Words + Guitar: The Riot Grrrl Movement and Third-Wave Feminism

A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Georgetown University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Communication, Culture and Technology

By

Hillary Belzer, B.A.

Washington, DC April 23, 2004

Copyright 2000 by Hillary Belzer All Rights Reserved

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Words + Guitar: The Riot Grrrl Movement and Third-Wave Feminism Hillary Belzer, B.A. Thesis Advisor: Jeffrey Peck, PhD ABSTRACT
Words + Guitar: the Riot Grrrl Movement and Third-Wave Feminism seeks to provide an understanding of the Riot Grrrl phenomenon in the early 1990s in the United States as well as attempt to situate this movement within the context of third-wave feminism. I will discuss Riot Grrrl as a concrete manifestation of the third wave of feminism and utilize it as a case study for examining how postmodern philosophy, cultural theory, and political history have been woven together to produce a new form of feminism. I am not declaring, however, that Riot Grrrl thoroughly represents third-wave feminism or that to understand Riot Grrrl is to understand third-wave feminism in its entirety. Rather, I am arguing that Riot Grrrl was one of the many expressions of third-wave ideals and issues, and that it helps us navigate and comprehend the diffuse, contradictory nature of the third wave. Thus Riot Grrrl is useful in understanding how young feminists are forging resistance to sexism in American culture.

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Acknowledgements This paper would not have been possible without the help of many people along the way. They include: My advisor Jeffrey Peck and my thesis reader Martin Irvine; S-K and Kathleen Hanna, whose music helped me through many a writers block; My family, for their unwavering support and enthusiasm - special thanks goes to my mom, a feminist who always taught me to think independently; Glenn Dellon, for convincing me this was a worthwhile topic as well as his design and production of the supplemental CD; finally, for Riot Grrrls and third wavers everywhere, whose activism continues to be my inspiration.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction.....................................................................................................................1 Chapter I........................................................................................................................15 Chapter II.......................................................................................................................31 Chapter III......................................................................................................................50 Chapter IV......................................................................................................................69 Chapter V........................................................................................................................89 Epilogue.........................................................................................................................102 Bibliography..................................................................................................................106 Addendum: CD

BECAUSE we girls want to create mediums that speak to US. We are tired of boy band after boy band, boy zine after boy zine, boy punk after boy punk after boy...BECAUSE we need to talk to each other. Communication/inclusion is the key. We will never know if we dont break the code of silence... BECAUSE in every form of media I see us/myself slapped, decapitated, laughed at, objectified, raped, trivialized, pushed, ignored, stereotyped, kicked, scorned, molested, silenced, invalidated, knifed, shot, choked and killed. BECAUSE I am tired of these things happening to me; Im not a fuck toy, Im not a punching bag, Im not a joke...BECAUSE a safe space needs to be created for girls where we can open our eyes and reach out to each other without being threatened by this sexist society and our day to day 1 bullshit. Words + Guitar: the Riot Grrrl Movement and Third-Wave Feminism seeks to provide an understanding of the Riot Grrrl phenomenon in the early 1990s in the United States as well as attempt to situate this movement within the context of third-wave feminism. I will discuss Riot Grrrl as a concrete manifestation of the third wave of feminism and utilize it as a case study for examining how postmodern philosophy, cultural theory, and political history have been woven together to produce a new form of feminism. I am not declaring, however, that Riot Grrrl thoroughly represents third-wave feminism or that to understand Riot Grrrl is to understand third-wave feminism in its entirety. Rather, I am arguing that Riot Grrrl was one of the many expressions of third-wave ideals and issues, and that it helps us navigate and comprehend the diffuse, contradictory nature of the third wave. Thus Riot Grrrl is useful in understanding how young feminists are forging resistance to sexism in American culture. The other goal of this thesis is to discuss the importance of Riot Grrrl as a smaller feminist movement within the greater entity of the third wave. Riot Grrrl did not meet the needs of many women because it was mostly a white, middle-class, youth-oriented movement. It also did not accomplish any sweeping changes for women such as abortion rights or sexual harassment laws, successes achieved by second-wave feminists. However, even though there were no overt political improvements for women, Riot Grrrl made a difference at an individual

level. As one self-proclaimed Riot Grrrl states, I think its important that Riot Grrrl as a movement is documented as a youth feminism of the 1990s. Riot Grrrl has made really significant contributions to the lives of many girls and should be recognized as a valid form of feminism and youth resistance.2 Many girls and young women talk about how Riot Grrrl helped them overcome eating disorders, handle emotional problems caused by sexual abuse, and inspire them to have the courage to speak up in the face of oppression in their everyday lives (for example, confronting someone who makes a sexist comment.) Additionally, they succeeded in overturning the male hegemony in punk culture, no small feat considering punks lengthy history as primarily mens terrain. 3 Above all Riot Grrrl fostered a sense of community among young girls who felt alienated from mainstream culture. Riot Grrrl conventions, meetings, and zines all provided a safe haven for women in which they could freely discuss issues pertaining to them without being quieted or restrained by the presence of men. I am not trying to describe Riot Grrrl in its entirety because first, my goal is to talk about its relation to feminism, and second, to give a complete description of Riot Grrrl is impossible. The very aim of Riot Grrrl was to challenge definitions in general Riot Grrrl members always disliked attempts by the media and others to pigeonhole them and assign them a singular description.4 In keeping with this spirit I am choosing a few aspects of Riot Grrrl

Erika Reinstein, Riot Grrrl NYC #2, 1992, rpt. in Chelsea Starr, Because: Riot Grrrl, Social Movements, Art Worlds, and Style (diss., University of California at Irvine, 1999) 51-52. 2 Lailah Hanit Bragin, quoted in Jessica Rosenberg and Gitana Garofalo, Revolutions from Within, Signs 23:3 (Spring 1998) 815. 3 Mimi Schippers, Rocking the Gender Order, Catching a Wave: Reclaiming Feminism for the 21st Century. Rory Dicker and Alison Piepmeier, eds. (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2003) 292. She writes, [Riot Grrrl] teaches us that even the most sexist, male-dominant cultural forms or patterns can be rethought, done differently, and reconstructed. 4 As Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill stated, Part of the whole idea about Riot Grrrl was that you couldnt define it: each person defined it as it happened...we didnt have a mission statement we could pass out, we didnt have a sentence that encapsulated it, we didnt have one unified goal, we didnt have one way to dress or look...Riot Grrrl is three-dimensional, not just one thing. Andrea Juno, Angry Women in Rock Vol. 1 (New York: Juno Books, 1996)100- 103.

rather than try to give a comprehensive picture. Along the same lines, I am not going to present an all-encompassing description of the third wave because feminism itself is constantly changing and cannot be captured by one persons perspective. Says one third-wave scholar, Because feminism speaks itself differently at different times and in different locations, narrative chronologies that say in this wave tend to erase the heterogeneity of feminisms at any given moment. Indeed, any historical narrative that collapses the diverse activity of a period or a movement to make generalizations about this period or this movement necessarily results in a reductive portrait.5 To avoid such a reductive portrait I am concentrating on only a few aspects of third-wave feminism, focusing on those most relevant to Riot Grrrl. Methodology To situate Riot Grrrl within the third wave, I will combine feminist theory with a cultural studies approach. While the disciplines of cultural studies and feminism share some of the same qualities (both grew out of leftist politics and use many of the same theoretical models such as semiotics, psychoanalysis, and postmodernism)6, for my purposes it will be necessary to emphasize a feminist perspective on the cultural phenomenon of Riot Grrrl.

