Bad Reputation Movie Review

The film “Bad Reputation”, was a documentary about music artist Joan Jett, and her musical journey as a woman in the rock industry. It begins with her early teen-years where she gets her first guitar and gains interest in starting an all girl rock group which has never been seen before. This stirred a lot of controversy in the 1970s because they were female and this genre of music was male dominated. Throughout this film we learn about the ups and downs of her life and career and also what she had to face to be where she is now. In the film, there’s an old interview of Joan’s where she’s asked about being famous and what she wanted to achieve in her career. She answers that she wants to be famous for standing up for something and being one of the first females to do rock music. In my opinion, she did exactly that and she inspired many others to do this also. 

I chose this film because I’m a huge fan of rock music. Growing up, my mother exposed me to the rock genre very young and I remember my favorite song was Bad Reputation by Joan Jett. My interest in women in the music industry especially rock grew from there. After seeing the movie, “The Runaways”, I was intrigued by Joan Jett's story and what she went through as an artist. I’ve watched so many interviews about her and seen her in concert once and plan to see her again next year.  All throughout high school, anytime we had a project and we could choose the topic, I always chose rock music. When I took Women Studies in high school, I did a project on women in the rock industry and their struggles with trying to work in a male dominated field and I remember at that time, Joan had a documentary coming out soon and I really wanted to see it and learn more about her.

After watching this documentary, Joan Jett is definitely a femiminist. She broke and continues to break many boundaries and norms set by performing rock music (which is a male dominated genre and industry). She decided to form an all girl rock band and at this time, this was never seen before. Joan wanted to prove that girls can play just as well as boys and if you ask me, she did. Through this fight to be equal as men, Joan and her band members didn’t receive support by the men. Joan explains how she was constantly attacked verbally and physically. She was called almost every horrible name in the book, spat on, and was even injured many times. She mentions how someone threw a beer bottle at her and split her head open or having a rib cracked from getting a battery thrown at her, all because she simply wanted to be equal to the men. In my eyes, this makes her a femiminist because she went through all this and never gave up and continued to fight to do what she loved. When people told her that she couldn’t do something she always proved them wrong and fought to get what she wanted. 

This documentary shows that women weren’t allowed to play in the sandbox. Joan Jett was very serious about what she wanted to accomplish. In interviews, she never received the same questions as the men did. Interviewers always tried to sexualize her by only asking questions about sex just because she was a girl. Interviewers also asked her questions about starting a family or when she plays, does she feel like a man or a woman. All of these questions were ludicrous and would never be asked to a man. Instead of giving into this agenda, Joan always turned the questions into her music and what she was working on. A lot of news articles then wrote negative things about her. She and her bandmates were called lesbians on several occasions and many times the news made up stories about them and wrote things that weren’t true. 

There were many ways the effects of patriarchy, male privilege, or oppression was put on Joan Jett. . In her childhood, I didn’t see the effects of this put on her. Much like the “Gender as a Social Construct” section we’ve discussed, her family never pushed a gender norm on her. Her parents bought her an electric guitar even though girls were “Supposed” to only play the acoustic guitar. They always supported her goals and dreams even if it was considered a male profession.  Outside of her family, people told her that playing guitar was only for men.

When she first started performing with her band, men were treating them as a joke at first because they thought that women couldn’t possibly play rock music. Men never took them seriously and were sort of laughing at them. Joan mentions that, once the group planned to do what the men in the rock industry were doing like going on tour or making an album, the whole dynamic changed. Men weren’t supportive of the group and began to attack them in many ways. 

Even their manager, who was a man, kind of didn’t treat them as equals. Joan and her band members also discussed how they weren’t getting paid even though they were selling out venues and this was because their manager was taking their money that they worked hard for. He also tried many times to push this sexual narrative on the group even though the girls didn’t agree with this. It reminds me a lot of the male gaze we discussed in class last week. The manager tried to sexualize the group many times and decided that the lead singer, Cherie, had to be sexual in order for them to be noticed. Cherie was considered a blonde bombshell who wore lingerie on stage for the male gaze. This was completely opposite of Joan who had black hair and dressed in punk leather clothes. When Cherie left the group, Joan became the lead singer and this changed people's viewpoints on the group. Her manager didn’t really like this and seemed to not realize that Joan was so talented and did not have to be sexualized. The band members discussed that the manager caused a lot of issues and damage in the group. After realizing that their manager didn’t have their best interest, they fired him.

During the film, it was also discussed that women weren’t allowed to be as sexual as the men. When she released music that was sexual, she was considered to be rebellious and dirty. They also talked about how there’s a double standard in the industry. Mick Jagger was seen being sexual with a giant inflatable sexual organ on stage but if the females were to do the same thing the media would have a field day with it and they would be looked down upon.   

When going solo, Joan Jett sent out her album and songs for free just wanting to get her music out here and to get signed to a record label but it didn’t work out. In the film, they showed documentation of rejection letters from record companies to Joan basically saying that she needed to change things about her in order for them to sign her. One letter told her to “lose the guitar” which is something that she’s strongly known for. Men in this industry didn’t have to experience these issues. But, Joan still fought and then decided to create her own label since no one else would sign her. She figured out that she didn’t have to beg a man to sign her or use his money to get her name out there. 

Overall, I really enjoyed the film. I’ve always loved Joan Jett and what she stands for and this film made me love her even more. As a female fan of rock music, I loved hearing about the woman's point of view and their journey overtime. Things have changed but, not significantly. Women aren’t physically attacked or harmed like Joan was on stage but there are still improvements that need to be made. Women are still not equal to the men in many ways. Men can make sexual songs but, women can’t do this without being called harsh names and looked at differently. Women are still asked questions about starting a family and getting married. Basically pushing gender and social norms on them. On the other hand, one thing I didn’t enjoy about the film was that I noticed that even though the documentary is about Joan Jett and her struggles, each accomplishment that she had seemed to have mentioned how a man got her there. It seems as though the narrative is saying that without these men, Joan wouldn’t have gone as far as she did and I didn’t enjoy that aspect of it. Whoever put the documentary together, always seemed to throw a man into Joan’s achievements. But, other than that, I really enjoyed the film and I would definitely watch it again.