This blog post was written by Maris Tiller, SCRC Research Services GRA. Maris is a Graduate student pursuing her Master’s in Creative Writing with a concentration in fiction.
Content Warning: contains mentions of misogyny, racism, sexual assault, bigotry against LGBT+ people, and strong language
The Riot Grrl Collection is a comprehensive reproduction of zines, posters, set lists, and other pieces of art from the riot grrl punk era, spanning roughly from 1989-1996. The question of, “What is riot grrrl?” is one worth asking when it comes to both what is included in this book and when talking about the movement as a whole. Throughout this collection, members of the movement ask the same question of themselves and their readers, all giving slightly different answers.
The essential root of riot grrl was an underground subculture, the hub of which was in the Pacific Northwest and the D.C. area, that grew out of frustration with the lack of women-centered radical politics in punk scenes. Although punk music in the late 1970s and early 1980s championed anarchy and radical politics, its culture was predominantly white and male.
There were the “musicians” and the “girlfriends”, replicating the same misogynist structures of mainstream society that punk was meant to stand against. The root of riot grrl was a desire to carve out a space for women and girls within punk music that would bring the angry punk sound to issues that affected them. Topics in riot grrl lyrics and literature included sexual assault, LGBT rights, sex work, racism, eating disorders, sexual freedom, and reflections on being a woman in a patriarchal world. Popularized by the band Bikini Kill with their zine of the same name, the essential call of the riot grrl movement was, “Revolution Girl Style Now.” (Darms 7-17)
What is reprinted in this book was the fuel of the riot grrl movement: zines and other paper paraphernalia printed and distributed by mail. Contrary to second wave feminist literature, which was often academic in tone and published as books, riot grrl zines were purposefully sloppy, printed and copied cheaply. The tone of the zines was also more abrasive than previous feminist literature, mimicking the punk rock style of riot grrl music to drive the message home. In addition to this, many publications invited their readers to write in about their lives and experiences in the scene, cultivating a sense of community support. Often this literature was distributed for free or for very cheap at riot grrl performances. Everything about riot grrl zines were intended to communicate and build support within the subculture (Marcus).
The style of riot grrls was as DIY as their literature, making use of thrifted and upcycled items. There was an emphasis on reclamation of feminine styles, with many short skirts and girlish barrettes, mixed with more typical punk fare like combat boots and choppy, dyed haircuts. There was also an element of genderbending to riot grrl fashion. Many of the leading riot grrls groups had members who were openly lesbian or bisexual, their sense of style leaning into their queer identities. Media reportage on the movement often focused heavily on the fashion aspect of riot grrl, emphasizing aesthetics over politics, which frustrated members (Marcus).
The reasons for the eventual fizzling out of the riot grrl movement are many. With the explosion in popularity of grunge and the mainstream popularity of bands that got their start through riot grrl, like Hole and Sleater-Kinney, the original intent of the movement was muddled. While these bands performed with women at their forefront, singing angrily about women’s problems, the sudden marketability of punk and grunge aesthetics overshadowed the feminist politics. In Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrl Movement, Sara Marcus states, “Mass culture always contains cleaned-up, camera-ready variations on the underground, incorporating just enough of what’s ‘edgy’ to maintain its own relevance. Sometimes – if we’re lucky – these transformations result in mass culture that’s more interesting than usual, that entertains in a way that feels surprising, and that perhaps even helps spread progressive values. But if a political idea is showing up in mass culture, that’s because it’s happening somewhere else in a more concentrated, grassroots way.” (327-328). A good example of this phenomenon is how the “girl power” message was co-opted as the slogan for the Spice Girls, which while a beloved female pop group did not have the same radical political messaging that the phrase initially invoked. (Marcus 327)
In addition to this, there were problems with intersectionality that persisted within the Riot Grrl movement during its heyday. While the movement was revolutionary for some, it left behind others. Within The Riot Grrrl Collection, you can see writings along this line. For example, these pages written by Ramdasha in her popular zine “GUNK”, expresses frustration with the overall whiteness of the riot grrl scene, and its inability to address it.
There were attempts by popular voices in the movement to call this out through meetings and zines. There were anti-racist workshops and recommended readings that included the likes of Alice Walker, bell hooks, and Audre Lorde. Regardless, the scene as well as its mainstream representation remained largely white, and problems persisted (Marcus).
Along these same exclusionary lines, popular riot grrl bands – Tribe 8 and Le Tigre, to name a few – were known to play at Michigan Womyn’s Musical Festival (Michfest), an event presenting itself as a feminist safe space, but which regularly and violently excluded trans women. Michfest’s “womyn-born-womyn” policy was widely known, as it was often the subject of feminist discourse surrounding the festival. In Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity, Julia Serano writes of this, “I am sure these women believe that they are protecting the values of lesbian and women’s space by opposing our inclusion at all costs, but in reality, the specific points they make generally undermine feminist goals and beliefs rather than support them. After all, at its core, feminism is based on the conviction that women are far more than the sex of the bodies that we are born into, and our identities and abilities are capable of transcending the restrictive nature of the gender socialization we endure during our childhoods.” (182-183).
The willingness of riot grrl bands to participate in this event despite their purported desire to build community among women demonstrated ignorance and limits to their feminist mission. In addition to that, it is difficult to find riot grrl literature of the period in support of trans women in the movement. This was clearly always a blind spot. Because of both of these failures of intersectionality, riot grrl feminism wound up operating with an exclusionary, self-defeating model.
And, more simply, a lot of big riot grrl bands like Bikini Kill and Heavens to Betsy were split up before the end of the 90s. There was not the same proliferation of music as there once was, so the movement petered out (Marcus).
So, to answer the question of “What is riot grrrl?” I will adopt a similar perspective to that of its original proponents: it is what it is made of. Though as a movement, riot grrl has disappeared from the mainstream, the sound and politics of it still thrives in underground punk spaces. When people claim punk is dead, what they mean is it does not get mainstream attention, which is not the same thing as it being gone. If there are people out there creating punk music, punk music is alive and well. Bands like G.L.O.S.S., The Muslims, Dog Park Dissidents, and many others are influenced by previous feminist punk movements like riot grrl, but have expanded its ideological worldview to more explicitly include trans and racialized voices. Riot grrl lives on, but reshaped and reformed, as it must necessarily do. Kathleen Hanna, former lead singer of Bikini Kill and Le Tigre, even said as much when asked about a potential riot grrl revival: “Don’t revive it,” she said, “Make something better.” (Frere-Jones).
Sources
Darms, Lisa. The Riot Grrrl Collection. New York: Feminist Press, 2013. Print.
Frere-Jones, Sasha. “Hanna and Her Sisters.” The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 19 Nov. 2012, www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/11/26/hanna-and-her-sisters.
Marcus, Sara. Girls to the Front : The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution. 1st ed. New York: HarperPerennial, 2010. Print.
Serano, Julia. Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity. Third trade paperback edition. New York, NY: Seal Press, 2024. Print.
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