Beat woman

15 February 2006

"People didn't take women's art or writing seriously in 1950s America. Women were supposed to get married right out of school and options seemed very limited. Of course, bright women rebelled against this."

Kerouac's lover Joyce Johnson talks Beat:

Why were there not more female Beat writers?
The Beat writers were all much older than the women they got involved with. The women were all much more neophyte writers at that time and the men had been doing it for a while. Some women writers did come out of it, though. America in the 1950s was a very un-free time for women and there were a lot of misogynistic feelings. A lot of younger people don't realise how different it was.

How were women viewed by the Beat men?
Very often women supplied the home base for men. A lot of women on the arts scene went out and got jobs and supported men who were artists. And there was a real double standard: men wanted to be free but, at the same time, they wanted a fixed relationship as a base to return to.

Joyce Johnson's Minor Characters is the Woman's Hour Drama this week on Radio 4.

[A nod to Splinters]