When the Riot Grrrls appeared on the scene in the early nineties, they like other punks before them, arrived with music that was laced with a fiery passion to change things. Although unlike their predecessors, whose political anger had attached itself to left-wing politics, anarchist rebellion and other non-gender specific causes, Riot Grrrl was the first to make use of punk’s much called-upon energy to point the finger at the frightening disparity that continued to plague the sexes right up to the late 20th century.
Whereas the feminists that came before them had aimed their anger at “patriarchy” and the cultural infrastructure that supported it. “Instead, riot grrrls aimed to educate and empower other girls and women to achieve their potential, unfettered by an ideology of femininity,” writes Marion Leonard in her book Gender in the Music Industry. “Rather than railing against a general conception of mainstream culture, riot grrrls tended to focus their activities, targeting the perceived sexism of the indie rock music scene and working towards specific feminist goals.”
Gigs were put on with a female-only attendance policy: a move aimed squarely at the Washington testosterone-fuelled hardcore scene, where it was a common sight to see girls stood around the periphery of a venue clutching the jackets of their male partners and friends. Not because the men of the Washington hardcore scene had particularly bad bowel control for which regular trips to the toilet were prescribed, but because the boys had more of than not rushed to the thrashing mass of the crowd in the front and center. A violent meshing of bodies that reduced many of the best areas of a venue to the territory of strictly male moshpit fans only.
Some of the battles were semantic. As demonstrated by one image pulled from an original Riot Grrrl zine, the movement altered the meaning of words often used by women against each other: bitch, cunt, dyke, slut and whore. Jealously was off limits too, for it killed “girl love”. Girls must, as one graphic states, “encourage in face of insecurity”.
“Riot Grrrl would later be spoken of as girls challenging sexism within punk… In a subculture that congratulated itself for presenting an alternative, in a realm that should have been a refuge, they found more of the same crap,” writes Sara Marcus in Girls To The Front. “Boys’ efforts were lauded and girls’ were unrecognized… Objectification and sexual assault went unaddressed… Punk wasn’t really the point, though. The problems with the scene burned the girls up precisely because it echoed the way the world at large treated them.”
The Riot Grrrl opposition to music being a male-dominated space wasn’t based on a fictional dreamland cooked up by the crazy, bra-burning feminists of myth. Even today the consumption of music, the make-up of most popular genres and the stars of those same genres are all overwhelmingly male, or seen wrongly as such. In research conducted by Female Pressure, an international collective of female artists, women “comprise only 9.3% of artists listed on music label rosters.” A figure that jabs at some of our most easily held assumptions about women in music: mainly that the industry (with artists like Gaga, Beyonce, Rihanna and Adele) remains one of the few instances where women (half of the world’s population mind you) undoubtedly get their fair share.
Even in 2014, publications and magazines that come under the umbrella of “music” are almost always categorised as “male” despite their being no greater link between music and maleness than there is between collesseums and cashew nuts. Still though, the music press (outside of tween pop glossies) is apparently a penis zone by default.
As music journalist Fiona Sturges outlines in an opinion piece for The Independent, women are just as sparsely represented in the newsrooms of these publications as they are on the stage. “In my 13 years writing about music I have found myself overwhelmingly outnumbered by men both in print and at music events, from gigs and showcases to music conferences,” she writes. “Although the male-female ratio has improved among music writers in recent years, the most cursory glance at almost any music publication, particularly heritage rock mags such as Mojo and Uncut, reveals that male writers still significantly outnumber female ones.”
Men make up more than half of most “alternative” music-based subcultures and they still also make up the majority of live music attendance in medium to small sized venues, as any gig fan will testify. These are facts that Riot Grrrls were among the first to grapple with, and certainly they were the first collection of people to list such things in their manifestos and rallying calls. If long-winded theorizing and critical essays were the modes of attack for previous feminists, these activists – armed with more than guitars – appropriated punk’s penchant for DIY culture to spread the message: zines, comics, flyers, posters, badges and other means.
The old feminists of repute – whilst still revered – just couldn’t bring the fight to the front lines as easy as these young upstarts could. Riot Grrrl found feminism much more powerful, efficacious and fun when books were swapped for bass guitars, somewhat unsurprisingly. But if instruments like the bass guitar put this new gender conciousness in a tasty and digestible pop-culture form, then the Spice Girls rolled the whole thing in thick, sticky syrup. A reduction of the movement’s girl-to-girl solidarity down to a sickly sweet collection of catchphrases and merchandise. Riot Grrrl itself more or less fizzled out and failed to provide a more substantive mainstream alternative based on the original. In the years since we’ve seen little that would make these girls smile, women still aren’t participating in the music industry in the numbers that they would’ve liked, and unfortunately this doesn’t look set to change any time soon.
