If you read this blog or if you liked this blog, when it was alive, then I think you’ll like my new blog.
Check out my new blog: Forwrrrd
Forwrrrd is an activism, DIY, equal rights, feminism, human rights, riot grrrl, and women’s rights blog. If anybody wants to contribute something to the blog, email me: grrrlsvomitcandy@hotmail.com with the subject “blog” or “contribute”. Contributions must be activism, diy, equal rights, feminism, human rights, riot grrrl, and/or women’s rights focused. Any and all contributions will be appreciated and credited. Thanks!
You can also email me, but just remove the NOSPAM part of the email address.
Feel free to email me: links, riot grrrl chapters, information, articles, submissions, contributions, etc. for the Riot Grrrl Online website or for the Forwrrrd Blog. Thanks!
Wendy O. Williams-Rock’s First Riot Grrrl
Mar 4, 2004
The Plasmatics championed rock ‘n roll chaos, gore and violence after Kiss and Alice Cooper but before Gwar and Marilyn Manson . However, they added another element to the fray. Their frontwoman, Wendy O. Williams, was a part-time porn actress with an outrageous Mohawk who wore nothing more than shaving cream or electrical tape onstage ,crashed cars, smashed TV sets and whatever stage prop was slated for demolition that evening.
The brainchild of porn producer Rod Swenson, the band consisted of sledgehammer wielding vocalist Wendy O Williams (WOW for short), guitarists Richie Stotts and Wes Beech and bassist Jean Beauvoir. The group initially played chaotic live gigs at notorious New York punk haunts like CBGBs in the late ’70s. It wasn’t long before the Plasmatics recorded their first album “New Hope For The Wretched.” In 1980 Hard to believe the quasi-metal noise of “Butcher Baby” and “Tight Black Pants” was produced by Jimmy Miller, who previously helmed albums by the Stones and Traffic. A more successful effort “Beyond The Valley of 1984″ was released the next year. Featuring “Sex Junkie” and “A Pig Is A Pig”, “1984″ is definitely a very heavy metal album, and the band’s best release. Even the futuristic Mad Max in the desert cover photograph and the accompanying video (Wendy crashing a car through a wall of TV sets) are shock-rock classics.
The band played live shows at small hole in the wall clubs where they could get away with their XXX antics. Although audiences were appreciative (one Plasmatics fans seems thrilled to have an antenna from a smashed TV set rip his hand, according to a message board posting), police in the Midwest weren’t impressed. At a show in Milwaukee, police arrested Wendy on “public indecency” charges and severely beat her and manager Swenson. 1982′s “Coup D’Etat” signaled the Plasmatics last gasp as a media-fueled metal-punk spectacle. Plasmatics material continues to be released and re-released to this day. Proving that the group had a sensitive side, the Plasmatics website released an album of the band’s collected “love” songs in 2002 “Love Songs For The Apocalypse” contained titles such as “Fuck That Booty,” “Jailbait,” and “I Love Sex.” Perfect background music for an evening at Mistress Wendy’s House of Domination. Williams released two solo albums-the Gene Simmons produced “WOW” released in 1984 and 1986′s “Kommander of Kaos.” She also recorded “No Class” and “Stand By Your Man” with Motorhead’s Lemmy. As the 1980s ended, so did Williams’ career as a punk/metal priestess and she appeared in a few films and television shows. She also promoted her interest in macrobiotic and vegetarian food, teaching a class in macrobiotic cooking at NYC’s Learning Annex in the early ’90s.
PORTLAND, Ore. – A mother who sent her 8-year-old daughter to a Portland rock music-themed camp for girls says she is shocked by what she thinks is age-inappropriate material distributed to the young attendees.
The mother, who did not want to be identified, said her daughter returned home with music that contained graphic violent imagery and lyrics that were both sexually charged and racist.
The woman said the items were part of a welcome packet for girls attending the camp and that she checked them out before her daughter could listen to the music.
She said she’s worried that other camp attendees might be exposed to the materials and music if their parents don’t get to it first.
One CD featured packaging that depicted a murder scene with a dead body and a killing in progress.
Also among the items was a tape by the band Bikini Kill that the concerned mom said had sexual content so explicit she was too embarrassed to repeat it. She said the music also had racially offensive content.
She said that if her daughter had heard the music and asked her what some of the words meant, it would have been “very difficult to explain to her.”
While officials with Rock and Roll Camp for Girls declined to be interviewed by KATU News, they did say they were going to look into the issue. On their Web site, the non-profit organization says the camp is designed to “build girls self-esteem through music creation and performance.”
The organization says it is for girls ages 8 to 18 years old.
The girl’s mother said she can’t understand how the materials could have been given to an 8-year-old without some sort of screening by camp operators.
“I trusted these adults to give her appropriate material,” she said.
Ex-L7 Riot Grrrl Donita Sparks Mellows Slightly With Stellar Moments
By KATE CARRAWAY
Thursday, May 22, 2008 – 3:05 pm
Blonde Ambition
Ex-riot grrrl Donita Sparks once threw used tampons. Now, she blogs for Firedoglake
Singer/songwriter/feminist (and contributor to the liberal political blog Firedoglake) Donita Sparks is best known for co-founding and fronting L7, the Los Angeles band responsible for the crucial evolution of semi-mainstream music in favor of messy, weird and provocative (or “normal,” depending on where you’re standing) women. The group, which formed in 1985, even had a powerful impact on boys, including one male friend of mine who relates that “My 13-year-old awakening to feminism was directly linked to seeing L7 twice [in 1994]. They were extremely formative in my sulky, shit-heel teen tastes.”
This, really, is the L7-gifted inheritance to adults who followed them as kids in the ’90s: They provided solid proof that having purple hair and being mouthy and acting like a jagoff (the oft-repeated story of Sparks throwing a used tampon into an unruly audience makes “Suck my left one” seem almost preppy) was just as available to girls as it was to guys. Which, of course, has a fucking profusion of import for teenagers, male and female alike. L7’s music, a heavier and harder grunge take on riot-grrrl attitude, never really slayed on record, but that wasn’t the point. “Shitlist” and “Pretend We’re Dead” made fans cream whatever was under their cutoffs and thermals. L7 informally disbanded around 2000, and since then, there haven’t been any female bands ensconced in the industry nearly as intimidating or challenging to the collective consciousness. Bleak.
This is Part 5 out of Part 5 of “Women In Resistance Through The Means Of Music” thesis written by Jamie Alvis.
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION
I have found that the women I have studied have at least one thing in common – they
oppose the dominant media representation of femininity and resist the notion that
women should look and behave in specific ways. Other areas of commonality
amongst my examples are issue related to individual identity and a sense of belonging
to a community. These issues seem to be important within the three generations that I
have discussed. The legacy of Patti Smith’s gender resistance seem evident in
contemporary music, with females artists such as Tarrie B which justifies my
argument and her similar mode of resistance. The Spice Girls also made a
contribution, they had a limited effect on changing notions of femininity even though
they were much more mainstream than my other examples in my dissertation.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
·LEES, S. Sugar and Spice: Sexuality and Adolescent Girls. 1993. Penguin
Publications: London
·FRITH and HORNE, S and H. Art into Pop. 1989. Routledge: London and New
York
·WHITELEY, S. Women and Popular Music. 2000: Sexuality, Identity and
Subjectivity. Routledge: London
·OCEANSOUL619. 2007. The Punk Years: Typical Girls [online] [Accessed 19th
December 2007].Available from World Wide Web:
·BAULD, M. 2008. Interview with the author on 1st Feburary 2008. Bristol.
[Cassette recording in possession of author]
·NOMOREYOUTUB. 2007. Kylie Minogue: Better the Devil You Know. [online].
[Accessed 14th February 2008]. Available from World Wide Web:
<http://youtube.com/watch?v=spyyKkOK20I>
·DRISCOLL, C. 1999. Girl Culture, Revenge and Global Capitalism: Cybergirls,
Riot Grrls, Spice Girls. Australian Feminist Studies. Vol 14. No. 29.
·DRISCOLL, C. 1999. Girl Culture; or, Why Study the Spice Girls? Australia:
Wakefield Press
·Fay Weldon, Wednesday 5th December 2007, “Girl Power?” Daily Mail
·HALFPENNY, F. 2008. [Personal communication]. 28th February
This is Part 4 out of Part 5 of “Women In Resistance Through The Means Of Music” thesis written by Jamie Alvis.
