Pat Benatar is All Fired Up to Be Invincible

Can a bank teller become a rockstar? Can ideals survive realities of misogyny? Is love a battlefield and is hell for children? Pat Benatar’s life and music says yes.

Pat Benatar was raised in a home where female empowerment and equality was the norm. She was taught that women were equal and could accomplish whatever they wanted. Time and time again she would learn the world was not like her childhood home. Time and time again Pat Benatar would have to reach inside herself and believe in the reality in her home as opposed to the alternate reality of society and the music industry.

Pat Benatar was trained operatically to use her powerful four and a half octave range to it’s maximum potential. She would leave that world behind when she got married and went on to become a bank teller.

One night in the 70’s she saw Liza Minnelli in concert. According to her memoirs, she said to herself, “This is ridiculous. I’m a better singer than she is.” She quit her job and started singing and waiting tables at a nightclub named “Roaring Twenties”.

In 1975 her and her husband moved to New York City so she could take her singing career to the next level. She worked her ass off as a regular singer in a nightclub/comedy club, performed in a musical and recorded commercial jingles for Pepsi and other regional brands.

She got to headline at Tramp’s in NYC for 4 nights in 1978 where she was seen…and heard…by executives of multiple record labels. A week later she would be signed by Chrysalis Records . By the time her first record dropped in 1979 she would be divorced. She would also begin to shine.

Her debut album in 1979 was not an overnight success, but sleeper hit after sleeper hit would take it to number 12 on the charts and hit platinum a little over a year later in the US and triple platinum in Canada. Her second album in 1980 would defy the sophomore curse many hit debut albums suffer from. With hits like Treat Me Right and You Better Run, the album hit 4X platinum in the US and 5X in Canada.

Everyone knows that “Video Killed the Radio Star” by the Buggles was the first song played on MTV. Pat Benatar’s “You Better Run” was the second video played. This would solidify her place on MTV as the years rolled on.

But with all of this success there was a problem. Benatar’s songs were fierce and independent. These were songs of a powerful woman living love, life and relationships on her terms, but the male dominated music industry had her portrayed as a sex vixen. Eye candy for the fathers and grandfathers of future incels.

The final straw for her was a promotional shot they took of her to promote her second album in Billboard. Before we had photoshop and AI to remove what is real in photography, we had airbrush techniques. Your image was painted over. Airbrushed became a verb much like photoshopped is now to suggest something real was doctored into something fake. They airbrushed Benatar to appear as if she was nude. She was furious.

From her autobiography she had this to say about the incident. “Aside from being embarrassing, the photo was stupid. Didn’t they understand that people already knew how I was built? All people had to do was take one look at me. Were Billboard readers suddenly going to flock to my album because I’d miraculously grown new breasts? … I was aware that the sexy image was something I’d created. I’d never meant for it to be the focal point. My problem wasn’t that people thought I was sexy, it was that [they] only wanted the sexy part. It was offensive, but also boring.”

Benatar did not want to be seen as just the sexy parts. She was a powerhouse vocalist with strong woman lyrics. By the time 1982’s “Get Nervous” released her look was completely different. Layered clothing, messy hair, and even a straightjacket. Now with her in greater control of her look, she could focus on what mattered to her. Her music. In that she created anthems that would inspire women for decades.

Hit after hit and anthem after anthem the suits just had to shut up, let her do her thing, and let the hits roll.

From Pat Benatar’s Memoirs she had the following to say, “For every day since I was old enough to think, I’ve considered myself a feminist … I see women everywhere doing their thing and throwing themselves into situations headfirst, and not taking shit from anyone. It’s empowering to watch and to know that, perhaps in some way, I made the hard path they have to walk just a little bit easier.“

While she has spent her career supporting other women artists, she also believes in all women and her music inspired them. Many female artists have one or two empowering anthems. But Benatar? The list is longer than most.

“Treat Me Right” was a demand and not a request. “You Better Run” was a warning to a man who did not treat her right. His actions and manipulations would have consequences and she was fighting back. Fire and Ice, Love is a Battlefield, Shadows of the Night, We Belong , Invincible and others became anthems.

In the Wake of Trump’s Election in 2016 women rose up en masse. Pat Benatar knew the influence she has and the difference she can make. So she wrote another anthem called “Shine”.

