PAGE 1 Jennifer Gosa History 406 Professor Nobiletti Wed. at 4:00 November 22, 2004 The Zuni Lhamana: Beyond a Dualistic Framework of Gender The Zuni are one of the most studied Native American tribes in the United States. There is an old joke that a typical Zuni family consisted of a father, a mother, the children, and an anthropologist! This vast legacy of anthropological data has left a very clear picture of Zuni society, customs, religion, and of course, sexuality. The Zuni, as were many other Native American tribes, was a sex positive society, with no shame about their bodies and almost no sex taboos, save incest. In comparison with western views, the Zuni were tolerant and understanding about sexuality and gender roles. This tolerance allowed the formation of a third gender, in which anatomical males who preferred the female gender role would simply begin dressing as a woman, doing a woman’s jobs, and having sex with men. Whereas western society would classify this person as a transvestite and/or a homosexual and typically marginalize him, the Zuni society had a socially established role for him. Anthropologists have called this group of people, berdache, third gender , women-men , and two-spirit , among other names. All mean essentially the same thing so in this paper, the members of the Zuni third category of gender will be referred to using the Zuni word, lhamana. Lhamana specifically refers to men who take the female gender role, and not females who take the male gender role. This was a very rare occurrence and did not have the social acceptance or role as the lhamana, and will be left out of this paper. I will also leave out discussion of We’wha, the most famous lhamana, because new evidence has recently come to light that her predominant role in Zuni society was due more to an ambitious and domineering personality, and not because of her status as a lhamana. She was an exception to the rule and placing undue emphasis on her would taint the accuracy of this study of the third gender as a whole. The focus of this study is to explain what aspects of Zuni society promoted acceptance of gender variation and the establishment of alternative gender roles, focusing primarily on creation myths, economic roles, sexual and family life, and religion. The origins of acceptance of the lhamana are found in the Zuni creation myths. On the ancient Zuni journey to find their home, a brother and a sister were chosen to lead the people. At night, the brother forced his sleeping sister to have sex with her, impregnating her. The next morning she gave birth to ten children. The last nine were infertile. The first one was a combination of male and female parts. As the legend says, “from the mingling of too much seed in one kind, comes the two-fold one-kind. This god’s name was Kolhamana. The Zuni continue to try to find their home, until they meet a hostile group of gods, led by Cha’kwen ‘Oka (or the Warrior Woman). Cha’kwen ‘Oka c.

1. PAGE
1
Jennifer Gosa
History 406
Professor Nobiletti
Wed. at 4:00
November 22, 2004
The Zuni Lhamana: Beyond a Dualistic Framework of Gender
The Zuni are one of the most studied Native American tribes in
the United States. There is an old joke that a typical Zuni
family consisted of a father, a mother, the children, and an
anthropologist!
This vast legacy of anthropological data has left a very clear
picture of Zuni society, customs, religion, and of course,
sexuality. The Zuni, as were many other Native American
tribes, was a sex positive society, with no shame about their
bodies and almost no sex taboos, save incest. In comparison
with western views, the Zuni were tolerant and understanding
about sexuality and gender roles. This tolerance allowed the
formation of a third gender, in which anatomical males who
preferred the female gender role would simply begin dressing as
a woman, doing a woman’s jobs, and having sex with men.
Whereas western society would classify this person as a
transvestite and/or a homosexual and typically marginalize him,
the Zuni society had a socially established role for him.

2. Anthropologists have called this group of people, berdache,
third gender
, women-men
, and two-spirit
, among other names. All mean essentially the same thing so in
this paper, the members of the Zuni third category of gender
will be referred to using the Zuni word, lhamana. Lhamana
specifically refers to men who take the female gender role, and
not females who take the male gender role. This was a very rare
occurrence and did not have the social acceptance or role as the
lhamana, and will be left out of this paper. I will also leave out
discussion of We’wha, the most famous lhamana, because new
evidence has recently come to light that her predominant role in
Zuni society was due more to an ambitious and domineering
personality, and not because of her status as a lhamana.
She was an exception to the rule and placing undue emphasis
on her would taint the accuracy of this study of the third gender
as a whole. The focus of this study is to explain what aspects of
Zuni society promoted acceptance of gender variation and the
establishment of alternative gender roles, focusing primarily on
creation myths, economic roles, sexual and family life, and
religion.
The origins of acceptance of the lhamana are found in the Zuni
creation myths. On the ancient Zuni journey to find their home,
a brother and a sister were chosen to lead the people. At night,
the brother forced his sleeping sister to have sex with her,
impregnating her. The next morning she gave birth to ten
children. The last nine were infertile. The first one was a
combination of male and female parts. As the legend says,
“from the mingling of too much seed in one kind, comes the
two-fold one-kind.
This god’s name was Kolhamana. The Zuni continue to try to
find their home, until they meet a hostile group of gods, led by

3. Cha’kwen ‘Oka (or the Warrior Woman).
Cha’kwen ‘Oka captures Kolhamana and two other gods.
Kolhamana is angry and violent, two of the worst character
traits in a Zuni society that valued calmness above all else. In
retaliation Cha’kwen ‘Oka dresses him up in women’s clothes to
calm him down and bring him back to his normal self. This
explains the cross-dressing aspect of the lhamana. From the
very beginning, lhamana had a social and spiritual role to play
in Zuni society. Perhaps the true effect of this creation story
cannot truly be appreciated without comparing it to the western
creation myth of Adam and Eve which fostered the ideas of two
genders and sexes, sinful women, patriarchy, and heterosexual
unions. In contrast, the Zuni myths led to gender tolerance and
variation, gender equality and a matriarchal society.
Because of these myths, the Zuni concept of gender developed
on a radically different track from that of the western world.
Gender was never seen as inborn or even really connected with
the physical body. As Will Roscoe says, “Gender was
established by specific ritual experiences and encounters with
gender specific symbols….One’s identity as a Zuni could never
be reduced to a fixed gender.”
Typically, future lhamana were picked out at an early age by
their families because of their preference for female tasks, such
as pottery and weaving. The young boys were allowed to do as
they pleased, and often began wearing variants of girls clothing
as early as five or six. For example, a young boy might have
worn a shirt and pants, but the shirt might have been long
enough to be called a dress. Since his future gender role was
still uncertain, blended gender characteristics showed this. If at
any point, up until puberty, the boy changed his mind, he was
allowed to drop the female gender role and retake his male
gender role. However, at puberty, the boy had to make a final

4. decision to “become” female or remain male. If he chose to
become female, he was required to put on women’s clothes.
That was the symbol that he was a lhamana in the economic,
religious, and sexual life of the tribe.
Many families actively welcomed lhamana’s and celebrated
their child’s decision to appropriate the female gender role.
This was especially true among the female members of the
family, as the lhamana would be an extra, unexpected set of
hands. Lhamana were valued in the household because of their
ability and willingness to work extremely hard. Their male
strength enabled them to carry the most, plant the most, and in
some cases, do the women’s work better than the women. They
were especially renowned for their skills as potters and
weavers. However, the one woman’s job that the lhamana did
not help with was child-rearing, for obvious reasons. This added
to their economic value, as they never had to take time off for
menstruation, pregnancy, or care of young children. For
example, anthropologist Mathilda Coxe Stevenson noted in the
1890’s that a lhamana and his male partner were the richest
couple in the pueblo, and the hardest working.
The sexuality of the lhamanas took on as many forms as their
heterosexual counterparts. In general, lhamana had sexual
relations only with a member of the same biological sex, but
never with another lhamana. Lhamana’s nearly always took the
passive (womanly) role in sex. However, the men that had sex
with lhamana’s were not viewed as homosexuals, as many had
wives and children as well. The tribe did view homosexual sex
as different than heterosexual sex, but only because there was
no possibility for procreation, and not because both participants
were biologically male. In fact, many men enjoyed sex with
lhamana’s for just that reason, and would partake when their
wives were pregnant or menstruating. It is interesting to note

5. that while most lhamanas were viewed as homosexuals, this was
not so of all men who slept with lhamanas. There was a cultural
acceptance of what the west would call bisexuality, but that
they perhaps though of as, “if it feels good, do it.”
Lhamanas formed emotional relationships with men as well.
Some would “date” many men at a time while others formed
lifelong partnerships. Some even got officially married and
separated as well.
Those that did not marry lived in their parents or sisters
houses. They were never outcasts, and were often very popular
sexual and emotional partners within the tribe. In writing about
a young lhamana who was very popular with the boys,
anthropologist Omer Stewart wrote in 1939, “The Indian
governor of Zuni and other members of the community seemed
to accept the berdache without criticism, although there was
some joking and laughing about his ability to attract the young
men to his home.”
Lhamana’s also had a very special role to play in the religious
life of the Zuni. They were seen as mediators between the male
and female worlds, as well as between the physical and the
spiritual worlds. This was shown during the ceremony that
celebrated the creation myth. A lhamana always played the role
of Kolhamana, which was a revered part of the festival and the
myth itself.
The myths created a third gender and the celebration of those
myths continued to reinforce the existence of the third gender
among the Zuni.
The economic, sexual, and religious roles that the lhamana
filled were all clear cut and well defined. The question remains

6. of whether they were seen as women or as men by their tribe.
Will Roscoe answers this question when he says “neither.”
The lhamana were really a third option among the Zuni, a
concept so far beyond the binary system that westerners are
comfortable with that many cannot understand how this could
be. To the Zuni, there was a fully developed third gender status
and role that could and was played. This role involved a
meshing of the traditional male and female sectors, and not a
complete domination of one over the other. In fact, the only
constant gender trait that the lhamana had to show was their
dress; after puberty, they had to remain dressed as women.
Other than that, everything else was changeable and blendable.
In an 1881 census, a famous lhamana’s self given occupation
was listed as “farmer, weaver, potter, and housekeeper.
The first two are male occupations and the second two are
female occupations. Some male lhamanas adopted female names
while others kept their male names. Some were referred to as
sons and brothers, while others were referred to as sisters and
daughters.
After death, lhamana were buried in women’s clothes, but with
men’s pants on. They were buried on the men’s side of the
graveyard as well. To the Zuni, a lhamana never changed their
sex; they changed only their gender role. In answer to an
anthropologists question about whether a lhamana was a man or
a woman, a young Zuni replied, “she is a man.”
While this designation was entirely perplexing to the
anthropologist, it was completely unproblematic for the Zuni
tribe.
Unfortunately, along with many other aspects of the Native
American lifestyle, their enlightened views on sexuality were
forcibly transformed into ones that better conformed to the
white man’s standards. Spanish settlers blanketly referred to
lhamana’s as sodomites and continually tried to end the
practice, as did any other westerner who discovered them.