CHAPTER IV
THE LEGACY
In this final chapter I would like to discuss what remains here in 2008 in terms of
female resistance through the means of music. In this final chapter I would like to
discuss the issue of whether we can find evidence of what I have described as ‘female
resistance’ in the contemporary music scene. I have broadly elaborated in the
previous chapters, two of history’s major movements that were made by women and
for women. The Punk movement being some what of a foundation for women to
begin to resistance in music and certainly how the influential Patti Smith inspired
women to do so. I have also examined the way in which the Riot Grrrls were a much
more overtly political force in terms of a feminism perspective. So essentially this
final chapter will discuss how these two movements have opened up a door for
women in music 2008. I shall discuss the self-professed feminist and lesbian Beth
Ditto of the Indie/Rock group The Gossip, Tarrie B of the heavy metal group My
Ruin, the Spice Girls and finally I shall briefly look at Riot Grrrl and where it is
positioned today. In looking at these figures I shall make note of aesthetics, lyrical
content as well as media intervention. I am limited here by a current absence of
critical work on these groups (although not doubt there is a wealth of ongoing
research waiting to hit the presses) and will be relying on some small scale
ethnographic work, some lyric analysis and the analysis of current journal and
newspaper articles.
THE SPICE GIRLS
I discussed in chapter one that I would include ‘Pop’ music and not predominately
‘Rock’ music as a way of being unbiased, this is why I felt it was important to also
incorporate ‘Pop’ in the final chapter, in this case the Spice Girls. In many ways the Spice Girls are complex. They discuss the notion of ‘Girl Power’ (more so back in
1996 and their rise to fame) and use it as a force. (Note: ‘Girl Power’ was used in the
early 1990s by Riot Grrrl).
Spice Girls (1996) promotion poster
The lyrical content in the song ‘Wannabe’ is quintessential ‘Pop’ as well as
conforming to dominant heteronormative ideals (as established earlier in the
comparison between the songs of Kylie Minogue and Bikini Kill). Note: I am not sure
that this song is as straightforward as that – it is also about an unthreatening version
of sisterhood – i.e. friends are as important as boyfriends etc. The objective of the Spice Girls is complex- they aim and are seen by the public to resist the status quo
and live wild lives. Aesthetically each member of the pop group is made to appear as
sexual – each Spice Girl are also stylized specifically, which gives a potential male
audience a position to negotiate which style is sexual to them. For example Sporty
Spice may attract a person who prefers that ‘athletic’ type. “Are the Spice Girls
marketed as different flavours of sexual opportunity – versions of what a girl would
be like in bed? They certainly could, I would even say surely do, appeal to many
forms of voyeurism and desire” (Driscoll, 1999:212). This argument by Driscoll as
well as my argument becomes problematic in regard to strictly being sexually
‘available’ to the male gaze as they also offer a plurality of feminine types rather than
a singular normative model – including a lesbian group member (Scary Spice).
An example of the spice girls as ‘sexually available’ (2007)
The commercial side of the Spice Girls is also of interest. During December of 2007
the Spice Girls acted on a Tesco commercial, this itself supporting capitalism, the
commercial itself also portrayed the girls in a stereotypical sense of ‘women should
attend to the shopping’. The Spice Girls evidently and heavily rely on the media and
thus commercialisation in order to gain recognition in the world of music. This is
evident in their latest single entitled Headlines:
“Let’s make the headlines, loud and true
I wanna tell the world I’m giving it all to you
Let’s make the headlines, loud and clear
The best things suddenly happen when you are here
And if I lost my way you’d carry me home
Take me all the way to heaven, never leave me alone
And it’s just like everything matters when you are near”
Still image of Posh Spice on the Tesco commercial (2007)
Drawing back from chapter two and Hebdige’s critique on social class, Driscoll
looks at a potential social class audience by comparing both Spice Girls and Bikini
Kill “the Spice Girls direct their slogans and appeals very broadly, certainly with the
intention of including ‘domestic’ or home-oriented teenagers and preteens, while
Bikini Kill has primarily a college/university or adult audience, and market
themselves with specific reference to this delimited rather than general audience”
(Driscoll, 1999: 211). What Driscoll critiques here then is ‘college/university’ being
educated people – which traditionally defines as middle class. Driscoll (1999) also
states that there is a conflict going on between the Spice Girls and Riot Grrrl “While
Riot Grrrl zines and sites decry such pop phenomena as the Spice Girls, some of the
Spice Girl fan material describes the Riot Grrrls as dull and dour, whining, self-pitying and sexless –
which are, interestingly enough, some of the same accusations Riot Grrrls have
levelled at ‘second wave’ feminism.” (Driscoll, 1999:209). This indicates that rather
than women challenging and resisting men in 1991, women are now resisting women.
Driscoll also states that if ‘Girl Power’ is feminist, does this imply that a feminist
minority has now become popular culture than renders it as majority? Fay Weldon, a
British feminist essayist is furious over the come back of the Spice Girls.She openly
accuses them of killing feminism and thus a very bad influence on people. In her two
paged article that was placed in the Daily Mail she states that “a generation of our
young womanhood has taken to binge drinking, Saturday night sluttishness and
‘happy-slappings’, I blame the Spice Girls. There are one or two other factors, I dare
say, such as the cult of consumerism, the decline of religion … morning-after pills
and the rest: but, if we’re going to look for scapegoats, Posh, Ginger, Sporty, Baby
and Scary are, surely obvious candidates.” (Weldon, 2007)
BETH DITTO
During my research findings I found that Beth Ditto of Indie/Rock band The Gossip
would be a crucial figure to discuss in relation to female resistance in contemporary
music. Ditto has the characteristics of Riot Grrrl in terms of subversion as I shall state
below. Ditto herself is a self-professed feminist and also a lesbian, as I mentioned in
the previous chapter, I shall not specifically look at lesbianism but certainly look into
her feminist interest and lyrical content as well as her potential connection with Riot
Grrrl. Respondents to my research have suggested that Ditto belongs within the Riot
Grrrl trajectory stating: “I consider myself a ‘Riot Grrrl’, but I can’t answer all the
questions, but I do believe Beth Ditto is one of the only true ‘Riot Grrrls’ in the music
industry to this date … It is also difficult for a women in the music industry not to fall
into the trap of having a good media image. We’re expected to have perfect bodies,
skin, hair, dress sense, and the papers will rip into you if there’s the slightest thing not
up to scratch. The only person I’ve seen who doesn’t care about that is Beth Ditto.”
(Online interview with member of Riot Grrrl Online, interviewed on 17.01.08).
Dittos performance is consistent with the Riot Grrrl approach; she subverts the
dominant norms of femininity in terms of her appearance and her actions. That of a
Riot Grrrl performance, she subverts what the media portrays as what a ‘woman’
should appear to look and act. There was a recent interview conducted by Microsoft
Network that asked Ditto a series of questions that are relevant to this context. The
author of the interview introduces Ditto in a positive way. “In a world used to seeing
‘perfect’ looking celebrities – where size zero is the ultimate accolade in every
celebrity hungry magazine, Beth’s laid-back attitude to her body is a refreshing
change” (Harvey, 2007)
Further into the questions, the interviewer asks “Have you ever tried to conform or
diet?” Ditto answers with “Still to this day I have to battle with ‘oh should I be on a
diet? It’s not that easy but it’s about confidence. I can’t shut off the entire world. I
feel
how I feel, but it’s not like it used to be. I challenge myself and no matter what I am
right. I’m the one who’s accepting myself and not trying to change myself. It doesn’t
mean people are f***ed up or wrong it means I’m just not going to let it work on me.
