"It was trying to break down the stereotypes and it was the kind of thing where, for the first time, women were on a par and not seen as just objects. Though girls were objectified still"
About this Quote
The line lands like a backstage confession: punk’s promise of liberation, delivered with the aftertaste of compromise. Siouxsie Sioux is talking about a scene that sold itself as a jailbreak from old rules, but she refuses the tidy victory lap. That push-pull - “on a par” immediately undercut by “objectified still” - captures the core tension of late-70s/early-80s counterculture: it could smash musical hierarchies and fashion norms while quietly recycling the oldest gender script in the room.
Her intent reads as both claim and correction. Yes, something shifted. Women weren’t automatically relegated to groupies, girlfriends, or decorative accessories; they could front bands, command stages, define aesthetics. “For the first time” signals how radical mere parity felt in an industry built on male genius myths. But the sentence doesn’t let the movement mythologize itself. The trailing clause functions like a needle on a record: even in subcultures that fetishized transgression, women’s bodies were still treated as public property - watched, commented on, consumed.
The subtext is political without sounding like a manifesto. She’s pointing to how “breaking stereotypes” can become its own brand while leaving deeper power dynamics intact. Punk and post-punk often turned women into symbols of edgy modernity - striking, confrontational, stylized - which can look like agency from a distance and feel like extraction up close.
Context matters: Siouxsie wasn’t just observing. She was the image, the voice, the target, and the author of the look. The line insists on a messy truth: visibility isn’t the same as equality, and being taken seriously doesn’t automatically mean being left alone.
Her intent reads as both claim and correction. Yes, something shifted. Women weren’t automatically relegated to groupies, girlfriends, or decorative accessories; they could front bands, command stages, define aesthetics. “For the first time” signals how radical mere parity felt in an industry built on male genius myths. But the sentence doesn’t let the movement mythologize itself. The trailing clause functions like a needle on a record: even in subcultures that fetishized transgression, women’s bodies were still treated as public property - watched, commented on, consumed.
The subtext is political without sounding like a manifesto. She’s pointing to how “breaking stereotypes” can become its own brand while leaving deeper power dynamics intact. Punk and post-punk often turned women into symbols of edgy modernity - striking, confrontational, stylized - which can look like agency from a distance and feel like extraction up close.
Context matters: Siouxsie wasn’t just observing. She was the image, the voice, the target, and the author of the look. The line insists on a messy truth: visibility isn’t the same as equality, and being taken seriously doesn’t automatically mean being left alone.
Quote Details
| Topic | Equality |
|---|
More Quotes by Siouxsie
Add to List
