The Era of Punk-Fueled Feminism: Riot Grrrl
By Alaina Hickson
Part I: What is Riot Grrrl? A Movement? A Scene? A Revolution?
Imagine: it’s the early 1990s. You are a young woman with a drive for punk rock music, but yet you cannot find your way in the scene because you are...well... a woman. So, in order to combat the misogynistic industry, you and a few fellow bands just like your own group together in order to fight this change.
You look around and you see Kathleen Hanna from the band Bikini Kill and to your left, you see frontman Allison Wolfe from Bratmobile. As well, there are other band members from Heavens to Betsy and Huggy Bear there too, and everything seems to fall into place: a solution arises to make your voices heard.
For the bands as stated above this was reality. This was riot grrrl.
Often disputed whether it was spelled with two ‘rr’s or three (or some just say ‘girl’), riot grrrl (as we will be calling it) was, in my opinion, the iconic third wave of feminism. Of course, we know the first two waves: first in 1848 at the Seneca Falls Convention and secondly in the 1960s after the publication of the iconic novel The Feminine Mystique, the third wave of feminism truly began when all-girl bands noticed how horribly they had been getting treated. Rising all-men bands such as Nirvana and Pearl Jam were treated like virtual gods, but the women in the rock scene were treated horribly. Often spat at, sexually harassed, and not taken seriously, male punk-rockers became household names while women were forced to perform gigs that were not in any way showcasing their talent, but rather their bodies like it was an auction of some kind. But these women: these strong women who just wanted to “rock out” and be themselves would not take this foolishness. They were girls. They were girls who wanted to riot: who NEEDED to riot. They were riot grrrls.
Part II: The Start of Uniting Punk and Feminism
As stated earlier, the early 1990s marked the time in which bands Bikini Kill, Heavens to Betsy, Huggy Bear, and, my personal favorite band...ever, Bratmobile came up with a vision that would change the history of music forever. This vision was called riot grrrl, which was originally an offhand comment that was used in the original fanzines that coursed through the punk rock and feminist communities. These fanzines: origins based off of Bikini Kill founder Tobi Vail, were originally started in 1988 in Olympia, Washington. Vail mostly spoke and wrote about the musical scene in the Pacific Northwest in the unofficial first riot grrrl zine called Jigsaw. Eventually, other zines surfaced such as Girl Germs, Bikini Kill (the same as the band), and then riot grrrl came.
The riot grrrl zine seemed to emphasize on the fact that women could rock, be whoever they wanted to be, but yet still have flaws, which was unusual for the time.
Fanzines originated in the 1970s by the British punk rock scene as a quote, “do-it-yourself way of perpetuating punk culture and sticking it to the establishment.” Yet, these zines - mostly male-dominated - were very misogynistic and sexist, and an example of this can be seen by the band Sniffin’ Glue as they said in a 1976 zine that “PUNKS ARE NOT GIRLS” very matter of factly. However, this entire idea was made false when the “riot grrrl manifesto” came out in 1991 in “BIKINI KILL ZINE 2.” The manifesto went as so:
“BECAUSE us girls crave records and books and fanzines that speak to US that WE feel included in and can understand in our own ways.
BECAUSE we wanna make it easier for girls to see/hear each other's work so that we can share strategies and criticize-applaud each other.
BECAUSE we must take over the means of production in order to create our own meanings.
BECAUSE viewing our work as being connected to our girlfriends-politics-real lives is essential if we are gonna figure out how we are doing impacts, reflects, perpetuates, or DISRUPTS the status quo.
BECAUSE we recognize fantasies of Instant Macho Gun Revolution as impractical lies meant to keep us simply dreaming instead of becoming our dreams AND THUS seek to create revolution in our own lives every single day by envisioning and creating alternatives to the bullshit christian capitalist way of doing things.