Riot Grrrls And Their Unfinished Mission In Music
When the Riot Grrrls appeared on the scene in the early nineties, they like other punks before them, arrived with music that was laced with a fiery passion to change things. Although unlike their predecessors, whose political anger had attached itself to left-wing politics, anarchist rebellion and other non-gender specific causes, Riot Grrrl was the first to make use of punk’s much called-upon energy to point the finger at the frightening disparity that continued to plague the sexes right up to the late 20th century.
Whereas the feminists that came before them had aimed their anger at “patriarchy” and the cultural infrastructure that supported it. “Instead, riot grrrls aimed to educate and empower other girls and women to achieve their potential, unfettered by an ideology of femininity,” writes Marion Leonard in her book Gender in the Music Industry. “Rather than railing against a general conception of mainstream culture, riot grrrls tended to focus their activities, targeting the perceived sexism of the indie rock music scene and working towards specific feminist goals.”
Gigs were put on with a female-only attendance policy: a move aimed squarely at the Washington testosterone-fuelled hardcore scene, where it was a common sight to see girls stood around the periphery of a venue clutching the jackets of their male partners and friends. Not because the men of the Washington hardcore scene had particularly bad bowel control for which regular trips to the toilet were prescribed, but because the boys had more of than not rushed to the thrashing mass of the crowd in the front and center. A violent meshing of bodies that reduced many of the best areas of a venue to the territory of strictly male moshpit fans only.
Some of the battles were semantic. As demonstrated by one image pulled from an original Riot Grrrl zine, the movement altered the meaning of words often used by women against each other: bitch, cunt, dyke, slut and whore. Jealously was off limits too, for it killed “girl love”. Girls must, as one graphic states, “encourage in face of insecurity”.
“Riot Grrrl would later be spoken of as girls challenging sexism within punk… In a subculture that congratulated itself for presenting an alternative, in a realm that should have been a refuge, they found more of the same crap,” writes Sara Marcus in Girls To The Front. “Boys’ efforts were lauded and girls’ were unrecognized… Objectification and sexual assault went unaddressed… Punk wasn’t really the point, though. The problems with the scene burned the girls up precisely because it echoed the way the world at large treated them.”
The Riot Grrrl opposition to music being a male-dominated space wasn’t based on a fictional dreamland cooked up by the crazy, bra-burning feminists of myth. Even today the consumption of music, the make-up of most popular genres and the stars of those same genres are all overwhelmingly male, or seen wrongly as such. In research conducted by Female Pressure, an international collective of female artists, women “comprise only 9.3% of artists listed on music label rosters.” A figure that jabs at some of our most easily held assumptions about women in music: mainly that the industry (with artists like Gaga, Beyonce, Rihanna and Adele) remains one of the few instances where women (half of the world’s population mind you) undoubtedly get their fair share.
Even in 2014, publications and magazines that come under the umbrella of “music” are almost always categorised as “male” despite their being no greater link between music and maleness than there is between collesseums and cashew nuts. Still though, the music press (outside of tween pop glossies) is apparently a penis zone by default.
As music journalist Fiona Sturges outlines in an opinion piece for The Independent, women are just as sparsely represented in the newsrooms of these publications as they are on the stage. “In my 13 years writing about music I have found myself overwhelmingly outnumbered by men both in print and at music events, from gigs and showcases to music conferences,” she writes. “Although the male-female ratio has improved among music writers in recent years, the most cursory glance at almost any music publication, particularly heritage rock mags such as Mojo and Uncut, reveals that male writers still significantly outnumber female ones.”
Men make up more than half of most “alternative” music-based subcultures and they still also make up the majority of live music attendance in medium to small sized venues, as any gig fan will testify. These are facts that Riot Grrrls were among the first to grapple with, and certainly they were the first collection of people to list such things in their manifestos and rallying calls. If long-winded theorizing and critical essays were the modes of attack for previous feminists, these activists – armed with more than guitars – appropriated punk’s penchant for DIY culture to spread the message: zines, comics, flyers, posters, badges and other means.
The old feminists of repute – whilst still revered – just couldn’t bring the fight to the front lines as easy as these young upstarts could. Riot Grrrl found feminism much more powerful, efficacious and fun when books were swapped for bass guitars, somewhat unsurprisingly. But if instruments like the bass guitar put this new gender conciousness in a tasty and digestible pop-culture form, then the Spice Girls rolled the whole thing in thick, sticky syrup. A reduction of the movement’s girl-to-girl solidarity down to a sickly sweet collection of catchphrases and merchandise. Riot Grrrl itself more or less fizzled out and failed to provide a more substantive mainstream alternative based on the original. In the years since we’ve seen little that would make these girls smile, women still aren’t participating in the music industry in the numbers that they would’ve liked, and unfortunately this doesn’t look set to change any time soon.
Around the Web