Content Stats & Analytics for @billmulleninc

Bill Mullen
@billmulleninc

30,597 followers

#DearDiary, Part 1. In social media news, I’m pleased to announce that Richie Stotts has friended me on Facebook. The Plasmatics guitarist does not follow me yet on Instagram, but I’m working on it. I saw Richie Stotts and the Plasmatics for the first time in an amazing Allan Tannenbaum photograph in an Us Magazine, either late 1979 or early 1980. I was definitely in the 9th grade, and, of course, the image was rightfully all about superstar Wendy O. Williams’ undeniable rockstar/pornstar presence, although it must be said that Mr. Stotts was not un-stealing the show in his black velvet and white lace French maid’s getup. His look, as always, was major. I was thinking about the Plasmatics as a fashion tribe, as a particular approach to life made evident to all through aggressive and well thought out style choices. Punk metal misfit toys. Methadone clinic Pirates Of the Caribbean. A John Galliano runway show in Hell. I mean this in the best possible way. My shrink asked me—while analyzing my childhood “differentness” and trying to understand why it took me so long to come out—if there were any positive examples of homosexuality around me growing up. I responded that I never once saw anything gay on the army bases where I lived, contrary to what military themed internet porn would have one believe. “Different” was never not negative where I’m from. I watch and marvel at the benevolent networks of woke weirdos on shows like Sex Education and the Born This Way empowerment being celebrated that are antithetical to my own high school experience. In the 9th Grade, I’d get off the bus every morning before the school doors were unlocked. Since I was “just not fitting in,” there would be nobody for me to wait for the bell to ring with. Or sit with at lunch. Even though I was attempting to blend in for survival in my Miller’s Outpost OP t-shirts and Levi’s cords, I knew my classmates could sense my otherness. Not just the jocks and stoners, but the nerds too. Back then, even the nerds were still exclusively cis het. All geek, no freak. To be continued… #TrueConfessions by #BillMullen