Of course it was an image. Anything one wears is an image. Thing is, the punks and hippies both mouthed off about bands who had images that they admitted to. Example, the prevailing viewpoint was that the 1960s was garbage until SanFran was promoted as being the salvwation of the world. You know, all that awful BrillBuilding/RnB/Soul/LatinSoul/ETC. nonsense couldn't compete with the hippies' brilliant compositions.

In the 1970s, the punks spent every waking moment denouncing glam. The gay jokes that were slung at anyone who dared to go against the punk idiocy were actually funny considering the punks were imitating The Ramones, who dressed so gay it was hilarious.

The same phoney political bullshit, the same dislike of image, fuck 'em all. "Counter-culture" bullshit, fuck it.