This Summer 2026, more than a few of my students are writing about Beehive Hairdos, Knee-High Go-Go Boots, and Hippie-Style Bell-Bottom Pants.   That’s because we are reading a sixties novel and developing sixties research papers.  The sixties were a time of change. The Civil Rights Movement created forward progress in diminishing racial injustice. The Beatles inspired an entire generation with peace and love. However, we also witnessed great tragedy. The assassination of President Kennedy and the escalation of the Vietnam War would forever alter our trust in our own government. The deaths of Marilyn Monroe, Bobby Kennedy, and Martin Luther King are clouded in conspiracy to this day. We look at Woodstock as an iconic event of the decade, but we will never forget the Manson family massacres.

 In English 105, I encourage my students to explore issues that impact them the most. We read a novel, Motorcycle on the Sea of Tranquility, about a young woman coming of age in the sixties.  Inspired by the reading,  I often attempt to guide my student research towards Gender Equality, Women’s Rights, Domestic Violence, Sexual Harrassment. If that gets too heavy, I recieve more than a few excellent essays about Sixties Fashion, mostly from the women in my classrooms, but some from the men.  Their research papers often compare a seminal moment, event, person, or idea of the sixties with a present-day counterpart. If things go right, my students often draw a line from hippie culture to today’s hip-hop culture. I see the sixties as the decade where women found freedom. Their fashion reflected their new-found independence. The Feminist Movement took the world by storm. Most, if not all, of my students have never heard of the Me Too Movement. In my opinion, reading about the courage and determination of the first feminist activists just might inspire interest where we are today regarding Women’s Rights. MY STUDENTS GO BACK TO THE FUTURE.

To get a step ahead of the action, I recently read two memoirs/biographies of sixties supermodel Edie Sedgwick.  I’ve learned better-late-than-never to read up on a few topics before the semester begins.  I first read Edie:  An American Biography, edited by Jean Stein and George Plimpton.  I say “edited,” for the book tells the story of Edie from friends, family, and hanger-ons, before, during, and after her time working in New York City during the 1960s.  I recognized the name George Plimpton from one of the first sports memoirs I had ever read: Paper Lion: Confessions of a Last-String Quarterback.   My reading of Paper Lion has to hearken back more than 50 years ago, probably when I was in middle school. George was famous for his writing in the New Yorker Magazine, not so much for his athletic skills, but that is what Paper Lion proposed.  It’s about a Harvard quaterback – George – that gets a real-life tryout with an NFL team.  They made a famous movie based on the book starring Alan Alda. They call it a Comedy, but it is more a Horror Show.  George talked a good game to get on the field for a few plays, but everyone reading the book or watching the movie has to know that no matter how smart this guy was, sooner or later he was going to get KILLED!  I mention this about George because he apparently crossed paths with Edie at sixties parties for the RICH and FAMOUS.  The way she carried herself must have reminded him of his brief time on the football field.  Edie was used and abused and tossed around like a ragdoll. George lived to tell about his NFL experience.  Unfortunately, we will  never know what Edie felt.  She died of a drug overdose at age 28.  George does the next best thing.  With Jean Stein, he compliles hundreds of interviews from people who got close to Edie during the sixties.  This is book is a sign of the times.  Edie was a speed and herion addict.  George admits he was deeply drawn to her and repelled by her at the same time.  He must have known deep in his heart that she wouldn’t be around for long.

Much of the book details Edie´’s relationship with the famous artist Andy Warhol. Before Edie met Andy, she may have been described as a Poor Little Rich Girl who had little direction in her young life. She was both beautiful and charming, but she was also subject to extreme bouts with depression and anxiety. This book details her journey into and out of mental hospitals. In this way, she reminds me a lot of Marilyn Monroe. Edie came from a family with dark, dark secrets. Her two closest brothers to her in age had committed suicide when she was still very young. Her own father may have sexually abused her. The siblings in the Sedgwick family were trained to not talk about their problems. Like Marilyn, Edie may not have understood what real love was all about. She may have turned to hard drugs for a sense of relief.

I’m not going to write a book report here, but when Edie met Andy, she may have found a devoted father figure that she had always wanted. Andy gave her all the attention she could ever dream of. He immediately sensed her star power and began to integrate her into his underground films. When she asked what the films were about, he may have said something like “You.” He just wanted her to be herself. Like Marilyn, Edie maintained special relationship with the camera. She was always short and thin, but the appearance of a camera would somehow make her bigger than life. A friend of hers, Sandy Kirkland, says in the book, “She had this real romance with it [the camera]. She could be a totally bedraggled wiped out wreck, and then the camera wold go on and she would go on and she would just be this magical star.” According to Kirkland, teen-age Edie gravitated towards the camera like Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard. The artist in Andy Warhol looked at her like a living, breathing objet d’art:

This summer I was able to guide/push a few of my students to research quirky fashion trends of the sixties. One of my students dedicated her writing to the onset of Sixties Go-Go Boots. I didn’t know this until I read the essay, but the name of these boots was derived from the French term à gogo. Jaja. I should have known this. At one time in my life I spoke French much better than I speak Spanish today. When you say à gogo, you must be talking about something that stands out. It’s bigger and better. The white leather boots often go as high as the knee. The heels that originally came in the shape of stilettos eventually transitioned into something heavier and clunkier – better for navigating the dance floor. I introduce my students to Nancy Sinatra who sang “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’.” My hope is for them to include a partial analysis of the lyrics in their essays. This song is often considered an anthem for Female Power!