7. Gradually, the lhamana went underground so to speak. In the
1920’s the education of Zuni children became the responsibility
of the state which taught them western morality. Future lhamana
were forced to wear boy’s clothes and do boy’s jobs. Zuni men
came back from World War II with a westerner’s negative view
of homosexuality.
The process of cross-dressing which had been the definitive
mark of a lhamana faded out of practice beginning with the
generation after World War II. Without the dress, the lhamana
lost the most visible sign of his third gender status. The line
between lhamana and homosexual blurred and then disappeared.
Today, many Zuni know what homosexuality is, but are not
familiar with the lhamana concept. The Zuni’s increasing
contact with the white world ended the centuries old social role
of the third gender. The binary system won.
However, the lhamana teach several very important lessons.
Gender really is a socially constructed concept, and not
biologically hard wired. When a third option was available,
many men took the opportunity to blend their biological role
with a more satisfying female social role. A dualistic framework
is not the only one available. Without a concept of gender
blending, the only options available are completely one or
completely the other.
This framework leaves out many people. It is sad that in
western society, the notion that there are only two genders is so
implanted that those who feel like their bodies are the wrong
sex will go through elaborate, costly and dangerous surgeries
simply to be able to enact the gender role their brains tell them
is right. In Zuni society, nobody was barred from achieving
their full potential because of gender role choice. Nobody was
marginalized and everybody had a place that they and those
around them believed to be right. Western society could learn a
lot from the Zuni and their flexible sexual framework.

8. � Nikolaus Merrell, review of The Zuni Man-Woman, by
Will Roscoe, Lambda Book Report 2.11 (August 1991): 24.
� Will Roscoe, Changing Ones: Third and Fourth Genders
in Native North America (New York:
St. Martin’s Press, 1998), 2.
� Sabine Lang, Men as Women, Women as Men: Changing
Gender in Native North American Cultures (Austin, TX:
University of Texas Press, 1998), 3.
� Sue-Ellen Jacobs, Wesley Thomas, and Sabine Lang.
Two-Spirit People: Native American Gender Identity, Sexuality,
and Spirituality, (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1997), 2
� Lang, Men as Women, Women as Men, 219.
� Will Roscoe, The Zuni Man-Woman, (Albuquerque NM:
University of New Mexico Press, 1991), 151.
� Ibid., 144.
� Walter C. Williams, The Spirit and the Flesh: Sexual
Diversity in American Indian Culture, (Boston: Beacon Press,
1986), 114.

9. � Roscoe, Changing Ones, 9.
� Williams, The Spirit and the Flesh, 100.
� Arnold R. Pilling, “Cross-Dressing and Shamanism
among selected Western North American Tribes,” in Two Spirit
People: Native American Gender Identity, Sexuality, and
Spirituality, ed. Sue-Ellen Jacobs, Wesley Thomas, and Sabine
Lang (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1997), 70.
� Roscoe, The Zuni Man-Woman, 145.
� Roscoe, The Zuni Man-Woman, 126.
� Roscoe, The Zuni Man-Woman, 121.
� Roscoe, Changing Ones, 111.
� Williams, The Spirit and the Flesh, 201.
� Lang, Men as Women, Women as Men, 8.

10. Bibliography

11. Jacobs, Sue-Ellen, Wesley Thomas, and Sabine Lang. Two-
Spirit People: Native American Gender Identity, Sexuality,
and Spirituality. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1997.
Kallendar, Charles and Lee M. Kochems. “The North American
Berdache.” Current Anthropology
24.4 (August 1983), pg. 443-470.
Lang, Sabine. Men as Women, Women as Men: Changing
Gender in Native North American
Cultures. Austin, TX; University of Texas Press, 1998.
McFeely, Eliza. Zuni and the American Imagination. New York:
Hill and Wang, 2001.
Merrell, Nikolaus. Review of the Zuni Man-Woman, by Will
Roscoe. Lambda Book Report 2.11
(August 1991), pg. 24-26.

12. Pilling, Arnold R. “Cross-Dressing and Shamanism among
selected Western North American
Tribes.” In Two-Spirit People: Native American Gender
Identity, Sexuality, and Spirituality,
ed. Sue-Ellen Jacobs, Wesley Thomas, and Sabine Lang,
69-99. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1997.
Roscoe, Will. Changing Ones: Third and Fourth Genders in
Native North America. New York:
St. Martin’s Press, 1998.
________The Zuni Man-Woman. Albuquerque, N.M.:
University of New Mexico Press, 1991.
Williams, Walter L. The Spirit and the Flesh: Sexual Diversity
in American Indian Culture. Boston:
Beacon Press, 1986.

13. u.s. Constitution:
s" Amendment
14th Amendment (excerpt)
California Constitution:
Article 1
Declaration of Rights
(excerpt)
31
s- Amendment to U.S. Constitution:
No person shall be held to answer lor a capital. or otherwise
infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a
Grand Jury, except
in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia,
when in actual
service in time of War or public danger: nor shall any person be
subject for the
same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor
shall be compelled in
any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be

14. deprived
of life, liberty, or property, without due
process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public
use,
without just compensation.
The 14th Amendment
to the U.S. Constitution (ratified 1868)
Section 1.
An persons bom or naluralll.ed in the United Slales, and subject
to the jurlsdiclkJn thereof, are citizens (lIthe Un~ed
Stales and of the slate wherein tlley reside. No slate shall make
or enforce any law which shan abridge the privileges or
lmmun~ies of eeuere of.he United Stales;
nor shall any state deprive any
person of life, liberty, or property,
without due process of law;
nor deny to any person within its
jurisdiction the equal protection of the
laws.

15. CALIFORNIA CONSTITUTION (excerpts)
ARTICLE 1 DECLARATION OF RIGHTS
SECTION 1. All people are by nature free and independent and
have
inalienable rights. Among these are enjoying and defending life
and
liberty, acquiring, possessing, and protecting property, and
pursuing
and obtaining safety, happiness, and privacy.
SEC. 7. (a) A person may not be deprived of life, liberty, or
property without due process of law or denied equal protection
of the
laws; provided, that nothing contained herein or elsewhere in
this
Constitution imposes upon the State of California or any public
entity, board, or official any obligations or responsibilities
which
exceed those imposed by the Equal Protection Clause of the
14th
Amendment to the United States Constitution with respect to the
use

16. of pupil school assignment or pupil transportation.
(b) A citizen or class of citizens may not be granted privileges
or immunities not granted on the same terms to all citizens.
Privileges or immunities granted by the Legislature may be
altered or
revoked.
34
PRIDE, PREJUDICE AND PANCAKE MAKEUP
Bridging the Gap With Our Trans Brothers and Sisters
by
Melinda L. Harris
Revised 2-08
Okay, Queers and Dears, lend me your ears – do I have a topic
for you to ruminate on today! Even though we’re all part of a
community - a diverse, thriving community to be sure, how
many of us who fall into the categories of gay, lesbian, or
bisexual truly ever wonders what it would be like to live as a
transgender man or woman for a day?
Would you expect only the garden-variety stares and rude
whispers from the married-with-an-SUV-and-2.5-kids couples,
or perhaps a nasty remark or two from groups of testosterone-
driven teenagers marauding through the mall? Well, I’ve got
news for you. We, the G/L/Bs of the GLBT, have some serious

17. soul-searching to do right now, along with our straight brothers
and sisters.
Being the spouse of a transgender male-to-female, I can give
you some interesting (sometimes humorous, sometimes sad)
accounts of how Joselyn and I get treated in the straight
world…that’s the easy part. Here’s one for the books:
Christmas, 2004. We pick up my mother and my stepfather
from the airport. They are famished, so we head towards the
nearest Italian chain restaurant we can find. (Probably our first
mistake, but when you’re miles away from the fine dining of
Hillcrest, what’s a girl to do?) We order our drinks, and
attempt to make small talk with my mother and her increasingly
speechless husband. Joselyn is dressed rather conservatively
for the occasion, but I am my usual outrageous self, donning a
loud chiffon blouse and sporting my brand-new hair color.
Something I call “Cherry Bomb.” Make no mistake - Iam
definitely the flamboyant half of this relationship, but you
wouldn’t know it by the reactions we glean in public.
The minute we walk in the door, all eyes are upon Joselyn, and
conversations seem to come to an almost deafening silence. My
mom and her husband (whom I’ll call “Dick,” to protect the
identity of the guilty) quickly find two seats at the end of the
table, as far away from the object of everyone’s attention as
they could possibly get and still be considered a party of four.
At some point during dinner, I notice my stepfather’s head is
practically in his plate, like he had discovered some new china
pattern he’d never seen before. I ignore him (as I usually do)
and continue chatting with my mother and Joselyn.

18. Fast-forward, two months later. My mother isn’t speaking to
me! I hear, through
the family grapevine I’ve dubbed “radio-free California,” that
Joselyn committed the unforgivable sin of touching up her face
powder as we were waiting for our car to be
brought around. The audacity – oh, the humanity! Hide the
children – Joselyn is busy powdering her nose!
“Pancake makeup!” my mother hollered into the phone,
practically in tears.
“What’s the big deal?” I bellowed back. “I open a compact and
apply lipstick all the time, and no one’s ever stopped speaking
to me because of it!”
“That’s different,” my mother said. “You’re a woman, and Joss
just does things like that to shock and humiliate us! It’s
so…inappropriate!” she wails. “Dick was so embarrassed that
he couldn’t even look up from his plate for the rest of the
evening!”
“So that’s what his problem was, I thought. Well, let the little
pinhead
be embarrassed – that way no one has to look at his smarmy
face all through dinner…”
I was bewildered, incredulous, and just plain pissed off by this
revelation.

19. When Joselyn got home from work that day, I couldn’t wait to
tell her what had been keeping Mom mum all these weeks. We
just assumed she didn’t like her Christmas presents.
“Pancake makeup?” she cries, bracelets and rings clinging and
clanging about as she pulled her long hair into a twist.
“Pancake makeup…did your mother really say that?! Does she
have any idea what pancake makeup really is? Your mother is
so…I’m…oh, this is so infuriating! You tell her that I’ve never
worn pancake makeup in my life!”
My eyes were as big as quarters after seeing Joselyn fly into
such a tirade. We can now look back at this and laugh
ourselves silly. It became, as author and radio-talk-show-host
Charles “Karel” Bouley says, one of our “Big Gay Moments.”
Some of these moments can be endearing as well. Joselyn, who
is a nurse, was once cornered by a shy, sick little boy. He
looked up at her with his big brown eyes and said, “Are you a
boy or a girl?”
“What do you think I am, dear?” she asked.
“Well,” the little fellow replied, “you are pretty like a girl, but
you sound like a boy to me.” Folks, it just doesn’t get any cuter
than that. From the mouths of babes come the absolute truth
(or, sometimes, things their parents should’ve never said in the
first place).

