Week Two: Countercultural Rock, “Sexual Liberation” & Hippie Gender Roles

From Whiteley’s perspective, “sexual liberation” in the 1960s was a term solely reserved for males, since “this commitment to personal freedom was not extended towards women who continued to be inscribed with a chauvinistic frame of reference” (Whiteley, p. 37). “Sexual liberation” therefore refers to the breaking of conservative and conventional models of sexuality within the culture established in the 1950s, which was extremely rigid and filled with taboos regarding sex beyond the means for procreation. Whiteley support of this claim is both shocking and intriguing to me in that several song lyrics from various artists during the countercultural period exhibit sexist references. For example, the Rolling Stones’ explicit reference to phallic symbols and ejaculation are among the most blunt lyrics in rock music of that period. However, didn’t we already know this? For generations we have surrounded primarily rock music around sex, starting in the 60s. After all, the slogan is “sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll” which is exactly what the 60s consisted of through a male lens.

It should also be noted that the presence of women in the 60s counterculture was rarely through the music. While The Jefferson Airplane had a female lead singer, women primarily remained in the domestic roles of the counterculture, taking care of the children born by “free love.” This further exemplifies how women during this period remained in the submissive role in the heterosexual relationship, which wasn’t very different from that of the conservative 50s model, other than being more sexually open and promiscuous. This might even be debated as being forced upon the female population, as Mick Jagger himself describes fellatio as “forced feeding,” thus “turning fellatio into an act of aggression” (p. 37).

I also find it interesting that there existed a complete opposite depiction of women during the counterculture as Mother Nature and the respect for such a figure. As we know, the counterculture prided itself of its dedication to nature and desire to go back to simpler ways, thus moving away from the industrialization and technology overwhelming society at that point in time. Because of such ideologies, the counterculture deeply respected the figure known as Mother Nature and thus women as one of the most natural creatures due to their ability to bare children. Therefore, there exists an extraordinary contradiction within the counterculture regarding the position and ideology regarding women. It seems that on a macro level, women were respected and regarded as part of the nature counterculturalists wants to revert to, but on a micro level women were nothing more than an object of pleasures for men’s “sexual liberation.”

As a result of these repressions within the counterculture, when women sought their own freedom through the “personal is political” and feminism movement, their actions came off as extremely radical. For instance, the bra-burning that supposedly took place at the Miss America Pageant is a myth. In fact, the women simply threw bras, eyelash curlers and other cosmetics into what they referred to as a “freedom trash can,” removing materials objects that were meant to subjective women as nothing more than their physical appearance, and ultimately sex objects. Because feminism came as a result of the counterculture movement, I think the feminists felt they had to take on a radical approach in order to be heard.

Week One: Introduction

As a journalism student here at DU, it’s often assumed that I want to write about politics and hard news, but that’s hardly the case. The truth is I want to be able to write about music and various music scenes within the community as well as on a national basis. As a niche of my writing, I’ve always been interested in female musicians and female bands and their specific niche within the music industry, including the type of music they make and the roles they portray as a part of the dominantly male music industry. Simply put, this class fits into everything I’d like to do with my career as a journalist.

As Whitely points out, women remain the minority in the music industry as whole even behind the scenes, which is something I had no previous knowledge of. It’s not a surprising statistic, however, considering the glass ceiling that women face in all other realms of corporate America. Also, since music has traditionally been a male dominated industry, it makes sense that women would not be accepted openly, such as in other realms such as the sciences.

Whitely also quotes Lucy O’Brien, who states, “women don’t buy music. They internalize and use music differently than men... (And) although pop’s biggest market is teenage girls, by the time they reach their twenties, this interest significantly declines.” I think this falls in line with the place of women regarding the music industry, as a temporary fixture in the lives of the female population. Music is highly influential to young girls, but their participation is only temporary in that they only fit into the music model until they leave their teenage years and are no longer targeted by music experts. This leads to the adoption of the music presented to them by their husbands and boyfriends, as Whitely suggests. If this is true, however, then why is this audience not being targeted since they are apparently open to being targeted but no longer fit into that market?

When it comes to gender bending of glam rock, Auslander states, “Arguably, glam rock was the first fully developed post-countercultural genre of rock music,” and what turned the sexual revolution 60s into the more conservative 70s. Genres such as glam rock, however, distort that vision of conservatism in the 70s as men approached female performance tactics and clothing as part of their performance persona. The sexual openness and removal of taboo in the 60s then led to the (at least somewhat) acceptance of the gender bending that artists such as David Bowie undertook throughout their performances.