Linda Lovelace Painting

Punk seems to be the first mass culture movement which has let women to decide for themselves what their looks would be: be it scary, slutty, ugly, sexy, feminine, butchy or androgyn punk. Punk appearance is all about scandalizing conformists and destroying the patriarchal constructs of what is masculine or feminine. It gives you the power to do it your way. Earlier in the decade, in 1972, Deep Throat, an American pornographic film, took the mainstream cinemas by storm and opened the gate to what is called the porno chic and to sexual liberation. Despite the obviously male perspective of the storytelling, the story of a girl in a quest to find her sexual pleasure triggers, has staged female sexuality as equivalent to the male one. Subsequent obscenity trials against the film have re-established the freedom of speech: no matter if you like it or not, people are free to express their opinions. photo credit: Ron Galella (Linda Lovelace at the press conference for the book Inside Linda Lovelace, 1973, NYC)