20. On a more serious note, however, I would like to take a moment
to talk about the
ongoing rift in the GLBT community regarding how some of us
perceive our transgender brothers and sisters, and the
responsibility we have in ensuring their safety and acceptance
within the gay community.
Be honest for a moment. Remember how long it took for those
of us in the gay/lesbian community to accept bisexuals as a
viable part of the queer community? How many of us out there
have secretly (or not-so-secretly) made trans men and women
the new “fence sitters” of the community, either by outright
exclusion or more subtle forms of discrimination?
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to honestly feel
that Mother Nature screwed up and you’re living in the wrong
body? Or do you look at transgender
and/or transsexual individuals as merely the “entertainment”
portion of the gay community?
This is an attitude easily adopted by both gays and straights
alike during annual Pride Fests, where scores of drag queens are
out in full regalia, often dressed in what some would consider
over-the-top hairdos, dresses, and makeup designed to draw
attention (whether positive or negative) towards their outward
appearance only. Predictably, many straight folks are both
fascinated and appalled by drag queens. Some gays and
lesbians embrace them fully; others wish they’d just go away.
But what lies beneath the surface, you ask? Should drag queens

21. and cross dressers be considered part of the transgender crowd,
or do they deserve their own moniker as well? Perhaps another
consonant should be added to GLBT, or would that be adding
even more confusion to an already murky, oft misunderstood
faction of the queer community?
In Riki Anne Wilchins riveting book, Read My Lips – Sexual
Subversion and the End of Gender, she describes herself as a
“transsexual menace” with a powerful tale of the trials (and
triumphs) she’s faced as a transgender male-to-female, or M to
F, for short.
Wilchins is unapologetically hostile in her stance on issues of
transgender discrimination within the gay community. For
example, when a transgender woman applied for admission in
New York City’s 2004 Gay Games, she was given the following
memorandum from Ann Northrop, a member of the Gay Games
Board of Directors. The memo stated the following rules for all
transgender participants:
1. Supply a letter from your personal physician confirming that
you have been on hormones for at least eighteen months, as well
as a letter attesting to your health.
2. Supply a letter from your personal therapist confirming that
you have been in therapy for at least eighteen months, and an
additional letter explaining why it would be “difficult” or
“impossible” for you to compete in the Gay Games as your
“birth sex.”

22. Needless to say, no such invasive, insulting mail was delivered
to “regular” gay men and women wishing to participate in the
2004 Gay Games. Wilchins’s activist group Transgender
Menace, TransGender Rights!, and the Metropolitan Gender
Network succeeded in persuading the board to abandon their
inequitable policies, and the Gay Games went on without
incident.
However, Wilchins points out that her response letter to the Gay
Games Board of Directors ended with a clear warning.
“Nonetheless,” she writes, “we are not prepared to be doormats
for anyone, nor to be marginalized in any way, nor to have our
concerns or participation sacrificed for anyone else’s
comfort…”
Strong words from a strong lady. But it doesn’t end there. In
the 2005 edition of Pride magazine, writer Cindra Feuer takes
gender politics a step further in her article
entitled, Is There An I in LGBT? The “I” Ms. Feuer is referring
to stands for intersex, a term that I am well-acquainted with,
since my spouse Joselyn is not only transgender, but intersexed
as well. She has XXY chromosomes, which made her a research
subject years ago at the Salk Institute.
Interestingly, there has been proof that some incarcerated men
are XYY, which they dub “super males.” These men are the
most violent of the prison population, and they continue to be
so even after being taken off the streets, causing most of the
violence inside the penitentiaries.
The article interviews Betsy Driver, founder of the group
Bodies Like Ours, which serves to educate both straight and gay

23. individuals about the special needs of intersexed men and
women.
According to Ms. Feuer, many people confuse the term
“intersexed” with “hermaphrodite,” the former encompassing
individuals whose bodies can’t be identified as absolutely male
or female. Instead, they have a combination of physiological
characteristics (as does Joselyn) from both recognized sexes.
Hermaphrodites possess both male and female genitalia.
Within the intersex spectrum, Ms. Feuer explains that there is a
plethora of gender and sexual identities. Fascinating stuff to be
sure, but not all members of the GLBT community willingly
embrace intersexed members of the community, any more than
they do transgender men and women. Simply put, they don’t
know how to “classify” them, which leads to infighting,
misunderstanding, and sadly - hostility in a community that now
(more than ever) needs to stand together and present a united
front if it wants to remain strong in our current (and very
conservative) political and religious climate.
Why is this concept of unity in the GLBT community more
important than ever? To stop the hatred - the violence, the
senseless murders of blameless victims whose only
crime was being “different.” For the memory of so many gay,
lesbian and transgender men and women, who lost their lives for
what (and not who) they were.
Brandon Teena. Gwen Araujo. Matthew Sheppard. Billy Jack
Gaither. Tyra Hunter. Christian Paige. Deborah Forte.
Chanelle Pickett, Lawrence King, Cameron McWilliams, and

24. Chris “Simmie” Williams. The list goes on and on, but
someday - with education, tolerance, love and understanding,
my prayers are that this list of murdered innocents will one day
cease to exist. Hopefully, these are your prayers as well.
Works Cited
Wilchins, Riki Anne. “Read My Lips – Sexual Subversion and
the End of Gender” Pages 73-78, ISBN# 1-56341-091-5,
Copyright 1997 by Firebrand Books, Milford, CT USA
Feuer, Cindra. “Is There an I in LGBT?” Originally published
in Pride05 magazine, The Official Magazine of Interpride 2005.
Pages 63-64, published by Profile Pursuit, Inc., New York, NY
USA
PAGE
1
"... on the Death of Former
President Ronald Reagan"
23
In Page I of2
NATIONAL GAY AND LESBIAN TASK FORCE
MEDIA RELEASE

25. MEDIA CONTACT:
NGLTF Communications Department
[email protected]
323-857-8751
*****************************************************
*********
Sunday, June 6, 2004
A Letter to My Best Friend, Steven Powsner On the Death of
Former President Ronald
Reagan
Matt Foreman, Executive Director National Gay and Lesbian
Task Force
June 6,2004
Dear Steven,
I so much wish you were here today to tell me what to do. You
would know if it's right to
comment on the death of former President Reagan, or if I should
just let pass the endless
paeans to his greatness. But you're not here. The policies of the
Reagan administration saw to
that.
Yes, Steven, I do feel for the family and friends of the former
President. The death of a loved
one is always a profoundly sad occasion, and Mr. Reagan was
loved by many. I have
tremendous empathy and respect for Mrs. Reagan, who lovingly
cared for him through

26. excruciating years of Alzheimer's.
Sorry, Steven, but even on this day I'm not able to set aside the
shaking anger I feel over
Reagan's non-response to the AIDS epidemic or for the
continuing anti-gay legacy of his
administration. Is it personal? Of course. AIDS was first
reported in 1981, but President
Reagan could not bring himself to address the plague until
March 31, 1987, at which time there
were 60,000 reported cases of full-blown AIDS and 30,000
deaths. I remember that day,
Steven - you were staying round-the-clock in Memorial Sloan
Kettering Hospital caring for your
dying partner of over 15 years, Bruce Cooper. It was another 41
days of utter agony for both of
you before Bruce died. During those years of White House
silence and inaction, how many
other dear friends did we see sicken and die hideous deaths?
Is it personal? Yes, Steven. I know for a fact that you would be
alive today if the Reagan
administration had mounted even a tepid response to the
epidemic. If protease inhibitors been
available in July of 1995 instead of December, you'd still be
here.
25
In Page 2 of2
I wouldn't feel so angry if the Reagan administration's failing
was due to ignorance or
bureaucratic ineptitude. No, Steven, we knew then it was

27. deliberate. The government's
response was dictated by the grip of evangelical Christian
conservatives who saw gay people
as sinners and AIDS as God's well-deserved punishment.
Remember? The White House
Director of Communications, Patrick Buchanan, once argued in
print that AIDS is nature's
revenge on gay men. Reagan's Secretary of Education, William
Bennett, and his domestic
policy adviser, Gary Bauer, made sure that science (and basic
tenets of Christianity, for that
matter) never got in the way of politics or what they saw as
"God's" work.
Even so, I think I could let go of this anger if this was just
another overwhelmingly sad chapter
in our nation's past. It is not. Steven, can you believe that the
unholy pact President Reagan
and the Republican Party entered with the forces of religious
intolerance have not weakened,
but grown exponentially stronger? Can you believe that the U.S.
government is still bowing to
right wing extremists and fighting condom distribution and
explicit HIV education, even while
AIDS is killing millions across the world? Or that "devout"
Christians have forced the scrapping
of AIDS prevention programs targeted at HIV-negative gay and
bisexual men in favor of
bullshit "abstinence only until marriage" initiatives? Or the
shameless duplicity of these same
forces seeking to forever outlaw even the hope of marriage for
gay people? Or that Reagan
stalwarts like Buchanan, Bennett and Bauer are still grinding
their homophobic axes?
No, Steven, I do not presume to judge Ronald Reagan's soul or

28. heart. He may very well have
been a nice guy. In fact, I don't think that Reagan hated gay
people -- I'm sure some of his and
Nancy's best friends were gay. But I do know that the Reagan
administration's policies on
AIDS and anything gay-related resulted - and continue to result
- in despair and death.
Oh, Steven, how much I wish so much you were here.
Matt
(On November 20,1995, Steven Powsner, died of complications
from AIDS at age 40. He had
been President of the New York City Lesbian and Gay
Community Services Center from 1992-
1994.)
*****************************************************
**********
Founded in 1973, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force is
the oldest national organization
working to eliminate prejudice, violence and injustice against
lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgender (LGBT) people at the local, state and national level.
The Task Force trains
activists and leaders and organizes broad-based campaigns to
defeat anti-LGBT referenda
and advance pro-LGBT legislation. The Task Force Policy
Institute, the community's premiere
think tank, researches and reports on critical policy issues. As
part of a broader social justice
movement for freedom, justice and equality, the Task Force is
creating a world that respects
and celebrates the diversity of human expression and identity

29. where all people may fully
participate in society.
26
"Lawrence & Garner vs.
Texas" (June 2003)
27
Gte as: 539 U. S. __ (2003)
Opinion of the Court
NOTICE: This opinion is subject to formal revision before
publication In the
preliminary print of the United States Reports. Readers are
requested to
notify the Reporter of Dedsionsl Supreme Court of the United
States, Wash-
ington, D. C. 20543, of any typographical or other formal
errors, in order
that corrections may be made before the preliminary print goes
to press.
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
No. 02-102
JOHN GEDDES LAWRENCE AND 1YRON GARNER,
PETITIONERS v. TEXAS

30. ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE COURT OF APPEALS
OF
lEAS
)
)
FOURTEENrn DISTlUCf
[June 26, 2003)
JU5T1CE KENNEOY delivered the opinion of the Court
Uberty protects the person from unwarranted government
intrusions into a dwelling or other private places. In our
tradition the
State is not omnipresent in the home. And there are other
spheres of OUf
lives and existence, outside the home, where the State should
not be a dominant
presence. Freedom extends beyond spatial bouocs, liberty
presumes an
autonomy of self that indudes freedom of thought, belief,
expression,
and certain intimate conduct. The inst4lnt case involves liberty
of the
person both in its spatial and more transcendent dimensions.
I
TIle question before the COUrt is the validity of a Texas statute
making it a
crime for two persons of the same sex to engage in certain
intimate sexual
conduct.

