Heya! Bevās misogyny is also a problem in The ELO Story. Much of the problem in the first place stems from Bev taking much of his thoughts and writings from the diary he kept while in the band at the time, so many of his personal opinions end up injected into the final product. Itās supposed to prioritize ELO, since itās their origin story, but Bev didnāt streamline it and kept his opinions as a part of it. Bev and Jeff usually didnāt shy away from talking about the gritty origins of the band, so I think in this line of thinking Bev didnāt want to hold back and dumped all of his thoughts through his time in the band up to 1980āand now we have casual misogyny and homophobia in the book given anecdotal treatment.
Groupies were looked down upon at the time and still are to this day. They were viewed as cheap hookers, demonizing prostitutes in the process. Weāve discussed before that Bev presented himself, personality-wise, in a hypermasculine way and straight as an arrow. But like with many men this love for women can indeed be conditionalāif a woman is a self-made hooker, sheās greedy and vulgar; therefore itās free real estate to insult her appearance, sex appeal, what have you, to give the impression of āThis hooker isnāt even that pretty, why would I like her?ā Men like this often view insulting the appearance and sex appeal of a woman as a punishment.
Bev fell into the same hole, where he was admittedly baffled by groupies who liked to party and have sex with rockstars, but used that to put them down as less-than-attractive floozies. āThat cute voice on the telephone can cover up the fattest, the ugliest and the most ill-dressed body.ā (page 54) If the groupies happened to look conventionally hot, heād speak of them more positively. But there is a part, maybe more I can try to find, where there are four groupies who entice the band to dance with them and Bev describes how two of them are presumably bisexual, based on what he described them doing. (Although he also described it more simply as āthe lesbian actā). Another thing he does with gay men and lesbians in the book is sort of sensationalize them to a point, as something to be gawked at, like āoh, how tawdryā. If there was a bisexual groupie or lesbian woman he described them almost like circus acts. If he wanted to make better commentary on how some groupies make him feel like something to be used, thatās one thing, since he didnāt want anything to do with them. Instead he put more focus on how ugly, fat, unattractive they were, so it is uncomfortable.
A lot of straight men joked amongst each other like that at the time, so he mustāve thought it was nothing more than being funny. The thought of one of these women actually marrying one of the rockstars they got to sleep with was funny to him, too, marrying a āusedā woman who was only after his money. I think you make a good point about how Bev acts in interviewsāin interviews youāre on your best behavior (if youāre not a complete mess). You divulge in books, not to the cameras. People generally donāt want to start beef with each other in public, even rockstars if theyāre, again, not a complete mess, so I think his diary-turned-book was the place to put his true thoughts.
Iām a Melvyn girlie not a Bev girlie āš»š so I have not kept up with Bevās projects or life updates. I just hope he has a more mature view of the world, women, and queer fans, I may look into it out of curiosity. I should also say that Bev seemingly had a very low-key divorce with Valerie. I found out a little while back maybe earlier this year, heās now with a gal who was one of his bandmates.
