Janis Joplin was a trail blazer who came to fame in the Summer of Love at Monterey Pop (staged by Lou Adler and John and Michelle Phillips). One of the all time great artists, Janis has always suffered from certain men -- especially in death.
Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix were not portrayed as victims for dying of drugs at the same time as Janis. No they were supposed Dionysus, living and dying in a frenzy.
Janis?
The Rock Boys tried to turn her into a cautionary tale to ward off other women.
Ellen Willis and other critics managed to pull Janis' legacy out of that sexist b.s.
But even now, Janis' image suffers.
Did someone say Crapapedia?
Crapapedia doesn't want Janis tagged a lesbian or bi-sexual.
Read their crap here and they think they're doing the world a favor by even (briefly) noting Peggy Caserta, a woman Janis was sexually involved with for approximately two years.
In Scars of Sweet Paradise: The Life and Times of Janis Joplin, Alice Echols writes;
Most accounts of Janis' life have relegated Peggy to the sidelines, but she was one of Janis's best friends, and their on-again, off-again affair was probably the closest Janis came to having a long-term relationship. Those who are eager to heterosexualize Janis would rather write Peggy out of her life, especially in the light of Peggy's embarrassingly overheated memoir, published in 1973. Going Down with Janis opens with the unforgettable line, "I was stark naked, stoned out of mind on heroin, and the girl lying between my legs giving me head was Janis Joplin."
The sexism of Crapapedia knows no bounds.
While down playing her same-sex encounters (other than Peggy, they ignore them), they rush to prop up Janis' hetrosexuality. For example, they have a sentence about an unnamed man proposing to her. Their basis? A book -- a good one -- published after Janis' death.
But Crapapedia doesn't trust women who spoke after Janis' death. The moderator explains, "All the comments attributed to Janis Joplin about her lesbian
experiences were attributed to her when she was dead."
Remember, boys and girls, it's Crap -- Crapapedia and it struggles to portray women's lives as anything other than appendages to men.