31. In Houston, Texas, officers of the Harris County Police
Department were
dispatched to a private residence in response to a reported
weapons disturbance.
They entered an apartment where one of the petitioners, John
Geddes
Lawrence, resided. The right of the police to enter does not
seem to have been
questioned. The officers observed
Sections Balded by Professor Frank Nobilertl, San Diego State
University
18
LAWRENCE v. TEXAS
Opinion of the Court
are situated in relationships where consent might not easily be
refused. It does
not involve public conduct or prostitution. It does not involve
whether
the government must give formal recognition to any relationship
that
homosexuaJ persons seek to enter. The case does involve two
adults who,
with full and mutual consent from eecn otner, engaged in sexual
practices
common to a homosexual lifestye. The petitioners are entitled
to respect
for their private lives. The State cannot demean their existence
or

32. A
control their destiny by making thelr private sexual conduct a
crime.
Their right to liberty under the Due Process Clause gives them
the full
right to engage in their conduct without intervention of the
government. "It is is promise of the ConstituUon that there is it
realm of
personal liberty which the government may not enter.' ca~
supra,at
847. The Texas statute furthers no legitimate state interest
which can justify its intrusion into the personal and private life
of the
individual.
Had those who drew and ratified the Due Process Clauses of the
Fifth Amendment or the Fourteenth Amendment known the
components of liberty in its mani fold possibilities, they might
have
a been more specif.c. They did not presume to have this
insight.. They
P knew times can blind us to certain truths and later generations
can see
that laws once thought necessary and proper in fact: serve only
CQ
OPPre5S. As the Constitution endures, persons in evecy
generation can
invoke its principles in their own search for greater freedom.
The judgment of the Court of Appeals for the Texas Fourteenth
Distrlct is
reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings: not
inconsistent with
this opinion.

33. It is so ordered.
Sections Bolded by Professor Frank Ncbileni, San Diego State
University
Ahmed 8
Mohamed Ahmed
History 406
June 3, 2013
Interview with Hassan
When were the first time you found out your homosexual?
· The first time I found out I was homosexual or gay was my
senior year in high school. I never really thought that I was
going to be gay but I started becoming more attracted to the
opposite sex and it really started bugging me because it was
killing me inside and there was no one really I could talk to
about it. At my school I didn’t know anyone who was gay
especially a boy, sometimes there would be rumors about two
kids but I didn’t really know them that much or hanged out with
at school, even with them it was just rumors because some
students argued they were gay and some argued they weren’t,
but nevertheless looking back at myself I really wasn’t sure if I
was gay or not, I mean how do you know how you feel when
your gay, all we could think about was how you would off
looked or dressed if you were gay, but feelings no one knew,
the only think at the time I knew about myself was I was
attracted to boys.
How did this experience impact your high school career?
· When I look back it, it did not really have a negative impact
on my studies or me when I was in class. My friends and me

34. would always hang out during lunch time and go play basketball
afterschool by the park nearby. I was never attracted to my
friends I hanged out with, it really never crossed my mind and
am glad it didn’t cross my mind, but still we were boys and we
would try to do anything to attract girls, I was always a flirt
when it came to girls and although I was having feelings that I
was not attracted to girls it would change from time to time, but
I do remember one girl that I really liked and my friends would
give me a hard time about her because they would say I wasn’t
scared to talk to any girl at school but when it came to Cynthia I
was a little chicken to talk to her. So for sometime I had to
prove me friends wrong and I started talking to Cynthia, at the
time she had a boyfriend and after she told me that my
intentions with her changed and I just became friends with her.
So during my high school I was only attracted to guys who were
out of my friend zone and I only kept it to myself and never told
my friends or showed them any sings that they might question.
When did you find out that you were gay?
· I found out I was gay during summer 2011 when I actually
kissed the first guy in my life. It all happened so fast, I
remember I was at school and one of my classmates was gay and
he asked me what I was doing for the weekend, and I told him
nothing much probably just stay home and watch the Lakers
game, the he invited to his house party on Friday night and
asked me to come and check it out. Now I knew he was gay
because I would always wear lipsticks and carry and female
handbag and at the time I was totally not attracted to him
whatsoever. So Friday night came and I actually went to his
house party going over there I was thinking this was going to be
a gay party and I was going to see a lot of dudes or are gay, but
when I actually when inside the party it was just another regular
college house party, I did see some guys who looked gay but
nevertheless the major of the people were not gay. At the party I
was constantly being offered drinks and I was turning them
down because I don’t drink although I thought about doing it

35. but I didn’t drink because I was driving.
· At the party I met couple of guys that I was attracted to and
one of them happen to be gay. I found out he was gay because I
told him, “man there are allot of sexy chicks up in here” he
smiled and said yeah there are allot of chicks here but they are
not for me, there all yours. Then I laughed and asked him what
do you mean there not for you and he said, “bro am not into
girls and actually gay if you cant tell already” then I replied no
I actually couldn’t tell your gay, then I started asking him
questions about what it feels like to be gay and he was pretty
chill about and gave me some interesting answers, then I asked
him what it met if I was attracted to guys, and really I would off
asked him this questions but I did because he looked very
mature and was very open with me, I felt like I could trust him.
He told me that there might be a chance that I am gay, and said
yeah there might be a chance that am gay, but how would I
know, and he said honestly when you came to me were you
somewhat attracted to me? And I said yes I actually am
attracted to you and he said well you have your answer buddy
your gay then. Then he reached over and kissed me, that was the
most awarded thing in my life. When he was reaching over to
kiss me I had the chance to stop it or even move away but for
some reason it felt like I was waiting for it to happen. After the
first kiss me and him went out to the backyard where no one
could actually see us because they lights very dim and I
remember making out with this dude and touching each other
for almost an hour.
How did you feel after that experience?
· I felt so weird and guilty, I could really believe what I have
done that night, I was so worried I could drive home, I knew no
one I knew was watching but at the same time I remember
feeling so weird and paranoid like I never felt before. When I
went home around three in the morning I couldn’t get this off
my mind and I could sleep. I felt guilty and I have done

36. something so evil and someone should know about it. Some of
the thoughts that were running through my mind was that fact
that I was Muslim and couldn’t believe what I have done
tonight, what would my family and friends says. I kept on
reflecting back at kissing that guy at the party and doing what I
was doing with him, and while thinking about that with my eyes
wide open in bed I heart kept on pounding really hard and I was
sweating, the feeling I had that night was almost the feeling a
killer would have after knowing that he has killed someone and
the cops were looking for him. I didn’t go to sleep until 7am
after tossing and turning in bed for hours.
· After waking up the next day I was still nervous and very
worried, I remember praying all day and asking God for
forgiveness, the whole day I didn’t leave my room and my
mother kept on asking me do you have things to do today, I
would say nervously say yeah am reading for my classes so ill
be here all day. That was the worst day of my life because I
didn’t eat, I tried forcing myself to eat but I just couldn’t eat
because I was that nervous.
Were you in a gay relationship after?
· Well for a long time I kept it to myself and I didn’t show any
signs of being gay, what I forgot to tell you was I actually
started dating the guy in my class who actually invited me to
the house party, although I wasn’t attracted to him I thought to
myself if your gay just let it be and date this guy to see how you
like it. Honestly at first I didn’t like it because it still felt that I
was doing something and I should stop it. However dating this
guy I had to keep a low profile and make sure that no one would
know that I was dating him or most importantly I was gay. I
wasn’t really in this relationship because I wanted to but rather
I wanted to know how it would feel like actually being in a gay
relationship.
When did you come out?

37. · I came out when some people I didn’t know actually caught
me and told my mother about it. Until today I don’t know what I
was doing or who saw me but I nevertheless someone that saw
me holding hands told my parents about. At first when I came
home my parents were not home and I was in my room watching
a movie on Netflix when my mother came inside my room
yelling. I remember I jumped up and said what’s going on and
my mother yelled what were you doing earlier today? I replied
nothing much I was just at school and after hanging out with my
friends, my mother kept on yelling don’t you lie to me, and I
started yelling as well saying lying about what? She closed the
door behind her and asked me are you gay? And I laughed and
said no am not what would you even think about such thing.
Then my mother said ill give you one more chance to tell if
your gay or not and I yelled no am not, then my mother took her
phone out and actually showed me a picture of me holding
hands with that guy, I was shocked I could remember where that
picture was but it was for sure me without any questions.
· Then my mother started crying and yelling why, why would
you do such fucking thing like this, I started crying and walked
out the room to see if anyone else was there, my mother actually
told my brothers and sisters to step outside while she was
talking to me, then shortly after my sister walks in and starts
crying and asked what’s going on, my mother yelled ask him
what’s going on, so she asked my crying what’s going on and I
couldn’t say anything, I tried speaking but I couldn’t, when
things got really worse was when my father came in the house
the look on his face was just scary, he yelled at me if you don’t
leave my house in the next second I will kill you, so that’s when
I left home and didn’t come back for a long time.
Where did you go after leaving home?
· After leaving home I called my friends up and they came to
pick me up, I told them I got kicked out the house but didn’t tell
them why, I just told them I got into an argument with my

38. parents. So for he next three weeks I was living with my friend
Abdishakur and I received no calls from my parents or brothers,
my sister called me couple times I didn’t pick up and she left
me like 3 voicemails a day saying to call her back and
everything was going to be ok. So I called her back and she
sounded very worried about me but I told her everything was
going to be ok with me. What was sad was that my parents were
still talking about how they will still not allow me to come back
home and could careless what happens to me. After living with
my friend for a month now he started to ask me questions about
when I was going back home and what was the real reason I left
home, I really should off kept my mouth shut but I was under
pressure so I honestly told him what was going on and next
thing I know the city knows what’s going on. And that was
around the time you called me and that’s when I told you
everything as well.
What did you feel when you came to San Diego to live with me?
· When I came to live with you I really was comforted by your
hospitality and the way you understood what I was going
through. I was very carful on what I did around you because I
knew you were the only who could help me, especially after my
parents called your parents and told them everything. Your mom
tried to talk to me about what was going on and she told me that
everything was going to be ok, as long as I repented and stop
what I was doing. At the time I didn’t care about being gay I
wanted to stop it and let the whole world know that am back to
being straight so I could stop feeling guilty every second of my
life. What made me really conferrable was no one in SD knew
about my story and could walk around the city were all the
Somalis live and hangout with my old friends and no one would
judge me or talk shit to me.
What does it mean to be Somali Muslim and a homosexual?
· Man I means allot, you know how our culture is first everyone
and their mama is in your business and worst they think it’s

39. their God given right to be all in your business. I know its
forbidden to be gay as a Muslim and I had many talks with
religious people about this but I see it as I didn’t choose to be
this way, am not proud of it but its out of my control and that
what people need to understand. I am not the most religious
person out there I don’t even pray five times a day consistently
but I know I need to improve on my religion and It wont happen
overnight. And I know your going to ask me how could I be
more religious and gay at the sometime but that I don’t really
know, but I tell you this much I know God is looking after me if
he wants me to be this way it will happen and if he wants me to
be the other way it will happen so once again its out of my
control.
What message would you send out to Somalis who are
homosexuals like you?
· I would tell them to be yourself because when your really look
at it you cant pretend to live as someone else, maybe you could
do that for a little while like me but honestly it will just break
your back in the long run. If your gay and want to come out I
would first suggest that you should completely look around your
soundings and see if its going to negatively hurt your life, I
mean its gonna regardless but when you come out make sure
your safety is first in good hands because in our culture we tend
to get violent and beat someone to change their mind about
something, do let that happen to you. And last thing I would
like to share is don’t let this bring you down, continue what
your doing and keep chasing your dreams, if people truly love
you they will be there for you no matter what happens in your
life.
OUTLINE of Arguments :
Massachusetts Same Sex Civil Marriage Case:

