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SPEAKER_00: Hello, from Wonder Media Network, I'm Jenny Kaplan, and this is Womanica. This month, we're highlighting ragers, women who use their anger, often righteous, though not always, to accomplish extraordinary things.
SPEAKER_00: Some people think little girls should be seen and not heard, but I think,
SPEAKER_04: oh, bondage! Up yours!
SPEAKER_00: One, two, three, four! That's the opening line to the explosive first single by the British band X-Ray Spex. Today, we're talking about the band's front woman, a feminist punk icon who made her mark on the white male-dominated music genre. Meet Polly Styrene. Polly was born Marion Joan Elliott-Syed in 1957 in Kent, England. Her father was a Somali aristocrat. Her mother was a British legal secretary who raised Polly and her siblings on her own. Polly called herself an ordinary tough kid from an ordinary tough street. When she was 15 years old, she left those tough streets and ran away from home. She hitchhiked her way across England to attend hippie music festivals. She also loved glam rockers Mark Bolin and David Bowie and admired the songwriting of Joni Mitchell and Carole King. By the age of 15, Polly had dropped out of school, but she didn't stop learning. She'd read books about philosophy and the occult. In 1976, Polly recorded her first single, a reggae pop song called Silly Billy. It didn't chart, and it was an early taste of the sexism, racism, and classism of the industry. But Polly's interest in making music continued. Around that time, punk was hitting the music scene in England. Polly was really into this new band, the Sex Pistols. Inspired to get into the new energetic genre herself, she put an ad in the British music magazine Melody Maker. Polly wrote that she was seeking young punks who want to stick it together. She found them, and X-Ray Spex was born. To come up with her stage name, Polly flipped through the Yellow Pages. She settled on Polly's styrene because it sounded plastic and disposable, just like pop stars. Polly's styrene was also the name of the shop she ran before diving into the world of punk music. In a market stall on King's Road, she sold secondhand clothing and jewelry. She called her curated goods plastic trash. Polly brought this same aesthetic to the stage. While other punk stars wore spikes, metal chains, and leather, Polly preferred day-glo bright jewelry, grandmotherly cardigans, secondhand shift dresses, and her signature, braces on her teeth. Her thrifted and mismatched style was a visual representation of the themes Polly explored on her music, consumerism, environmentalism, and equality. Polly once said, "'There's nothing wrong with beauty, but whether it's actually helping the female cause of being equal to men, you have to judge for yourself.'" X-ray specs quickly dominated the punk scene in London. The band's song, "'Oh Bondage Up Yours' became a feminist anthem, and in 1978, the band released its debut album, Germ-Free Adolescence. The band was featured on the TV show, Top of the Pops, and in a documentary called Who is Polly Styrene, which aired on BBC. Polly's star was rising, but the sudden celebrity proved challenging. She was beaten down by the pervasive eye of the media, a hectic touring schedule, and the punk scene's nihilistic outlook on life. She was misdiagnosed with schizophrenia and was put in a mental hospital. That's where she was when she saw herself singing on television for the first time. By 1979, Polly quit the band. But she didn't stop making music. A year later, Polly released a solo project called Translucentz. The post-punk album traded electric guitars for Indian hand drums and showed off Polly's softer side. Around the same time, she fell in love with musician Adrienne Bell. Three months after they met, they got married and went on to have a daughter named Celeste. The hippie spirit that Polly had ever since she was hitchhiking to music festivals at the age of 15, led her to the door of the Hare Krishnas. Polly and Celeste lived at the religious organization's temple in the UK until Celeste turned eight. After that, Polly's mental health issues flared up again, and she sent Celeste to live with her grandmother. Polly continued to write and release music, and she even went on to inspire new movements in punk music and political activism. Kathleen Hanna, lead singer of the band Bikini Kill, once said, "'If Polly's music wasn't there, "'I'm Not Positive Riot Girl' would exist." Despite being such a pioneer, Polly never held another steady job after X-Ray Spex. She was famous, but broke. Her daughter remembers Polly calling it the worst of both worlds. In the early 2000s, Polly moved to the seaside in Hastings and reunited with her daughter Celeste. Polly started keeping diaries in which she reflected on her music career. She also recorded another solo album, this one called Generation Indigo. Soon after that, Polly was diagnosed with breast cancer. On April 25th, 2011, just one day before Generation Indigo was released in the US, Polly passed away. She was 53 years old. Since her death, Polly's life and work have been revisited. The 2019 book Revenge of the She-Punks analyzed Polly's impact on the punk scene. And in 2021, Celeste co-directed the documentary Polly Styrene, I Am a Cliche. Polly's legacy continues for a new generation of punk fans. As Polly once said, punk attitude lives on because of the spirit of its fearlessness to try to change things for the better. All month, we're talking about ragers. For more information, find us on Facebook and Instagram, at Wamanica Podcast. Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator. Talk to you tomorrow.
SPEAKER_02: Evidence-wise, we had virtually no evidence.
SPEAKER_05: In 1995, Detective Tony Richardson was trying to figure out who killed a fellow officer. The case comes down to who is believed and who is ignored. Oh my goodness. We did convict an innocent man. I'm Beth Shelburne from Lava for Good Podcasts. This is Ear Witness. Listen to Ear Witness on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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