The punk women of the 70s created a new femininity but what do they look like now?
The first punk women scandalised 1970s British society by sticking two fingers up at traditional femininity. Bethan Cole tracks down some of those rebellious rockers, most now in their 50s, to see how they have matured.
If "punk never dies", as the infamous slogan goes, then how does it age?
The original punk generation of the late 1970s are now well into their 50s, with a potential arsenal of anti-ageing technology at their disposal. But how has the generation that stuck two fingers up at conformist beautification back in the 70s adapted to the post-millennial beauty culture? Have they mellowed and evolved into more orthodox-looking women like say, Viv Albertine of The Slits, who played an artist in the 2013 film Exhibition looking lightly bronzed, blow dried and creaseless. Or have they continued to wear the warpaint, like Siouxsie Sioux, who appeared on a November 2014 magazine cover all angular eyebrows and ankhs of kohl, looking as much like a warrior of nihilistic glamour as she did when she appeared on stage at Hong Kong's Baptist University, with her Banshees, in 1982 - albeit without a wrinkle in sight.
It's hard to imagine now, in our world of celebrities with crazily coloured hair and make-up brands marketing to the unconventional, just how rupturing punk was of conventional beauty norms. Think back to the drab, dull, closed-on-Sunday world of 70s Britain and the punk revolt that erupted in 76 and 77, and chemical-green mohicans, diseased-looking cobalt blue lipstick, vicious ink-black cat eyes and death-like white skin all come to mind.
"I was definitely rejecting feminine beauty ideals. I hated the passivity of the status quo female look," she recalls of the motivation for her punk beauty manifesto. "I hated the sameness, the normality, the lack of imagination. Most of all I detested the lack of power … The 'come get me fluffy rabbit' look."
Gail Thibert, 50, now a professional psychic as well as backing singer and keyboard player in punk band Flowers in the Dustbin, also wanted to rail against convention.