The Runaways: music, fashion and 'post-feminism'

This article considers the intersection of biographical myth, music and gender politics through a discussion of the film The Runaways (Floria Sigismondi, 2010). In focusing in particular on themes of gender identity and fashion, it not only aims to uncover the ways in which this film presents the individual biographical stories of lead band members Joan Jett and Cherie Currie, but also to retell these histories through what it will argue is a clear 'post-feminist' lens. In doing so, the film cultivates a number of cultural myths about the participation of women in the music industry. This article is ultimately interested in how music as a particular cultural space has been idealized, romanticized and thus overestimated as a place where such issues could be addressed, and how critical engagement with music fails to fully consider the position of women within the industry. Consequently, popular culture becomes an important reference point for audiences' understanding of women's lives within music, the reality of which can be obscured because of the retrospective stance of biographical film in particular. Importantly, this article is concerned with the consequences of such positions, which locate issues of gender inequality in music in the past rather than the present.