Deborah L. Siegel, Reading Between the Waves: Feminist Historiography in a Postfeminist Moment, in Third Wave Agenda: Being Feminist, Doing Feminism, ed. Leslie Heywood and Jennifer Drake (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997) 61. 6 Sarah Franklin, Celia Lury, and Jackie Stacey, eds, Feminism and Cultural Studies: Pasts, Presents, Futures, Off-Centre: Feminism and Cultural Studies (London: HarperCollins Academic, 1991) 1-7. They write, Both womens studies and cultural studies have in common a strong link to radical politics outside the academy, having their academic agendas informed by, or linked to the feminist movement and left politics respectively...there are a number of points of overlap between feminism and cultural studies. Theoretically both are concerned with analyzing the forms and operations of power and inequality, and take as an integral part of such operations the production of knowledge itself. To some extent, each has drawn on critical insights from discourse theory, poststructuralism, psychoanalysis, semiology, and deconstructionism. Both have drawn on strands of critical theory which are seen to offer more sophisticated tools for analyzing the reproduction of social inequality, and relations of dominance and subordination at a cultural level.

There is some debate over Riot Grrrls status; some claim it was mostly about punk music7 while others assert it was a subcultural youth movement, seeing it from a purely sociological perspective.8 I believe that Riot Grrrl was both of these things, but I want to emphasize its unique brand of feminism and how it is tied to the third wave. I also want to discuss Riot Grrrl from a cultural studies perspective, examining the milieu that helped shape it as well as underlying cultural theories of music and popular culture. The feminist theories I will use center on the categorization of the third wave as the next generation in American feminism, the body as a site of power relations and gender performance, postmodernism and the acknowledgement of differences between women, and the meanings of the words feminist, woman and girl. To achieve an interdisciplinary approach required by cultural studies, I will merge several social and cultural theories, including those relating to subculture, music and gender, and the media. I will then analyze how both third wave and Riot Grrrl cultural products such as essays, zines, song lyrics, interviews with the bands and individual Riot Grrrls fit with all of these theories.9 These cultural artifacts will serve as textual evidence to demonstrate how Riot Grrrl fits into third-wave feminism. In this way I will utilize a distinctively feminist approach to cultural studies; in other words, I want to

See Vera Crisip Gamboa, Revolution Girl Style Now: Popular Music, Feminism, and Revolution. Masters Thesis, Simon Fraser University, 2000. 8 See Starr. 9 In an attempt to resist misinterpreting this community, many scholars studying riot grrrl have attempted to incorporate into their work riot grrrls self-representations, especially quotations from riot grrrl songs and zines preserving errors in spelling, grammar, and punctuation so as to preserve the authenticity of this cultural evidence...while this approach may be done in the spirit of academic dialogism (that is, allowing for the space of the text to include the voice of the subject of study), it does not erase the power imbalances inherent in cultural studies (even those based on participant observation), it does not make up for the fact that the picture being made of this culture will always be incomplete. Mary Celeste Kearney, Dont Need You: Rethinking Identity Politics and Separatism from a Grrrl Perspective, Youth Culture: Identity in a Postmodern World ed. Jonathon S. Epstein (London: Blackwell, 1998) 178.

use traditional cultural studies techniques and combine them with feminist theory.10 This approach is essential given the power of mass culture on womens behavior and psyche. In the media-saturated environment of 21st-century America, it is indisputable that all women are influenced by popular culture to some degree; this fact is instrumental to understanding the goals and nature of the third wave. Cultural studies scholar Ben Agger outlines the importance of a feminist perspective:
For young women and men to consume a mass culture that locks women and men into bestial, degraded, hierarchized social relations virtually ensures that representation becomes reality, even if we tell ourselves that the lives depicted on the screen and in the text are only simulations...a late twentieth-century feminism must reckon with the power of cultural representation in ways that liberal feminism typically does not...to suppose that women simply choose their lives independent of the way womens lives are represented in culture is naive; such a notion reflects the unfreedom of the general society and misleads individual women about the choices available to them. In this way, a feminist cultural studies makes an important contribution to political and social theory, particularly in the way it develops a politics of representation that unravels the disciplining functions of cultural imageries of women in a social order deceptively premised on alleged freedom of choice.11

Thus, examining the cultural milieu for women is critical to understanding their opinions and perspective. Overview of Chapters Chapter One will examine the cultural forces that helped give the third wave its character. I will discuss several influences that shaped the third wave: conservative politics, current events pertaining to womens rights (such as the Anita Hill trial), and the alternative music scene. This discussion is necessary to understand the emergence of the third wave and Riot Grrrl. Chapter Two will provide brief descriptions of the third wave and Riot Grrrl,

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Suzanna Danuta Walters, Material Girls: Making Sense of Feminist Cultural Theory (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995) 159. [The] methods increasingly used by feminist cultural critics are refreshingly eclectic, merging sophisticated textual analyses with social history, genre criticism with object relations, interviews with fan mail...feminist cultural criticism should continue to push [the] boundaries, while always maintaining a firm commitment to asking fundamentally feminist questions of cultural processes. 11 Ben Agger, Cultural Studies as Critical Theory (London: The Falmer Press, 1992) 124.

including the major characteristics of each. Furnished with basic definitions of each of these entities, the reader will be prepared to learn how the main features of each movement coincide. Chapter Three discusses the ideas of multiplicity and difference within the third wave and Riot Grrrl. Young adults and teens in the 80s and early 90s were influenced by the new politics of diversity, engaging in the beginning of the politically correct era. Female college students, many of whom were instrumental in generating a new wave of feminism, were influenced by the theories of difference taught in their womens studies classes. White, straight, middle-class young women were taught that their feminism was not the only one, and learned that sexism is linked to a host of seemingly disparate oppressions: classism, racism, homophobia, and able-ism. Through the instruction of theories espoused by women with varying experiences and backgrounds, many third-wave women base their struggle against repressive practices on actual issues rather than coming together on the foundation of female identity. Riot Grrrl, composed mostly of white middle-class women, serves as an example of the third waves attentiveness to issues of race and class as well as sex. The content of their song lyrics, convention workshops and zines will demonstrate their concern with combating forms of oppression in addition to their emphasis on sexism. The focus of Chapter Four will be issues pertaining to the female body. Both the third wave and Riot Grrrl understood that the body is still a source of oppression and shame among women, a site where they remain controlled by patriarchal forces. However, they also understood how power manifests itself and that the challenge to such power exists at the individual level. Additionally, they are aware of the fact that gender and femininity are performances put on for society rather than things biological or innate to women. Riot Grrrl tactics designed to subvert the meanings of traditional feminine trappings, such as writing on the body and parody, will be emphasized as forms of resistance.

