The Gender Equality Checkpoint

[Sundae]

Okay, now I know this is WAAAAAAAY out of date.
But someone I know posted a link to some sort of behind-the-scenes Beastie Boys video.
It was the '80s. I listened to them in the '80s.
Shoot, I listened to them in 1992, when I went on my l'il solitary roadtrip to Wales to celebrate my 30th birthday (This was BC - before Cellar.) But I also listened to Dolly Parton, Carter USM, The Pet Shop Boys and various musicals, as well as Radio One.

Anyway, I watched it, expecting to laugh.
Hahaha, Beastie Boys, with their attitude and everything. I didn't expect them to be Guardian (Huffington Post?) readers or bleeding heart liberals or sitting knitting or anything. I mean, I'd listened to their lyrics. At the time, and later. And I even sang along. In an ironic way, y'get me (no, not really).

But it really shocked me. Not just the way they treated the women (girls) who came backstage, but the way the girls were so desperate to be "cool" that they let themselves and the appearances which they'd surely contrived to be attractive to get backstage, be trashed by silly boys, with whipped cream, honey, whisky, whatever.

I'm not specifically making a point about their appearance, but that was what struck me as most ironic - that they would work on it all day (I never got hair that high - and I tried) and then just pretend it was fun when it was ruined.
It was acceptable in the '80s and all that.

I'm certainly not doing a Chrissie Hyndes.
I'm just saying what I started watching as a laugh, something that exists in my timeline, was really quite shocking to me.

I may have enjoyed Licensed to Ill, but I'd never have let them Boys into my house.
Cat in the Hat and all that.