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A Women’s History of the Beatles
A Women's History of the Beatles is the first book to offer a detailed presentation of the band's social and cultural impact as understood through the experiences and lives of women. Drawing on a mix of interviews, archival research, textual analysis, and autoethnography, this scholarly work depicts how the Beatles have profoundly shaped and enriched the lives of women, while also reexamining key, influential female figures within the group's history.
Organized topically based on key themes important to the Beatles story, each chapter uncovers the varied and multifaceted relationships women have had with the band, whether face-to-face and intimately or parasocially through mediated, popular culture. Set within a socio-historical context that charts changing gender norms since the early 1960s, these narratives consider how the Beatles have affected women's lives across three generations. Providing a fresh perspective of a well-known tale, this is a cultural history that moves far beyond the screams of Beatlemania to offer a more comprehensive understanding of what the now iconic band has meant to women over the course of six decades.
Organized topically based on key themes important to the Beatles story, each chapter uncovers the varied and multifaceted relationships women have had with the band, whether face-to-face and intimately or parasocially through mediated, popular culture. Set within a socio-historical context that charts changing gender norms since the early 1960s, these narratives consider how the Beatles have affected women's lives across three generations. Providing a fresh perspective of a well-known tale, this is a cultural history that moves far beyond the screams of Beatlemania to offer a more comprehensive understanding of what the now iconic band has meant to women over the course of six decades.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published February 11, 2021
12 people are currently reading
179 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
March 20, 2023
As befits an academic work, this social/cultural history is impeccably researched (almost 45 pages of bibliography, useful in and of itself). As befits an academic who’s also a fan and wants to appeal to fans (as well as to subsequent scholars who will undoubtedly use her primary sources as a starting point for further development), Feldman-Barrett's prose reads easily, utilizing numerous personal narratives and interviews. In fact, her topics range from fandom to intellectual pursuits inspired by the Beatles. My favorite chapters were the one using fairytale elements to explain how the lives of Beatles’ wives and girlfriends are portrayed; and another about the many young women inspired by the Beatles to start their own bands, some well-known, some new to me, some as early as 1964 and through to 2017.
As with any feminist history, this work puts the women back into a history they’ve been written out of, starting when female fans were dismissed by media as mere hysterical Beatlemaniacs, then pushed out of the “serious” space the new (male) rock critics claimed for themselves once Sgt. Pepper hit the airwaves. The book charts women’s importance to the Beatles’ story from the very beginning: the young future Beatles growing up in a Liverpudlian matriarchal society; the unabashed influence of American “girl groups,” such as the Shirelles, on their music; the importance of young working women as their first fans during the lunch-break Cavern Club shows, how that empowered some of them to travel to other locales and to even seek out other employment opportunities. The study ends with an accounting of today’s female Beatles historians, who I know still have to prove their hard-won knowledge over and over again in some male-dominated spaces.
4.5
As with any feminist history, this work puts the women back into a history they’ve been written out of, starting when female fans were dismissed by media as mere hysterical Beatlemaniacs, then pushed out of the “serious” space the new (male) rock critics claimed for themselves once Sgt. Pepper hit the airwaves. The book charts women’s importance to the Beatles’ story from the very beginning: the young future Beatles growing up in a Liverpudlian matriarchal society; the unabashed influence of American “girl groups,” such as the Shirelles, on their music; the importance of young working women as their first fans during the lunch-break Cavern Club shows, how that empowered some of them to travel to other locales and to even seek out other employment opportunities. The study ends with an accounting of today’s female Beatles historians, who I know still have to prove their hard-won knowledge over and over again in some male-dominated spaces.
4.5
February 20, 2021
Read this book before you die.
I am close to death, but let's go back in time - as a family. In 1991 and 1992, I wrote a research masters dissertation on the Beatles. Oh how the posh people laughed. This was a conservative history department.
They laughed a lot less, when that dissertation was returned with two distinction grades. No corrections.
That personal story is a metaphor for women and The Beatles. When women are fans, it is Beatlemania. When men are fans - they are journalists for Rolling Stone magazine.
When men are scholars of the Beatles, they are valued by international popular music studies. When women are scholars of the Beatles, their research is lack quality, citations and credibility.
Christine Feldman-Barrett has created the best history of women and the Beatles I could imagine. There is attention to fans. There is attention to female musicians. And - wonderfully - there is attention to Yoko Ono. Any book that explores Yoko Ono in this depth deserves your attention. Now. Yoko Ono got to the future before the rest of us.
