The Sex Revolt And New Women Strategies In Music

This paper is a tentative study of women rocker musicians' sex struggle and revolt through music they produced. Through Charles Willson Peale's famous painting Benjamin and Eleanor Ridgely Laming, it is pointed out that we are long cultured to be patriarchal and the male-female binary oppositions are seeded deep down inside our heart. It is the same for music. Misogyny, female exscription (the absence of women), woman-killing and self-proclaimed kings are everywhere in rock and roll music arena. Next a discussion is made of the interactions and dynamics between The Dynamo and the Virgin which is the content of an article by Henry Adams. He stresses the equal importance of both powers—dynamo and virgin, that is the technology and church, while our modern society interprets the dynamo and virgin into man vs. woman ideology. The following main part addresses the four approaches of women's revolt. That is Can Do approach (anything a man can do, a woman can do too), Push Femininity to the Fore approach (highly celebrate female imagery and dressing up), Confessional Catharsis approach (tell it like it is and self realization) and Double Allegiance approach (shed gender shackle and do whatever women want to do). From all of the above, the conclusion is drawn that the different strategies are not the ultimate goal, and what women want is the equal opportunity of being, of participating and of living.