13 ‘Mummy … what is a Sex Pistol?’
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Matthew Worley
Abstract
British punk has typically been presented as a response to either the pop cultural or political context of the 1970s. As a reaction to an ageing and increasingly bloated rock form, punk offered a youthful return to basics: short, sharp songs full of energy and volatility. However, British punk also emerged dressed in the clothes produced from Malcolm McLaren’s and Vivienne Westwood’s SEX emporium on the King’s Road in London. The translation of fetishwear into fashion-wear was very much part of punk’s claims to originality. Indeed, the name ‘Sex Pistols’ alluded to a seditious sexuality that served as integral to the band’s unruly provocation. This chapter examines how sex and sexuality fed into the presentation and performance of early British punk. It draws from the clothes, records, artworks and interviews of the time, connecting to the theories of Wilhelm Reich that intrigued McLaren and locating sexual ‘deviance’ as a key part of punk’s cultural arsenal. It will explore SEX’s engagement with pornography and the underground world of rubber fetishism, utilising contemporary publications and film to reveal how McLaren and Westwood envisaged punk’s sexual subversion. In so doing, the chapter contextualises punk within a broader cultural context of artistic challenges to sexual mores, revealing how punk helped redefine – or at least confuse – notions of sex and sexuality in both musical and stylistic terms.
Abstract
British punk has typically been presented as a response to either the pop cultural or political context of the 1970s. As a reaction to an ageing and increasingly bloated rock form, punk offered a youthful return to basics: short, sharp songs full of energy and volatility. However, British punk also emerged dressed in the clothes produced from Malcolm McLaren’s and Vivienne Westwood’s SEX emporium on the King’s Road in London. The translation of fetishwear into fashion-wear was very much part of punk’s claims to originality. Indeed, the name ‘Sex Pistols’ alluded to a seditious sexuality that served as integral to the band’s unruly provocation. This chapter examines how sex and sexuality fed into the presentation and performance of early British punk. It draws from the clothes, records, artworks and interviews of the time, connecting to the theories of Wilhelm Reich that intrigued McLaren and locating sexual ‘deviance’ as a key part of punk’s cultural arsenal. It will explore SEX’s engagement with pornography and the underground world of rubber fetishism, utilising contemporary publications and film to reveal how McLaren and Westwood envisaged punk’s sexual subversion. In so doing, the chapter contextualises punk within a broader cultural context of artistic challenges to sexual mores, revealing how punk helped redefine – or at least confuse – notions of sex and sexuality in both musical and stylistic terms.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- Figures and tables vii
- Contributors viii
- Acknowledgements xiii
- Introduction – Let’s spend the night together 1
- 1 Where were you? UK chart pop and the commodification of the teenage libido, 1952–63 16
- 2 The Jerry Lee Lewis scandal, the popular press and the moral standing of rock ’n’ roll in late 1950s Britain 38
- 3 ‘I’m different; I’m tough; I fuck’ 58
- 4 ‘We are no longer certain, any of us, what is “right” and what is “wrong”’ 75
- 5 Lovers’ lanes and Haystacks 94
- 6 Queering modernism 113
- 7 ‘You just let your hair down’ 132
- 8 Singing Elton’s song 152
- 9 ‘Nothing like a little disaster for sorting things out’ 170
- 10 ‘Everything gets boring after a time’ 185
- 11 Run the track, but no bother chat slack 205
- 12 ‘This could be a night to remember’ 220
- 13 ‘Mummy … what is a Sex Pistol?’ 238
- 14 The ‘style terrorism’ of Siouxsie Sioux 258
- 15 Coming of age Asian and Muslim in post-punk West Yorkshire 275
- 16 ‘I’m your man’ 293
- Index 310
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- Figures and tables vii
- Contributors viii
- Acknowledgements xiii
- Introduction – Let’s spend the night together 1
- 1 Where were you? UK chart pop and the commodification of the teenage libido, 1952–63 16
- 2 The Jerry Lee Lewis scandal, the popular press and the moral standing of rock ’n’ roll in late 1950s Britain 38
- 3 ‘I’m different; I’m tough; I fuck’ 58
- 4 ‘We are no longer certain, any of us, what is “right” and what is “wrong”’ 75
- 5 Lovers’ lanes and Haystacks 94
- 6 Queering modernism 113
- 7 ‘You just let your hair down’ 132
- 8 Singing Elton’s song 152
- 9 ‘Nothing like a little disaster for sorting things out’ 170
- 10 ‘Everything gets boring after a time’ 185
- 11 Run the track, but no bother chat slack 205
- 12 ‘This could be a night to remember’ 220
- 13 ‘Mummy … what is a Sex Pistol?’ 238
- 14 The ‘style terrorism’ of Siouxsie Sioux 258
- 15 Coming of age Asian and Muslim in post-punk West Yorkshire 275
- 16 ‘I’m your man’ 293
- Index 310