40. GOODRIDGE vs. DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH
[Nov. 2003]
MARRIAGE IS:
1) A Vital Social Institution:
“Marriage is a vital social institution. . . .
Barred access to the protections, benefits, and obligations of
civil marriage, a person
who enters into an intimate, exclusive union with another of the
same sex is
arbitrarily deprived of membership in one of our community's
most rewarding and
cherished institutions. That exclusion is incompatible with the
constitutional
principles of respect for individual autonomy and equality under
law.”
2) “Civil Marriage is and has been . . . A Wholly Secular [non
religious] Institution”
3) “Among Life’s Most Momentous Acts of Self Definition”
4) ”A Vital Right essential to . . . the pursuit of happiness”
THE COURT’S COMPARISON:
5)Comparable to 1967 U.S. Decision Overturning Laws
Forbidding Interracial Marriage (Loving v. Virginia)
“the right to marry means little if it does not include the right to
marry the person of ones choice. . . .”
THE COURT ANSWERS THE ARGUMENTS AGAINST

41. SAME SEX MARRIAGE:
6) Procreation not privileged
“Our laws of civil marriage do not privilege procreative
heterosexual intercourse. . . . People who cannot stir from their
deathbed may marry.”
7) Heterosexual Marriage Not Undermined
“Recognizing the right of an individual to marry a person of the
same sex will not diminish the validity or dignity of opposite
sex marriage, any more than recognizing the right of an
individual to marry a person of a different race devalues the
marriage of a person who marries someone of her own race. “
8) Marriage is an Evolving Paradigm & Alarms Are Not New.
Previous changes include:
a) Going beyond the common law: the expansion of the rights
of married women
b) overturning laws against interracial marriage
c) the introduction of "nofault" divorce.
9)SINCE NOT ALLOWING SAME SEX CIVIL MARRIAGE
CAUSES:
“A Deep and Scarring Hardship”
10) THEREFORE:
“We declare that barring an individual from the protections,
benefits, and obligations of civil marriage solely because that
person would marry a person of the same sex violates the

42. Massachusetts Constitution. . . . “
1
Chapter 1
Introduction
I was musically deprived as a child, a trauma in my
childhood inflicted by well-meaning parents upon a little girl
who just wanted to hear some rock and roll music. I grew up in
a small isolated rural area with little radio reception which left
me at the mercy of my parents’ musical choices. My parents
meant well; however my mother’s idea of some good music was
Tony Orlando and Dawn or some Christian gospel standards.
My father favored Sinatra and if he was really looking for fun,
listened to polkas. I can appreciate the idea of tying a yellow
ribbon on a tree in remembrance, or dancing to a rousing polka,
but they only can do so much for your soul. I remember my
mother presenting me with my first record. To my utter
disappointment it was Marie Osmond’s Paper Roses. Watching
the Donny and Marie Show was a family routine, so I should not
have been surprised at my mother’s musical choice for me. I
asked my mother why Marie was a little bit country and not
rock and roll like Donny. She told me that girls do not sing
rock and roll. It was unladylike. Her objections became clear as
I entered my teen years. I wasn’t allowed to listen to women
rockers, and I found my own way of rebelling by annoying my
mother with posters of a shirtless, sneering, sexy Billy Idol.
Still, she persisted in presenting me with albums of women who
sang sweetly. The albums quickly gathered dust. I had to listen
to the cool music at my friend’s house, enjoying the liberation
of Pat Benatar, the power of Ann Wilson, the freedom of Cyndi
Lauper.

43. My experience of being musically limited by my parents as
a teenager shaped my research agenda for this paper. I wanted
to know why there were so few women in rock music in the
1970s and 1980s, and if the women who did enter the music
industry faced limitations imposed by authority figures much as
my mother had with me. I was a teenager who felt that I had no
voice in my home, limited by my parents. It was vitally
important to me to give these women a voice in my paper and
use their words as the foundation for the paper. My goals were
to ascertain how women perceived their treatment in the
industry, how many women were willing to play into the male
fantasy in order to gain commercial success, and how the
women reacted to the pressure of being in a predominantly male
industry.
The first generation of women in rock and roll included Janis
Joplin, Grace Slick, and Cass Elliott. This group of women
began their careers in the 1960s. Historians have written about
this group of women and concentrated upon their treatment by
the press and male musicians. They found that the women
encountered a boys only club in rock, were marginalized by the
press, were cast into male constructed categories and subjected
to a different set of behavioral rules than the men.
Historians have written about the first generation of women
artists in the rock music genre and focused upon their treatment
by the press. Historian Lisa Rhodes asserted that magazines
used clichés when describing women and paid disproportionate
attention to female artist’s physical appearances to marginalize
them. Rolling Stone magazine referred to Janis Joplin as an
“imperious whore” and Grace Slick wore “…one of her bitch
costumes…”[endnoteRef:1] When Janis Joplin died, her death
was covered very differently in the press than that of Jimi
Hendrix. Both were talented musicians at the height of their
careers when they died of drug overdoses. Rolling Stone
reported on the particulars of where and how Hendrix died and
details about his career. According to Lisa Rhodes, when
Rolling Stone wrote about Joplin, the reporter wrote about what

44. she was wearing at the time of her death instead of giving her
recognition as “the most powerful woman in rock
music.”[endnoteRef:2] The magazines did not speak of men in
clichés or focus upon their clothes. [1: Lisa Rhodes, Electric
Ladyland: Women and Rock Culture (Philadelphia: University
of Pennsylvania Press, 2005), 50] [2: Ibid.]
Women in rock music were cast into male constructed
categories as a method to marginalize them according to
historian Sheila Whitely. Women were categorized as either the
“subservient earth mother,” a “romanticized fantasy figure,” or
the “easy lay.”[endnoteRef:3] These women were never cast as
rock stars; they were always put into a male created role that
the press used in magazine articles and reviews. The group the
Mamas and the Papas had four members, two men and two
women. The women were very different. Michelle Phillips was
a thin beautiful blonde and Cass Elliot was a full-figured
woman who was not as beautiful as Phillips, but Elliott was the
best vocalist of the group. The press focused on Phillips as the
“fantasy figure” and Elliott was referred to as Mama Cass thus
relegating her to the non-sexualized “earth mother” role.
[endnoteRef:4] According to Whitely, Phillips was never
referred to as Mama Michelle and the press focused upon what
she was wearing and how she was positioned on the stage and
Elliott was spoken of as “large and lovely.”[endnoteRef:5] [3:
Sheila Whiteley, Women and Popular Music: Sexuality,
Identity, and Subjectivity (London: Routledge, 2000), 23. ] [4:
Ibid.] [5: Ibid]
In the 1960s paternalistic society, women were expected to be
demure with a delicate appearance. Janis Joplin had a
reputation for drinking and partying with the men in the band.
Men in rock were expected to live the lifestyle of having
promiscuous sex, doing drugs and drinking to excess. When
Janis Joplin lived the same lifestyle as the men, she was harshly
criticized and cast as the “easy lay.”[endnoteRef:6] There was

45. no male equivalent category to “easy lay” because it was
accepted and expected for men in rock to behave this way.
Whitely stated that Joplin said in an interview that the press
focused upon her lifestyle instead of her music.[endnoteRef:7]
[6: Ibid., 54.] [7: Ibid., 68.]
Female artists found a way to be successful by writing
songs that women would like because women focus on song
lyrics. According to historian Judy Kutulas, women became
singer-songwriters and changed the way women were portrayed
in lyrics by going from being the object in songs to the
subject.[endnoteRef:8] Kutulas looked at song lyrics by men
and women. In “Let’s Spend the Night Together” by the Rolling
Stones, the woman in the song is there to be a sexual object.
There was a shift between songs sung by the girl groups in the
1960s where the women sang about waiting for love to the
music of the late 1960s and early1970s where women became
assertive. In the song “Jessie” Janis Joplin sings about wanting
her man home in her bed. Her wants were paramount, not his.
Carole King was another singer-songwriter who used “I” instead
of “me” in her songs.[endnoteRef:9] She firmly put herself in
the lead role, and women found those types of songs very
relatable. [8: Judy Kutulas, “Women’s Music from Carole
King to the Disco Divas.” In Disco Divas: Women and Popular
Culture in the 1970s (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania
Press ,2003), 177] [9: Ibid, 179.]
The first generation of women in rock encountered a boys
only mentality and were marginalized by the press by being cast
into stereotyped roles. Women asserted their independence and
found their voice through songwriting. They changed the role
of the woman in the song from being an object to being the
subject. The three historians focused upon song lyrics and
magazine articles; however, they did not have any interviews
with the female artists. The research did not address whether
the next generation of women artists experienced the same level

46. of discrimination in the industry or their personal views on
gender discrimination in music. This paper will extend the
research by inserting the voice of the female artist, examining
how many of these female artists accepted the imposed
limitations of their gender, and explaining how women were
able to find success in the music industry in the 1970s and
1980s.
The women artists in the next generation also encountered a
boys only club in the music industry. They were viewed with
curiosity, treated as novelty acts and were limited by rampant
sexual discrimination. The experience of three groups of
women will be used to support this argument. The first group
consists of three women who found success in the music
industry and performed with major bands but were never
household names. I conducted telephone interviews with
vocalist Laurie Beebe-Lewis, bassist and vocalist Shaaron
Hancock-Schuemaker, and lead-guitarist Roni Lee. These
interviews will support a post-structural and role analysis of the
gender discrimination that women encountered. Lewis has sung
lead vocals with her band Pitche Blend, The Buckinghams, and
has sung as a vocalist in the New Mamas and the Papas. In
addition Beebe-Lewis has toured with Alice Cooper, Bob Seger,
and Ted Neugent. Lee has played lead guitar in Venus and the
Razor Blades and has opened for Van Halen, DEVO, Loverboy,
and The Motels. Bass guitarist and vocalist Shaaron Hancock-
Schuemaker was one of the first female bass players in San
Diego. She has toured with Jimmy Buffett and has concert
credit with ZZ Top.
The second group of female artists is Joan Jett and Cherie
Currie from The Runaways. The Runaways were an all-girl
teenage band in the 1970s that were known as jailbait rock. The
treatment of Currie and Jett is different than those of the other
groups of women. Currie and Jett are referred to as girls
because they were minors and were in a liminal position.
Liminality is a term that implies marginalization. A liminal
figure does not hold power in a relationship. The information