Life is too short.” (Harvey, 2007)
Ditto and her perfect ‘size’ resistance
I find the question of “conformity” contradictory, Microsoft itself is a corporation –
capitalism’s godfather, and so isn’t this interview itself “conforming” to a norm? Like
I have stated, at this stage of writing I only find mainstream media articles on this
subject which can be misleading. The interview also suggests that Ditto is borrowing
the ‘Punk’ DIY ethic of self-made clothing. As one of the questions asks “What’s it
like being considered a style icon?” This is responded with “It’s hilarious, I have
stylists who bring in ridiculous things that don’t fit – they just don’t get it. Me and my
friends make things ourselves.” (Harvey, 2007)
Ditto in performance at the Camden Bar Fly in London (May, 2007)
Dittos lyrics to Standing in the Way of Control are controversial and focus on positive
cultural and social change with regard to gay rights in America. As the MSN
interview questions “Can you tell us about the song ‘Standing In The Way Of
Control’?” Ditto replies with “Standing in the Way is about gay marriage and about
sticking together. There are a lot of violations of civil rights in America now…”
(Harvey, 2007)
“Standing in the way of control
You live your life
Survive the only way that you know”
TARRIE B
Although not commercial nor classed as a celebrity in terms of the media, Tarrie B
(front woman) of the American heavy metal band My Ruin is an interesting figure to
discuss in terms of women in resistance through the means of music. The band played
a show in Bristol at the beginning of February in which I asked their UK tour
manager
for a potential interview for the purpose of this dissertation, although I was refused an
interview with Tarrie B – I was advised to send her an email to conduct an online
interview (at this moment of time, she has failed to send me any form of response).
Nevertheless I studied the performance and found it very relevant to my research. The
lyrical content that contains criticism on media representations links very finely with
the work on Bikini Kill who also discussed that media notion of how women should
appear to be. For example the My Ruin song Made to Measure features the bridge
lyrics:
“I’m so fat…I’m fucked up
I’m so skinny…I’m sick
I’m so tired of those magazines
Talkin’ that bullshit
I’m not fat…they’re fucked up
I’m not skinny…they’re sick
I’m just tired of the critics
Talkin’ that bullshit”
It is evident here that there is a lot of anger for women in music here in 2008. The
performance of Tarrie B entails her frequently ‘gobbing’ which is itself an element of
Punk which I discussed in chapter two. The music video that accompanies this song
also encompasses a Patti Smith style, the idea of challenging gender roles. Certain
segments of the music video depicts Tarrie B dressed in a non-feminine way. As the
video progresses she gazes at us making sarcastic gestures that signify ‘Am I perfect
enough to be the front woman of a band?’ The title of the song itself is a critique upon
how adolescents and women are encouraged by the media to maintain a standard of
how they represent what a ‘perfect’ female should look like. Particularly in relation to
‘body size’.
Tarrie B anger is evident in this photo (taken from the Bristol show)
NEO RIOT GRRRLS
During my initial research of the previous chapter I found that the Riot Grrrls
continue to be active here in 2008. The symbolic bands of 1991 such as Bikini Kill
broke up in 1998. However there are a variety of MySpace profiles on the World
Wide Web such as Riot Grrrl UK, whose profile slogan states ‘Your Body is a
Battleground’ this slogan is placed on an image of a female’s face, aesthetically the
woman’s face appears to be resemblance of 1950s. I found Riot Grrrl UK particularly
interesting to look at after reading how the media intervened and disrupted a once
small community and now the result of this has made Riot Grrrl a world-wide
commodity. As a member of MySpace I immediately joined as friends with Riot
Grrrl
UK as a means of research and essentially to obtain ‘one on one’ online interviews to
learn where Riot Grrrls lie at this time and do these people follow the same principles
as in 1991? I posted a message on the profile and introduced myself as a student
researching into the movement’s theoretical side, although I only had two members
that replied to further my knowledge, I began to think that due to such bad publicity
that Riot Grrrl has had imposed on them, perhaps members were reluctant to answer
my questions in conscious fear that I am a potential critic. Although only two people
did respond, their answers were incredibly enlightening as one interviewee discussed
her personal perspective on why Riot Grrrl in the early 1990s was an important
movement. I am including a full online interview with another member of Riot Grrrl
Online as it answers and clarifies what this dissertation has been concerned with.
1)Why would you say the Riot Grrrls of the early 1990s was important?
It was another way for feminists to get their message across, without taking on the
persona of a men-hating masculine looking stereotype that the media has portrayed.
2)Do you think that perhaps, the feminist approach that they presented through
their music may have excluded the masculine?
I think it has.
3)If so Isn’t the concept of ‘feminism’ about equal rights? So why the exclusion?
It is about equal rights for the liberal feminists, but for example radical feminists believed
men were biologically unfavourable, so this could be an explanation for the exclusion of
men.
4) Would you consider the Riot Grrrls as a neo-punk movement to some extent?
It has the same sort of DIY ethic borrowed from the original punk explosion so in some
aspects it is like a new punk revolution for the 90′s.
5) Do Riot Grrrls still exist today with the traditional ethics?
I think that the newer female fronted indie/electro bands are trying to recreate the riot
grrrl movement, but I don’t think that they have the same effect now.
6) Do you believe that the 1991 movement had a long-lasting impact on the
music industry?
I think it did more in America, until the Britpop came along.
7) Would you consider figures such as Beth Ditto to follow similar principles of
Riot Grrrls? After all Ditto is a self-confessed feminist and she preaches that
looks do not matter
I think they do, but as I said in question 5 I don’t think that they are as influential now as
the original riot grrls were.
As this questionnaire states from a personal perspective of someone who considers
herself as a Riot Grrrl, 2008 also provides a host of female fronted bands that resist
but no longer have the same effect as they once did. The women in resistance today
resist the pseudo media representations and how they portray how a woman is
supposed to appear in public. Beth Ditto and Tarrie B continue to do this through their
music and what seems to be clear with the Spice Girls come back is nothing but
conforming whilst endorsing capitalism once again. It is indeed a complex issue of
mainstream versus marginal/elite/subcultural audience within contemporary music.
This is Part 3 out of Part 5 of “Women In Resistance Through The Means Of Music” thesis written by Jamie Alvis.
CHAPTER III
THE RIOT GRRRLS
Now that I have elaborated on the start of women in resistance through the means of
music, I will now discuss the next generation of women in resistance. In this chapter I
will be looking at the Riot Grrrl movement. I shall highlight the symbolic bands and
key figures involved in the initial beginnings of the movement such as Bikini Kill and
Bratmobile and thus discuss why such a female-centric movement was relevant and
where it obtained its influences. I shall be drawing from a range of relevant texts as
these figures have been written about quite widely. Interestingly enough, during my
research into the Riot Grrrls, I established that the ‘Riot Grrrl’ phenomenon actively
continues here in 2008, perhaps in a much more commercial sense than when it began
in 1991, nevertheless I shall briefly discuss this later on and introduce one of its
members who contributed to one of the leading internet siteswhich is used by
women and adolescents who consider themselves as ‘Riot Grrrls’ as well as follow
some of the traditional ethics. I will also elaborate on the work of Hebdige (1979)
who proposed that subcultures are predominately working class. So therefore by
incorporating Hebdige’s ideas, it will provide some exceptional theoretical
background with past debates in the field of arts and thus subcultures. It is essential to
discuss Riot Grrrl in relation to the late 1970’s Punk as it follows similar principles of
women’s feminist rebellion against patriarchal norms through music, as well as
potentially being understood as including tropes from the Avant Garde and
situationist style/approach, essentially a Punk ‘Do-It-Yourself’ aesthetic and ideology
predominately for women in this context. It would also be beneficial to note here that
the ‘Riot Grrrl’ concept was predominately active within the Indie and Punk genres, it
did not quite reach out to the mainstream Pop world back in its initial form and this is
what was intended by the principle ethics of the movement. I shall then look into how
the media intervened with the Riot Grrrl ideology and exploited and thus disrupted
the
movement through bad publicity in which their small and meaningful community
eventually became known as a subculture for feminist man-haters.It would also be
sufficient to note here and thus discuss later on that the Riot Grrrls have been
arguably understood within the framework or values of second wave of feminism as
their practices are underpinned by a similar set of ideas. Driscoll argues that “Riot
Grrrl thus re-articulates the tension between group identity and individualism which
characterises twentieth-century feminism more widely” (Driscoll. 1999:211).
However ‘waves’ will not be a priority field of study in this dissertation. Although I
must emphasise the words of the University of the West of England lecturer Mark
Bould “The problem with defining feminism by waves is that, it tends to assume there
are clear breaks between them, so there’s a lot of second wave feminism still going
on…clearly the dominant forms of feminism or at least the ones that circulate in most
obviously academic circles and popular circles are varieties of third wave feminism”
(Bould, M. 2008). Bould clearly rejects categorisation of feminist waves and certainly
in the context of Riot Grrrl 1991.
