god is he a satanic person? Do I have to call the priest??"

Well, I live in capital and largest city in my country(Lisbon), and have lived here my whole 27 years of life so far, so I dunno truly what the rural life is like. I suppose in some rural areas here something like that could happen to you as well.

I wonder how people from rather isolate villages in Europe react when they see Asian tourists or something? Ok, some villages and small towns in France and Italy have a lot of tourism, but most European villages probably don't. Especially not from people of the other side of the world.

One of the things I'd like to do is drop in a village in japan or Korea and being stared at by the locals

I get weird looks from rural parts, but, despite living in a very Catholic country, I've never experienced bullying. Haven't worn anything metalhead-looking in ages in public anyway. I think this happens much more often in shittier parts of Russia, the Middle East, etc.

Where were you from, again? I believe you were either South American or from the Balkans, correct?

And now that you mention it, none of the metal band t-shirts/hoodies I wear are particularly offensive or shocking. They're all from bands like Motörhead, Slayer, Megadeth, Metallica, Iron Maiden, Pantera(one hoodie) Korpiklaani, Moonspell, Children of Bodom(I was 18 and new to metal at the time!), etc. Not bands known for having particularly distasteful/offensive artwork. One of my t-shirts has a skull on it and then there's the classic Maiden Number of the Beast album t-shirt, but that's hardly gonna shock people in 2018. It's not like I'm wearing t-shirts with gore and/or nudity on them. Speaking of which, I do wonder how many people own THAT Craddle of Filth "Jesus is a cunt" t-shirt. I could see that one getting some funny looks

Here in Portugal, I don't see any type of bullying towards metalheads, at least, in my point of view and based on my own experience. Some people may gave you some dirty or appear to be shocked by your looks, but nothing more. This happens in wider places, like a big city, which I live on. On the other hand, we're always victims of typical stereotypes, such as hailing Satan, making sacrifices or being part of a cult. It doesn't matter how much I insist that reality is very far away from that, they never learn.

I was playing some melodeath and my mom called it throwup music. Bout' the worst I've encountered.

I once got stopped in germany just for being Hispanic. Didn't heard there was like a "Secret police" who check out on inmigrants to see if all their papers are ok. Since in my country, if someone tells you Im a police I must register you is bad news, I resisted and ended handcuffed. Fortunatelly I got all my documents in order and they let me go, even invite me a cigarrete for the inconvinient and asked me for the crimanl situation in Peru. We end up talking for a while, they were amazed by how creative thieves can be here.

By the other hand, I was at a catholic school and were one of the few metalheds around, but everytime there was a satanic scrip I was called to the principal office which was a waste of time because I was going through a Power metal phase and didn't have enought testosterone to do stuff like that.

The worse I've gotten was the typical "oh that screaming music like Slipknot and Korn! Can'y stand it!" ignorant comment.

Shocked by your appearance? Well, I suppose some long haired guys with a beard look a bit hoboish. I imagine goth girls draw attention as well.

That's really rough, i can imagine the panic of the moment, in particular while being in a foreign land

I went to a Catholic school too, but i'm surprised how little hassle i got: Some comments on shirts and few dumb questions, at most.
The worst that happened was a girl kicked out of a class for a Number of the Beast shirt, but other than that i don't remember anything.

The group of metalheads was a bit outcast, but fairly large and well organized.. i kinda miss that

Sorry for going a bit off-topic, but how do Catholic schools function? Do they usually have high standards for education? Sorry for sounding dumb, but how do they teach science? Do they adhere to the regular school program and teach about the big bang and such, keeping it separate from religion?

I've heard they have rather strict rules, but then again, if you sign up your kids for that kind of school you gotta expect that. And tbh, all schools have rules. OK, in an ordinary school you don't get kicked for wearing a Number of the Beast t-shirt, but if I had gone to school one day wearing a t-shirt with nudity/explicit sex images on it, I'm pretty sure the teachers would tell me not to ever go to school dressed like that again. Just like they'd confiscate your PSP/DS if you pulled it out to play in class.

I assume students wear uniforms in Catholic schools? Although I know people who have attended private schools(not Catholic ones, though) and weren't required to wear uniforms.

I think the standard are high-regular depending on the school. In areas of literature, chemestry, biology, history and sports my school was quite good but math was under the avarage (many had problems when they got through university) For the science part, they follow the standards of the Education Ministry or at least thats how it works in Peru. Which was funny was the fact that they would modify the religion subject to fit the science classes. For instance the creation was in 7 days... But this days were actually estimated periods of time in between the bigbang happened and dinosours lived and so on so on.
They would always have an answer to fit that kind of questions.

Rules where quite normal as every school but blasphemy was punished as you can imagine. And with the uniforms, I think is something mandatory and they usually the school uses the colors of the order it belongs.

I studied on a private Catholic school and the only difference to a normal school was that we had Christian teachings class and had to attend Mass sometimes.

I've lived in different parts of the US and amongst different social classes, and I have to say that all in all, the only people who get really offended and give you problems for being into metal are people on the far ends of both the right and left political spectrums, obviously some of the bible thumping people in the south were freaked out by it, but I've noticed some of the more radical people in the left (mainly sjw's) have similar reactions to Christian conservatives. Overall it just seems like metal on the whole is meant for more centered people.

"sjw's" (sic)
Given that most of the people I know whom you'd designate "sjws" are metalheads, your attempted conflation of the right and left here rings hollow.

I'm genuinely surprised to see anyone outside of chan boards and YouTube comments sections use the term SJW. Grow up.

hoooly shit. were you born that condescending, or did you actively take slimy cunt lessons?

Smug or not, he's not wrong.

well right or wrong, he's not exactly the authority on who from which side of the political spectrum likes/dislikes metal, nor has he been given the right to come down from on high and mockingly insult people who basically just offered their experiences.

If he hadn't said sjw I wouldn't have raised so much as a pinky. Some people on the left can be really annoying (insert self-effacing reference here), but saying "sjw" needs to be shamed at every use.