Chris Taylor Brown has taken to YouTube to clarify his views on underage sexual encounters between teenage boys and adult women. In late 2020, Brown’s tweets on the subject of a 15-year-old having sex with his 24- or 25-year-old teacher resulted in Trapt’s Twitter account getting suspended.

Brown discussed the controversy in a segment he shot for Trapt’s YouTube channel. In a video called Wikipedia: Fact or Fiction (sounds like that’d be an awesome YouTube series) the singer jumped right into the subject of statutory rape.

“Did I defend statutory rape?” Brown begins, referencing a Loudwire article. “No, I have not defended anybody engaged in any illegal activity, ever. Do I think there’s a double standard between how men need to treat women versus the other way around? I do. I think size, strength has a lot to do with it, aggression. Men have been told a lot the last few years that we can be intimidating and that we should hold each other accountable in how we treat women. I don’t think any good dude has a problem with that.”

“Somebody was making the example that female high school teachers preying on their male students came up to show [that] women can be just as bad. Let me say, I would never excuse the actions of a teacher preying on a student, no matter what sex they are. I never have, I never will. I’ve always maintained that teacher would be judged by a jury of their peers and should expect whatever punishment that jury or judge feels is appropriate. I’ve never said anything to the contrary.”

“What I did do is make a joke in bad taste," Brown adds. "Answering the question, ‘Well, what if it was your kid, your 15-year-old?’ In the spirit of ‘Too Hot for Teacher,’ I said, ‘Oh, I’d high-five him.’ It was a total joke. It was meant to have fun with the other person, trigger them a little bit … I shouldn’t have made that joke. I would never do that in real life.”

For reference, you can view multiple screenshots of Brown’s tweets below, along with a Facebook post from 2014 where he questions the same subject:

Twitter
Twitter
loading...
Twitter
Twitter
loading...
Twitter
Twitter
loading...
Twitter
Twitter
loading...
Twitter
Twitter
loading...
Twitter
Twitter
loading...
Twitter
Twitter
loading...
Twitter
Twitter
loading...
Twitter
Twitter
loading...
Facebook: Trapt
Facebook: Trapt
loading...

After speaking of famous rock songs that deal in age disparities and the idea that society has seen a double standard for a long time, Brown spoke about the post that got Trapt’s Facebook and Instagram accounts suspended. The post depicts a Proud Boy in a Fred Perry shirt, carrying Lady Liberty in his arms, with the caption, “Don’t Worry Girl We Got You.”

“We do!” Brown wrote. “POYB! (Proud of Your Boy).”

Facebook
Facebook
loading...

“It was a meme,” Brown says. “Of a group that Facebook doesn’t like and they don’t want you to say the name. They told me not to say the name and I didn’t. It was a patriotic meme … I thought it was pretty harmless, but people complained and said that it was hateful. I don’t know what’s hateful about the statement, ‘I got you girl,’ and caring about liberty and freedom of all that, but I think Facebook just didn’t like the things I was saying.”

“I tried to respect the rules and they said that I posted hate,” Brown elaborates. “I don’t know how they can just decide that things that I say are hateful. I think it was a blessing in disguise. I think all of us can do with some time off Facebook or Twitter or social media, fighting for what we believe in. I know I’ve benefitted greatly, just going through a lot of emotion last year, and then having a lot of time on my hands all of a sudden because I’m not engaging online with people, pushing what I care about.”

Trapt's Chris Taylor Brown Addresses Twitter and Facebook Bans

The 66 Best Hard Rock Songs of the 21st Century

More From KFMX FM