BIKINI KILL
Initially discussing how Riot Grrrl was conceptualized and thus categorized it would
be invaluable to give an explanation of what it entailed before the term came along.
The key figures to mention here are Kathleen Hanna, Kathi Wilcox and Tobi Vail
who worked together to produce the fanzine entitled Bikini Kill. This documented and
thus provided detailed information on the local bands that were circulating in Oregon,
the same location in which these figures attended University to read photography and
film (Vail had no formal education, but was an experienced musician and feminist
theorist in that she placed ideas and personal theories within the lyrics of Bikini Kill).
The general idea of the fanzine was to publicize their political ideals in a low-tech and
low-cost fashion. Aesthetically the ‘zine’ was constructed to demonstrate its rawness
and Punk-like montage of pictures and cuttings. The consumers of Bikini Kill and
indeed the writers belonged within a small Punk and Indie subculture community but
had no voice being women, in terms of music, so the ‘zine’ essentially acted as
medium in which their vocalization could be heard and thus create a community of
like-minded women. Many ‘zines’ circulated such as My Super Secret in which
messages and stories of rape would be placed, so it wasn’t just predominately Bikini
Kill that adolescents and women read. Hanna, Wilxcox and Vail would eventually
name their influential band Bikini Kill after their ‘zine’.
Example of the ‘zine’ low-tech production
“The most influential Riot Grrrl band is Bikini Kill” (Driscoll, 1999:209). They also
created the slogan “Revolution Girl Style Now” which was also the title of their first
album/demo on cassette tape, which was an evident political message that suggested
that women were frustrated by the male-centric music industry, they simply wanted to
be heard and thus recognised as important people just like men, rather than objectified
and represented as inadequate people which is how the media would destroy them.
Catherine Driscoll briefly summarizes the main objective and aspiration of Riot
Grrrls. “The Riot Grrrls interrogate dominant discourses on femininity – they aim to,
as they put it, ‘smash the mask’. They interrogate patriarchal and feminist gender
roles and both American society and international recording industries” (Driscoll,
1991: 213). A Riot Grrrl manifesto was released to the community and explained
what the movement required to make significance, although I have not included
further information on this as the original manifestos are rare to come by and
certainly in the United Kingdom. “The Riot Girl manifesto (a rushed, two-page
document that’s constantly being revised) declares, “We seek to create revolution in
our own lives everyday by envisioning and creating alternatives to the bullshit
Christian capitalist way of doing things.”. They urge their members to “resist psychic
death” and “cry in public” … “all girls to be in bands”… “girls rule all towns.” …even
encourage women to arm themselves” (McDonnell and Powers, 1995:397).
So as McDonnell and Powers suggest here the Riot Grrrls sought to completely
challenge men in everyway possible. The authors argued that their aim was “to form a
life away from men and invent girl culture” (McDonnell and Powers, 1995:397). The
Bikini Kill audio cassette itself was produced by Calvin Johnson who operated an
independent record label named K Records. The ‘K’ motto is “Exploding the teenage
underground into passionate revolt against the corporate ogre since 1982”. As the
motto suggests the idea of commercialization in music should be fought against.
Johnson produced many demos of bands based in Olympia that offered a political
message and for the bands who wanted positive cultural and social change, artists that
he recorded ranged from Hole, Bratmobile and Pansy Division, the former band here
established the ‘Queercore’ genre, which ultimately entailed a social and cultural
movement that was pro-gay and lesbian.
Bikini Kill in 1991 recording their demo tape
So just by this example and of course Bikini Kill, it is evident that Johnson was a
significant character in the early days of what is now known as ‘Riot Grrrl’
movement an obvious supporter of nonmainstream and politically inflected music.
“The Label has been so influential in anti-corporate independent music and
underground DIY punk culture” (K Records Online). The early 1990’s was a struggle
for women’s vocalization that had potential to change society. Bikini Kill’s ‘Rebel
Girl’ track openly discusses that there is indeed an urge for a revolution and that
women alone are able to establish a social and cultural transformation with no
indication of men taking place in this desire.
“When she talks, the revolutions coming
In her hips, there’s revolution
When she talks, I hear the revolution
In her kiss, I taste the revolution”
Rebel Girl is also known as the anthem of Riot Grrrl. “While Riot Grrrls war over
representing themselves in any way, the track ‘Rebel Girl’ by Bikini Kill is often
discussed as the Riot Grrrl anthem” (Driscoll, 1990: 209). As the lyrics suggest in
verse two of Rebel Girl it is predominately a female-centric desire for revolution. The
final lines of verse two “In her kiss, I taste the revolution”opens up a potential arena
for discussion on lesbianism and Riot Grrrl as there has been work published on this
such as the work of Mary Celeste Kearney and her essay entitled “The Missing Links:
Riot Grrrl – Feminism – lesbian culture” (in Sexing the Groove, Whiteley, 1997).
However in the context of this chapter I shall not be discussing that field. The lyrics
to
Rebel Girl indicate as a critique of heteronormativity sexual relations and sexual
desires that is present in ‘Pop’ music, where lyrics are bounded around the
heterosexuality relationship ideology or of course lust. For example Kylie Minogue’s
1991 single Better the Devil You Know. This heterosexual ideology is evident here in
verse two:
“Woh woh woh
Our love wasn’t perfect I know
I think I know the score
If you say you love me, oh boy
I’ll come if you should call”
The music video that accompanied Minogue’s Better the Devil You Know reinforces
this argument over the heterosexuality ideology as it features Minogue ‘in love’ with
a man. Whereas Bikini Kill’s ‘Rebel Girl’ accompanying music video features no sign
or indication of this, but rather a critique on what ‘Pop’ music entailed around this
time. Rebel Girl is resisting this by applying some kind of female revolution at work,
where each female portrayed is in military-type uniform and have complete control, it
is also of interest as it has colonial content, where the native women are being
dominated by this all-female army.
HEBDIGE AND SUBCULTURE SOCIAL CLASS
Dick Hebdige in his book Subculture: The Meaning of Style discusses specific
subcultures of the post World War Two period and their resistance against the
existing power structures – “the challenge to hegemony which subcultures represent
is not issued directly by them. Rather it is expressed obliquely in style” (Hebdige,
1978: 17). Hebdige imposes this ambiguous idea on every subculture that he surveys,
rather than researching into each subculture in depth, he is announcing this as a
general point that he believes to be relevant to them all. The Riot Grrrls were of
course a ‘subculture’ but they focused more on lyrical content and political activism
rather than strictly ‘style’, although they did have a ‘style’ it was not as radical as
Punk was, it was a basic ‘style’ that worked on desexualising sexual objectivity.
Kathleen Hanna would eventually wear tee-shirts of topless masculine men and
challenge that idea whilst performing (picture available below). The initial Riot Grrrl
meetings would entail women within this subculture looking very basic. “Most are
dressed in Olympia girl style: short-cropped, dyed hair; wadded-up vintage dresses;
bright Woolworth’s lipstick” (McDonnell and Powers, 1995: 398). In terms of what
materialized after the early meetings and into the shows, the fans would wear Riot
Grrrl tee-shirts as indication and identification of what they belonged to and the
ideology they believed in. The claim that Hebdige made here has some relevance to
Punk of 1976, but on the contrary the lyrical content is directly represented by them
as a challenge to hegemony. Hebdige also announced that all subcultures are
predominately working class. This theory has been since proved inaccurate since
Hanna and Wilcox attended University, gaining them a middle-class status, not to
mention the symbolic middle class women in the middle-nineteen-seventies Punk
such as Vivienne Westwood who again had an education and created an avant garde
style/fashion for the London Punk subculture. In relation to Westwood, Hanna and
Wilcox had a neutral idea in using education as a means of change. Below are two
examples of my argument.
Vivienne Westwood (1970s) Kathleen Hanna (1990s)
THE INTERNATIONAL UNDERGROUND FESTIVAL 1991
The International Underground convention was a six day festival in August 1991.
