Quatro’s Identity

Suzi Quatro took on a very masculine roll within media and society much like how Bowie took on a feminine roll. These personas both challenged gender norms within the public sphere and pushed the boundaries of performance rock. Auslander talks about Quatro’s masculinity portrayal in media through interviews and compares her gender-roll reversal to Bowie: “Like Bowie, Quatro performed her persona offstage as well as on. In interviews, she frequently portrayed herself as tough and masculine by drawing attention to the smallness of her breasts, using salty language, and ogling voluptuous women.” (Auslander, pg 200) I feel that Quatro understood her impact she had upon pop culture and society and in turn she consciously chose to challenge the gender rolls. I believe this because she portrayed her masculine image both on and offstage, suggesting that it was part of her identity and not just a roll she played.
The choice to portray a masculine roll may also be a conscious decision on Quatro’s part because of the bias built into rock and roll’s roots. Society tends to lean in favor of male dominated ideals and this leads to gender challenges, especially for women. Auslander writes: “Because rock is culturally understood to be a male form, female rockers are automatically assumed to be inauthentic.” (Auslander, pg 204) This assumption of inauthenticity plays an important roll in how females have been treated within rock and pop culture in society. Often if a female is successful with a band or as an individual artist their success is attributed to the male in charge of the record company or management. Because of these standards found in Rock (and most pop culture) Quatro’s masculine attributes only helped authenticate her roll as a rock-n-roll performer.
Suzi was able to acknowledge how the masculine roll she played was only a persona and did not actually make up her “real” identity. She recognized that there was great appeal for a hard, badass, and masculine image, and therefore she was well aware of the tensions between gender rolls. “Quatro herself summarizes her position by saying: ‘I was enjoying the delights of beating the men at their own game and still being a woman.” (Auslander, pg 212) By utilizing masculine characteristics Suzi was able to reach out to a much larger audience, and in turn she became a very influential idol in the development of rock. Quatro was also able to utilize the aspect of gender rolls such as the way male glam rockers did before her. By taking on male characteristics she was portraying an aspect of society she probably didn’t like and used it to her benefit. In the same way camp takes on a homosexual roll to question hegemony, Quatro took something oppressing and turned it into a tool to fight back and speak her voice.