BECAUSE we want and need to encourage and be encouraged in the face of all our own insecurities, in the face of beergutboyrock that tells us we can't play our instruments, in the face of "authorities" who say our bands/zines/etc are the worst in the US and
BECAUSE we don't wanna assimilate to someone else's (boy) standards of what is or isn't.
BECAUSE we are unwilling to falter under claims that we are reactionary "reverse sexists" AND NOT THE TRUEPUNKROCKSOULCRUSADERS THAT WE KNOW we really are.
BECAUSE we know that life is much more than physical survival and are patently aware that the punk rock "you can do anything" idea is crucial to the coming angry grrrl rock revolution which seeks to save the psychic and cultural lives of girls and women everywhere, according to their own terms, not ours.
BECAUSE we are interested in creating non-heirarchical ways of being AND making music, friends, and scenes based on communication + understanding, instead of competition + good/bad categorizations.
BECAUSE doing/reading/seeing/hearing cool things that validate and challenge us can help us gain the strength and sense of community that we need in order to figure out how bullshit like racism, able-bodieism, ageism, speciesism, classism, thinism, sexism, anti-semitism and heterosexism figures in our own lives.
BECAUSE we see fostering and supporting girl scenes and girl artists of all kinds as integral to this process.
BECAUSE we hate capitalism in all its forms and see our main goal as sharing information and staying alive, instead of making profits of being cool according to traditional standards.
BECAUSE we are angry at a society that tells us Girl = Dumb, Girl = Bad, Girl = Weak.
BECAUSE we are unwilling to let our real and valid anger be diffused and/or turned against us via the internalization of sexism as witnessed in girl/girl jealousism and self defeating girltype behaviors.
BECAUSE I believe with my wholeheartmindbody that girls constitute a revolutionary soul force that can, and will change the world for real.”
Part III: The Music: Stepping Aside from The Zines
Okay, so now we know all about the zines and revolution that came with the riot grrrl movement: but what about the bands? What about the music?
Starting off, Bikini Kill seemed to be the defining voice of the riot grrrl movement and named after the zine that was used to speak out about feminist punk, their songs became the anthem of young rockers and fans in the ‘90s. Their groundbreaking song “Rebel Girl” literally told the story of riot grrrl, and just from their lyrics, it becomes obvious the zine and the band were passion projects made to start a movement. An example of this goes as so: “When she talks, I hear the revolution/ In her hips, there's revolution/ When she walks, the revolution's coming/ In her kiss, I taste the revolution/ Rebel girl, rebel girl/ Rebel girl you are the queen of my world.”
As well, other bands such as Bratmobile used satire to jab at the industry and the way society wanted young women to act, and Cold Cold Heart (made with Bratmobile members after they temporarily disbanded), was made to humor listeners as it poked fun at the riot grrrl movement and the “internecine battles that eventually drove wedges among bands.”
But, as life is, all good things must come to an end.
Part IIII: The Ending of Riot Grrrl
It seemed as if riot grrrl disappeared as quickly as it began. Its mainstream influence eventually became washed out when the ‘90s were totally drowned in a new wave of music: pop. Bands like the Spice Girls and the Backstreet Boys, along with the popularization of Britney Spears were then “all the rage,” and it seemed as if the young rockers who once identified as riot grrrls were out of that faze and now in their bubble-gum-pop fantasy. However, to be fair, bands such as Hole, No Doubt, The Smashing Pumpkins, and Alice In Chains did thrive, but it just wasn’t the same. Riot grrrl was dead. It was no longer something people wanted to hold on to.
But, from my opinion to you, I think riot grrrl had a right to end. I was personally born in 2005, so I never got the chance to live out my dreams of going to a Bratmobile show when they first began, but it had to happen. The fact of the matter is, is that riot grrrl was an underground movement that somehow gained mainstream attention, much like Nirvana, and I think that the magic of riot grrrl would have ended if it got TOO famous and turned totally mainstream.
So this one, this piece, is dedicated to riot grrrl. Rest in feminist/ rock/ punk-filled heaven.