There is also provocative attention to Pattie Boyd. She remains the feminist hero we are yet to reclaim.
There are two enormous audiences for this book. If you are interested in feminism - read it. If you are interested in the Beatles - read it. If you are interested in both - this is your Nirvana.
Incredibly well researched, brilliantly written, if you needed evidence about how great humanities research can be - then this is your citation.
Outstanding book. It is February 2021. I'm calling it. This is my book of 2021.
I am close to death, but let's go back in time - as a family. In 1991 and 1992, I wrote a research masters dissertation on the Beatles. Oh how the posh people laughed. This was a conservative history department.
They laughed a lot less, when that dissertation was returned with two distinction grades. No corrections.
That personal story is a metaphor for women and The Beatles. When women are fans, it is Beatlemania. When men are fans - they are journalists for Rolling Stone magazine.
When men are scholars of the Beatles, they are valued by international popular music studies. When women are scholars of the Beatles, their research is lack quality, citations and credibility.
Christine Feldman-Barrett has created the best history of women and the Beatles I could imagine. There is attention to fans. There is attention to female musicians. And - wonderfully - there is attention to Yoko Ono. Any book that explores Yoko Ono in this depth deserves your attention. Now. Yoko Ono got to the future before the rest of us.
There is also provocative attention to Pattie Boyd. She remains the feminist hero we are yet to reclaim.
There are two enormous audiences for this book. If you are interested in feminism - read it. If you are interested in the Beatles - read it. If you are interested in both - this is your Nirvana.
Incredibly well researched, brilliantly written, if you needed evidence about how great humanities research can be - then this is your citation.
Outstanding book. It is February 2021. I'm calling it. This is my book of 2021.
May 13, 2022
In the literary and academic genre that "Beatles writing" has become, this Women's History of the Beatles is – alongside Martin King's Men, Masculinity and the Beatles – an absolutely exciting foray into examining the Beatles through a 2010s feminist and gender studies lens.
More than, arguably, any other of the big 1960s rock bands, the Beatles have managed to carve their own path in gender(ed) performance and interaction that differed wildly from the hyper-masculine, male-chauvinist tropes that became only more prevalent with each year from Elvis to the 1980s. Today, finally, there is literature that delves deeper into this exciting aspect of the Beatles' history that writers from the 90s and 2000s merely dipped their toes in.
It's almost a shame that this book in particular is seemingly marketed as somewhat of an academic publication when this could have easily been a popular read for Beatles fans without any textual alterations. That's how fun it was to read this and how easy it was to digest. Yet, the book is brimming with wonderful – often first-hand – insights into how the Beatles inspired women from the different generations of listeners. And also, of course, about how the Beatles themselves have been inspired or supported by women throughout their lives and artistic careers.
A Women's History of the Beatles challenges expectations in the collective consciousness of Beatles fandom that have been deeply ingrained throughout more than half a century. Like how we perceive and value female fandom or some people might still hold onto certain narratives of wives destroying bands. But even more interesting is how the book examines occurrences and phenomena on a deeper level that often goes overlooked. Yet, many of these individual stories – like the ones of young female fans leaving Liverpool for the first time on their own, pursuing fan club duties – still have influenced the big picture of women's liberation and female empowerment. In a way, girls' and women's excitement for the Beatles, especially during the early days of the band's career, was like some sort of organic activism.
There is so much more I could praise this book for right now, but I'll just go with: If you have any interest in how 1960s popular culture or popular music culture in general has influenced feminism you should not miss out on this, whether you are a Beatles fan or not.
More than, arguably, any other of the big 1960s rock bands, the Beatles have managed to carve their own path in gender(ed) performance and interaction that differed wildly from the hyper-masculine, male-chauvinist tropes that became only more prevalent with each year from Elvis to the 1980s. Today, finally, there is literature that delves deeper into this exciting aspect of the Beatles' history that writers from the 90s and 2000s merely dipped their toes in.
It's almost a shame that this book in particular is seemingly marketed as somewhat of an academic publication when this could have easily been a popular read for Beatles fans without any textual alterations. That's how fun it was to read this and how easy it was to digest. Yet, the book is brimming with wonderful – often first-hand – insights into how the Beatles inspired women from the different generations of listeners. And also, of course, about how the Beatles themselves have been inspired or supported by women throughout their lives and artistic careers.