47. obtained from Cherie Currie’s memoir Neon Angel and from the
2004 documentary Edgeplay: A Film About The Runaways will
support a structural and post-structural analysis of how males in
the music industry asserted power through the use of demeaning
labels and sexual exploitation. The lyrics of songs written by
Jett will be used in a textual analysis to illustrate the reaction of
women to gender discrimination in the music industry.
The third group of women, Pat Benatar, Belinda Carlisle of the
Go-Go’s, Cyndi Lauper, Deborah Harry of the group Blondie,
and Ann and Nancy Wilson of the group Heart, were extremely
successful, and had many top ten hits on the radio. The memoirs
of Benatar and of the Wilsons will be used in a post-structural,
textual, and psychological analysis of the limitations women
faced in the rock music genre. The memoir of Belinda Carlisle
will be used to show how different a career in the industry was
if women were in full control of a band. Cyndi Lauper’s memoir
will be used in a post-structural and psychological analysis to
illustrate how men asserted power in the music industry and
how through song lyrics a female artist could create an anthem
for women. In addition Rolling Stone magazine covers will be
used in a textual analysis of the language used on the covers to
show that a gender bias existed. Evidence from a book on
entertainment awards by Don Franks will be used to illustrate
the separate categories that women were in for the Grammy
Awards.
Many women artists discovered their passion for singing at an
early age. For Ann and Nancy Wilson, Cyndi Lauper, and Pat
Benatar, the Beatles had a significant impact upon their desire
to be musicians. In 1964 the Beatles appeared twice on The Ed
Sullivan Show with an audience of over 70 million
viewers.[endnoteRef:10] The Beatles looked and sounded
unlike any other band of their era and had a significant impact
upon pop culture. Significantly they also wrote their own songs
which were inspirational to young girls who dreamed of being
like the Beatles. Ann and Nancy Wilson wrote about their desire
to be like the Beatles in their memoir, devoting an entire

48. chapter to the influence the Beatles had on their lives. Ann
Wilson wrote of seeing the Beatles on television for the first
time when she was fourteen years old and her sister Nancy ten
years old. “Who we were, and more important, who we
imagined we could be, shifted forever on that day; we never
turned back.”[endnoteRef:11] While their friends dreamed of
becoming the bride to one of the Beatles, the Wilson sisters
dreamed of being a Beatle.[endnoteRef:12] Their interest in the
Beatles was not a romantic fantasy; it was a journey of
expression. The Beatles through their music gave these young
girls a dream, a passion. As young girls, Cyndi Lauper and her
sister dressed up and sang the Beatles’ songs for their
family.[endnoteRef:13] Pat Benatar related in her memoir that
she had the music of the Beatles playing all the time on her
radio that she received for Christmas in 1964. [endnoteRef:14]
The music of the Beatles transcended gender roles and inspired
some of the best female artists of the 1970s and
1980s[endnoteRef:15] [10: "The Beatles | Bio, Pictures, Videos
| Rolling Stone." Rolling Stone | Music News, Politics,
Reviews, Photos, Videos, Interviews and More.
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/artists/the-beatles/biography
(accessed March 1, 2013).] [11: Ann and Nancy Wilson,
Kicking & Dreaming: a Story of Heart, Soul, and Rock and Roll
(New York: ItBooks, 2012), 41.] [12: Ibid. 43-44] [13:
Cyndi Lauper and Jancee Dunn, Cyndi Lauper: a Memoir (New
York City: Atria Books, 2012), 10.] [14: Pat Benatar and Patsi
Bale Cox, Between a Heart and a Rock Place: a Memoir (New
York: William Morrow, 2010), 24.] [15: Susan J. Douglas,
"She's Got the Devil in Her Heart." In Where the Girls Are:
Growing Up Female with the Mass Media (New York: Times
Books, 1994), 119-120.]
The music and image of David Bowie was inspirational to Joan
Jett and Cherie Currie of the Runaways. David Bowie in the
1970s was a chameleon changing his hair, appearance, and
sound frequently. His androgynous look was unlike the long

49. haired rock singers of the 1970s and his music resonated with
Cherie Currie particularly. Currie had a difficult time in high
school fitting in with the other teens. She even cut off her hair
to look like David Bowie in a defiant endeavor to prove that she
did not care what the other teens though about
her.[endnoteRef:16] Currie stated that, during a concert by
Bowie, “…an electric flash…when I felt I was truly invincible-
that’s how I wanted to feel all the time.”[endnoteRef:17] She
never wrote about wanting to date Bowie. She wanted to be like
him. His music brought Currie a new experience, one of power
that drove her to become a musician. [16: Cherie Currie and
Tony Neill, Neon Angel: a Memoir of a Runaway (New York:
!t, itbooks, 2010), 41.] [17: Ibid.]
Male dominated rock music was the norm in the 1970s and
“cock rock” became the epitome of male sexual power. The
quintessential “cock rock” group of the era was British hard
rock group Led Zeppelin. [endnoteRef:18]Led Zeppelin had a
large following and was very successful commercially selling
over 100 million records. [endnoteRef:19] This type of rock was
arrogant and driven by the guitar. Jimmy Page was the lead
guitarist for Led Zeppelin. His stance with the guitar, hips
thrust outward, drew attention to his electric guitar that was a
phallic symbol. The lead singer, Robert Plant, wore pants so
tight that nothing was left to the imagination and worked his
microphone stand as another pseudo phallus. The song most
associated with “cock rock” is Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta
Love” which is all about sex.[endnoteRef:20] Plant sings “I’m
gonna give you every inch of my love” which is not a reference
to his heart. These songs were not designed for women. Their
core audience was men and “Cock rock” was a celebration of
male-dominated sexuality with the ideal being sex without
commitment.[endnoteRef:21] Led Zeppelin influenced many
bands, including Heart which played Led Zeppelin covers when
they began as a band with Ann Wilson singing lead.
[endnoteRef:22] [18: Steven Michael Waksman, "Every inch

50. of my love: Led Zeppelin and the problem of cock rock."
Journal of Popular Music Studies (1996): 5-25. Music Index,
EBSCOhost (accessed March 15, 2013).] [19: "Led Zeppelin |
Bio, Pictures, Videos | Rolling Stone." Rolling Stone | Music
News, Politics, Reviews, Photos, Videos, Interviews and More.
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/artists/led-
zeppelin/biography (accessed March 16, 2013).] [20: Steven
Michael Waksman, "Every inch of my love: Led Zeppelin and
the problem of cock rock." Journal of Popular Music Studies
(1996): 5-25. Music Index, EBSCOhost (accessed March 15,
2013).] [21: Simon Frith, Sound Effects: Youth, Leisure, and
the Politics of Rock'n'Roll (New York: Pantheon Books, 1981),
227.] [22: Ann and Nancy Wilson, Kicking & Dreaming: a
Story of Heart, Soul, and Rock and Roll (New York: ItBooks,
2012), 94. ]
When MTV aired its first video on August 1, 1981 it changed
the music industry by combining marketing mixed with visual
art. This target audience was aged twelve to thirty-four “baby
boomers” who had been born after World War II.
[endnoteRef:23] This was a demographic that had money to
spend on albums. The strength of a music video in the 1980s
could make a career or break one. [endnoteRef:24] Popular
videos translated into record sales. The videos in the early
1980s featured strutting males such as Billy Idol, Rod Stewart,
and the men of Duran Duran surrounded by women who were
usually scantily clad models who were there for the voyeuristic
needs of young males. These early videos showed men living
out a fantasy of having luscious, beautiful women available to
their desires. The male rock stars in the videos lived the
fantasies of adolescent males where women were mindless
objects. There were artists such as Madonna who created videos
to fulfill the expected role of a woman as a sexual object, using
the medium as a way to market themselves; however, there were
women who used MTV as a platform to speak to other women.
Women artists in the 1980s took control of their videos and

51. some such as Pat Benatar and Cyndi Lauper used the medium to
spread messages of female empowerment. Benatar and Lauper
were savvy in finding a way to promote their music and to
appeal to the female viewers in more than just a visual manner.
[23: Lisa A. Lewis, Gender, Politics and MTV: Voicing the
Difference (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1990), 19.]
[24: Saul Austerlitz, Money for Nothing: a History of the
Music Video, from the Beatles to the White Stripes (New York:
Continuum, 2007).]
Women artists from 1975 to 1985 only accounted for 27% of the
249 songs that reached the number one position on the Billboard
Top 40 Music Charts.[endnoteRef:25] The peak year for women
on the Billboard chart was in 1981 with 44% of the number one
hits were by women or groups with women singing lead such as
the group Blondie. [endnoteRef:26] Of the top 25 Hits by the
Decade, only two songs were by women in the 1980s: Joan Jett
and the Blackhearts which came in at number five with “I Love
Rock ‘N Roll”, and Blondie with the number thirteen hit “Call
Me.”[endnoteRef:27] The top of the Billboard charts remained
predominantly masculine territory from 1975 to 1985. [25:
Joel Whitburn, The Billboard Book of Top 40 hits, 1955 to
Present (New York: Billboard Publications, 1983), 840-845.]
[26: Ibid. ] [27: Ibid. 824-825.]
Female artists in the 1970s and 1980s had to enter a boys club
without female role models. These women faced
discrimination, but they persisted and found a way into an
industry designed for and run by men. From the music of Led
Zeppelin to the era of MTV, rock was a celebration of male
sexuality with women being objects. The challenge for women
was to enter this male dominated industry without becoming
objectified, survive the discrimination, and use their creativity
in song lyrics and music videos to connect with a female
audience.

52. Chapter 2
The Limitations of Being Female in a Rock Band
The next generation of women in rock music discovered that
gender discrimination in the music industry limited and shaped
their opportunities. Women were treated as novelty acts, were
subjected to a different set of rules than the men were, and had
their images sexualized to sell records. It was difficult for
women to enter into the male dominated music industry. The
1970s was an era dominated by male bands such as Led
Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, and Aerosmith. All these bands
were showcases for male sexuality. Most rock bands were
typically male and it was viewed as strange for a woman to play
an instrument or to lead a rock band. Bassist and vocalist
Shaaron Hancock-Schuemaker stated that bands were more of a
social group and partying was a large part the band experience.
[endnoteRef:28] Men were hired into bands because they got
along well with the other men; however, women had to be pretty
and be able to sing. [endnoteRef:29] Women were also there to
visually draw the attention of club owners to the band. [28:
Shaaron Hancock-Schuemaker, Interview by author. Phone
interview. La Mesa, Ca, March 22, 2013.] [29: Ibid. ]
Women in rock music in the mid-1970s were viewed as novelty
acts by men in the music industry. The men were looking for a
novelty act to bring more attention to their bands. The women
were viewed as “eye candy” or “token girls.”[endnoteRef:30]
Bands would place ads in newspapers or upon bulletin boards
looking for female singers to sing a few songs. Novelty acts
became more popular, and in the late-1970s all-girl bands were
flown into the North West territories to perform for largely
male audiences.[endnoteRef:31] The band Heart had five
members in the band, two of whom were sisters Ann and Nancy
Wilson. Ann Wilson was the powerhouse lead singer, and
Nancy Wilson played rhythm guitar in the band. Heart received
a great deal of attention because they had the novelty of two

