Women In Resistance Through The Means Of Music: Thesis Part 1 of 5

I am posting up a thesis called, “Women In Resistance Through The Means Of Music”. This will be posted in the next 5 entries of this blog because it is too long to post in one entry. I have been waiting for this thesis for a couple of months now. It was originally intended for my “Grrrlvox” E-zine on blogspot, which no longer exists because I deleted it. Jamie Alvis sent me an email a couple of months ago, saying that he was writing a thesis that he thought I might be interested in reading and maybe using on the “Grrrlvox” E-Zine, instead, I am posting it here. If you like this thesis, Let Jamie know, I think he deserves compliments on this thesis. I hope he got a good grade on this thesis too. Jamie lives in the UK and you can get in touch with him through his facebook profile, which is linked above.

WOMEN IN RESISTANCE THROUGH THE
MEANS OF MUSIC

     

     

BY JAMIE ALVIS 2008

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to take this opportunity to thank my Mum and Dad for their continuous
support over the past five years of my education – you shall have more money now!

I would also like to thank my girlfriend Laura and her family for their support. Also a
huge thanks to my dissertation supervisor Helen Kennedy who has been significant to
this project. Without any belief and encouragement, I would not stand ‘proud’ like I
am today obtaining what I have worked so hard for the past five and a half years…

 

Thank you all for this – but, there is much more work to be done…

 

Jamie Alvis

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I – INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER II – PUNK AND WOMEN

CHAPTER III – THE RIOT GRRRLS

CHAPTER IV – THE LEGACY

CHAPTER V – CONCLUSION

BIBLIOGRAPHY

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

 

In this dissertation I will be researching and analysing a range of female musicians
with a particular focus on studying the ways In which their music and their
performance can be read as a form of ‘resistance’ to patriarchal norms. Drawing on
women in resistance through the means of music. I shall discuss this from the period
of 1975 and how this time was significant for future women to aspire to. I shall
specifically draw on theories of aesthetics, analyses of media, representations,
feminist critical literature, analysis of specific lyrics and will be paying attention to
issues of identity.

 

I have collected various research to work with, which include online questionnaires,
interviewing a lecturer and many various media such as journals, newspaper articles
and film, not to mention various influential writers relevant to cultural studies such as
Hebdige, Laing and Butler. I have also used images within this dissertation as it
visually explains a little more of arguments that I have raised. What I aim to do in this
dissertation is to provide two important times for women in music, being Punk of
1976 and then looking at Riot Grrrl of 1991 and then finally by looking into where
women stand in 2008 in terms of resistance. Initially I shall briefly draw up on Punks
inspiration. Most importantly this dissertation intersects the potentials of cultural and
social change through music that has been widely discussed in cultural studies.

cosmo sucks

today on the ever amazing postsecret the following secret was posted:

i’m sure we can all related to this person.  i find standing in line at a checkout to be a disheartening experience as i am faced with painfully airbushed celebrities and headlines such as:
“Guy Tested – Little Touches He’ll Love You More For” (cosmo may ‘08)
“Is Your Skin Aging Too Fast?” (marie claire ‘08)
“Don’t Get Spitzered – Understanding Men Who Stray” (elle june ‘08) [what exactly is there to understand? how your failure to be perfect sent him straying?]

personally i think these magazines solely serve to perpetuate stereotypes surrounding “proper” feminine concerns…. either that or they are trying to further marginalize smart girls everywhere.

but fear not my grrrls because there are magazines who do speak to the feminists of the world!
☆ bitch magazine (“a feminist response to pop culture”) publishers quarterly and dissects popular women’s culture, including the aforementioned magazines, in an intelligent and fearless way. (wiki)
☆ bust (“a magazine for women with something to get off their chests”) is one of my all time favourite magazines (right up there with sassy!). it inspired me to learn how to knit – a feat my grandmother couldn’t accomplish in 20 years of trying! i feel that it’s geared to sex positive, crafty riot grrrls and it’s published bi-monthly. i’m currently saving my pennies for a subscription (i live in canada so it’s a bit more expensive), but if you live in the US a one year subscription is only $20! i’m sorry i sound like an ad but i seriously cannot say enough about my love for this mag. it truly fills the sassy void ♥ (wiki)
☆ ms. magazine is the first feminist reading i was ever exposed to. its been publishing since 1971 and is still the benchmark for all feminist journalism. it has truly paved the way for some amazing social change. for example, in 2006 they did an issue called “we had abortions” which contained abortion stories from women who were unashamed of their choice. it was amazing. the magazine currently publishes quarterly. (wiki)
☆ venus zine is a magazine i stumbled on when compiling the links for this post. according to wikipedia it was founded by a girl named amy schroeder “in her michigan state university dorm room as a freshman in 1995″. from what i’ve seen of the website and magazine so far i am in love. any magazine that has a front page headline that reads “Greatest Female Guitarists of All Time – Joan Jett, Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein, Marnie Stern, Joni Mitchell, Kim Deal, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and 40 more” is fine by me! (wiki)

now why am i pimping out these magazine to you readers?  because i strongly feel that we as grrrls should support magazines that represent us.  did you know that corporation that owns cosmo (hearst magazines) had revenues of $4.5 billion in 2006?  and that cosmo now has 3 tv networks (one of them being in my own canada)?

perpetuating female stereotypes is a HUGE business and its up to us to fight back.
start by supporting feminist magazines today!