And unlike the president women were rising up against, she put her money where her 4.5 octave range mouth was. Every dollar made from this anthem went to an organization called the BA Rudolph Foundation. They give scholarships and grants to young women who want to pursue careers in science, government, and public service. How do you fight corrupt leaders that threaten the autonomy of women and ignore their heath care needs as the planet dies? Memes? Slacktivism? By raising a generation of scientists, politicians, and public servants that will push back and take back the world for we the people as opposed to we the male, we the racists, we the homophobes, and we the war mongers.

The path is still hard, but she uses her voice to fight to clear the path and has for over 4 decades.

Long time readers of Fem Fridays will know that I often speak of women who were inspired by female artists to inspire me. This time there are no middle women. There is only Pat Benatar and she came at a time when I needed a voice to stay alive.

In 1980 a song called Hell is for Children released on Benatar’s second album. It was about the effect that abuse and molestation has on children and the lies they had to tell to hide what was happening to them at home. It was inspired by articles she read about abuse. And even though she did not experience abuse, she nailed the experience.

In 1981 I was in 6th grade and was 2 years into a deeply abusive home life at the hands of my mom’s new husband. I remember the day as if it was yesterday. It was a hard day at school. I was picked last in gym class for floor hockey. I was always picked last. Every rib on my left side has been broken at least once and most of the right side as well. Doctors were never involved and they never healed right and break easily.

They were freshly broken most of those years and that day was no exception. Some other kids that were bullies and frustrated our one class team was losing checked me a few times. I spent the rest of the day tasting blood in my mouth with every cough barely able to breath.

I did not want to go home yet and face the possibility of another round so I walked to a 7-11 on the other side of town after school. After buying a Slurpee I had 2 or 3 quarters in my pocket. I popped my quarters on the top of the Ms Pac-Man machine to reserve my turn at the machine. While I waited this song played in the background.

I heard it. I understood it. It became the most important thing I had heard. I asked one of the high school students what the song was. He told me the name of the song. I grabbed my quarters and went home. My mom’s husband was asleep on the couch. His wallet was on the kitchen table. I took a few bucks hoping he would not notice. He didn’t. The next day I had the 45 of hell is for children.

After a beating or some other horrible act that ended with the words, “Don’t tell mommy a thing. Be a good little boy, and you’ll get a new toy. Tell grandma you fell off the swing.” I would go into my room and play the 45 at full blast with my headphones on.

“They cry in the dark, so you can’t see their tears
They hide in the light, so you can’t see their fears
Forgive and forget, all the while
Love and pain become one and the same
In the eyes of a wounded child

Because hell, hell is for children
And you know that their little lives can become such a mess
Hell, hell is for children
And you shouldn’t have to pay for your love
With your bones and your flesh

It’s all so confusing, this brutal abusing”

The monster said he loved me. My mom said she loved me when she wasn’t high or drunk. Broken bones, broken body and broken spirit lying to everyone and hiding in daylight never telling anyone what life was. Hell is for children. Hell was where I lived. It was all I knew and this song did not offer freedom or hope or escape. But it did give me the possibility that someone knew what this life I led was like and understood. That was enough. It was enough to not jump in front of a semi in traffic. It was enough to put the razor blade down. And it was enough to call my grandparents in 1983 to come get me and tell them that I never fell off a swing in a playground. I was in hell.

I never forgot the song and every song she sang after that, I tuned in. Every anthem about making a stand was an aspiration to me as well as the women it was written for.

An honest anthem can not only inspire you, but it can save your life.

For the last 3 years a young man named Chris has been living at my condo. He’s a friend of my 24 year old. My kid called me up and told me about his friend who was sofa surfing. The reason? Chris is LGBTQ! Chris has had a life of abuse, neglect, and poverty. Three years of kindness, resources, safety and therapy in my home has loved this young adult back to life.

Chis has finished his first year of college at 23 and is about to move into his first apartment with a roomie where there will be more love and life as he beats the odds and is no longer a statistic. My friends and I have given all that we can to make this possible and I am asking for your help in the spirit of what Pat Benatar did with her song in 2017.

Every tip you give to this article helps Chris and offset the expenses of moving and getting established in this new chapter in his life. If one percent of our readers were to give a few bucks, then we have cleared the path for him. Be that one percent! It will mean a lot.

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