It was a six day event consisting of bands, who wanted cultural and social change,
essentially using the festival to revolt against corporate music. The opening of the
first night was entitled Girl Rock Revolution.It was predominately a girls night, in
which
the women would have complete freedom without being criticised, this was thus a
great opportunity for women with similar ideas and desires to articulate what they
wanted and how to achieve. The activists Allison Woolfe and Molly Neuman (who
also produced the ‘zine’ Girl Germs and wrote a manifesto for the movement)
played the Girl Rock Revolution with their bandBratmobile whoplayed amongst
many other female performers. This, then, was a space to celebrate women’s
collective experience and a space for women to exchange disempowered feelings. The
desired revolution and thus ‘girl culture’ was limited to have events such as this
where
women took control. “Maybe the girl revolution won’t take shape in the public
world,
the world of men – it won’t happen out on the street, where girls aren’t safe. Maybe it
will begin in a private, enclosed space men never enter, that generic space women
enter and leave, often together” (McDonnell and Powers, 1995: 396). Such an event
as this certainly built confidence in women’s voice and gained recognition of what
they were trying to achieve. This event appears to be as important for the movement
as the Punk festival of 1976 that I discussed in chapter two. The Girl Rock Revolution for some seemed as though the movement was becoming a fact rather than a dream
that these individuals wrote about in their ‘zines’. “Many Riot Girls see that night as a
kind of beginning” (McDonnell and Powers, 1995:398).
MEDIA AND EXPLOITATION
As the Riot Grrrl movement was becoming recognised as a valid entity, the media
intervened and (some say) destroyed the small community that began in Olympia,
Washington. The media misinterpreted the message that the community were trying
to
get across and thus made the movement look less significant and meaningful than it
actually was. “The sense that we all had of something being taken away from us…by
the media or people wanting something from us was really, really terrifying”
(YouTube, Riot Grrrl Retrospective).There was a point that the media exploited the
Riot Grrrls in the sense of using them to make money, not only did the media exploit
but also misinterpreted the message in a very negative way for the public eye to begin
suspicious that this movement was an outrageous and mindless thing. “I think it was
deliberate that we were made to look like we were just ridiculous girls running around
in our underwear. They refused to do serious interviews with us, they misinterpreted
what we had to say, they took our articles and our fanzines and our essays out of
context. We wrote a lot about sexual abuse and sexual assault for teenagers and
women…those were important messages that the media never addressed” (YouTube, Riot Grrrl Retrospective).
My research into the Riot Grrrl Olympia Washington movement has gained much
more evidence into one of my questions – the music industry has behaved in an
apparently sexist manner working to undermine the radical and political intentions of
this movement. Just like women in Punk in the middle to late nineteen-seventies, the
frustration of women led to resistance against the patriarchal ideologies. Indeed what
the Riot Grrrls aimed to achieve and certainly in Bikini Kill was a complete woman’s
revolution that rejected the help of the male to get there. In some respects this was
contradictory as Johnson of ‘K Records’ was evidently male and indeed placed them
on the music circuit. The help of the festival brought the community of Riot Grrrl into
realization that a movement and thus revolution was achievable. The media was a
significant part of the movement’s downfall and how they represented women and
their apparent hatred towards men. By continuously pursuing their representation of
these figures as ‘men-haters’ they failed to provide a platform from which to
publicise their aims. A similarity also that Punk had created power through small
communities and sought for social and cultural change, the media intervened with
their ideas and represented them as invalid and a bad influence to adolescents. A new
generation of Riot Grrrl (or allegedly) remains here in 2008 which I will discuss in
This is Part 2 out of Part 5 of “Women In Resistance Through The Means Of Music” thesis written by Jamie Alvis.
CHAPTER II
PUNK AND WOMEN
“Women had traditionally had the strongest presence and they were certainly
involved in the forming definition of punk.” (Frith and Horne, 1987:129)
As I have stated in the introduction, the main focus of this dissertation will be three
generations of women in resistance by the means of music. I will discuss what is
perhaps thought to be the foundation and thus the starting point of women in music
and how they challenged the norms of femininity and thus resisted patriarchal
ideologies. I shall begin by introducing Patti Smith who was known to inspire women
and the Punk ethics of the mid – late 1970’s. I will then discuss the ‘100 Club’ Punk
festival of 1976 and explain how it developed a further means of female resistance
and how it provided a further stepping stone for women to be acknowledged. I shall
specifically focus on Siouxsie Sioux and Poly Styrene, whom later became symbolic
figures in Punk history and how they sought to challenge the sexist male-dominated
music industry “The music industry was incredibly sexist and very old fashioned
when Punk started”(YouTube, The Punk Years: Typical Girls’). The approach that I
will be drawing on will range from the aesthetics, political, the avant-garde and how
this art-form/avant garde style was incorporated into Punk music as a further means
of resistance for women in Punk. I shall also be drawing attention to ‘pop music’ to
widen the forms of resistance in music, as basing this chapter primarily on ‘Punk’
would be rather narrow, as the connotations of ‘Punk’ has generally been seen as
rebellious, so essentially, by also considering a figure in ‘Pop music’ will enable me
to elaborate on the ways in which resistance existed in both genres. In this chapter I
will look at the works of Sheila Whiteley, Simon Frith, Sue Lees and Howard Horne
amongst other important writers in this field.
PATTI SMITH
Initially it will be essential to discuss the ‘active’ and ‘passive’ audience in relation to
music performance. Lees argues that girls are not passive how ever, she continues to
state that “Girls are not passive victims but are daily constructing complex strategies
for contesting the language and abuse that render them subordinate” (Lees, 1993:
261-262). There is no context or period of history that Lees is referring to so in that
case it would seem to be a generalized statement. However Sheila Whiteley argues
that in the context of 1960s and 1970s rock music “women were the ‘passive squaws
of patriarchal hippy men” (Whiteley, 2000: 98). Whiteley’s argument seems to
provide some significance as she continues to say that women after the 1960’s and
1970’s became ‘warrior and mystic’, which implies the starting point of women and
their resistance by the means of music and this indicates that the Lees quotation that I
have inserted shows some significance and perhaps Lees was referring to the context
of the 1960’s and 1970’s. It would be crucial to introduce Patti Smith as significant in
this starting point which I shall discuss more fully later in this chapter. Simon Frith
and Howard Horne discuss ‘Punk’ in their book “Pop into Art”. They discuss the
theoretical side of ‘Punk’ and how it was established and conceptualized through the
means of art and aesthetics. They place strong emphasis on the role that women had
and how it was profoundly a woman-made subculture and thus how women made
significant contributions to Punk, including, the design of Punk clothing and style (for
example the role of Vivienne Westwood in designing the Punk ‘look’/aesthetic, the
production and circulation of fanzines and women as musicians i.e. Siouxsie Sioux
and Poly Styrene. The influential poet and songwriter Patti Smith is introduced as an
example to identify the reactions that were received from the public, when Punk had
yet to capture the attention of the general public and at a time when female
performers tended to be received and circulated in such a way as to objectify women
and subjected them to an assumed ‘male gaze’. “She was hugely influential on all the
women Punk singers” (YouTube, The Punk Years: Typical Girls’). Patti Smith
challenged the status quo when she dressed herself intypical male clothes for her
album cover art ‘Horses’. At the time of being released in 1975 the generalpatriarchal
ideology condemned and associated women with thus seen women as Frith and Horne
explains “innocent/slut/mother/fool” (Frith and Horne, 1987: 155), which indicates
the angst which influenced women in punk to rebel against. As a comparison, Frith
and Horne introduce David Bowie and Patti Smith, and discuss their similarities in
dress codes i.e. how they both resisted dressing in the conventional sense and how
they both challenged traditions.
“Patti Smith, like David Bowie, had a significant influence on punk and she had a
much more sophisticated understanding of gender codes. Because ‘femininity’ is
made for the male gaze, so it is defined by a look, in the hang of one’s clothes, the use
of make-up, the angle of the camera” (Frith and Horne. 1989: 155)
Judith Butler discusses gender as a performative fashion in the sense that the
definition that divides male and female are acted out in specific ways; evidently
Smith and Bowie subverted this mode of performance and this expectation of sexual
difference. “…the regulatory norms of ‘sex’ work in a performative fashion to
constitute the materiality of bodies and, more specifically, to materialize the body’s
sex, to materialize sexual difference in the service of the consolidation of the
heterosexual imperative” (Butler, 1993: 2). So fundamentally Patti Smith represented
the terms of the resistance – to challenge the dominant ideas of femininity – this
challenge was what other women of the Punk era aspired to do.