A Women's History of the Beatles challenges expectations in the collective consciousness of Beatles fandom that have been deeply ingrained throughout more than half a century. Like how we perceive and value female fandom or some people might still hold onto certain narratives of wives destroying bands. But even more interesting is how the book examines occurrences and phenomena on a deeper level that often goes overlooked. Yet, many of these individual stories – like the ones of young female fans leaving Liverpool for the first time on their own, pursuing fan club duties – still have influenced the big picture of women's liberation and female empowerment. In a way, girls' and women's excitement for the Beatles, especially during the early days of the band's career, was like some sort of organic activism.
There is so much more I could praise this book for right now, but I'll just go with: If you have any interest in how 1960s popular culture or popular music culture in general has influenced feminism you should not miss out on this, whether you are a Beatles fan or not.
November 1, 2021
As a lifelong Beatles fan and a feminist, I feel like this book was written for me. It's an academic book but still very fun to read.
February 3, 2022
This book, along with "The Beatles and the Historians", by Erin Torkelson Weber, are rewriting the Beatle legacy and the way of seeing and understanding the phenomenon. A great work, a different approach, an essay that allows us to refresh the ideas we have about the sociocultural impact of the band. Christine Feldman-Barret has written one of the books that will define from now on the new ways of studying and approaching The Beatles, the “greatest romance of the 20th century”.
January 3, 2023
What a marvelous book! Just when I think that I've evolved, along comes another inspiration as to my feminist, progressive journey. Wonderful scholarship, thorough research, and mind-blowing scope; I am so glad that I heard of this book.
December 27, 2022
It's rare for me to read an academic study and see myself reflected in the pages. As a film & media studies graduate and a passionate Beatles fan since the age of eight, this is a history and academic work that I didn't realize I wanted. Even as an academic work, this book is still easy and fun to read, covering a wide range of topics, from the early Cavern Club days and the local Beatles fans all the way to now with how the Beatles' legacy has shaped and inspired women in their careers.
A Women's History of the Beatles is grounded in very good research (over 50 pages are just for sources) and interviews. Author Christine Feldman-Barrett focuses her study on white, heterosexual women in mostly English-speaking countries, but also mentions how lesbians and women of color perceived the Beatles and how they were impacted. These mentions are really quite brief and do not cover any sort of intersectional histories; Barrett-Feldman lays the groundwork for another researcher who could certainly delve more deeply into these histories. This is not really a complaint as the work remains focused on what the author set out to do, which was to give an space and time to document "how girls and women have involved themselves in one of the key cultural phenomena of the twentieth century" (p. 167).
The one minor criticism I have about the work is how Feldman-Barrett compares the Beatles' relationships to wives and girlfriends to fairy tales. The comparison is good and well-written, but it glosses over a lot of the dysfunction in these relationships. For example, she only writes this particular fact in one sentence: "...Maureen (Cox, Ringo's first wife) is said to have had an affair with George Harrison in the early seventies" (p. 84). There's way more information about this on Wikipedia than what is mentioned here, but George's first wife Pattie found George and Maureen in bed. There's a lot of info out there online about this particular episode, but this is just one specific example that the comparison to a fairy tale doesn't really hold up. Moreover, all of the Beatles were womanizers and this is a known fact, though the media portrayed them as "good boys" (in comparison to the Rolling Stones' "bad boy" image). If we stick to what was covered in the media at the time, sure, the Beatles' relationships could be comparable to fairy tales. However, I think not mentioning these facts is trying to make an argument by conveniently leaving out some of the not-so-flattering, messy details of reality. May Pang is also not mentioned in the context of "girlfriend" at all, which, again, I think is a convenient omission. Although I have this minor criticism about this book, it isn't enough to deter me from giving it a five-star review. On the other hand, I absolutely love Feldman-Barrett's defense of both Yoko Ono and Linda McCartney because they have gotten incredible amounts of unnecessary and very sexist vitriol over the years. Anyone who defends these two women to this extent deserves an award.
On a personal level, I really enjoyed reading this and reflecting upon my own journey as a third generation Beatles fan. Remembering that pivotal moment when my mom brought home A Hard Day's Night on a loaned VHS tape from the library for my sister, but I wound up watching it instead. I was hooked instantly. Remembering how unusual it was to be that passionate of a Beatles fan, and my high school guidance counselor called me out of my class so that I could admire a John Lennon replica guitar from another teacher. Writing my undergrad thesis about the Sexual Revolution probably because it was indirectly influenced by my interest in the 1960s, and then explicitly devoting a whole chapter in my graduate thesis to The Beatles. I really connected to this study on a personal level and this is probably what made it super fun to read.
