Though some forget, rock and roll always has been about rising against the system – about giving voice to dissatisfaction and unruly desire. But it’s also been wildly male-dominated, as if everyone tacitly agreed that guitars were extensions of phalluses that woman had no business strapping on. The result? There may be nothing more fundamentally rock and roll than a woman defying the powers-that-be by wielding an axe while howling her guts out. In the last few years, some of these goddesses have penned memoirs. Raw, smart, and stirring, they’re the stuff of which adaptation dreams are made. Sure enough, a Showtime series based on Patti Smith’s Just Kids is already in the works. Smith, who is co-writing and creating the series, has said she wants Rob Pattinson and Kristen Stewart to play artist Robert Mapplethorpe and herself, respectively. (Given the former “Twilight” dream team’s recent edgy work, it’s not as bad a call as it may seem.) Here are five other recent lady rocker memoirs that would make amazing biopics, with the stars and directors who could make them happen. Continue Reading →
Archive | Feminist Matters
Sunshine Grit
Yellow, yellow, not so mellow. A friend snapped this picture of me yesterday as I was striding to meet her for brunch. I love it. It seems the quintessential image of Summer 2015, which is turning out to be chockablock with the kind of challenges that will define the rest of my decade for better and worse. Yellow is the color of the third chakra, which is all about gut instincts, personal transformation, will power, and grownup-lady warrior energy. Yes, yes, yes, yes.
The People We Choose
There’s nothing better than gussying up for a girl date, romantic or otherwise. Heck, all girl dates are romantic. At the very least, you know that those small flourishes have a good chance of being appreciated. Exhibit A: my dear friend Rachel and me. Last night, along with another sweet lady, we had midcentury prime rib and cocktails at Midtown’s Smith & Wollensky, the most midcentury steakhouse of them all. (We also ate creamed spinach, if you need a complete picture.) When I got home, I felt soothed rather than savaged, which reminded me of a favorite quote from the Los Angeles essayist Eve Babitz:
I had a collection of lovers to keep me warm and my friendships with women, who always fascinated me by their wit, bravery, and resourcefulness, and who never told you the same story twice. I mean, you can go places with a woman and come back just fine. As my agent, Erica, plowed right in and said: “You know when you have dinner with a girlfriend, you’re going to come back a whole human being.”
*Update: Part of me hesitated before putting up this post since it seems retrogressive in terms of its gender polarity. So, to be clear: I am talking about anyone who embraces womanhood–the whole spectrum, from transwomen to delicious butches who uphold their womanhood (just not their femininity, which to my mind is super different).