Chapter Five will examine how the third wave is reclaiming the word feminist and how Riot Grrrl reclaimed girl. A brief description of feminist theory that builds on the work of Jacques Derrida will provide the background for the larger discussion of reclaiming language within the third wave and Riot Grrrl. By negating characteristics typically assigned to girls (such as weakness and passivity) through overt displays of anger and outspokenness in their cultural products, Riot Grrrls toppled the traditional meaning of girl in much the same way the third wave is reassigning meaning to the word feminist. The Third Wave and Riot Grrrl: An Overview The third wave of feminism, which began roughly in the early 1990s, is distinguished by its insistence on multiple definitions of feminism and the embracing of differences between women. Comprised mostly of women who were too young to participate in second-wave activism in the 70s and 80s, this generation believes anyone can create her own feminism, and that it is essential for the feminist movement to recognize the diversity of women in order to advance their equality. Due to the new role of mass media in the 90s, third-wavers are also more concerned with the cultural representation of women and its effects than their secondwave counterparts.

The Riot Grrrl movement consisted of a diffuse network of young women (ranging in
age from early teens to twenties)12 interested in challenging male hegemony both within the underground punk scene and society in general. Riot Grrrl first started in Olympia, Washington when a few women formed bands and held women-only meetings in which girls could discuss the ways sexism informed their everyday lives. Within a year Riot Grrrl chapters sprung up across the country and a large youth-oriented feminist movement had begun. Riot Grrrl was

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Emily White, Revolution Girl Style Now, L.A. Weekly July 10-16 1992. rpt. Rock She Wrote, ed. Evelyn McDonnell and Ann Powers (New York: Delta, 1995) 397.

characterized by certain punk philosophies, most notably DIY (do-it-yourself), in that girls actively engaged in cultural production, creating their own music and fanzines rather than following existing materials. More importantly, it reflected several aspects of third-wave feminism: body image concerns, the resistance to societal demands for female perfection, support of diversity, and the redefinition of the word feminist along with girl. To provide a framework for the research that follows, it is necessary to discuss some of the work that has been done on certain areas that pertain to the formation of the third wave and Riot Grrrl. Some aspects of American culture during the 1980s and early 90s, including conservative politics and the status of women in the media and popular culture are essential for understanding how the third wave took shape. These subjects are also vital for understanding how the Riot Grrrl movement began, but general theories of pop culture influence, adolescence, music, and subculture are underlying areas of study that warrant discussion as well. I believe that before a detailed discussion of third wave and Riot Grrrl can take place, it is critical to examine some of the literature in these areas. The Why of Riot Grrrl: Popular Culture, Subculture, Adolescent, and Music Theories There were many factors at play in the formation and spread of the Riot Grrrl movement. Riot Grrrl started in punk partly because certain elements of punk served as the

most appropriate for a grassroots, youth-oriented feminism. Also, many girls were drawn to
punk culture because it seemed to offer an alternative to conventional norms of femininity, a way of avoiding the problems young women face as their bodies mature during adolescence. Finally, it is not surprising that this feminism gained popularity in a subculture in which music is a central element. Music is one of the most influential and powerful means of communication. Combined with the do-it-yourself philosophy of punk, music helped express and transmit the central ideas of Riot Grrrls brand of feminism.

During the 1980s popular culture became increasingly influential in everyday life. The reasons for the new power of popular culture are varied, but perhaps the most important was the speed and ubiquity of communication technologies.13 Americans found themselves totally immersed in popular culture, and this greatly affected their perspectives and psyches. Says cultural studies scholar Lawrence Grossberg, [Popular culture] cannot be treated as a domain separated from reality nor as somehow eclipsing reality. We live in popular culture as much as we live in the ideological maps of daily life and the relations of economic structures...popular culture is the material milieu within which we live, within which we navigate our narrative and emotional existence.14 This statement is important because it links the impact of popular culture to identity formation within individuals. When people consume media and pop culture as a way of life, they learn how to behave and what is expected of them from those presented on television, in music, or in magazines. It would not be an exaggeration to say that individuals are socialized, in large part, by pop culture. This is an especially important point for women because pop culture establishes and instructs their behavior, appearance, and goals. Both men and women take their gender cues from popular culture, as well as from the family, religion and formal education. The ways in which women are portrayed matters enormously for early childhood and adolescent socialization as well as for adult learning about issues of gender.15 This is not to say, of course, that women are helpless victims of the media machine. Women process media messages differently according to their particular circumstances and personality.16 That being said, women nevertheless are influenced by the images distributed by the media; only the extent to which the media affects them varies. The Riot Grrrl movement
13 14

See Mark Poster, The Second Media Age (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1995), particularly 26, 46, and 51. Lawrence Grossberg, Dancing in Spite of Myself: Essays on Popular Culture (Durham: Duke University Press, 1997) 278. 15 Agger, 120.

was in large part a reaction to the ways in which women and girls were portrayed in mainstream media. Young women sought an alternative culture in which womens voices were heard and celebrated rather than ignored or degraded. This need for a culture existing outside the mainstream can be traced to theories of subculture. The notion of subculture as an alternative to mainstream culture has its origins in 1960s British hippies and mods.17 In the seventies, punk was declared not just a genre of music but an entire culture with its own style and artifacts, much like hippie or mod culture. However, punk differed from these previous subcultures because it was oppositional; that is, it existed as a direct contrast to traditional norms and values instead of supporting them. The most comprehensive examination of punk as a subculture can be found in Dick Hebdiges Subculture: The Meaning of Style, in which he states that subcultures present a challenge to hegemony by taking certain signs of the dominant culture and giving them new meanings, meanings which express, in code, a form of resistance to the order which guarantees their [the subcultures] continued subordination.18 Thus, subculture offers a valuable means of defying mainstream culture through the seizure and redefinition of its signifiers. Punk subculture was particularly attractive to young women because it offered a way to break free of conventional norms, including those relating to femininity.19 Adolescence is a difficult time for women because it is then they learn they are not equal to boys; while they
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Liesbet Van Zoonen, Feminist Media Studies. (London: Sage Publications, 1994) 40-41. See, for example, Resistance Through Rituals: Youth Subcultures in Post-War Britain by Stuart Hall and Tony Jefferson, eds. (London: Routledge, 1976), and The Subcultures Reader by Ken Gelder and Sarah Thornton, eds. (London: Routledge, 1997). 18 Dick Hebdige, Subculture: The Meaning of Style (London: Methuen and Co. Ltd., 1979) 17-18. For punk as a distinctly postmodern subculture, see David Muggleton, The Postsubculturalist in The Clubcultures Reader, ed. Steven Redhead (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1997). 19 Angela McRobbie, Settling Accounts with Subcultures: A Feminist Critique, On Record: Rock, Pop and the Written Word, ed. Simon Frith and Andrew Goodwin () 79. See also Lauraine LeBlancs work on women in punk, Pretty in Punk: Girls Gender Resistance in a Boys Subculture (New Brunswick:

