FEATURE:
She Loves You
Why the Recent Promotion Around The Beatles’ Now and Then Raises Questions About Gender Representation
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I wasn’t quite sure…
how to headline this feature. What I want to talk about is how, especially when it comes to male bands and iconic acts, many female journalists and superfans are ignored in favour of men. Journalist and broadcaster Samira Ahmed tweeted after the release of The Beatles’ Now and Then. She is a massive fan of the band. Whilst so many fans took to social media to show their love of the song – which was released on 2nd November -, her tweet did raise questions. When you look at the vast majority of articles written about the song, and especially the radio and T.V. coverage of journalists and fans talking about the song and its impact, they are mostly men. It is not only an issue with The Beatles. The fact that women are not as included and spotlighted when it comes to getting viewpoints and discussion about their music. Almost excluding them from the debate. Of course, they are not consciously being pushed aside. It just seems like the easy go-to for broadcasters like the BBC is to find men to talk about The Beatles. Whether journalists, broadcasters or anyone else in the media, it does seem that men are favoured. The Beatles would not be as huge and popular as they are without their female fans. Those most ardent and passionate fans you see in old gig footage is usually girls and young women. The assumption that the most respected and authoritative fans of the band are men betrays a debt to women. I still think that there needs to be a correction of the narrative. That view that those screaming girls and women in the 1960s were hysterical or groupies. It was those women that gave the band their confidence and energy!
Samira Ahmed had a good point when she raised that issue as to why few women were invited to speak about The Beatles’ Now and Then. In terms of the major books about the band, most have been written by men (even though many brilliant ones have been written by women). There are scores of artists, podcast episodes and other examples of women expressing their love for The Beatles, though. Some of the most insightful and dedicated fans are women. Even so, there was still this reliance on male voices when we heard the interviews and reactions to The Beatles’ Now and Then. I don’t think it is only that band where gender inequality and disparity is quite glaring – ignoring the fact that I feel the most committed and loyal fans of the band back in the day were girls and women. Look at artists like David Bowie, and I feel like it would be mostly men invited to speak if a ‘new’ Bowie song came out. Why is there still this assumption that most of the expertise and insight about The Beatles comes from men?! There are millions of female Beatles fans that should be heard and highlighted. It is not the fact that they do not want to talk about them. In terms of Now and Then, there were countless examples of women in the media and society who would have added value perspective and colour. Yet, it was mostly (white) men who were asked to the party. In 2017, this article was published that discussed the females in The Beatles’ fandom:
“It’s been noted by a number of bloggers, (including myself) just how male-dominated the field of Beatles historiography is. Every major work in the Beatles canon, including but not limited to those by authors such as Davies, Norman, MacDonald, and Lewisohn, were written by males. This male domination goes back to the band’s earliest days, when the interviews the band provided were almost unerringly granted to male journalists, because that one gender dominated both the field of journalism in general and the rock journalist profession almost entirely. This one-sided perspective becomes even more difficult to reconcile given the apparent gender equity of Beatles audiences and fans, both then and now; unlike the Rolling Stones, the Beatles were a band that, by most estimates, had a fan base that was at least fifty percent female.
PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images via The Washington Post
This exclusively male-filtered perspective on the Beatles and their music – and its very real consequences on how the band’s story has been and continues to be told — is one that is only starting to receive serious, sustained discussion. Indeed, for me, the highlights of Womack’s “New Critical Perspectives” are the essays by author Kit O’Toole (“She Said/She Said,”) and Katie Kapurch, (“The Beatles Girl Culture and the Melodramatic Mode,”) which focus on this long overlooked demographic: examining the role of the female fan with insight and acknowledgement rather than condescension or dismissal.
Kapurch’s essay takes a look at how the Beatles’ use of predominantly feminine associated art forms and methods such as melodrama and “girl-group” discourse helped popularize them with their female fans, and allowed female fans to self-identify with the band.
O’Toole rightly notes how it was the female fans who helped catapult the Beatles to fame and legend, in no small part by their impassioned responses and “buying the records in droves,” and that, when the powers that be finally acknowledged the Beatles’ talent, they did so while insulting and sidelining the band’s previous fans and largest demographic. When the male-dominated press reported on the band, their descriptions of female fans ran the gamut from insulting – one news report, showing an impassioned Beatles female audience, intoned “does it disturb you to realize that these girls will soon become mothers?” – to condescending and dismissive. In his 2008 biography of John, author Philip Norman argues that, while the majority of female fans preferred Paul – presumably for his looks – the thoughtful, intellectual and predominantly male fans preferred John as their favorite Beatle.
In “She Said/She Said,” O’Toole quotes Sheryl Garratt’s essay ‘Teenage Dreams,’ about the widespread dismissal of female teenaged infatuations: “What the press or any of the self-appointed analysts of ‘popular culture’ fail to reflect is that the whole pop structure rests on the back of these ‘silly, screaming girls.” Female Beatles author Candy Leonard argues that the stereotype of the hysterical female fan was a crucial factor in denying females a place at the males only Beatles historiography table: “If you look at fan images from fifty years ago, they are 99% female, but today, 99% of the ‘experts’ are male. So there’s a disconnect. The hysterical girl fan became a caricature …the legacy of those images today is the perception that women can’t have anything intelligent to say about the Beatles, their music, or the phenomenon.” O’Toole notes the growing amount of female voices on the band, but her list only includes approximately 8 women. Whether female voices were purposefully or unintentionally sidelined, there is little denying O’Toole’s and Kapurch’s argument that the female perspective – on the band’s history, on their own fan experiences, on music criticism – has been, and for the moment continues to be, overlooked”.
Not to take anything away from the wave of joy and emotion that greeted the release of The Beatles’ final single, Now and Then. Everyone had a chance to express their reaction online, though it would have been nice if the media and stations invited more women to speak. Have their say and discuss their relationship with the band. As I have said – and as many say -, it is women who have helped to make the band and were, in my view, their most dedicated fans. Even so, in 2023, why is it mainly male voices that are sought after when it comes to ‘expertise’?! Of course, men can’t be left out, though how many women did we hear on radio stations and elsewhere talking about this seismic and historic music moment?! Samira Ahmed’s tweet is perfectly valid. She asked why women were not more included. This decades-long gender issue. Women who formed such a huge and vital core of Beatles fandom still maybe seen as lacking the knowledge and experience that their male counterparts have when it comes to importance and legacy. I know of so many women who have incredible knowledge of The Beatles – and yet I only heard a couple or so on radio and T.V. That was quite sad and angering! There will be more opportunities for superfans of The Beatles to discuss news and new releases, so I hope that things are corrected. Years from now, will all the most ‘important’ books, opinions and articles about The Beatles be from men?! Invaluable views and perspectives from women are not being championed and augmented. This seems wrong. When it comes to context, history, balance and such a unique and vital perspective, their voices are so…
IMPORTANT to hear.