A Tribute to Joan Jett

[Jamastiene]

When I was a little kid, I was denied the chance to play Little League baseball. I was great on all the neighborhood teams. I was among the first picked to play on neighborhood baseball teams, actually. So, when the Little League season started and I was finally old enough to join at Browder Park, the City of Rockingham's Parks and Recreation, everyone in the neighborhood just knew I would be one of the greats.

Yes, most of the neighborhood team was male. I was the only girl who could play good enough to play with them, and they made no bones about it when they invited their friends over to play with us. It was known that I was playing. Anybody who had a problem with it could skedaddle.

But...

In 1977, five full years after Title IX became law, the City of Rockingham Parks and Recreation, aka Browder Park, in Rockingham, NC would not let me play, because I was a girl. I was heartbroken.

That was when I began to grow up and also began to understand my hometown for what it really is; an unlawful, misogynistic, homophobic, hateful place.

I got depressed about it and felt lower than shit for a long time. Then, a hero (to me) emerged for me to listen to and take heart. Listening to Joan Jett talk in interviews and listening to her music, I saw that she went through much of the same stuff.

I could go on and on about things that have happened in my life since that day way back when, including being raped for being a lesbian in this shit hole town, but that's not what this tribute is about.

This tribute is about a woman who kept on going through it all no matter what obscenities or hate were thrown her way. It's the only way women, GLBT, or anyone who is being oppressed can really deal with life in any positive way; just keep going and

BE.WHO.YOU.ARE.

Every single one of these songs is for us, about us, and speak to many of us. Some of these songs are songs I listened to growing up and some of these songs are songs Joan Jett has made recently. One common theme these songs all share is be who you are.

Androgynous
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Bs6QT82Tu4

AC/DC
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFAj-k0mff4

Crimson & Clover
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdhonK8NMm8

Fake Friends
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAhIGxVNAOI

Everyday People
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t75jGfIW1Rk

Androgynous/Spinster
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aspaCuRIIQ

Don't Surrender
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_a6gbdhIt30

[Cheap_Trick]

1. Kristen Stewart from "Twilight" is set to play Joan in a biopic of "The Runaways"

http://www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/1600580/20081203/story.jhtml

Dakota Fanning is in talks to portray lead singer Cherie Currie.

No word on who is playing Lita Ford.

[Jamastiene]

2. I can't wait to see it.

I rarely get to see movies any more, but that one is one I am looking forward to in a big way. :)

[closeupready]

9. Kristen Stewart is gorgeous, and she soo looks like Joan Jett,

it's actually kind of scary. I really want to see this film.

But more on topic, I ALWAYS loved Joan Jett. I have always been drawn to dyke-y women, I guess because I feel a kinship with those who do not conform to gender stereotypes, because duh, neither do I. It was nice growing up in a village not that different from your Rockingham to know that a more-or-less out lesbian could be successful and happy.

[Oeditpus Rex]

3. I just freaking adore you

Wanna have a catch? :D :loveya:



BTW — just about the time your asswrench park and rec department was discriminating against you, a friend of mine who was a sportswriter for the local paper became the first woman to cover our minor-league ball club, which meant (Gasp!) going into the clubhouse for interviews, right there with the nekkid mens! It was such a Big Deal that one of the local teevee stations did a story on her, in which she looked terribly uncomfortable on camera.

A few years later, she told me the reason. Much as she loved baseball and journalism, she hardly wanted to be a pioneer, and in fact had been quite sexually repressed while growing up. Just the thought of being around naked men traumatized her.

(The whole thing was ridiculously overblown, anyway. There's no reason any reporter would have to go into the clubhouse for interviews; they could always be conducted in the tunnel just outside it. But "Women's Lib" was still a Big Deal then, so...)

[Jamastiene]

7. I adore you too.

:hug: :loveya:

[bluedawg12]

4. As always

your words are touching and wise.
:hug:

[Jamastiene]

8. Thank you.

:hug:

[Bluenorthwest]

5. Joan Jett is so cool

She's so cool that I'm cool just because I sat near her at an Elvis Costello gig at the Palomino years ago.
And many don't know that Joan is one of the top requests from the USO, requested by those in service. And she's gone to Iraq more than once.
Joan's just cool.

[Jamastiene]

6. And she funded her own tour of

Afghanistan too. A lot of people don't know that.

[closeupready]

10. I believe the NY Times did a profile on her some years back and they stated that she

had taken the money from her success and invested it successfully, so that she was able to retire quite young. :)

BTW, Bad Reputation was, IMHO, her best collection. Not her fault but an unfortunate fact in light of subsequent events, several of the recordings on that album were remakes of Gary Glitter numbers. Though of course, his crimes lie quite separate from his artistic works.