Punk Icon Defaces Exhibition For Ignoring Women’s Contribution To Culture

On Thursday night, punk icon Viv Albertine, a member of pioneering all-female band The Slits, was asked to speak at the British Library's Punk 1976-78 exhibition in London. While in conversation with music journalist Jon Savage at the event, Albertine took the opportunity to redress the gender imbalance in an information panel that forms part of the exhibition, Pitchfork reports. With the text only mentioning the contribution of punk bands with male members, such as Sex Pistols and The Clash, Albertine used her sharpie pen to add the names of three punk bands with female members: The Slits, X-Ray Spex and Siouxsie and the Banshees. She then annotated the panel with a very pertinent question, "What about the women!!" Faber House, the publishing company that organised the event Albertine was speaking at, shared a picture of the amended information panel on Twitter.

Albertine, who in December released an acclaimed memoir, Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys., also shared a picture of herself reclaiming the information panel.

While it's obviously disappointing that the exhibition was so narrow-minded to begin with, there's something kind of thrilling about Albertine's very necessary act of vandalism; it shows the punk spirit is definitely still alive and well.