Mohawks Have More Fun

Text & Photos by Fred Berger
This Black & White photo depicts two punk rock girls leaning against a blank white wall in an apartment in the East Village of Manhattan in 1982. It’s a full body shot from head to toe. They’re standing on a hardwood floor. The white girl on the left is Claudette and the black girl on the right is Lisa. Claudette has a spiky light brown mohawk hairstyle of moderate length and Lisa as a very short black mohawk. Both wear black leather motorcycle jackets and combat boots. Their jackets are unzipped; Claudette wears a pullover sweater on top of a plaid flannel shirt and Lisa also wears a plaid flannel shirt. Claudette wears plaid flannel trousers and Lisa wears pin-striped trousers. Their heads are turned to look towards one another and their elbows are touching. Claudette is smiling and Lisa is sticking out her tongue. Claudette’s hands are touching each other at mid-torso and Lisa’s hands are in her pockets. Claudette’s ankles are crossed and Lisa’s feet are spread apart. This photo was taken by Propaganda publisher and editor Fred Berger.
Mohawk girls Claudette (left) and Lisa (right). Classic motorcycle jackets, plaid flannel, and combat boots were de rigueur for the fashionable hardcore punk. (Photo & Copyright © by Fred Berger)

In the 1950s and ‘60s, Clairol hair dye had an advertising slogan, “Blondes have more fun.” It was a playful way to capitalize on the stereotype that women with blond hair actually led more exciting and enjoyable lives. However, in the context of the 1970s and ‘80s counterculture such an outmoded phrase had little meaning. Therefore, I decided to reword it as “Mohawks Have More Fun” for the title of a photo-essay in the debut issue of Propaganda Magazine, which was released in early 1982. I captured the images at a loft party in Manhattan’s East Village attended by people from the local punk rock scene. The two girls pictured here are Claudette and Lisa, the bassist and vocalist respectively of the hardcore band Anti Warfare. In their unfettered exuberance they were the life of the party, as the boys competed with one another for their attention in a display of rowdy horseplay.

This Black & White photo depicts Claudette sitting on the back of a punk rock boy who is on his hands and knees. He is visible from the elbows up and is positioned with his body directed towards the camera, showing the top of his head and shoulders. She is sitting sideways on his back and is positioned in profile. She’s laughing as she tries to maintain her balance, with her arms and legs in unsteady motion. She is dressed the same as in the photo with her and Lisa. The punk boy wears a plaid flannel shirt and black jeans. At the right edge of the photo another punk boy is barely visible – just his right arm and part of his right leg can be seen. He wears a plaid flannel shirt and blue jeans. They are in front of the same white wall as in the previous photo. This photo was taken by Propaganda publisher and editor Fred Berger.
Claudette rides a bucking bronco! Note that “Anti Warfare” is painted on her boot. Hardcore punks generally wore fewer pins and emblems than regular punks for a more minimalist look. (Photo & Copyright © by Fred Berger)

The group’s notoriety was catching on, and I had the opportunity to see them play at the A7 Club in the East Village in January 1982. They were as hardcore punk as it gets, with Lisa spewing almost unintelligible vocals at the rate of a Thomson submachine gun. She even joined the slam-dancing a couple of times, throwing herself into the mosh pit with reckless abandon. Pretty and petite, she contrasted sharply with her athletic male counterparts in this neo-primitive rite of hyper masculinity. Meanwhile, Claudette banged out a frenetic beat on a bass guitar which was a bit too large for her diminutive frame. Even so, despite their size, these two wildcats held their own with the best of them and became much respected and ubiquitous fixtures on the Downtown scene.

This Black & White photo depicts Lisa roughhousing with two white punk boys. At the left of the photo, one of them is grabbing her from behind with a beer bottle in one hand and a cigarette in his mouth. On the right, the other is dancing to a hardcore punk song, swinging his fist and kicking his leg while holding a can of beer. Lisa laughs and clenches her fists. They all wear black leather motorcycle jackets. The boy holding Lisa has black leather wrist bands with silver spikes. The dancing punk wears a “Nazi Punks Fuck Off” armband on his right sleeve, which is homemade and shows a swastika in a circle with a line running through it. These two young rowdies both have dark short spikey hair. The background is a blank white wall with a door.
Lisa slam dancing with the boys. The one on the right wears a “Nazi Punks Fuck Off” armband, depicting a black swastika in a red circle with a red diagonal line crossing it out. The slogan and symbol are from the Dead Kennedys 1981 single “Nazi Punks Fuck Off.” (Photo & Copyright © by Fred Berger)
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