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might have played with boys as children or were tomboys, at the onset of puberty girls are required to conform to societys expectations of women.20 This transformation proves especially complicated when one thinks of the changes the female body undergoes at adolescence. Perhaps the most comprehensive work done on young women and the body in Western culture is that of Liz Frost. Her book, Young Women and the Body: A Feminist Sociology outlines the major feminist theories about girls changing bodies. She discusses the feelings of shame and disgust most girls adopt as natural physical changes such as menstruation and breast development occur and attributes these feelings to years of patriarchal control within Western societies. As girls develop, their bodies become sexualized as objects for the male gaze, with particular emphasis on breasts, hips, and buttocks. Although enlarging breasts and hips are visual representations of femaleness, they are also highly constituted in our culture as objects of male desire (to be gazed at), and contribute to the experience of menarche as connected to the process of sexualization.21 The burden of being on display for male attention and the newfound pressure to be attractive causes many body image problems for teenage girls, most commonly reflected in disordered eating habits or full-blown eating disorders.22 Additionally, girls are taught to be ashamed of their periods and trained to be vigilant about

Rutgers University Press, 1999) 101, where she states, The timing of girls entry in to punk is a clear indication that subcultural participation is an aspect of resistance to female gender roles. 20 Liz Frost, Young Women and the Body: A Feminist Sociology. (London: Palgrave, 2001) 76. 21 Janet Lee, Menarche and the (Hetero) Sexualization of the Female Body in The Politics of Womens Bodies: Sexuality, Appearance and Behavior ed. Rose Weitz (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003) 89. For a discussion of breasts as sexual objects for mens pleasure, see Iris Marion Youngs essay, Breasted Experience: The Look and the Feeling in Weitz, 152-163. 22 Some sources on young women and eating disorders include Hilda Bruchs The Golden Cage: The Enigma of Anorexia Nervosa (Cambridge: Harvard University Press 1978), Joan Jacobs Brumberg, Fasting Girls: The Emergence of Anorexia Nervosa as a Modern Disease (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988), Kim Chernin, The Obsession: Reflections on the Tyranny of Slenderness (New York: Harper and Row, 1981), Debra Gimlin, The Anorexic as Overconformist: Toward a Reinterpretation of Eating Disorders, in Ideals of Feminine Beauty: Philosophical, Social, and Cultural Dimensions, ed. Karen A. Callaghan (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1994) 99-111.

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hiding their monthly secret.23 Menstruation has a long history of being viewed as a stigma; women who were menstruating were dirty or even blamed for bringing misfortune.24 In contemporary society the notion that menstruating women are somehow unclean is still enforced, most notably through advertising for feminine hygiene products.25 Given this bleak atmosphere for young women it is not surprising that many of them seek alternatives to the messages expressed by mainstream society. The DIY aspect of punk proved to be especially empowering for young women. Instead of passively accepting mainstream popular cultures ideals of what women should be, girls were encouraged to rebel against these ideals through personal expression. The creation of zines and music within Riot Grrrl became forms of resistance and allowed girls to ignore the damaging ideas communicated by the media. Fans identification with the style, attitudes, and underlying politics of punk bands helped form a culture that stood defiantly against conventional culture. Music scholar James Lull adds to Hebdiges work by discussing music as a primary feature of punk subculture. An ideological convergence takes place between creators and consumers of these musics. Oppositional subcultural music confirms political positions and cultural orientations by reinforcing alternative ideologies and actions. These objectives are met not only by the lyrical
23

See, for example, a study done by Janet Lee on young women and their fears regarding menstruation being revealed. She writes, There was overwhelming evidence of womens fears of showing evidence of wearing pads or staining garments or sheets. Three-quarters of all women in the sample specifically shared a story of the embarrassment associated with staining, or a fear that it might happen to them. This illustrates how the bulge or stain becomes a visible emblem of their contamination and shame, announcing their condition for all to see. From Menarche and the (Hetero) Sexualization of the Female Body in Weitz. 24 For more on the construction of menstruation as curse, see Thomas Buckley and Alma Gottlieb, Blood Magic: The Anthropology of Menstruation. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990) and Janice Delaney, Mary Jane Lipton and Emily Toth, The Curse: The Cultural History of Menstruation, (Urbana, University of Illinois, 1988). 25 For a study on such ads and the relation to the notion of menstruation as dirty, see Ann Treneman, Cashing in on the Curse: Advertising and the Menstrual Taboo, in The Female Gaze: Women as

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content of the music, but by its signature textures and atmospheres as well, he states.26 All aspects of music lyrics, performance spaces, and style become vehicles for expression of the subcultures message. Music is able to accomplish this task because of its ability to reach the intended audience at three different levels: physical, cognitive, and emotional.27 Music has a strong impact when individuals connect to the music at one or all of these levels, especially young people who are trying to find their identity, coping with the transition from child to adult, and perhaps, in need of an alternative to mainstream culture. Along with the subculture it may or may not be a part of, music becomes a means of resistance to the dominant culture and a way to communicate and spread the ideas of the subculture.
Multiple sensory involvement with music gives it special meaning as an agent of communication and socialization...active participation with a medium increases its potential as an agent of socialization and there may be no more dramatic example of this than the actions of youth as they employ and enjoy popular music...generally, young people use music to resist authority at all levels, assert their personalities, develop peer relationships and romantic entanglements, and learn about things that their parents and the schools arent telling them.28

Music is not only a way to defy convention but also a means to escape the confines of everyday life. Music critic Simon Frith explains, We all hear the music we like as something special, as something that defies the mundane, takes us out of ourselves, puts us somewhere else.29 He states that music can seem to make possible a new kind of self-recognition, to free us from everyday routines, from the social expectations with which we are encumbered. Friths work highlights the importance of music for the formation of Riot Grrrl. Young women were indeed
Viewers of Popular Culture Lorraine Gamman and Margaret Marshment, eds. (Seattle: The Real Comet Press, 1989) 26 James Lull, Popular Music and Communication: An Introduction, Popular Music and Communication, 2nd edition, ed. James Lull (London: Sage Publications, 1992), 29. 27 Ibid., 19. He writes, Audiences participate in popular music in ways that are physical (singing along, tapping, clapping, dancing, sexual arousal, and so on); emotional (feeling the music, reminiscing, romanticizing, achieving a spiritual high, and the like); and cognitive (processing information, learning, stimulating thought, contributing to memory, framing perceptions, and so forth). A listener may relate to music directly by experiencing it in a very personal way. 28 Ibid., 27.

