Intersecting Realities: How Matty Healy’s Malaysia Incident Mirrors the ‘White Savior’ Issue in Development Aid

SimpleJoy
3 min readJul 26, 2023
Matty Healey, 1975
Source: BBC, Getty Image

In our globally connected world, parallels can be drawn between the most unlikely sectors. This was what I noticed when I read about the recent incident involving Matty Healy, the lead singer of the British band The 1975, during a concert in Malaysia. Healy protested against Malaysia’s anti-LGBT laws by kissing a male bandmate on stage.

His act of defiance was met with immediate backlash: the concert was abruptly ended, the entire music festival was canceled, and upcoming performances in Jakarta and Taipei were scrapped.

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SimpleJoy

Mother & aid practitioner 🌏 | Exploring cultural bridges 🌐, aid industry insights 🔍, and cherishing life's simple pleasures 🌸