ABBA 1975 as heteronormative Smith 1975. A subversion
PUNK FESTIVAL AND
WOMENS LIBERATION…
In her book Sugar and Spice, Sue Lees explains that adolescent girls find it even more
problematic to create an identity when pressured into the ‘norm’ of society. They are
constantly trying to create themselves but at the same time face the complications of
worrying if boys will find them sexually attractive. “Girls are encouraged to work
hard and plan a career, yet developing academic interests carries the risk of rendering
them unfeminine and unattractive to boys” (Lees, 1993: 262) This is why something
such as the Punk festival was significant to women and adolescent girls. The
community of female Punks had something in common, they wanted to be subversive,
the world outside of Punk simply could not accept them, so this community allowed
them to be and say what they wanted. The 1976 Punk festival at the London ‘100
Club’ was symbolic to giving women and adolescents a voice that had previously
been more difficult to find in music as well as domestically.
Siouxsie Sioux at the 100 Club 1976
The festival was arranged by the Sex Pistols manager, Malcolm Mclaren. One figure
to appear on the stage was Siouxsie Sioux. The editor of the feminist fanzine ‘Jolt’ commented on the festival as a significant time for female expression and recognition
though the means of Punk, which essentially offered a platform for women to speak
as it were. The central ethic of ‘Punk’ denies conformity and so this was a medium in
which women were able to be taken seriously.
“…women were singing about their own experiences in a way which I don’t think
they’d done before. I never got one Punk woman in any interviews to say she was a
feminist, because I think they thought the feminist label was too worthy, but the lyrics
they were coming out with were very challenging” (Whiteley,2000: 108)
SOUXSIE SIOUX
Much like Poly Styrene, Siouxsie Sioux sought to challenge the status quo, but
initially in a much more radical sense. She once applied a Nazi swastika to her arm.
This infamous incident was allegedly done for ‘shock value’, a gesture that inevitably
led the media to believe that she was a member of the National Front (in fact Sioux
was anti racism, she was later involved in the ‘rock against racism’ music event,
perhaps an event to articulate her true feelings about the prejudice she was thought to
be supporting.) Punk music and the avant-garde would be imperative to mention here.
The avant-garde is a term that is defined as ‘pushing the boundaries’ of the ‘norm’ or
‘status quo’. The term has been used to describe the work of Punk artists as a ‘work of
art’. What Siouxsie Sioux proposed by her Swastika was to shock people, much like
some forms of the avant garde sought to do “Punk performances were thus informed
by avant-garde arguments about shock value” (Frith & Horne, 1987: 128). A
statement that almost suggests that old traditions such as female repression should
become obsolete. It would also be relevant to note in this instance that most Punk
artists were in fact members of art colleges. “Artists…suddenly found that they could
apply their ideas in a pop club setting and get much more vital reaction than they ever
got in a gallery – even gobbing was a better response to an experimental show than
polite applause” (Frith and Horne, 1987: 128)
Siouxsie Sioux challenging the status quo
SITUATIONIST AND PUNK
Whilst discussing Punk’s connection with the avant garde it would be useful to
discuss the term ‘situationist’. The term itself refers to the 1968 French artistic
student movement. The aim for the situationists was to take an art-form and use it as a
political weapon, in this case ‘Punk’ was an art-form. In many ways Punk is tied with
the principles of ‘situationist’. Punk as an art- form would challenge the conventional
and eventually turn establishments against themselves as a form of subversion and to
demonstrate what people could not see in capitalism i.e. major music industries.
“Their activities were intended to conform to true situationist practice, which aimed
imaginatively to disrupt the everyday life of capitalism in order to expose its
oppressive nature” (Laing, 1985: 126). Malcolm Mclaren (Sex Pistols manager)
would use fragments of the situationist approach, as would most female Punks
because it was in a sense subversive. “Vivienne Westwood also ascribed to
situationist ideals, and everything from album cover sloganeering to the bondage
trousers they wore was intended to provoke a specific social response.” (Wikipedia, Punk ideologies). Mclaren himself took inspiration from Andy Warhol and used the
ideas to form the Sex Pistols, but in the context of this dissertation in this chapter it is
predominately women I am looking at. Nevertheless McLaren’s idea was to be
confrontational and subversive which involved his band the Sex Pistols on the Bill
Grundy show, in which also featured Siouxsie Sioux. This particular interview
demonstrates the Sex Pistols members and indeed Siouxsie Sioux are challenging the
conventional.
POLY STYRENE
Poly Styrene of the X-ray specs is another significant example when discussing the
areas established above which are centrally concerned with Punk music being a
platform for women to give voice to that which was previously restricted. I am
interested in Styrene because of her presence as a woman in a male dominated genre
and cultural milieu, her subversion of feminine norms in terms of her dress and style
and the content of her music and the style of her performance. The lyrics of Oh
Bondage Up Yours begins with “Some people think, little girls should be seen and not
heard, but I say, Oh bondage up-yours!” This it self indicates that women now had the
capacity of articulating what they sought to do before the Punk movement began.
Another example of Styrene’s subversive lyrics can be heard in the Styrene song I am
a Cliché, which discusses the fact that ‘Punk’ had now become manufactured and
capitalized to some degree. This then rendered her with ‘cliché’ characteristics of
what ‘Punk’ was thought to be. Whilst Styrene makes no explicit claim to be a
feminist her performance and her lyrics are consistent with a feminist critique of the
norms of femininity. Poly Styrene’s image also reflected the exact opposite of what
women were expected to look like in the conventional sense of the music industry. i.e.
her denture braces and obscure bin-liner-look dresses she would wear, not to mention
the soldier helmets that she would include in her performances!
Poly Styrene (photo taken around 1976-77)
“Poly was attacked by male critics for having a brace [braces]” (Gaar, 1993: 242).
Her performances were very mundane in the sense of extracting any sign of female
sexual objectivity to a potential male gaze. “By not being thin, white, or
conventionally “feminine,” Styrene’s mere presence in a rock band was enough to
challenge convention, and her songs, which cheerfully attacked the materialism of the
modern world, added to the challenge” (Gaar, 1993:241).
ANNIE LENNOX
As I mentioned in this chapters introduction I shall also be drawing attention to a
resistant female ‘Pop’ artist, so I will discuss Annie Lennox here. Lennox appeared
shortly after Punk and much like the idea of Patti Smith; she challenged the
conventional role of female artists through her visual image. The ‘Sweet Dreams (are
made of this)’ video featured Lennox in a suit with a stance of a man. Also
accompanied by this male appearance was the unconventional and unfeminine hair
style. The general consensus of the public opinion rendered Lennox as ‘gender-bending’. Gaar makes reference to this in applying MTV’s news week story entitled
“Britain Rocks America – Again”. Gaar inserts “with Lennox and Boy George paired
on the cover as the prime gender benders of their generation”. (Gaar, 1993: 327).
Annie Lennox in the Sweet Dreams music video is purely sending out a message of
resistance through aesthetics, a very close analogy of what Patti
Smith did for her album cover ‘Horses’ in 1975.
An evident analogy to what Patti Smith did in 1975
It is evident that sexual objectivity is subverted. The video itself places Annie Lennox
into a position of complete power and control that would have been unthought-of
previously. “As the first major MTV star, Lennox had demonstrated how visual
imagery could be used to challenge traditional images of women in rock” (Gaar,
1993: 329). The 1985 song, ‘Sisters Are Doin’ It for Themselves’ was thought to be
extremely feminist in lyrical content, so much so that singers such as Tina Turner
refused to sing with Lennox because she did not want to be projected as a political
feminist figure in the Pop world.