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looking for a way to liberate themselves from the roles and definitions society had thrust upon them, and music helped create a subculture in which they could enjoy this kind of freedom. More importantly, music forged the hope that the importance Riot Grrrl placed on women and their compassion for all oppressed people, would one day be the norms in mainstream society. A Note on the Title Words + Guitar is the title of a song by Sleater-Kinney, a band whose roots are firmly planted in Riot Grrrl.30 I chose it because it perfectly summarizes the spirit of Riot Grrrl: words communicated through zines and meetings, and the musics simple, DIY sound were all that was required to spread notions of feminism to American girls. In essence, feminist ideals were brought to thousands of young women in the early 90s through rudimentary communication and music. An enormous ad campaign, massive media attention, or even musical expertise were unnecessary; only the raw plucking of guitar strings in crammed underground clubs, home-made xeroxed zines, and clusters of girls meeting in basements or bedrooms were needed for conveying feminism to a new generation. In this way Riot Grrrl upheld and circulated the ideology of the third wave.

29

Simon Frith, Performing Rites: On the Value of Popular Music (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996) 275. 30 See track 1 on the supplemental CD.

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Chapter One: Background Before describing Riot Grrrl and how it fits into the ideals of the third wave, it is necessary to provide an overview of American culture and politics in the late 1980s and early 90s. I will focus on two aspects of the cultural landscape at that time: the backlash against womens rights and the alternative music scene. These areas are essential in understanding the formation of third-wave feminism and Riot Grrrl.1 Political conservatism under the Reagan and Bush administrations engendered policies that eroded the hard-fought rights won by feminist activists in the 70s. Moreover, younger women (those born in the late 60s and early 70s) were taking on careers and attending college more than any other generation of women, but discovered there were new hurdles to be overcome. Anti-abortion laws, sexual harassment, date rape, and increasing pressure to measure up to impossible beauty standards were chief issues for women in the 80s and early 90s. Many women also felt that there was a backlash against womens rights, manifesting itself through conservative politics and the medias representation of women and feminists. Reproductive Rights The Reagan and Bush administrations gradually chipped away at womens control over their reproductive rights by passing new laws restricting access to abortion and the use of RU486, an abortion-inducing drug recently introduced from France. Anti-abortion activists also devised tactics to thwart womens access to information and clinics, including blockading entrances to clinics. One of the biggest blockades occurred in 1989 when 261 protesters were arrested after blocking a Connecticut clinic, purposely clogging the already over-crowded prisons. The judge presiding over the arrests commented, Ive done nuclears, Ive done
Many other important events were taking place at this time such as the Persian Gulf war and the Rodney King beating; however, I am choosing to concentrate only on events that are relevant to womens rights
1

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handicaps, and Ive done abortionists. The militancy of this group was greater than any I have faced so far.2 Perhaps the most disturbing development in the anti-choice camp was the establishment of fake abortion clinics, a scheme that gained national attention in 1991 thanks to coverage by the news show Prime Time Live.3 The staff at these phony clinics would give women seeking abortions erroneous information in an attempt to prevent them from undergoing the procedure; suggesting that abortions cause cancer or that abortions are extremely dangerous to ones health were the most common lies told to patients. Protesters were not the only ones impeding a womans right to choose. State courts passed a number of laws severely restricting a womans access to abortion; both pro-choice and anti-abortion camps predicted the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision would be overturned. In July 1989 the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the state of Missouri in Webster v. Reproductive Health Services. This decision made it impossible for public hospitals, physicians, and any other health employees to perform or assist with abortions that were not required to save the mothers life in the state of Missouri.4 It also required that women undergo tests to determine whether the fetus could survive outside the womb after 20 weeks. Although the case took place in one state, many pro-choice advocates saw the ruling as a direct threat to Roe v. Wade, citing that the case set a dangerous precedent for other states to implement the same regulations.5 With the state courts in control of reproductive rights and the banning of abortion from public health facilities, poor women and teenagers were the hardest hit. Access to abortion - the real-life, everyday pathways for the exercise of that right - had been narrowed,
and elements of the general cultural milieu that will help give a better understanding of the third wave and Riot Grrrl. 2 Kirk Johnson, Connecticut Abortion Protesters Clog Jails, New York Times 21 June 1989: B1. 3 Walter Goodman, It Looks Like a Clinic, but... New York Times 31 Oct. 1991: C28. 4 Anne J. Stone, The American Woman 1990-1: A Status Report, ed. Sara E. Rix. (New York: Norton & Company, Inc., 1990) 67-8.

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threatened, transformed into a maze. Gradually only those women with the proper maps or money might have the right to their rights, stated columnist Ellen Goodman.6 The control of womens bodies through sexual harassment and assault, however, was as great a problem as the oppression induced by the courts decisions on abortion. Sexual Harassment and Rape While many more educational and career opportunities became available for women since the early 1970s, women entering the workforce now had to handle unforeseen problems such as sexual harassment and inadequate child care. Of course, these problems had existed long before the 80s, but were now being brought to the fore by increasing numbers of working women. In June 1988, the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board released the results of their study of sexual harassment among federal employees between May 1985 and May 1987. Over half of the women respondents reported they had been the victim of unwanted sexual attention at least once during the given time frame.7 While no definite conclusions about sexual harassment in the U.S. can be drawn from the study, it provided at least an indication of the prevalence of sexual harassment. As the supervisor of the survey, John M. Palguta, put it, I dont think the Federal Government is somehow a hotbed of sexual harassment that stands out from the rest of the country. This is a problem in the rest of the country. Also, the women who reported being harassed were likely to be in a nontraditional job in a mostly male environment, suggesting that while women were legally accepted into a working atmosphere, they were not accepted on a personal level by their male peers.

Al Kamen, Supreme Court Restricts Abortion, Giving States Wide Latitude for Regulation, Washington Post 4 Jul. 1989: A1. 6 Ellen Goodman, Counting the Votes, Washington Post 4 Jul. 1989: A3. 7 AP, Wide Harassment of Women Working for U.S. Is Reported, New York Times 30 Jun. 1988: B6.