In her conclusion, Feldmann-Barrett writes, "...an evolving historiography offers room for a multi-voiced account of the past. In saying this, I hope A Women's History of the Beatles inspires further research. It is not meant to be the only academic monograph that explores how women's experiences have intersected with the Beatles story, or how lives have developed and changed as a result" (p. 172). I believe that this work indeed will inspire further research as it only scratches the surface of what constitutes women's roles in the history and legacy of The Beatles. It certainly reminded me of my dream to do an MA in Beatles studies at the University of Liverpool, and what topics I myself would want to focus on.
A Women's History of the Beatles is grounded in very good research (over 50 pages are just for sources) and interviews. Author Christine Feldman-Barrett focuses her study on white, heterosexual women in mostly English-speaking countries, but also mentions how lesbians and women of color perceived the Beatles and how they were impacted. These mentions are really quite brief and do not cover any sort of intersectional histories; Barrett-Feldman lays the groundwork for another researcher who could certainly delve more deeply into these histories. This is not really a complaint as the work remains focused on what the author set out to do, which was to give an space and time to document "how girls and women have involved themselves in one of the key cultural phenomena of the twentieth century" (p. 167).
The one minor criticism I have about the work is how Feldman-Barrett compares the Beatles' relationships to wives and girlfriends to fairy tales. The comparison is good and well-written, but it glosses over a lot of the dysfunction in these relationships. For example, she only writes this particular fact in one sentence: "...Maureen (Cox, Ringo's first wife) is said to have had an affair with George Harrison in the early seventies" (p. 84). There's way more information about this on Wikipedia than what is mentioned here, but George's first wife Pattie found George and Maureen in bed. There's a lot of info out there online about this particular episode, but this is just one specific example that the comparison to a fairy tale doesn't really hold up. Moreover, all of the Beatles were womanizers and this is a known fact, though the media portrayed them as "good boys" (in comparison to the Rolling Stones' "bad boy" image). If we stick to what was covered in the media at the time, sure, the Beatles' relationships could be comparable to fairy tales. However, I think not mentioning these facts is trying to make an argument by conveniently leaving out some of the not-so-flattering, messy details of reality. May Pang is also not mentioned in the context of "girlfriend" at all, which, again, I think is a convenient omission. Although I have this minor criticism about this book, it isn't enough to deter me from giving it a five-star review. On the other hand, I absolutely love Feldman-Barrett's defense of both Yoko Ono and Linda McCartney because they have gotten incredible amounts of unnecessary and very sexist vitriol over the years. Anyone who defends these two women to this extent deserves an award.
On a personal level, I really enjoyed reading this and reflecting upon my own journey as a third generation Beatles fan. Remembering that pivotal moment when my mom brought home A Hard Day's Night on a loaned VHS tape from the library for my sister, but I wound up watching it instead. I was hooked instantly. Remembering how unusual it was to be that passionate of a Beatles fan, and my high school guidance counselor called me out of my class so that I could admire a John Lennon replica guitar from another teacher. Writing my undergrad thesis about the Sexual Revolution probably because it was indirectly influenced by my interest in the 1960s, and then explicitly devoting a whole chapter in my graduate thesis to The Beatles. I really connected to this study on a personal level and this is probably what made it super fun to read.
In her conclusion, Feldmann-Barrett writes, "...an evolving historiography offers room for a multi-voiced account of the past. In saying this, I hope A Women's History of the Beatles inspires further research. It is not meant to be the only academic monograph that explores how women's experiences have intersected with the Beatles story, or how lives have developed and changed as a result" (p. 172). I believe that this work indeed will inspire further research as it only scratches the surface of what constitutes women's roles in the history and legacy of The Beatles. It certainly reminded me of my dream to do an MA in Beatles studies at the University of Liverpool, and what topics I myself would want to focus on.
March 9, 2022
The general Beatle fan audience might have missed this, as it’s a more academically oriented book, but it is quite readable and worth your time. I learned a great deal about the original “fan-friends” of the band in Liverpool, Beatle fandom throughout the world, female musicians inspired by the group, women who have organized conventions and podcasts, and academics who have conducted research in various Beatles-related areas.
May 8, 2022
Excellent, fascinating and good to find finally a different lens through which to look at the Beatles
June 10, 2025
2.5: only two chapters appealed to me(early Liverpool fans and the Beatles’ partners) as the rest was just about women musicians.
November 23, 2025
3.5/5
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews