I’ve been looking back at the posts I’ve written over the years on this blog and I’ve realized that there are quite a few articles on pop culture and literary movements. I mentioned a few female icons—some are my heroes. But then comes a day when I happen to read something they have said or done that doesn’t fit into the grand picture of the hero or icon which I’ve set in my mind, like these things below.
(Some) People Have the Power
In my blog article on punk and countercultures, I mentioned American punk goddess and poet Patti Smith. She was one of the first—if not the first— female punk rockers in the beginning of the New York punk scene. I was just a kid then, I first heard her songs from my older brother’s turntable. The music and lyrics blew my mind. It was poetic, inspiring, passionate–it was LOUD. I still remember the picture of an androgynous looking Smith on the cover of her first 1974 LP, Horses. Today, courtesy of Youtube, I still watch the old gigs she played in small clubs and in big stadiums. Anywhere she performed, she had such command on stage.
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| Patti Smith in Vogue, 2014 |
Around 1988, or perhaps earlier, her husband, Fred Smith (they happened to have the same sir name) who was also a musician, had the idea of writing a protest song to sing in marches. Even if you’re not a fan of Smith but into American politics, you would probably know the song People Have the Power. Before this year’s US election, Smith and old band mate Lenny Kaye busked around New York City singing the song. This song has also been sung by Springsteen, U2, Pearl Jam, and Michael Stipe (REM). It has become that rock anthem about making change; the protest song it was meant to be.
In an interview Smith described how her husband pitched the idea of the song to her one day in the kitchen. She said,
“I was peeling potatoes, and I remember I was in a bad mood because I had, you know, I was making dinner and washing the clothes and peeling potatoes. And in the middle of it, Fred came in and said, ‘Tricia, people have the power, write it.’ And I was standing there with a potato peeler thinking I’d like to have the power to make him peel these potatoes, that’s what I’d like… but I kept him.”
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| Horses album cover,1974 |
I didn’t really expect to hear something like that from Patti Smith, I always picture a rebel like her on equal terms in her relationships. But I really appreciate Smith’s honesty.
Smith was strongly
influenced by the Beat movement. Smith hanged out and read poetry with Beat
founders William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg. This takes me to another
recurring theme on my blog, the Beats and countercultures.
Watch People Have the Power Video
A Half-hearted Revolution
The influence of the Beat (dubbed the Beatniks by the media) literary movement would affect the next generations to come. However, as revolutionary as the movement may have been when it began in the late 40s, with its openness about homosexuality, it was a half-hearted revolution.
Looking back at the days, writer Joanne Kyger said,
"There was the beat chick ... they stayed in the kitchen all the time, they wore long skirts, they did everything for the boys that they possibly could, and went to bed with them very easily..."
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| Joanne Kyger (1934-2017) |
Hettie Jones referred to the Beat generation, which leading figures were Jack Kerouac, Ginsberg, and Burroughs, as “Boyland.” Like Jones who was married to writer LeRoi Jones, Beat women who were the partner of their male peer supported their Beat partner’s career. However, they were treated as sidekicks. Women were object of desire and there for the convenience of the men.
So Beat women were visible in the Beat movement but their voices remained at the periphery. Despite this fact, there were prominent Beat women who became writers in their own right, such as Jones and Kyger, others include Diane di Prima, who just passed away this year, and Joyce Johnson.
A famous quote from Jones taken from her book, Love, H is:
"We'd fled the norm for women then, because to live it would have been a kind of death.”
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| Published 2016 |
But the memoirs and books the Beat women had written to reflect on their Beat years show that they struggled to defy the norms of society even inside the movement, which many of the battles they seem to have lost.
Of course, this is not the first time that a postwar movement left women at the margins.
"I hate women writers!" - Djuna Barnes
In another postwar era article, I’ve mentioned that during the Lost Generation period, post-World War I, women writers were largely ignored in the Modernist camp and that their body of work grew into a subculture. US natives Solita Solano, Djuna Barnes, Janet Flanner, and Thelma Wood are remembered for being part of the Left Bank women writers and artists who lived the free bohemian Parisian lifestyle.
