Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

typicalgirls - [TypicalGirls] Impact of Punk on Women

typicalgirls AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Typical Girls: Women in Punk/Post-Punk/Underground Music (Circa 1975-1980s)

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Sara Sherr <sara AT plainparade.org>
  • To: typicalgirls AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [TypicalGirls] Impact of Punk on Women
  • Date: Mon, 19 Sep 2005 13:28:17 -0400

This makes me think of all the things I've read about The Slits and how much they freaked mainstream society out (even more than punk men). When they were on tour with The Clash, the busdriver hated them so much that The Clash had to beg to let them back on the bus every night. And of course, there's the infamous cover shot of Cut with them naked and covered in mud. Even in America, when you think about a seemingly more conventional image of beauty like Debbie Harry, her message was always "fuck you" instead of "fuck me."

But the coolest thing about punk (at least the initial movements not macho hardcore) was that it freed up both genders to rewrite the script on conventional ideas of male and female that glam had started with men. The great undoing of the hippie generation was that with all their so-called revolutionary politics and music, their gender roles were very narrow, especially for women.

Thanks for the downloads!

typicalgirls-request AT lists.ibiblio.org wrote:


Message: 3
Date: Mon, 19 Sep 2005 00:16:28 -0400
From: "Hilary Jaeger" <jaema11 AT earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [TypicalGirls] The impact of Punk on women?
To: "Lydia Beilby" <dancethedada AT hotmail.com>,
<typicalgirls AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID: <010701c5bcd1$46f25300$416a5645 AT earthlink.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

what stands out to me is that many of the original punk girls, especially in
britain, chose to accentuate any perceived "ugliness"--with garbage bag
clothing, skinny ties, hideous (though cool) brothel creeper shoes, stark
unexpected piercings (we're not talking come hither--my belly has a fake
diamond in it) and severe eye makeup; including jagged streaks of black on
pale sometimes bad-complexioned faces that takes the step beyond what might
look attractive to a huge leap into fuck what I look like--I feel ugly and
I'm going to shove it in your face.
when in history did women do this besides punk era late 70's?
-Hilary


..

My name is Lydia and I live in Edinburgh, Scotland. I am presently writing
my University dissertation on 1970's punk, in terms of its impact on

female

members. Specifically, I'm exploring how the movement created a climate
within which women were unshackled of female stereotypes and were thus

free

to create their own, absolutelyuninhibited and individual identity. So if
anyone has anything to add that relates to the debate, I'd love to hear

from

you.

Something I'm trying hard to figure out is why were people so threatened

by

female Punks? was it simply that they feared women who would rebel against
their socially deemed roles as carers and nurturers?

Look forward to hearing your view, thanks for your time.
Lydia


------------------------------

Message: 6
Date: Mon, 19 Sep 2005 10:36:58 +0200 (CEST)
From: "LAURASALES AT telefonica.net" <LAURASALES AT telefonica.net>
Subject: Re: [TypicalGirls] The impact of Punk on women?
To: typicalgirls AT lists.ibiblio.org
Message-ID: <31774664.1127119018088.JavaMail.root@ctps5>
Content-Type: text/plain;charset="UTF-8"

Yes! I think their attempt to politicize women's appearance was very important, especially when you think about punk girls now and how they try to acritically repeat traditional models of feminine beauty.

Laura

what stands out to me is that many of the original punk girls,

especially in
britain, chose to accentuate any perceived "ugliness"--
with garbage bag
clothing, skinny ties, hideous (though cool) brothel creeper shoes, stark
unexpected piercings (we're not talking come hither--my belly has a fake
diamond in it) and severe eye makeup; including jagged streaks of black on
pale sometimes bad-complexioned faces that takes the step beyond what might
look attractive to a huge leap into fuck what I look like--I feel ugly and
I'm going to shove it in your face.
when in history did women do this besides punk era late 70's?
-Hilary





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page