Christina Feldman-Barrett’s A Beatle’s History of Women is out now

The New Literary Review publishing house has published a Russian translation of Christina Feldman-Barrett’s monograph “The Beatles’ Women’s History.” Igor Gavrilov believes that the public lacked such a view of the Fab Four.

The entire body of literature written about the Beatles, essentially the entire historiography of the group, merges into a chorus of exclusively male voices: this is the thesis from which Christina Feldman-Barrett, Ph.D. and lecturer at Australia’s Griffith University, starts. As a result, her work claims to be the first in-depth, truly scientific study of the role of women in the group phenomenon. This is not so much “the women in the lives of the Beatles” as it is “the Beatles through the eyes of women.”

Needless to say, it’s hard to complain to the Beatles about the abundance of new views. Today we have, in fact, only one view – the view of Paul McCartney, who tirelessly gives interviews, participates in documentaries, works on “the last song of The Beatles”, in general, makes it clear in every possible way that his role in the history of the group is underestimated. John Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, due to her age and health status, has little contact with the outside world. And Ringo Starr just plays music for his own pleasure, without thinking about revising the band’s legacy. There seem to be no other voices capable of speaking on a given topic. And here comes a book that talks about The Beatles from a woman’s point of view, but speaks from a modern day saturated with debates about feminism and new ethics.

Christina Feldman-Barrett is careful to point out that the musicians’ personalities were formed in the world of women, and this is worth keeping in mind when examining their songs. “Men were invisible,” John Lennon recalled. “I was always with women. I always heard them talk about men, about life. They always understood what was happening, but men never did. This was my first feminist education.”

John Lennon was raised by Aunt Mimi, and his own mother, Julia, instilled in him a love of music. Ringo Starr was raised by a single mother. The mother of Pete Best, the original drummer of The Beatles, turned the basement of her house into a coffee shop, the Kasbah Coffee Club, which opened with a performance by what was then called The Quarrymen. Mo Best showed producer persistence, agreeing for The Beatles to work at the Cavern Club, and eventually became so intrusive that the musicians had to break up with Pete Best so as not to be constantly in debt to his mother.

The Beatles’ wives and girlfriends and their role in the history of the group is a topic of endless debate among its fans. The most famous of them – Yoko Ono and Linda McCartney – were themselves full-fledged art figures, generously gifted with a variety of talents. Since the formation of the group, its members have been positioned as progressive-minded young people, but the researcher is trying to bring them to clean water. In their first marital relationships, John Lennon and Ringo Starr, who married before their comrades, were guided by conservative values. Lennon’s first wife, Cynthia, tried to outwardly match the image of her husband’s favorite actress, Brigitte Bardot, and even at some point corrected the shape of her nose. In her understanding, the wife should remain faithful to her husband, be patient, and not wash dirty linen in public. As for Starr, he said to one of his biographers: “I don’t think women like equality. She likes to be protected and, in turn, likes to take care of a man.”

Christina Feldman-Barrett places a special emphasis on the person of Astrid Kirchherr, a photographer engaged to the bass player and friend of John Lennon at the Liverpool College of Art, Stuart Sutcliffe. It turns out that it was Kirchherr, a woman, who shaped the image of the Beatles as the whole world fell in love with them. She took the first professional photos of the band and forced the musicians to think about the impact of style on the audience. “She became their first close friend (and admirer) who was, firstly, a foreigner, and secondly, came from a wealthy middle class,” writes Feldman-Barrett. “The Beatles were absolutely delighted with both Astrid herself and from the lifestyle she led: living in a wealthy area of ​​Hamburg, owning a car, classical music and jazz, not rock and roll.” Perhaps, without Kirchherr, The Beatles would have remained just a good group, without ever becoming a myth.

But a good half of the text of The Beatles’ Women’s History is dedicated to the fans of The Beatles. The book takes a deep dive into the sociological aspect of band worship, examining the influence of the Beatles on the self-definition of “front row girls” socially, sexually and professionally. And she outlined something much more complex than the common image of screaming Beatlemaniacs from newsreels: “For girls, Beatlemania was an attempt to escape from the world of adults living according to male laws: escape through their own fashion, slang, events and music.”

Christina Feldman-Barrett. The Beatles’ Women’s History / trans. from English Olga Novitskaya. M.: New Literary Review, 2023