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Although the study shed important light on the issue of sexual harassment, the events that garnered the most media attention occurred in 1991: the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas trial and the Tailhook scandal. The media extensively covered these incidents not because it was interested in exposing the extent of sexual harassment in government institutions but because of the sordid details involved. Although the goal was to earn top ratings and sell the most newspapers and magazines by covering these stories, the media wound up contributing to womens mobilization in the fight against sexual harassment in the workplace. As more women were made aware of the problems, they were in a better position to foster change. In October of 1991 a lawyer named Anita Hill accused Clarence Thomas, a nominee to the Supreme Court, of sexual harassment that had taken place nearly ten years earlier. A Senate-run trial found Thomas not guilty, a verdict that caused outrage among many women. The reasons for the trials outcome are many: the medias insinuation that Hill was mentally unstable, the Senators declaration that she had a different motive in accusing Thomas, and the issue of race (both Hill and Thomas are black).8 The message sent to women was clear: although they had greatly advanced their status, sexual harassment still could prevent womens equality. In September the annual Tailhook Association convention took place in Las Vegas, a three-day long celebration of naval aviation attended by thousands of Navy and Marine flyers. At this particular convention, however, at least 26 female Navy members were sexually harassed or molested during the tradition known as the gantlet.9 When these women came forward top Navy officials first refused to investigate the incidents. After much media attention, however, an investigation was ordered by the Pentagon. The results: the men accused
8

J. Smolowe and H. Gorey, She Said, He Said Time 138:16 (Oct. 21 1991) 36.

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attempted to cover up their actions and publicly stated that they had done nothing wrong in fact, Rear Admiral Jack Snyder blamed the women for attending the convention, saying, Thats what you get for going to a hotel party with a bunch of drunk aviators. Additionally, none of the offenders were found guilty of harassment or sexual assault but rather indecent exposure and conduct unbecoming of an officer.10 The outrageousness of such an outcome was merely one of many injustices handed to women during that time period. Sexual assault, at least in the Navy, was still not taken seriously. Indeed, women who spoke up about the assaults were punished and became the guilty ones rather than the defendants. In the early 90s two stories of sexual abuse gained mass media attention: the trial of William Kennedy Smith and the case of the Spur Posse. As with the sexual harassment cases described above, the media clamored to cover these stories because of the details rather than reveal womens victimization. But the coverage also helped generate greater activism among feminists and young women who were suddenly made aware of the problems they still faced. The William Kennedy Smith trial demonstrated how the female victim of rape, rather than the male perpetrator, becomes the accused. Smith was acquitted of rape charges brought on by Patricia Bowman, a lawyer who claimed Smith had raped her after the two left a Palm Beach bar. Many women believed that because the defense exposed Bowmans sexual history (although they were prevented from using it in court) the jury was not inclined to believe her. Meanwhile, the judge ruled that the testimony of three women who said that Smith had assaulted them would not be allowed in court.11 The victims sexual history was included while the defendants was not. This fact was alarming for rape crisis counselors, who claimed
9

John Lancaster, The Sex Life of the Navy: After the Tailhook Scandal, an Attempt to Reform, Washington Post 17 May 1992: C1. 10 Susan Faludi, Going Wild, Debating Sexual Correctness: Pornography, Sexual Harassment, Date Rape, and the Politics of Sexual Equality ed. Adele Stan (New York: Delta Publishing, 1995) 77.

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that the way in which Bowman had been treated would prevent future rape victims from coming forward.12 It is important to note that in these cases the lack of hard evidence was critical to the mens acquittal. The Thomas and Smith cases ultimately amounted to he said, she said hearsay, and it would be unjust to imprison a man for years without any sort of proof other than the womens testimony. Some women falsely accuse a man of sexual assault or harassment to gain attention or money, and this fact that makes it difficult to prosecute alleged rapists and harassers in the absence of hard proof. Nevertheless, the results of these two cases contributed to an overall negative atmosphere for women. Just because the court had found these men not guilty did not mean that they were innocent; additionally, the way in which the victims were treated demonstrates the inequality of power relations between men and women. In early 1993 the news broke that a gang of teenage boys in the L.A. suburb of Lakewood, calling themselves the Spur Posse, had been keeping score of their sexual conquests, many of which were not consensual according to the seven girls who came forward. The most disturbing aspect of the story was the reactions coming from some of the boys parents, whose statements included, Nothing my boy did was anything any red-blooded American boy wouldnt do at his age, and What can you do? Its a testosterone thing.13 This boys-will-be-boys attitude was shocking to many young women, and they felt the parents comments would keep girls who were raped or molested from coming forward. After all, if it was just a testosterone thing, why should girls have a right to complain? All of these incidents coincide with a backlash against the ideas of date rape, sexual abuse, and gender responsibility. A crop of young women who called themselves feminists (but
11

Cathy Booth, Palm Beach Trial: The Case that Was Not Heard, Time Dec. 23, 1991. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/subscriber/0,10987,1101911223-156115,00.html

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who many feminists decried as fakes) began attacking the womens movement for fostering a sense of helplessness and perpetual victimization among young women. Camille Paglia and Katie Roiphe were two authors at the helm of this particular backlash of new feminism against the traditional one. Camille Paglia was known for her book Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson, but earned more fame as writing articles in national newspapers. In a 1991 New York Newsday piece, Paglia declared date rape to be a false epidemic started by feminists. She also blamed feminists for mistakenly telling women they are equal to men and stated that it is feminism that turns women into victims.
Feminism keeps saying the sexes are the same. It keeps telling women they can do anything, go anywhere, say anything, wear anything. No, they cant. Women will always be in sexual danger...feminism, with its pie-in-the-sky fantasies about the perfect world, keeps young women from seeing life as it is...a girl who lets herself get dead drunk at a fraternity party is a fool. A girl who goes upstairs alone with a brother at a fraternity party is an idiot. Feminists call this blaming the victim. I call it common sense.14

Another so-called feminist, Katie Roiphe, published The Morning After: Sex, Fear, and Feminism on Campus in 1993. The book focused on how feminists expanded the definition of rape such that the line between consensual sex and rape became completely blurred. In an article in the New York Times Sunday Magazine, Roiphe accused feminists of defining rape to include any kind of sex a woman experiences as negative.15 In Roiphes eyes, feminists were attempting to create a kinder, gentler sexuality and trying to force a vision of utopian sexual relations on young women. While some feminists did adopt an almost puritanical notion of heterosexual sex (most notably Andrea Dworkin, whose anti-pornography stance aligned her with the New Right), the majority of feminists understood the gravity of date rape and were
12 13

E. Salholz and M. Mason, Sex Crimes: Women on Trial, Newsweek 118:25 (Dec. 16 1991) 22. Sex with a Scorecard, Time 141:14 (Apr. 5 1993) 41. 14 Camille Paglia, Rape and the Modern Sex War reprinted in Stan, 22-23. original headline was Rape: A Bigger Danger than Feminists Know

