Warhol Superstar Penny Arcade Reveals The Secret Feminist
History Of The Film Women In Revolt On BUST’s
Poptarts Podcast! Iconic performance artist Penny
Arcade gives a super candid interview in the latest episode
of BUST’s
Poptarts Podcast, and reveals how, in 1970, Andy Warhol
was seeking revenge on feminism, and accidentally ended up producing a
feminist movie. Listen to the episode and grab a hi-res image at
bust.com/poptarts. Highlights from
BUST’s Poptarts Podcast’s exclusive interview with Arcade: Arcade on starring alongside trans Warhol “Superstars” Jackie Curtis,
Candy Darling, and Holly Woodlawn in Andy Warhol’s Women In Revolt: “Well, the thing that’s interesting about it is that the movie was made
in 1970, and in 1968, Andy had been shot by Valerie Solanas, who was a
man-hating feminist. Meanwhile, Paul Morrissey is a super right wing kind
of person, always has been. He’s the kind of person who, when he saw me
reading The New York Times, asked, ‘What does that commie rag have to say
now?’
What [Warhol and Morrissey] thought they were doing by casting Holly,
Jackie, and Candy in the lead roles was to make fun of and demean
feminism. But actually, what happened was…Jackie’s first monologue in
that film, to me, is one of the greatest statements ever made about
feminism [‘We’re tired of being exploited!’ she declares]. Jackie was my
best friend at that time, and she was a super brilliant person. She was
raised on the real Lower East Side—like, take a pail to the Bowery and
get your father a pail of beer Lower East Side—right? Anyway, Jackie was
a feminist. She was raised by her grandmother, Slugger Anne, who was one
of the most famous saloonkeepers on the Lower East Side. Both of her
mothers were taxi dancers—you know, ten-cents-a-dance ladies—who were
just short of turning tricks. So Jackie was raised in a very
female-centric household and Jackie loved women and Jackie understood
feminism. And in that film, there is this real push toward feminism. There
was no script and we were really bringing it! Even though Andy and Paul’s
dream was to make fun of feminism. It was subversion inside of
subversion.” To hear more from this wide-ranging discussion with Penny Arcade in which
she dishes the dirt on five decades on the fabulous fringes of fame,
visit bust.com/poptarts. About Poptarts: Poptarts is a twice-monthly podcast hosted by BUST Magazine editors
Emily Rems and Callie Watts that celebrates women in pop culture. The
first half of each episode is devoted to a hot topic in entertainment,
and in the second half, a segment called “Whatcha Watchin’?,” Callie and
Emily dig into all the shows, movies, books, music, videos, and podcasts
they’ve enjoyed since the last episode, and either praise or pan each
experience.
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