The notion of women and resistance in music seems to relate to the ideas and style of
Patti Smith, she certainly appears to be an iconic and inspirational figure for the
women in Punk music of 1976-77 and certainly inspired women to give voice and
most importantly in the context of this dissertation, to reject conformity that was
expected of women during this time. I have referenced several writers who similarly
create a consensus that the Punk era of the late Nineteen-Seventeey’s was an iconic
time as the traditional ethics of Punk were open to literally anything and new
experimental ideas which inevitably proposed that women would not be excluded and
could say something outside of the patriarchal ideologies. The idea of female
resistance in music continued to materialize in the early 1980’s with figures such as
Lennox who challenged the status quo by the means of dress and her apparent
‘feminist’ anthem ‘Girls Are Doin’ it For Themselves’ . This chapter has now set up a
foundation of my next chapter on the Riot Grrrls. As women in music progressively
moves on, a pattern of similarity remains which seem to refer back to the ideas of
Patti Smith. The identifiable key terms of resistance revolve around the notion of
identity, challenging conformity and sexual performativity. The presence of these
women that I have discussed here challenged the orthodoxies of the music industry.
For many years women in music presented sexual objectivity to some extent and thus
established the male audience in terms of objectivity rather than the music, so this
new emergence challenged and fractured what was known as the norm. Before the
closure of this chapter, I might add that the combination and thus application of the
Situationist and Avant Garde was a very important aspect of the late 1970’s punk era.
Through this juxtaposition it enabled artistic and political messages to appear on the
stage.
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.
I am in need of some articles and writings for this blog. I will add to this list as I see fit. The ones listed below are ideas for articles and writings and are some writings/articles I need for the blog. By writing the article (or articles), You will be emailed an invite to join this blog and will be able to post up your writing on the blog. Be sure to let others know that you wrote the article (or articles).
ARTICLES AND WRITINGS NEEDED:
1-History of riot grrrl: how, why, where, when, and who started it. (about the music and the movement)
2-History of feminism: how, why, where, when, and who started it.
3-The 3 waves of feminism.
4-The many different types of feminism such as: anarcha-feminism, individual feminism, radical feminism, and all the others.
5-Write about your favorite feminism/riot grrrl website or write a review of your favorite feminism/riot grrrl website. (can be blogs, websites, forums, etc.)
6-Write your own definition of what feminism means to you.
7-What does riot grrrl mean to you? (Write as much or as little as you want.) Describe riot grrrl in your own words.
8-Write about being a riot grrrl in another country. What’s the riot grrrl scene like where you live? Is there a chapter where you live? Any riot grrrl bands where you live? How did you get into riot grrrl? How long have you been into riot grrrl?
9-Write about how you got into riot grrrl. What, how, when, who, and where made you get into riot grrrl?
10-Write about being a riot boy: how, when, who, what, and where did you get into riot grrrl?
11-Write your own riot boy manifesto. (I already have a version on my website.)
12-Write about being a male feminist: how, when, who, what, and where did you get into riot grrrl?
13-Write some feminism questions that you would like answered or start a feminism FAQ (frequently asked questions) of your own and the answers to them.
14-Write some riot grrrl/boy questions that you would like answered or start a riot grrrl FAQ (frequently asked questions) of your own and the answers to them.
15-Write about women’s issues important to you.
16-Write about feminism and what it means to you.
17-Write how you got into feminism and why.
18-Make a list of reasons on why your a feminist. Try to think of 50 or more reasons, if you can. 10-20 reasons will do too.
19-Make a list of reasons on why your a riot grrrl. Try to think of 50 or more reasons, if you can. 10-20 reasons will do too.
20-Write some DIY tips or share yours. Share your own DIY stuff.
21-Write something about being an activist/ or about activism.
22-Write something about zines or your life as a zinester.
23-Write about your ladyfest or a ladyfest you attended.
24-Write about a riot grrrl chapter or your own riot grrrl chapter.
25-Write about being pro-choice, why your pro-choice, or what it means to you.
26-Write something about how riot grrrl and queercore music are connected.
27-Write something about how riot grrrl and grunge music are connected.
28-Write something about how riot grrrl and punk music are connected.
29-Write something about feminism in other countries. What’s feminism like in your country or other countries?
30-Write something about human rights in your country or another country.
31-Write something about equal rights.
32-Write about why is feminism important today.
33-Write your own definition of what a riot boy is to you. Give your own definition of riot boy.
34-Write your own Zine DIY guide.
35-Write how to start a riot grrrl chapter DIY guide.
36-Write your own list of ways to be an activist.
37-Write a review of a zine or your favorite zine.
38-Write about your experience with the Riot Grrrl Online website.
39-Write about the Riot Grrrl Online website or do a review of the website. If you write about the website, write how you found the website, how you got active in the website and why. I’m sure there are more things you can write about the website, as long as your a reader or fan of the website, your input is appreciated.
40-A review of your riot grrrl or feminist website.
41-Write a news story. Write about an issue or topic important to you or an issue/topic you think would be important to others that is happening in the news.
42-Write your own women’s issue story. If you are a survivor (of anything from rape to cancer, etc.), I’d like to hear your story and what you went through.
43-Write how to start a ladyfest.
44-Write how to start your own record label and/or band.
If your interested in writing one of these articles, Feel free to read the “contribute” page and reply to the “contribute” page or email me. If you comment on the “contribute” page or email me, Please specify which article (or articles) you want to write about by letting me know which number or numbers (# or #’s) your interested in writing. If you have your own ideas for writings or whatever, feel free to email me some of yours.
The first 3 lists below were taken from:
http://altmusic.about.com/od/genresstyles/p/riot_grrrl.htm . The “Other Bands Considered Riot Grrrl” list was made by Greta/grrrlriot. (me) Some of the bands I made in my list are from all over the world.
This post refers to my previous post located here.
If you read that post, you know that you can create your own profile on the website. Did you know that you can create other profiles too, if you want? Feel free to create your own band, zine, riot grrrl chapter, feminist chapter, feminist organization, activist, ladyfest, etc. profiles on there as well. For your information, The profiles are the same as personal profiles. There’s no difference between them. You can also create groups on the website as well.
For more information, go to the social network website below.
As a huge fan of music and a regular national and local gig goer, something has been bothering me just recently. It’s all about support acts at any tour or gig in this country, I won’t speak for other countries as I don’t know if it’s the same worldwide, I’ve not been to any gigs anywhere else in the world (yet).
My problem is us British people show no enthusiasm at all for any support acts. Every gig I’ve been to recently, while the support act is on, people just stand there not moving, not even tapping their feet and giving the least exciting applause you can get.
I appreciate that the majority of people are not there to see the support act, of course they are there to see the main headliner. But does this really mean we shouldn’t show them any interest? If the shoe was on the other foot, and you were there to see the support act mainly, you’d be quite upset that no one else was interested in them. I know when I saw Joan Jett and the Blackhearts supporting Motorhead and Alice Cooper, I felt quite sad that I couldn’t get up and dance as I felt uncomfortable as no one else around me was moving at all or even smiling! And this was someone as famous as Joan Jett!
My theory is even if we don’t know the support act or particularly like them, we should either not come until the person we want to see is on, so that the people that have come to see them can enjoy them, or we do our best to show them our support! This band/s has probably either been asked by the band you’ve came to see or is perhaps on their record label or needs exposure. In any which case, if you’re a real fan of the band you’ve came to see, you will be happy that they’ve provided you with some other music to enjoy whilst you wait for them to get ready to perform!
So my thought is to have this manifesto, the Support the Support Act Manifesto! This the manifesto itself:
I will show my support for support bands at every gig/tour I go on. I will dance to them even if no one else is, I will at the very least tap my feet or nod my head, I will clap loudly after every song. I will not say how terrible they are to other members of the audience. If I think they are, I will talk about it to my friends away from the gig itself. I will be thankful that the band I’ve came to see has bothered to put some more entertainment on for me, I will appreciate that the band needs exposure and that there may be some people that have came just to see them. I will support the support act!
If you agree with this manifesto, please copy and paste it and put it into your myspace/face book/blog wherever you can where people will see it!