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merely trying to help girls understand that sex without their explicit consent under any circumstances is rape. Nevertheless, the sensationalism of claims from the likes of Paglia and Roiphe temporarily drowned out the voices of true feminists and contributed to the media backlash. Women, the Media, and Popular Culture Women in the early 90s had to contend with a conservative political climate and numerous cases of sexual harassment and abuse, but the media were also responsible in creating a negative atmosphere for women. The reporting on the death of feminism coupled with lack of positive portrayals of women in pop culture formed an environment from which women, particularly young women, felt alienated. Mainstream media did not frequently report on the grassroots efforts of some young feminist activists to show that feminism was not dead, nor did television, movies or music provide assertive female artists who refused to comply with American beauty standards. As we will see in the next chapter, these circumstances were key factors in the formation of Riot Grrrl. By the late 80s, a postfeminist era had been declared in which women were supposedly equal to men and issues such sexual harassment and date rape were solved. During the 80s a long, slow chill settled over the word feminism as the press, the advertising industry, the New Right, the religious right, television and movies all decided that the womens movement was dead and that nobody was mourning it. In fact a smiling new postfeminist American woman was supposed to have risen up from its ashes, reported Newsweek in October 1991.16 Additionally, feminism was becoming a scapegoat for a variety of problems in the U.S., and many women were hesitant to declare themselves to be feminists. A 1992 Time article

15 16

Katie Roiphe, Date Rapes Other Victim in Stan, 159. L. Shapiro and L. Buckley, Why Women Are Angry, Newsweek 118:17 (Oct. 21, 1991) 41-44.

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reported that only 27% of women considered themselves feminists, stating whereas feminism was hip and fashionable in the '70s, antifeminism became socially acceptable in the '80s.17 These sentiments were echoed in late 80s mainstream popular culture. In her essay Postfeminism and Popular Culture: A Case Study of the Backlash, Susanna Danuta Walters discusses how some films in the late 80s and early 90s send negative messages to women about their roles in public and private life. 18 Rather than demonstrate the empowerment of women, hit films such as Pretty Woman and Working Girl show the vulnerability of women and how they need to use their feminine charms and beauty to improve their economic and social conditions. Some films also contained very strong anti-career sentiments and enforced the notion that the proper role for women is in the home, as evidenced by Fatal Attraction and Baby Boom. Hollywood films include countless examples of single women, working women, women who are not fulfilled as wives and mothers, sexually active women, and just plain feisty women being summarily killed, humiliated, or simply beaten down, Walters states.19 She concludes that while the film industry seemingly presented the liberated, active career woman of the 80s, they subtly managed to slip in the message that they were all unhappy, or, in the case of Fatal Attraction, insane. Even powerful female characters such as Sigourney Weavers Ripley in the second Alien movie and Linda Hamiltons character in Terminator 2 had motherhood as their primary role. Thus pop culture reflected and enforced the idea that womens function role was still that of the homemaker/mother and suggested that working women were ultimately unhappy and unfulfilled. Fighting Back

17 18

Nancy Gibbs, The War Against Feminism, Time Mar. 9, 1992. Walters, Material Girls 116-142. 19 Ibid., 140.

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In the face of this negative atmosphere for women, feminists quickly recognized the need to defend and expand their cause. At the same time as the conservative attacks on womens rights and the indictment of feminists by the media and other feminists, some women began to fight back against these hostile currents. Young women and teenagers were startled by the outcomes of cases like Tailhook and the Spur Posse, and quickly realized the struggle was not over and that they needed to mobilize. This realization was instrumental in the rise of the third wave and Riot Grrrl. The attack on reproductive rights in particular jolted many women into action, especially young women attending college. The young women who joined the abortion rights march on April 9 or were jolted by the July Supreme Court decision in Missouri vs. Webster, giving the states more power to restrict abortions, are headed back to college with a new sense of purpose and commitment, reported the Boston Globe in September of 1989.20 At first these college women were focused on abortion rights, but quickly realized how closely this issue intertwines with others, such as sexual harassment, pay equity, and the lack of women politicians.21 Conservatives attempts to erode reproductive rights resulted in an impetus for women to get involved in feminism and work to reverse the negative changes taking place. Another example of this resistance comes in the response to pseudo-feminists critique of date rape. Katha Pollitt, columnist for The Nation and contributor to many national newspapers, published a biting response to Katie Roiphes arguments about date rape and her placement of blame on the womens movement. In a 1993 New Yorker article, Pollitt argued that date rape is in fact a larger problem than Roiphe would like to admit. [W]omen in great numbers by no means all on elite campuses, by no means all young feel angry at and

20 21

Nina McCain, On Campus, Feminism Gets a Second Wind, Boston Globe 18 Sept. 1989: 29. Ibid.

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exploited by the behavior that many men assume is within bounds and no big deal. Like many of those men, Roiphe would like to short-circuit this larger discussion, as if everything that doesnt meet the legal definition of crime were trivial, and any objection to it mere paranoia.22 She continues to say that in Roiphes eyes, the rules of sex are determined and enforced by men, and if a woman wishes to participate she must play by his rules and accept the risk of rape. Pollitt then asks, But why cant women change the game and add a few rules of their own? By asking this question, Pollitt not only challenges Roiphes ideas but Paglias as well. Paglias statement that girls deserve whatever happens to them if they get drunk at a frat party goes against what feminists have been trying to accomplish for years: an atmosphere where women can enjoy the same privileges as men, be it drinking or anything else. If men are allowed to get drunk without the risk of getting raped, why cant women? The goal of feminism is to create an environment where women can not only drink but be able to walk the streets at night without worrying about getting raped or wear short skirts without being harassed. When Pollitt asked why women cannot change the rules of the game, she is questioning Paglias assertion that women must continue to live by patriarchal norms. Perhaps the most comprehensive example of resistance to the notion that women were living in a postfeminist era came from Susan Faludi, a journalist who published Backlash: the Undeclared War against American Women in 1991. The book exposed the myths woven about women by the New Right (comprised of conservatives and some fundamentalist Christians) and how they were spread through the media. Such lies included the increase of infertility, inability to marry, and various emotional crises among working women and the decrease of rape, domestic violence, and sexual harassment.

22

Katha Pollitt, Not Just Bad Sex reprinted in Stan, 169. [article is from 162-171] originally appeared in New Yorker in October 1993.

