Gavin
Miles McInnes (born July 17,
1970) is a British-born
Canadian and
American writer, actor, comedian, co-founder of
Vice Media and the host of
The Gavin McInnes Show on
Compound Media. He is a contributor for
The Rebel Media, and a frequent guest on television programs on
Fox News and
TheBlaze TV.
McInnes co-founded
Vice in
1994 with
Shane Smith and
Suroosh Alvi. His role as an editor at Vice led to him being referred to as "the
Godfather of hipsterdom" and one of the "primary architects of hipsterdom". He occasionally contributed articles to Vice, including The
VICE Guide to
Happiness and The VICE Guide to Picking Up
Chicks, and co-authored two Vice books:
The Vice Guide to
Sex and Drugs and
Rock and Roll, and Vice
Dos and Don'ts:
10 Years of VICE
Magazine's
Street Fashion Critiques. McInnes was featured in a
2003 New York Times article about
Vice magazine expressing his political views. In an interview in the
New York Press, McInnes said that he was pleased that most
Williamsburg hipsters are white. McInnes later claimed in a letter to Gawker that the interview was done as a prank intended to ridicule, "baby boomer media like
The Times." After he became the focus of a letter-writing campaign by a black reader, Vice apologized for McInnes's comments. In
2006, he was featured in
The Vice Guide to Travel with actor and comedian
David Cross in
China. He left Vice in
2007 due to "creative differences." In a
2013 interview with
The New Yorker, McInnes claimed his split with Vice was about the increasing influence of corporate advertising on Vice's content, stating that "Marketing and editorial being enemies had been the business plan."
McInnes later created the website StreetCarnage.com. He also co-founded an advertising agency called
Rooster where he serves as creative director. He writes for the web magazine
Taki's Magazine, and TruthRevolt and once wrote for
Death and Taxes,
The Federalist, and
VDARE.
In 2013, McInnes starred in the independent film
How to Be a Man, which premiered at
Sundance Next Weekend. He has also played supporting roles in other films including
2010's
Soul Quest Overdrive and
2015's
Creative Control and
One More Time.
In
October 2013, McInnes was interviewed by
The Huffington Post on a panel about masculinity. He said that "people would be happier if women would stop pretending to be men", and that feminism "has made women less happy". He explained that "We’ve trivialized childbirth and being domestic so much that women are forced to pretend to be men. They’re feigning this toughness, they’re miserable." A heated argument ensued with
University of Miami law professor
Mary Anne Franks.
In
August 2014, McInnes was asked to take an indefinite leave of absence as chief creative officer of Rooster, following online publication at
Thought Catalog of an essay about transphobia entitled "
Transphobia is Perfectly
Natural" that sparked a call to boycott the company. In response, Rooster issued a statement, saying in part: "
We are extremely disappointed with his actions and have asked that he take a leave of absence while we determine the most appropriate course of action." McInnes defended the article by saying "All I was saying was transsexuals have a huge suicide rate," and calling the reaction "fake hysteria."
In June
2015, Anthony Cumia announced that McInnes will be hosting a show on his network, therefore retiring the
Free Speech podcast. The Gavin McInnes Show premiered on Compound Media on June 15 and airs Monday through Thursday at 10:30 A.M
EST.
McInnes is a contributor to Canadian conservative portal The Rebel Media and a regular on Fox News'
Red Eye, The
Greg Gutfield
Show, and
The Sean Hannity Show.
- published: 15 Jun 2016
- views: 9