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“Homophobia was rampant in LA punk scene and I blame older queers like myself for our silence…” -Tomata du Plenty (Lexicon Devil, 260)
Outside Club 88, Darby Crash gave Phranc the infamous cigarette “Germs burn,” a circular mark connecting the two, and thus bringing her officially into the punk network. Yet, Crash’s and Phranc’s openness about the identities would separate their roles within the punk scene.
Phranc (nee Susan Gottlieb) talked overtly about being a lesbian amongst a somewhat un-accepting scene, as depicted by Crash’s reluctance to identify as gay. Phranc in her own words explains “I was always out as a lesbian. I can’t remember any other out queers at that time. There were the Screamers but nobody ever really talked or sang about them being queer.” She took pride in writing songs that dealt with the issues of lesbians, but also sought to reach everybody. In no way did Phranc want her sexuality to define her, for it is as she describes “...part of me like my haircut and shoes...” (She’s a Rebel, 311). In such a way, Phranc unlike Tomata du Plenty (as explained in the opening quotation) spoke up about her identity, but did not push it as the end-all.
Phranc joined the punk scene in the early 80s in order to enter a new peer group founded on excitement, creativity, and politics. Playing with bands Nervous Gender and Catholic Discipline (featured in The Decline of Western Civilization), Phranc sang and screamed her way into the subculture. Later, she took up folk music, but carried punk’s political messages, also with more openness about her sexuality. A self-proclaimed, "Jewish-Lesbian folksinger," Phranc's solo career included not only music, but parody. Notably, her show Hot August Phranc, (a take on Neil Diamond's Hot August Night) centers on Phranc performing hypermasculinity, in turn questioning sexuality and pop culture. She both embodies a Diamond-esque assertiveness, while highlighting masculine absurdities. Phranc, through performance, subverts sexual roles with songs like Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon and Cracklin' Rosie, as she directed them towards men in the audience.
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12016-04-13T13:31:31-07:00Casey Diaz070c773ac008bf619142bbad2de8c516fbf3b25dNetworkH. N. Lukes17plain2016-06-10T15:38:33-07:00H. N. Lukes76bfab3424b1e3a4a686ed031370b6dfac5dd2dd
12016-04-25T12:50:28-07:00Nervous Gender-Monsters1Nervous Gender is a punk band founded in Los Angeles, California in 1978 by Gerardo Velazquez, Edward Stapleton, Phranc and Michael Ochoa. Their use of ...plain2016-04-25T12:50:28-07:00
