Cyndi Lauper: Gen X Watch Feminist Friday

_{Photo Credit Ruven Afanador All Rights Reserved (Shore Fire Media)}

What happens when a female reporter questions feminism and an entire generation of women in 1985? Can a pop star make a difference? Can she inspire women and help them be themselves and choose what they want to do in their lives? Is she able to make a difference? And do girls want to have fun?

Cyndi Lauper was touring in 1985. Her debut alum in 1983 anchored by the infamous song, “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” was still a chart topper and her tour was a sell out success.

Often when you saw Cyndi Lauper in interviews she played a character. She was fun, unusual, lovable, endearing, and came off as flighty. But she was more. In a forgotten interview she would “break character” and push back. I remember the interview.

The interview on the Today Show would feature journalist Jane Pauley in the studio and Cyndi Lauper backstage in a city during her tour. Jane was dressed smartly as an 80’s woman of business like an extra in Dynasty and Cyndi had her wild hair, loud blue watch, and shiny jacket. She was also wearing large round dark sunglasses. She was in character ready for yet another puff piece answering the same inane questions. But Jane Pauley had a question that turned the conversation.

“Cyndi,” Jane started, “I would suspect a lot of girls in your generation, and I say girls because that’s what you used in your song, don’t even like the word feminism. Are you one?” The tone had an edge of pandering to it. There was a one beat pause as Cyndi seemed to realize this interview was going in a different direction. “Oh I certainly am.”

Cyndi took off her sunglasses, made an intentional smile into the camera in a confidant pose. Shit just got real. Jane tried to press on.

“Why do you say certainly…”

“Why do you think feminist…the word feminist is a bad word?” The character was gone, she interrupted Jane Pauley. Her brow was furrowed and she just took control. Jane’s reply would start a little unbalanced. As she speaks Cyndi visibly scoffs and visibly reacts from what she is hearing, but maintains her control and her strength. Jane Pauley tries to press on.

“Well, I’ve (pause) I’ve heard from many of your peers in your generation who really don’t like (pause) don’t like the word even. And yet know they aren’t feminists. “

Cyndi Lauper laughed her signature short laugh and confidently said, “Well I don’t find anything wrong with it (feminism).

The interview would go on and Jane would ask Cyndi if it was true Gloria Steinem was a hero of hers.

Lauper, fully in control, affirmed this and said Steinem “gave me the courage to be myself and choose what I wanted to do in my life.”

1985 would be the year I met Cyndi briefly for the second time. I even took a photo of her with my Pentax K-1000. I doubt she remembers the scant few moments we met, but it is a lifetime memory for me. This interview and other things she did would personally challenge my view of women and queer people that was being taught to me in church. Her words and actions would reaffirm my grandparent’s view of acceptance, affirmation, and human rights. If moments like this affected, for the better, a 15 year old in the 80’s, I am sure it impacted the ‘girls’ of my generation.

Questions and Thoughts on the Interview

Jane Pauley refers to women of Cindy Lauper’s generation and her peers. What generation did she think Cyndi was part of? In 1985 Pauley was 35 and Lauper was 32. They were both Baby Boomers. If they had grown up in the same town they would have had pictures in the same yearbook.

In the 1970s Jane Pauley would be in her 20’s and Cyndi Lauper would turn 18 in 1971. According to an article in Ms Magazine in 2013 there were many things women could not do when the 1970s began. This included keeping a job if they were pregnant, report sexual harassment, refuse to have sex with their husband, get a credit card, and have an abortion. I have seen Cindy speak to these things in interviews more than once. Every woman of their generation knew these things.

Cyndi pointed out that without people like Steinem, she may not have been able to be herself and have the choices she had in this life. Without Gloria Steinem and feminists would Jane Pauley have had her position and her salary to even ask these questions? Would she have been relegated to the secretarial pool while hoping she did not get pregnant having sex with her husband regardless of if she wanted to have sex with him? No autonomy, no choices, no freedom.

As far as Cyndi, I love that she broke character and took control. This was a show of strength of character.

The Fight for Girls to Have Fun

I recently read Cyndi Lauper’s Autobiography. Parts of it were hard to read emotionally. From her teenage years through the rise of her career it was a fight. Oppressed, sexualized, reduced, underestimated, and sexually assaulted more than once. She saw the women in her life like her mother unable to realize their dreams and live their lives on their terms. Horrific things happened to her friends in the struggle of life. Lauper had to fight for her life and her artistic direction.

“Girls Just Want to Have Fun” was originally written and recorded by Robert Hazard in 1979. It was essentially a song about women who “put out” for guys. Cyndi said she would only do the song if she got to change the lyrics and the composition. For Cyndi it was an anthem and a battle cry. To have fun in whatever context that meant for a woman (or a girl) there had to be the freedom. The freedom to be yourself and choose what you want to do with your life.

