Recap: why am I a controversial composer?

In New Zealand, at least. My reputation overseas is probably much more solid, as they hear the pieces and probably get a minimal amount of the drama unless they're keen on my films as well and saw The Dakumentary. The main reason, in various guises, is my political activism. Advocating for weed got me in hot water with the classical establishment - who largely aren't druggies - and advocating in support of Rawiri's funding goals for Te Matatini, while simultaneously presenting my own policy idea that the NZSO should be disbanded, didn't help much. The boycotts also fall under that heading. Boulez said far more provocative things when he was a Young Turk, like that we should blow up all the opera houses, but by the time that I grew up, Boulez was a revered figure. I'd hate to be respectable, though, as my druggie hippie mates are my main support network. The second reason is calling out my (former) best friend for indecently assaulting me when I came out as Amanda to him. Everyone took his side, though they're backpedalling now that I've written Pan's Preludes and their bullshit is preventing the premiere that they think they need to demonstrate their wokeness. The third reason is the subject matter. Sexy song cycles and political rock songs are generally something that classical people embrace after the death of the author. - Not just that, but my music is tuneful, rhythmically interesting and (worst of all) has a popular following that is largely full of regular people, not PhD candidates. To my peer group in contemporary classical, that's a cardinal sin. They're all baffled at how I'm able to get the large numbers of views/listens - very few of which are on Spotify - that RP was able to manage, but it's not hard: I intended to write accessible music, so I did. In our world, a thousand views is a hell of a lot. Same in musicals btw, so those multiple thousands that The Knight On My Couch racked up are genuinely impressive, even though Stephen's Know single was far more successful.