We are proud that Le Tigre is often considered one trajectory of Riot Grrrl, i.e. we are one art-damaged, deconstructive, performance-art, electronic pop off-shoot of the grassroots punk feminist organizing and cultural production of the nineties! This is not to say that Riot Grrrl does not exist anymore — we still hear of local chapters that are active — but the members of Le Tigre are not personally involved with Riot Grrrl now. (If you are in a Riot Grrrl group or any feminist group and would like us to link to yr website please email us. What is Riot Grrrl? What happened to it? We are asked these questions all the time and they are really difficult to answer. Many individuals, bands, zines, artists and scenes were lumped under this term once the “sexy new” punk feminism gained a little media attention. This gave the false impression that there was a centralized ideology or leadership unifying disparate constellations of feminist art and agitation. Journalistic narratives of Riot Grrrl also tended to isolate it from both a larger feminist history and from its own cultural moment in which a variety of media-savvy activist groups were changing the face of social protest (for example, ACT-UP!, Queer Nation, the Guerilla Girls, and WAC). So while we would not presume to define Riot Grrrl we can characterize it and make some observations that reflect our personal experiences (you can read about Kathleen’s involvement with the early Riot Grrrl meetings in DC in her herstory section).
In the early days of Riot Grrrl, exciting and strange girl bands were forming and touring, new feminist and queer aesthetics, vocabularies, and activist strategies were taking root in punk scenes, and intense penpal alliances were being forged. The founding members of Le Tigre (Kathleen, Jo, and Sadie Benning) met via their participation in this loose underground network of like-minded artists.
Riot Grrrl was, in part, a response to male dominated punk/hardcore scenes. As much as it reacted to and critiqued certain masculinist values and structures of punk rock, it was intrinsically connected to the DIY, anti-corporate, anti-capitalist values of those underground scenes (as well as intertwined socially and aesthetically with them). The way that punk music mocked notions of rock ‘n’ roll virtuosity and traditional stardom, the bands that were associated with early Riot Grrrl questioned the posturing and conventions of a boy-ruled punk scene by making stripped down punk music paired with feminist subject matter and performance strategies. Riot Grrrl meetings were similar to the feminist consciousness-raising groups of the 70′s. Mixed in with the practical work associated with making and distributing zines, promoting shows, organizing conventions, and doing activism, there was much discussion of women’s experiences of sexism, sexual abuse, assault and harassment, body-image, queer identities, and how all of these things intersect with class and race.
Riot Grrrl is/was not without its flaws, failures, inadequacies and dramas which we shall not enumerate here. But for whatever it’s worth, Riot Grrrl as a cultural phenomenon did, and hopefully will continue to make changes in the popular discourse surrounding “women in rock” (or whatever you wanna call it), and has created a lasting international network of feminist promoters, labels, writers, dj’s, journalists, musicians, artists, and fans so that a freaky band like Le Tigre could exist, make records, tour, and stay up all night writing crazy shit for our website!
Here is a brief history of riot grrrl. Later, I might write my own more detailed version. Here is the version from the Riot Grrrl Online website.
Riot Grrrl began in 1991 at Olympia Washington, when a few girls (mostly from Bikini Kill and Bratmobile) decided to get together and talk about their main interests..feminism and punk rock. The first time they met it was all fun, they put up posters to get attention of other open minded girls. Then they found out they had other things in common: they were all vegetarians; against drugs; and had been molested as children. At one meeting a very smart girl took notes, photocopied them and turned them into a cool fanzine. That’s how it all began. Some people think that Bikini Kill started it all, in my eyes they did. Bikini Kill, however does not think of themselves as starting the riot grrrl movement. In Bikini Kill’s songs, they sing about different women issues such as: rape, incest, and other issues that some women face. Some people think that bikini kill, riot grrrls, and feminists are ‘man-haters’. They’re not. They just want to be equal to men, not better to them. Zines are a BIG part of the riot grrrl scene. Most riot grrrls believe in DIY. (do it yourself) That means that they start riot grrrl chapters, zines, etc. of their own around the riot grrrl movement.
I live in Miami now. A few years ago, I lived in New York, on Long Island. I was in an all grrrl punk band. My first band ever. We broke up. Hey… live and learn. Maybe it’ll work next time around. Anyway, I wanted to comment on how very GREAT it was to be in NY for that time. Some of my favorite things there were of course, The Village. You know how you walk down one road and feel what you feel there. Well, walking down the streets in The Village for the first times were like walking through a real place. I mean, alive with people and alive with rich history. Rich American history. The Ramones played there at CBGB’s. CBGB’s is still there (although punk hasn’t been really living there at that club for a while). Some bands are great. Some bands live on forever and keep inspiring the next generation. They are so alive and so elecrtic that even if you don’t get to see them perform live, their spirit still can reach you through CD’s they’ve recorded, or even by watching a video of them. Patti Smith wrote in New York. She was a feminist! Maybe ahead of her time. Who cares. She was there. She was alive and she inspired generations to come. I love people like this for the work they have done. They have touched my life in a positive way, when so very many have done their part to reap destruction. Funny how even just a few bright lights in the world bring so much light. God bless them.
When the words “Girl Power” are mentioned, it’s most people’s immediate reaction to automatically think of the Spice Girls.
But was it really the Spice Girls who started the “Girl Power” movement and what about Girl Power in the modern day? Does it still exist in music and who are the representatives of it now?
Even though the Spice Girls may have been one of the first bands to actually use the phrase “Girl Power” and also be very successful, I believe the roots of girl power in music started a long time before.
How about back in 1952? She probably never even uttered the phrase, but surely Big Mama Thornton was a damn good start for “Girl Power” in music to begin. For those who don’t know, Big Mama Thornton was actually the first artist to sing the song “Hound Dog”, which has now sadly been overshadowed by the Elvis Presley version. Her version was also very successful, it was number one on the Billboard R and B charts for seven weeks. Big Mama Thornton was a blues legend and is still relevant today. She was performing all her life, right up to her death. If that’s not “Girl Power” I don’t know what is!
The next stage in the evolution of “Girl Power” was in the sixties. Of course, feminism was not at the stage it is now, but women in music was making a big impression. In the sixties, all the girl groups emerged, such as The Supremes and The Ronettes. The girls in these bands may not have been feminists, but there’s no doubt about their success and popularity. Songs like “Baby Love” by The Supremes and “Dancing in the Street” by Martha and The Vandellas have lasted the test of time.
The nineties of course, were a turning point for “Girl Power” in music. Most notably, The Spice Girls. However there were many more bands and artists that embodied “Girl Power” in this decade. The bands Bikini Kill, L7, Bratmobile and many others helped to create the genre “Riot Grrrl”.
“Riot Grrrl” was a true form of Girl Power. The artists associated with the Riot Grrrl movement were feminists, and not afraid to speak up for issues they believed in. They provided inspiration for women around the world with their political song lyrics and DIY philosophy. Riot Grrrl may not have been mainstream but it created a new stage in the evolution of Girl Power in music. One where women were not only successful, but good role models for girls and women by just being themselves and not just women looking pretty. Riot Grrrl still exists now, although it is still not in the mainstream.
This could change though, as bands like The Gossip now become more successful. Their lead singer Beth Ditto, is not your typical front woman, she is large and proud of it. Yet the media has now embraced to her, she even posed naked on the cover of NME.
So, now we are in the noughties, what is the current state of “Girl Power”? I personally believe Beth Ditto is the front woman currently for this notion. She is happy with the way she looks, and is generally a good role model for girls, she even writes an advice column in The Guardian newspaper.
Other than Beth, there is definitely a new “Girl Power” movement emerging. The artists I think are leading this now are people like Lily Allen and Kate Nash. I know many people may argue it’s bands like Girls Aloud and Beyonce that are “Girl Power”. Yes, they may be successful but are they really good role models for girls? Girls Aloud lost lots of weight after becoming successful and yet only a few months ago they rated their bodies very low and said they would consider plastic surgery in a magazine interview. Beyonce uses her bum as a selling point. Girl Power? I don’t think so!
Lily Allen and other similar singers like Kate Nash and Remi Nicole write witty, intelligent lyrics and in my opinion are far better role models for girls. Lily Allen isn’t afraid to say what she thinks, and even though she at one point wrote on her MySpace blog that she was unhappy and considering plastic surgery, she later retracted this statement and stated there’s more to life than being thin! I love the fact that at the recent V Festival she slated magazines like Heat for making women feel bad.
To conclude, “Girl Power” in music has certainly come a long way. “Girl Power” is not necessarily about literally shouting it from the rooftops, “Girl Power” is about being a woman and successful. “Girl Power” is not being afraid to be who you are and not caring what people think of you, but yet creating a positive image of yourself. Girls need role models to look up to who they can relate to. Music is a great way to influence them, so my message to women in music make yourself heard and believe in yourself!