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| Solita Solano and Djuna Barnes, 1922 |
Like Beat women’s work, the work of the women of the Left Bank were often put into a collection and category. They were “women writers” or “lesbian writers” and not “writers” on par with male writers. On the other hand, rather than perceiving this as discrimination, we can understand that this category of a separate Left Bank women writers (or Beat women writers) is made because it is a subgenre of its own, due to the different perspective that it brings, its style, and its non-universality (not white heterosexual male, though still dominantly white).
However, much to my surprise and I think to many others too, Djuna Barnes was not at all happy with these categories of women writers or lesbian writers and wanted to disassociate her work from both labels. In fact, she once said, "I hate women writers!" On her relationship with Wood and her classic, Nightwood (1936), she had said “I’m not a lesbian, I just loved Thelma.” These quotes I’m sure have disappointed quite a few of her fans.
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| Djuna Barnes (1892–1982) |
In many cases, the author’s private life is what the public remembers them for rather than their work. So, in part, I can understand Barnes for not wanting her work to be mainly seen in relation to her personal life.
A Britpop Romance
I’m going to end this post by referring to my latest post, which is on Britpop, a brief UK pop culture movement in the 90s heavily criticized for being predominantly male. There I’ve discussed a couple of the female figures of the Britpop scene, one of them being Justine Frischmann of Elastica. This brings another example of how the drama of an artist’s personal life tends to outweigh their work and that equality in relationships is often compromised.
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| Justine Frischmann (in 1990s) |
As Britpop icons Brett Anderson (Suede) and Damon Albarn (Blur) were both Frischmann’s ex-lovers, her music is often associated with these high-profile men. But because that it all happened in the 90s, I was a bit surprised when she spoke about the difficulties in her relationship with Albarn which led to their break up, one being Elastica’s success in the US compared to Blur's. She admitted that,
“It’s funny because we both thought we were too evolved for classic gender roles, but looking back he thought his band more important because he was the guy. And on some level I did, too.”
In these literary movements
and countercultures that eventually turned pop culture, we see that female
icons struggle in their personal relationships because gender equality takes a
back seat in these so-called progressive movements.
Here’s to a Better Year
Deep-rooted gender inequality manifests itself into gender violence. Not surprisingly that during the lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic this year, the rate of violence against women rose around the world. Social and cultural movements play a role in advancing gender norms, but the changes are always too slow and superficial. We need to move things faster in 2021!
Here’s to a better year—cheers!
Pictures: Pinterest
Sources
Jacket Magazine (2000) Particularizing people's lives (Joanne Kyger in conversation with Linda Russo). Available at http://jacketmagazine.com/11/kyger-iv-by-russo.html [Accessed 28 December 2020].
Taylor, Julie (2017) ‘Djuna Barnes: the ‘lesbian’ writer who rejected lesbianism.’ Available at https://theconversation.com/djuna-barnes-the-lesbian-writer-who-rejected-lesbianism-78310 [Accessed 28 December 2020].
Trendell, Andrew (2017) ‘Elastica’s Justine Frischmann opens up about her split from Damon Albarn.’ NME. Available at https://www.nme.com/news/music/elasticas-justine-frischmann-opens-split-damon-albarn-2019331 [Accessed 28 December 2020].
Wills, David S. (2016) ‘Love, H: The Letters of Helene Dorn and Hettie Jones.’ Beatdom. Available at https://www.beatdom.com/love-h-letters-helene-dorn-hettie-jones/ [Accessed 28 December 2020].
WordsInTheBucket (2017) ‘People have the power — Patti Smith’
Medium. Available at https://medium.com/@wordsinthebucket.com/people-have-the-power-patti-smith-140a8bccb713 [Accessed 29 December 2020].