53. female siblings in the band which was a rarity. [30: Laurie
Beebe-Lewis, Interview by author. Phone interview, San Diego,
CA, October 2, 2012.] [31: Roni Lee, Interview by author.
Phone interview. San Diego, CA, October 15, 2012.]
Being a novelty act was a way for women to enter the music
industry, but it had limitations. Women were there to draw
attention to the main band and not to themselves. According to
Beebe-Lewis there were situations where venues would not
book more female bands because they already had a girl group
performing. [endnoteRef:32] If a woman could really sing, it
was surprising to the men according to Beebe-Lewis. Hancock-
Schuemaker stated that men would often turn down the
microphone on the public address system of pretty but
untalented girls so that the audience would not hear them sing.
[endnoteRef:33] The women could hear themselves onstage on
the monitors and were unaware that the audience never heard
them. Women were there as stage decoration, according to Lee,
and if a woman “…got too much attention for your music, it was
bad.”[endnoteRef:34] Women in rock music were limited in the
industry due to gender discrimination. Disc jockeys would only
play singles by one woman artist a week, and due to this
limitation, Pat Benatar’s songs received less air play than those
of her male counterparts.[endnoteRef:35] There existed a bare
tolerance for women artists in the industry. [32: Ibid.] [33:
Shaaron Hancock-Schuemaker, Interview by author. Phone
interview. La Mesa, Ca, March 22, 2013.] [34: Laurie Beebe-
Lewis, Interview by author. Phone interview, San Diego, CA,
October 2, 2012.] [35: Pat Benatar and Patsi Bale Cox,
Between a Heart and a Rock Place: a Memoir (New York:
William Morrow, 2010), 94.]
There was an unofficial age cap in the music industry that
existed for both men and women. Hancock-Schuemaker asserted
that thirty years old was roughly the age cap for women but if a
woman looked more like Linda Ronstadt than Janis Joplin she

54. could work longer. [endnoteRef:36] Essentially the shelf life for
women was extended if they were beautiful. Hancock-
Schuemaker said that this ageism myth was perpetuated by
Grace Slick and a comment she had made about how no one
would want to see people on stage over the age of 30.
[endnoteRef:37]Men were able to work longer in the industry
but they were valued as musicians and were not treated as
novelty acts like the women were. [36: Shaaron Hancock-
Schuemaker, Interview by author. Phone interview. La Mesa,
Ca, March 22, 2013.] [37: Ibid.]
Women had a difficult time getting recording contracts because
they were viewed as novelty acts that would never be highly
profitable. The Go-Go’s were an all-girl group that had opened
for the ska group Madness on a tour of the United Kingdom.
The lead singer, Belinda Carlisle stated in her memoir that the
head of Capitol Records told the band that he really liked them
but would not sign them because “… no female band had a track
record worth investing in.” [endnoteRef:38] The view was that
women were novelties, had no lasting power and were not worth
the time or money to develop them. It was Miles Copeland, the
man who created IRS Records and signed the Police, who after
long negotiations signed the Go-Go’s. The Go-Go’s were
disappointed that they did not receive a million dollar advance
when they were signed and Carlisle speculated that the band
might have been given a huge advance if the band had been
male. [endnoteRef:39] The Go-Go’s became the first all-girl
group to write and sing all the songs on a number one
album.[endnoteRef:40] Capitol Records due to their
chauvinistic view of all-girl groups lost out on a very profitable
group that was more than a novelty act. [38: Belinda Carlisle,
Lips Unsealed: a Memoir (New York: Crown, 2010), 66.] [39:
Ibid. 72.] [40: Ibid. 88.]
Not all novelty acts were the same, and one particular
novelty act used the idea of illicit sex to draw men to the band.

55. The Runaways were a band of five girls who were only fifteen
and sixteen years old. The members were Sandy West, Jackie
Fox, Joan Jett, Lita Ford, and Cherie Currie. Currie joined the
Runaways, like the others, as a teenager. Currie was blonde,
beautiful, and vulnerable because of her dysfunctional family
life. The band was formed by producer Kim Fowley and their
image was created by him. Currie stated in her memoir Neon
Angel that Fowley used the girl’s sexuality to sell records and
that he said that “teenage jailbait sex…. is the best kind of sex
there is.” Fowley crafted the band as a forbidden sexual
fantasy, feeding on the idea of illicit sex with a underage girls.
Their audiences were primarily, according to Kim Fowley,
“slime balls, horny teens, and a few girls who wanted big sisters
like the girls” in the Runaways.[endnoteRef:41] The Runaways
sang primarily about sex and partying. Currie became the
Cherry Bomb, a character from a song written for her with the
same title by Kim Fowley and Joan Jett. Cherry Bomb was a
wild teenage girl who was sexually aggressive. Currie typically
took to the stage in lingerie such as a bustier with garters and
stockings which furthered the illicit fantasy (see figure
1).[endnoteRef:42] The Cherry Bomb image was crafted for the
sexual gratification of men. The lyrics to the song “Cherry
Bomb” are about primal sex with this character who is wild, the
aggressor who will perform a sex act upon the male until he is
“sore.” Using the word “cherry” was a play upon Cherie’s name
and a euphemism for virginity and focuses the attention on the
youth of the singer and played up the jailbait fantasy. [41:
Edgeplay. Dir. Victory Blue. Perf. Cherie Currie, Lita Ford,
Victory Tischler-Blue, Sandy West, Jackie Fox. Image
Entertainment, 2005. Film.] [42: "Pictures & Photos of Cherie
Currie - IMDb." IMDb - Movies, TV and Celebrities.
http://www.imdb.com/media/rm525566464/nm0192947
(accessed April 25, 2013). ]
Figure 1 Cherie Currie performing “Cherry Bomb” Wilkening,

56. Matthew. "Heart’s Wilson Sisters Cover Led Zeppelin’s
‘Stairway to Heaven’ at Kennedy Center Honors." Ultimate
Classic Rock. heart-led-zeppelin-stairway-to-heaven-kennedy-
center-honors (accessed April 26, 2013).
“Cherry Bomb”
Stone age love and strange sound too
Come on baby let me get to you
Bad nights cause’n teenage blues
Get down ladies you’ve got nothing to lose
Come on baby let me get to you
Hello Daddy, hello Mom
I’m you ch ch ch ch ch cherry bomb
Hello world I'm your wild girl
I'm your ch ch ch ch ch cherry bomb
Hey street boy what's your style
Your dead end dreams don't make you smile
I'll give ya something to live for
Have ya, grab ya til your sore [endnoteRef:43] [43: "Lyrics
"Cherry Bomb"." Joan Jett and the Blackhearts Offical Bad
Reputation Nation Website. joanjettbadrep.com/cgi-
bin/lyrics.cgi?song=CherryBomb (accessed March 2, 2013).]
The girls in the Runaways were liminal figures, girls acting like
women yet not fully cognizant of the way Fowley was
exploiting their images for his own profit. Liminal figures do
not hold power in a relationship. Jett stated in an interview that
“I didn’t realize people were putting us down and calling us
jailbait rock until the end” referring to the breakup of the
Runaways.[endnoteRef:44] Hancock-Schuemaker auditioned
for the Runaways when she was twenty-three but was turned
down because she was not underage. She stated that the jailbait
concept for the band was very obvious although it was never

57. said aloud.[endnoteRef:45] The ways of the music industry were
unknown to this group of young inexperienced girls who had no
idea that they were the basest sort of a novelty act. [44:
Christopher Connelly, “Joan Jett Has the Last Laugh.” Rolling
Stone All Access. Rolling Stone, n.d. 2 Nov..2012..<
http://www.archive.rollingstone.com/Desktop>.] [45: Shaaron
Hancock-Schuemaker, Interview by author. Phone interview. La
Mesa, Ca, March 22, 2013.]
The press was very discriminatory when women entered into the
male dominated genre of rock and roll and sought to limit their
role in the industry through the use of sexist language. Ann and
Nancy Wilson of the group Heart have been performing since
the early 1970s. Heart released their Bebe Le Strange album in
1980, and it was reviewed by Rolling Stone music journalist
Tom Carson. Carson gave them a scathing review where he
called them “commercial hacks”, “cock rock without the cock”
and wrote that they acted like “tough chicks.”[endnoteRef:46]
Carson’s use of the phrase “cock rock without the cock” implies
that a real rock star must have male genitalia. The implication
of the article is that the Wilsons are female, and their attempt to
be rock stars, without being male, renders them “commercial
hacks.” By using the term “chicks” Carson also subjugates the
women into a subordinate role. A chick is a fun girl, certainly
not a woman. The review by Carson openly mocks the women
when he refers to as song as a “we-is-so-ballsy-rock-&-roll-
ladies.” Carson’s bad review illustrated his discomfort with
women assuming an alpha role in a band that contained men,
and showed his view that the women were emasculating men.
Carson never mentioned the men in the band but deliberately
chose to focus upon the women in the group who were assuming
traditionally male roles. [46: Tom Carson, "Empty-handed
Heart.” Rolling Stone | Music News, Politics, Reviews, Photos,
Videos, Interviews and More. http://www.rollingstone.com
(accessed November 2, 2012).]

58. The sexism directed at Heart in the 1980s persisted into the next
century. A 2010 article in the VillageVoice by Vijith Assar
illustrates that as far as women have come in the struggle for
equality, the boys only club of rock music still exits. Heart
wrote and performed classic rock songs such as “Barracuda”
and “Crazy On You”; however, they also sang ballads such as
“Alone.” Assar chose to pay them a “compliment” of deeming
them possibly worthy of being in the “cock rock” genre due to
their aggressive guitar riffs.[endnoteRef:47] The tone of the
article is derogatory especially when criticizing their ballads as
the work of giving into “girly urges.”[endnoteRef:48] The
author challenges their identity as rock stars; yet clearly has a
bifurcated view of their identity. He alternates between a
feminine “girly” identity for them and a pseudo male identity as
evidenced when he refers to them as “almost cock rock.” Assar
deviates between the Wilsons being girls and women attempting
to assume a male rock star role. He also chose to use an
androgynous photo of them in the article further illustrating his
discomfort with women in the rock arena. Assar conveniently
overlooked the fact that Heart did not write the “girly” songs
that he complains about, in fact “Alone” was written by two
men. The underlying message is that true rock, in this case
“cock rock”, is a testosterone based genre that is fed by sex and
aggression. The term “cock rock” persists in reviews of Heart
and it implies that it is impossible for a woman to be a rock star
because she is physiologically incapable of meeting the
requirements and will never be equal to a man. [47: Vijith
Assar, "Best of Voice Places." New York News, Events,
Restaurants, Music. http://villagevoice.com (accessed
September 16, 2012).] [48: Ibid.]
Female musicians were kept in a liminal role in the industry due
to their gender. They were not full rock stars; they were women
rock stars, always separate, and certainly never viewed as equal
by men in the industry. Pat Benatar had one of the best voices
in rock music and won Grammy Awards in each year from 1981-

