On September 30, 1970, a reporter asked Janis Joplin to explain her fearless sexuality. “It seems to bother a lot of women’s lib people that you’re kind of so upfront sexually,” Village Voice writer Howard Smith told her. Joplin, by then accustomed to such criticism, responded: “I’m representing everything they said they want.… It’s sort…

via “If I Fail, I’ll Fail in Front of the Whole World.” How Janis Joplin Became The Singer Who Wouldn’t Settle — TIME