The Beehive Hairdo looks like it sounds.  In the sixties, women piled their hair high up above their head in a cone, the shape of a traditional beehive.  To achieve the look, women teased their hair upwards with a comb over and over and then  smoothed the outer surface.  French movie star and sex symbol Bridget Bardot was famous for her beehive.  First Lady Jackie Onasis often sported a nice one.  Today the Behive Lives! Adele is known to take the stage with a behive. Before she died, Amy Winehouse’s hair got bigger and bigger. She once said, “The more insecure I feel, the bigger my hair has to be.” 

I push this topic on my students – The Women’s Movement – because it is as important to discuss today as it was in the sixties.  Back then, women fought for their rights.  They wanted equal opportunity.  They demanded control of their own bodies. These women paved the way for the freedom we have today.  BUT THE FIGHT IS NOT OVER!  Women’s voices need to be heard. 

One goal in this research project is for my students to explore how we got here today.  What is going on in this country relative to Race, Gender, Power, and Access. Here I encourage my students to discuss how gender stereotypes are reinforced and undermined under our current administration.  This isn’t anything new!  We all know about Cesar Chavez, but when I discuss Dolores Huerta, an eerie silence often overcomes the room.  Dolores fought most of her life for the rights of farmworkers, but sadly, as a woman, her accomplishments been pushed into the background of most history lessons. In high school, my students studied the contributions of Martin Luther King Jr to The Civil Rights Movement in the sixties, but they never have heard of Women’s Rights Leader Gloria Steinem, who TODAY is still speaking Truth to Power. 

I know, I know few English teachers may recommend a research paper based on changing sixties fashion trends, when there are so many important historic events and ideas to explore from the decade.  Believe me, I spend a lot of time brainstorming lists of topics before each semester. Over the years, I’ve decided the promotion of STUDENT CHOICE is the best way to go.  I mean, my students should enjoy what they are reading and writing about.  The whole purpose of the class is to elevate student writing skills.  My students are not going to get as far by responding to standardized writing prompts out of the back of a textbook. When they are forced to write about things they care little about,  their attitudes to their own education become indifferent.  Their writing is flat.

None of my students this summer had ever heard of Edie Sedgwick, but upon her arrival to New York City in 1965, she was “IT,”  maybe for a two-year period.   She cut her long BLACK hair, and spray-painted what was left SILVER. The color of her hair was what may have attracted the most attention.  It eerily resembled the hair color of her mentor.    Andy had to recognize the similarities in their fashion choices, but he may have been most attracted to Edie’s boyish look.  The short hair.  The tight pants. The simple shirts.  Edie and Andy were out for the same thing. They wanted ATTENTION and they GOT IT!

The first day of class each semester, I show a conspiracy video surrounding the death of Marilyn Monroe. I’m happy to say that the students who write about Marilyn often earn the highest grades on their research papers. This is because they not only focus on her LOOK but they also capture her VULNERABLITY. Marilyn was raised in a broken home during the Great Depression. She was separated from her mentally ill mother at age four and forced to live in a series of orphanages and foster homes until she was old enough to marry at age sixteen. Out of the hundreds of thousands of beautiful young women who come to Los Angeles to pursue her dreams, Marilyn somehow scratched and clawed her way to the top. I”m glad I am now prepared to share Edie with my students. She rolled into New York City the same way Marilyn hit the Hollywood studios. For whatever she lacked in height or volume, Edie made up for it with her fashion choices. She was famous for the extensive make-up routines of her large, almond-sized eyes. Many of my students will enjoy describing her thick, darkened eyebrows in combination with her use of black eyeliner and thick, fanned false eyelashes. She looked like an Egyptian princess!

I write this, for I believe many of my students will be inspired by Edie’s story in the same way others took to Marilyn. In the second Edie memoir I read, Edie Factory Girl, I came across one of Andy’s screenwriters who reflected upon Edie’s debut on the Big Screen: “[It was] like Monroe in Asphalt Jungle. She had a five/minute role and everyone came running: ‘Who is the Blonde?’” Let’s call this an open-ended research question. For a research paper on Edie Sedgwick, this would would be a good place to start.