An Anthem Born

She put her 4 octaves into that song and created an instant classic that quickly climbed to #2 on the Billboard Top 100. Even now it has over 1 billion streams on Spotify. In the over 40 years since the song released, six generations of women have heard this anthem and celebrated it. Anyone from Gen Z reading this knows the song and knows Cyndi Lauper, but they probably had to Google Jane Pauley. But for Cyndi Lauper, artistic expression was not enough, she rolled up her sleeves and gave actions to her lyrics that inspired so many woman.

Girls Just Want to Have Fundamental Rights

In 2022 the unthinkable became a reality. The legal protections for bodily autonomy offered to woman and others who can have children were taken away by the US Supreme Court in the Dobbs decision. Shortly after that, state after state would roll back rights even when one’s life was in danger or was a victim of rape. Cyndi Lauper was not taking this without making a difference.

In 2022 she started the Girls Just Want to Have Fundamental Rights Fund. From her website it is “a donor advised fund at the Tides Foundation to support efforts that advance women’s rights and health.”

I bought the t-shirt and made a donation weeks before I headlined an art show in Chicago. Inspired by Cyndi I donated half of my proceeds to a group on the frontlines of women’s rights. My show was a celebration of women at the historic APO Cultural Center. I titled it the “The Goddess in the Lens”. I was inspired by Cyndi Lauper to take action, join demonstrations, raise funds, and do what I can. My body and my life are not impacted by these loss of rights, but people I love are directly affected.

Sally’s Pigeons, True Colors, and Boy Blue

In 1993 Lauper released a song called Sally’s Pigeons. It was a haunting song about a childhood friend who died from a botched back alley abortion. It was a true story. I remember being a young man in my 20’s watching the music video. Again, Cyndi moved the needle away from the lessons of my church subculture and into the dire consequences of what is at stake. It was a song about things that happened. And in our current climate, are likely happening again. Already women are dying in the wake of the Dobbs decision.

Cyndi Lauper had 2 poignant songs in her 2nd album released in 1986. Again, her art would be based on life and the message would not only inspire, but create change.

Her song “Boy Blue” was a dedication to a friend of hers who died of AIDS. When the song was released as a single, she ensured the proceeds of the single went to AIDS organizations on the front lines before we knew how to properly treat HIV.

Then there is “True Colors”. Though Lauper did not write the song, it resonated with her. In interviews she said it made her think of her friend who had died of AIDS. She brought that spirit into the recording studio and the song quickly became an anthem for the LGBQTIA+ community. Another anthem for generations to love. An anthem that led to Cyndi Lauper changing something.

Another Anthem Affects Change

In 2008 Cyndi Lauper co founded the True Colors Fund (Now called True Colors United). She co-founded it with a laser focus vision to eradicate LGBTQIA+ youth homelessness. 

A mere 4 years later my child would come out. As a proud parent of a genderqueer young adult, I am beholden to her for Tue Colors. Over the last 14 years the queer community has become my family. I have seen some young people who have been forced into homelessness due to hate. I have had a young person living in my condo the last 3 years. More on him later.

The Ripples of Cyndi Lauper on Gen Z

An anthem for women and an anthem for queer people. A voice that will not be silent and pushes back. 2 organizations started to help women and LGBTQIA+ youth. And a 15 year old boy who could not escape her message was changed into the man I am today.

My child graduated college two years ago and hit the ground running with their first job being on the front lines at a center for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. My kid recently got promoted and is now doing presentations at schools, businesses, and other organizations. I could not be more proud. Lauper’s voice is a part of that story. In many points from my teens and through my 30’s I was caught between two worlds. My fundamentalist world and the world where love reigns.

Cyndi and other voices guided me, and sometimes pushed me, to the right side of history and love. And without that nudge I would not have been the parent I am today and man I am now. I would not have raised a difference maker in the manner I did. And the young person living with me right now would not have found safe harbor.

A few years ago my child called me and told me about a queer friend of his who was sofa surfing and running out of options fast. They begged me to take him in. I had friends help me prepare the spare bedroom and help me get this young person the resources he needed for counseling, getting jobs, and medical needs. He is now in his second semester of art school. No clue how we afford any of this, but we somehow pull it off.

And as we see Taylor Swift create ripples of change, I have to wonder how much Cyndi, like Gloria, cleared a path.

This first Gen X Watch Feminist Friday is deeply personal to me. Lauper impacted me and stands for a community of people that I love so very dearly. But she also showcases so well the point of this column and everything we are doing at Gen X Watch. Using pop culture with a dash of nostalgia as a vehicle to inspire change.

Cyndi Lauper has survived and endured more than anyone should. I relate to this. She had to fight to have her art made. Her art had a message. She lives that message. Acts on that message. And inspires others to do the same.

My actions will not inspire generations. I will never make an anthem. I will never raise the level of money she does. But I can be inspired to do what I can in my corner of the world. You can too. All of us can. Some of us will not have to fight as hard. And those of us who do not have to fight as hard need to stand with those in the struggle.

I started this celebration of women from my nostalgic era to honor my friend Erika. Erika died on Christmas leaving behind a family that has immediate needs.

Click here to read the story of how Erika saved my life when we were teenagers.

Click here to donate to the Gofundme a friend and local PRIDE organizer set up to help the family Erika was taken away from.

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