Gary Holt Is Selling Stupid Shirts Based on a Misogynist Hoax

August 12, 2019

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Or, how a world-famous metal musician makes a few bucks from a rape joke that began a years-long MRA harassment campaign.

Gary Holt, the famed Exodus guitarist and Jeff Hanneman’s replacement in Slayer, should probably quit fucking around on Instagram. This is advice his entire team could likely use, from Slayer’s wildly offensive Insta posts to Sandra Araya’s deranged MAGA posting. It appears that Holt, as Slayer nears the end of their “farewell” tour, is attempting to open up a new revenue stream by hawking t-shirts from his personal account. Rather than monetizing his name or musical reputation, he’s instead, bafflingly, decided to sell edgy bullshit.

Under the banner of “Officer Holt”, a heartfelt tribute to police officers, you can get on the cutting edge of 2007 by purchasing a “Kill the Kardashians” shirt. Or a “NO LIVES MATTER” shirt (an illuminating reference to his police-loving brand and the anti-police brutality cause of the Black Lives Matter movement). But his latest creation is a real fuckin’ doozy.

If you like, you can go over to Gary’s eBay store and purchase one for $25-35 (plus $7.50 for shipping). I have no idea why you would want a shirt that says “RAPIST” on the front in bold letters but I’m not your parent so I can’t stop you from looking like an asshole. I clicked through Gary’s Instagram post to get some more info on why he chose to print this awful thing. Take a look for yourself.

Gary very helpfully notes that, “Rape is no laughing matter, in any way for sure”, before proceeding to sell t-shirts emblazoned with a rape joke. Gary also notes in his sales pitch, “I am NOT ANTI FEMINISM IN ANY WAY!!” not unlike your drunken uncle bleating out an, “NOW I’M NOT RACIST BUT” before farting all over the Thanksgiving turkey. It’s is an insanely stupid t-shirt. But that’s not why I decided to write this piece.

The point of Gary’s shirt is to poke fun at a feminist and her supposed theory around flatulence and male dominance. It sounds patently absurd, right? Because I am not a boomer that treats every image macro I see on the Internet as The Truth, I decided to do some digging. What I found was both infuriating and utterly predictable.

In my research I can find no evidence of anyone named Ashleigh Ingle ever making the statement Gary Holt references. The origin of the quote comes from a very short-lived anti-feminist WordPress blog called The Water Pipe way back in 2013. It featured no attribution, aside from a link to the physical address of the university that Ashleigh Ingle was associated with. It has been pushed extensively around myriad hives of online right wing nonsense including MRA forums, climate change deniers, and the Joe Rogan podcast sub-Reddit. It has been shared endlessly among misogynist circles over the last six years.

The false quote is a meme-able bundle of nonsense, created to stir up misogynists, target a woman working to make the world a more equitable place, and discredit the cause of feminism. But why did this happen? Back in 2013, a time you may recall, the internet was rife with men’s rights activists pushing #gamergate and making the world a generally worse place. Ashleigh Ingle, or someone credited as her, was covertly recorded speaking at the University of Toronto in an informal meeting with colleagues, warning of the rise of these MRA’s. Through a series of blogs, YouTube videos, and 4chan posts, this woman became vilified among online misogynists. The meme was created and it lives on today, a blistering indictment of feminism that never, ever happened. The MRA’s have disbanded their banner, a now superfluous cause that tidily fits into the right wing grievance culture of MAGA.

And now, in 2019, you have a middle-aged metal musician, an outspoken Democrat, spreading anti-feminist propaganda to make a few extra bucks. Gary Holt is continuing a proud chud tradition of harassing a woman online with the promise of making upwards of one hundred dollars. All it takes is putting your name right next to the word RAPIST.