59. 1984. When she won her first Grammy Award in 1981 for Best
Rock Performance, Female; this category was not televised but
the Best Rock Performance, Male award was. [endnoteRef:49]
The Grammy Awards did not televise categories that they
believed were not popular. [endnoteRef:50] Pat Benatar’s
experience reflected the lesser status that women in rock and
roll endured. Women were never directly allowed to compete
with men for the same awards. Benatar wrote in her memoir
Between a Heart and a Rock Place about the unwritten rules of
rock and roll and the role of women in it. “They weren’t equals,
they weren’t rock stars, and they weren’t players. Women were
girlfriends or groupies.”[endnoteRef:51] Women were viewed
as not being full rock stars, and were limited by the rampant
discrimination in the industry. The separation of genders in
awards shows demonstrates the male constructed view that
women are incapable of competing with a man for an award.
[49: Pat Benatar and Patsi Bale Cox, Between a Heart and a
Rock Place: a Memoir (New York: William Morrow, 2010), 98.]
[50: Don Franks, "Grammy Awards." In Entertainment awards:
a music, cinema, theatre and broadcasting reference, 1928
through 1993. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1996. 167.] [51: Pat
Benatar and Patsi Bale Cox, Between a Heart and a Rock Place:
a Memoir (New York: William Morrow, 2010), 98.]
The use of pet names and male constructed labels were used in a
derogatory manner to keep women in a less powerful role in the
music industry. Pet names keep women in a liminal state, and
change the balance of power because these types of names are
usually used with children. Names such as “cutie”, “honey”, and
“sweetie” were used when speaking to female
artists.[endnoteRef:52] Beebe-Lewis stated in an interview
that she was told by a supportive man in the industry not to
allow men to degrade her by calling her such names because
“You are not food. You are a person.”[endnoteRef:53] The
Wilsons wrote in their book that it was commonplace for
promotional men in the industry to call them

60. “girls.”[endnoteRef:54] Girls are never in a position of power,
they are children. [52: Laurie Beebe-Lewis, Interview by
author. Phone interview, San Diego, CA, October 2, 2012.]
[53: Ibid. ] [54: Ann and Nancy Wilson, Kicking & Dreaming:
a Story of Heart, Soul, and Rock and Roll (New York: ItBooks,
2012), 116.]
Even greatly successful women such as Pat Benatar had to
contend with being cast into male constructed roles that were
used to dehumanize and limit them. Ann Wilson sang with a
band in 1970 called Hocus Pocus. She had to carefully choose
how to act upon the stage because men were quick to cast her as
a “dominatrix” if she appeared too powerful on stage or as a
“sex kitten” if she were too relaxed. [endnoteRef:55] Benatar
was labeled as a “vixen” and she struggled against this role that
Chrysalis, her record label, wanted her to play. [endnoteRef:56]
Rolling Stone contributor Steve Pond wrote an article about
Benatar in 1980. It was titled “Pat Benatar: This Year’s Model”
and openly called her a “sex symbol.”[endnoteRef:57] Vixens
and sex symbols are both objects; there for the sexual pleasure
of men. When Benatar was pregnant with her first child,
Chrysalis did not want any pictures of her to be taken, or for her
to discuss her pregnancy, and they expected her to resume her
“vixen” role soon after she had her baby.[endnoteRef:58]
Motherhood was not viewed as sexy, and Benatar had broken
free from her assigned role as an object and became a person; a
mother. Women had to endure being labeled in a music industry
run by men because they were viewed as products instead of
people. [55: Ibid., 74.] [56: Pat Benatar and Patsi Bale Cox,
Between a Heart and a Rock Place: a Memoir (New York:
William Morrow, 2010), 98. ] [57: Steve Pond, "Pat Benatar:
This Year’s Model." Rolling Stone | Music News, Politics,
Reviews, Photos, Videos, Interviews and More.
http://www.rollingstone.com (accessed November 2, 2012).]
[58: Pat Benatar and Patsi Bale Cox, Between a Heart and a
Rock Place: a Memoir (New York: William Morrow, 2010),

61. 157.]
Women in rock and roll music were viewed as eye candy and
women either embraced the image or fought against it. The Go-
Go’s did a cover for Rolling Stone that was a picture of the
group in white underwear with the caption “Go-Go’s Put Out.”
Carlisle stated that she loved the cover and laughed when she
saw it.[endnoteRef:59] The Go-Go’s image was the “girls next
door” which was crafted by their marketing department;
however, they in actuality were a hard partying, cursing, and
sexually active group of women. [endnoteRef:60] Blondie was a
band that had one female in it, lead singer Deborah Harry.
Harry was a strikingly beautiful blonde who had a moderate
amount of talent. A Rolling Stone interviewer Richard
Cromelin wrote about her “Deborah doesn’t really care if they
call her a sleazy sex symbol instead of a great singer-as long as
they call her.”[endnoteRef:61] Harry said in the same interview
that she would “...take whatever they want to give
me.”[endnoteRef:62] In a VH1 Behind the Music documentary
Harry said “I wanted people to think I was hot.”[endnoteRef:63]
Harry was a former Playboy Club bunny, and playing up a sexy
image was probably not something that was objectionable to
her. For women such as Carlisle and Harry any publicity
appeared to be good publicity. [59: Belinda Carlisle, Lips
Unsealed: a Memoir (New York: Crown, 2010), 91.] [60:
""Behind The Music Remastered: The Go-Go's" ( Ep. 309 ) from
Behind The Music Remastered | Full Episode | VH1.com." VH1
| Shows + Celebrity + Music + Pop Culture.
http://www.vh1.com/video/behind-the-music-remastered/full-
episodes/behind-the-music-remastered-the-go-
gos/1677708/playlist.jhtml (accessed February 7, 2013).] [61:
Richard Cromelin,”Blondie: Wild about Harry.” "Rolling Stone
| Music News, Politics, Reviews, Photos, Videos, Interviews
and More." Rolling Stone | Music News, Politics, Reviews,
Photos, Videos, Interviews and More.
http://www.rollingstone.com (accessed December 2, 2012).]

62. [62: Ibid.] [63: ""Behind The Music Remastered: Blondie" (
Ep. 311 ) from Behind The Music Remastered | Full Episode |
VH1.com." VH1 | Shows + Celebrity + Music + Pop Culture.
http://www.vh1.com/video/behind-the-music-remastered/full-
episodes/behind-the-music-remastered-
blondie/1678617/playlist.jhtml (accessed March 22, 2013).]
There were women who resisted being “eye candy.” The Wilson
sisters of Heart did care about the image they were projecting.
Ann Wilson stated in a VH1 Behind the Music episode that “We
were not going to be sold as Cheesecake, we were going to be
ourselves.” [endnoteRef:64] In the same interview Nancy
Wilson stated that their music was about the music and not their
image. Only during the 1980s, when Heart had their first
number one singles and were making videos, did their image
change. The band had signed with Capitol Records which was a
very large record label. The label hired designers and stylists to
come in for music video shoots. Instead of the women wearing
outfits that they had either sewed themselves or bought, they
had people who tried to accentuate Nancy’s body and hide
Ann’s. The corporation held them tightly and for the Wilson
sisters it was too late to object to their new
image.[endnoteRef:65] Cyndi Lauper chose her own wardrobe
and crafted her own image. She chose not to be a sex
symbol.[endnoteRef:66] The choice to both play into the
stereotype of sexy women and advance their career or to stand
up for their own personal style, was individualistic. While some
women saw the sexy image as not a problem, others realized
that it was exploitation. [64: ""Behind the Music Remastered:
Heart" ( Ep. 108 ) from Behind The Music Remastered | Full
Episode | VH1.com." VH1 | Shows + Celebrity + Music + Pop
Culture. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Feb.] [65: Ibid.] [66: Cyndi Lauper
and Jancee Dunn, Cyndi Lauper: a Memoir (New York City:
Atria Books, 2012), 148.]
Language was used by men to reinforce the imbalance of power

63. in the manager/talent relationship. The most egregious abuse of
power was by Kim Fowley in the derogatory treatment of the
girls he managed in the Runaways. The girls in the Runaways
were kept in submissive roles and demeaned by Fowley. They
were constantly reminded that it was his band and that they
were replaceable.[endnoteRef:67] They were subjected to
being called “dogs,” “dog shit,” and “dog piss” by Fowley, and
Currie stated that the girls did not understand that it was not
acceptable for them to be treated that way. [endnoteRef:68]
Due to their age and lack of experience, they naively believed
that this was the norm in a rock band. Fowley explained this
treatment of the girls in a documentary by stating that he had a
love of the military and wanted to run the band like a boot
camp.[endnoteRef:69] The difficulty with Fowley’s explanation
is that these were minor children not Marines. Fowley’s
incessant use of the “dog” labels dehumanized them and
emphasized his alpha position as “master” in the relationship.
[67: Cherie Currie and Tony Neill, Neon Angel: a Memoir of a
Runaway (New York: !t, itbooks, 2010), 81.] [68: Ibid.85.]
[69: Edgeplay. Dir. Victory Blue. Perf. Cherie Currie, Lita
Ford, Victory Tischler-Blue, Sandy West, Jackie Fox. Image
Entertainment, 2005. Film.]
Fowley used his position of authority to intimidate and abuse
the girls, Currie in particular. In the 2004 documentary
Edgeplay: A Film About the Runaways, Jackie Fox stated that
Fowley “abused Cherie mercilessly.”[endnoteRef:70] The girls
spoke in the documentary of getting used to the abuse so much
so that they no longer recognized it as abuse. According to
Currie, this man was their manager, he was a father figure to
them, and used them for his own profit.[endnoteRef:71] Fowley
granted an interview to CrawdaddyMagazine in which he told
the interviewer that the best thing that could happen for the
band, because of Currie’s ego, would be if Currie “hung herself
from a shower rod and put herself in the tradition of Marilyn
Monroe” and he used the “dog” reference when speaking of

64. her.[endnoteRef:72] These were girls in a position where they
were vulnerable due to their age and the imbalance of power in
the manager/band relationship. [70: Ibid.] [71: Ibid.] [72:
Cherie Currie and Tony Neill, Neon Angel: a Memoir of a
Runaway (New York: !t, itbooks, 2010), 190.]
There were unwritten rules for behavior in rock and roll music
which were devised to keep women in a submissive role. The
most egregious role violation that women could make was to
play lead guitar in a band. The lead guitar role is the
testosterone driven alpha role within a band with the electric
guitar being a symbolic phallus. If a woman assumed this role,
she effectively emasculated the men in the band. Roni Lee is a
phenomenal electric guitar player. It took years for her to be
able to obtain a job other than a roadie. Lee was allowed to
play with the men backstage but never onstage. Lee stated that
it was acceptable for a woman to be a “chick with a pick,”
meaning the girl who sweetly sang and strummed an acoustic
guitar. [endnoteRef:73] Even today, in order for Lee to be
considered for a job as a lead guitar player, she has to play
better than the men to be considered equal.[endnoteRef:74] Lee
stated that there was a stigma with being a “girl guitar
player.”[endnoteRef:75] As phenomenal as Lee is, she is
typically told that she “plays good for a girl.” [endnoteRef:76]
The classification of “for a girl” limits her accomplishments by
implying that women are not equal to men in that role. Men
choosing to use the word “girl” instead of “woman” places
women in a pre-adolescent liminal state which has less power,
and removes the threat of direct competition. [73: Roni Lee,
Interview by author. Phone interview. San Diego, CA, October
15, 2012.] [74: Ibid.] [75: Ibid.] [76: Ibid.]
Established female artists in successful bands hesitated to
violate the unwritten rule that the lead guitar player in a band
be a man. Nancy Wilson of Heart was the rhythm guitarist for
the band. When the band fired Roger Fisher, their lead guitarist,