Week Three: Rockin’ in a Hard Place: Janis Joplin & the Female Rock Star

Although I’ve never been very interested in Janis Joplin, Jerry Rodnitzky’s “Janis Joplin: The Hippie Blues Singer as Feminist Heroine” introduced Joplin in a different light outside of the 60s counterculture. In a decidedly inherently sexist rock culture of the time, Joplin search for her own identity as an un-proclaimed feminist is interesting. Even though Joplin spoke out against the feminist movement in instances, her actions and demeanor throughout her performance and music tell a different story. While she sexualized her performances through her dance moves and using her body as an object of attention, she denounced herself as “just another one of the guys” through her style of dress and as a child of nature without the chemical and manicured upkeep of her appearance. She also used drugs and alcohol heavily, which followed suit with the countercultural ideology. Instead of being another “groovy hippie chick” and making herself available for sexual relations to men, Joplin developed herself as the dominant role in the relationships she held as having the most prominent say in her own sexual exploitations. In sum, she was one of the girls off Sex and the City for the 1960s.

While Joplin’s sexuality continued to shock audiences, as a bisexual in particular, we asked the question in class: why is it that the music we gravitate towards during this time period inherently sexist? I think this is certainly true and none the less interesting. While this was the time of “sexual liberation,” it’s important to realize that the sexual liberation that we see is that of men. For instance, men are allowed to have sex with as many women as they want and whenever they want, binging about this concept of free love. Women on the other hand remain in the oppressed role as being required to be available for the sexual needs of men, become pregnant and give birth (which is seen as very natural and women are adored for this), and care for the children that are ultimately the products of free love. Because of such inequities, rock music naturally takes on a sexist tone at this time referring to women in their sexually oppressed roles. Namely the Rolling Stones take advantage of such circumstances and literally feed the audience what they want to hear. In other words, if the social climate of the 60s is that of using women as sexual objects of pleasure, why would the music is that time not reflect such ideologies when the music reflects every other aspect of the ideology including rebellion, love and individualism?

At the time people in the counterculture gravitated towards this music because it fueled their ideologies and beliefs at the time. Now this music does nothing more than remind us of an inherently sexist time period where women were sexual objects (more so than they are today) for the rampant use of free love and the sexual revolution. Beyond this, musicians of the day made the music catchy and highly likable to wide audiences, which explains its lasting influence on contemporary musicians and audiences.