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The press has largely ignored the mounting evidence of a backlash and promoted the evidence that the backlash invented instead. The media have circulated make-believe data on marriage and infertility that linked womens progress to marital and family setbacks, or unquestioningly passed along misleading government and private reports that concealed increasing inequities and injustice such as the Labor Departments claim that womens wage gap has suddenly narrowed or the EEOCs claim that sexual harassment on the job is declining or a Justice Department report that rape rates are static.23

Because the media continued to promote such fabrications instead of examining the reality, Faludi recognized the need to thoroughly debunk each falsehood covered in major newspapers and magazines. She carefully deflated such invented problems as the man shortage, higher divorce rates allegedly stemming from women embarking on careers, and the emotional harm supposedly inflicted on children placed in day care, by finding that statistics and other data used to back up such claims were nearly always misinterpreted by the press or generally incorrect. Faludis method and research were sound, and the book proved to be a tremendous boon not just to women but also to the feminist movement. At a time when feminism was declared dead, when womens problems were being blamed on their new opportunities both career- and education-wise, Faludi clarified how women were still oppressed and articulated the thoughts of many feminists who felt something was wrong but could not elucidate the problem. Scholar Ednie Kaeh Garrison states that the book was particularly important for helping feminists understand how the media manipulates data and chooses to present a certain perspective on a story, and how this manipulation affects the movement as a whole. Faludis book is especially notable for popularizing a rhetorical analysis that influenced a range of feminist media critics and other cultural scholars who begin to employ the rhetoric of backlash to examine the ways in which the womens movement and feminism have been demonized by popular commercial media, and the effect this demonization has had on feminist consciousness, movement, and

23

Susan Faludi, Backlash: The Undeclared War against American Women (New York: Doubleday, 1991) 56.

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effectiveness in transforming social institutions and ideology.24 While media studies had its share of feminist scholars, Faludis work was among the first to be accessible to women outside of academia. Women were also taking issue with the medias proclamation that feminism was dead. They rejected the term postfeminism and argued that while womens conditions had greatly improved in the last two decades, they were still fighting for equal rights in the workplace and control of their bodies. Media critic Suzanna Danuta Walters ponders,
Is it not premature to declare a social movement/social theory over when it has yet to achieve even a modicum of egalitarian goals? How can we possibly speak of postfeminism when a woman is still raped or beaten every twenty seconds? When women earn roughly half of what men do? When decisions about our bodies are decided by courts and legislatures that are filled with male voices? When the inclusion of women into the academic curriculum is still a piecemeal and embattled process? When fetal rights (really male rights) still assert themselves over the rights of women? When feminist is still a dirty word, designed to deny selfdetermination, power, legitimacy?25

These sorts of questions were brewing not only within academic feminism but also in everyday lives of young women as well. These women saw the need for change in the cultural sphere in addition to the political and economic arenas. While feminists such as Faludi did an excellent job of uncovering the backlash in mainstream culture, pockets of sexism not readily visible remained. Young women realized that even in subcultures that claimed to be oppositional to conventional norms, sexism and misogyny were still rampant. The recognition of inequality by a few punk girls was the impetus for confronting sexism both in their punk world and in the rest of society. The Punk Scene By the early 90s, women were reacting to a hostile political atmosphere and contending with negative media images. But young women were fighting a battle on another front in
24

Ednie Kaeh Garrison, The Third Wave and the Cultural Predicament of Feminist Consciousness in the U.S., Diss. (Washington State University, 2000) 171.

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addition to the male-dominated media and conservative politics: that of the subculture of punk and the rock and roll scene in general. The punk scene remained dominantly male from its inception in the late 70s throughout the 80s in both the U.S. and the U.K. Although there were some critically acclaimed all-female bands and women performers in the late 70s26, the overall setting was run by men. Some bands were downright misogynist in their lyrics and behavior: Early punk was not entirely free of misogyny, with bands such as the Stranglers, the Dead Boys, and even Blondie occasionally putting forth unabashedly sexist lyrics and publicity. The Stranglers and Dead Boys were especially objectionable, singing gleefully about beating girlfriends, having sex with groupies, and dominating women, says punk scholar Lauraine LeBlanc.27 As punk evolved during the 1980s, it became even more closed off to women such that by the early 90s there were hardly any women in rock or punk bands.28 The atmosphere at punk shows themselves was hostile towards women. Women could make their way to the front of the crowd into the mosh pit, but had to fight ten times harder because they were female, according to one concert-goer.29 Women were also sexually attacked; groping by men was common and several women have reported rapes at shows. Riot Grrrl scholar Chelsea Starr outlines the 80s punk scene by stating that although punk originally had goals of liberation and tolerance, the decade witnessed a sea change in punks overall philosophy:
It was getting harder to be a woman or girl in the punk scene. Younger girls found it harder to enter the ranks and be taken seriously as the 80s progressed and masculinist values came to
25 26

Walters 141. These include the Runaways with Joan Jett, Siouxsie Sioux and the Banshees, Poly Styrene of X-Ray Spex, the Slits, the Raincoats, and Chrissie Hynde. 27 Lauraine LeBlanc, Pretty in Punk, 47. 28 Evelyn McDonnell, in Barbara ODair, Trouble Girls: The Rolling Stone Book of Women in Rock (New York: Rolling Stone Press, 1997) 454. She writes, Then, with the advent of the repressive 1980s, punk became a more closed community, purifying itself into a harder, faster form that provided a vehicle for adolescent boy bonding. By the nineties, hard-core had little room for soft women. 29 Ibid., 119.

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dominate hardcore punk, and commercially palatable New Wave music artists were depoliticized...Once 80s punk became defined primarily with masculinist hardcore music and lyrical content, the spaces where music was performed were no longer defined as spaces dedicated to opposition to censorship, freedom of speech and other progressive or libertarian goals. The space became fully coded as masculine, and women and girls seen as invaders, asking for it, and fair game for harassment.30

Unfortunately the punk music scene was a symptom of the larger pattern of male domination in rock and roll. Traditionally rock was viewed as a mans territory; most women in the rock scene were backup singers, public relations personnel, or groupies. Not only were

rock stars mostly men, the behind-the-scenes workers such as recording technicians, writers,
producers were male as well.31 Related to this male-dominated environment was the inaccessibility of musical production to young women. Boys tend to learn guitar from each other; it is a more common activity for young boys to get together and try to figure out how to play. Girls, however, are not likely to form such groups pertaining to rock music. Pop music scholar Mavis Bayton states, If [girls] do try to learn the electric guitar it is typically a solitary experience (unless they are going out with a musician boyfriend who is willing to help them). This goes back to electric music being perceived as male terrain.32 Although Bayton does not cite any examples of this statement, the dearth of female rock musicians (at least in mainstream music) can arguably be used as evidence. Rock music was still very much dominated by male stars despite the strides
Starr, Because, 98-99. Simon Frith and Angela McRobbie, Rock and Sexuality, On Record: Rock, Pop, and the Written Word, ed. Simon Frith and Andrew Goodwin (New York: Pantheon Books, 1990), 373-74. They write, Any analysis of the sexuality of rock must begin with the brute social fact that in terms of control and production, rock is a male form. The music business is male-run; popular musicians, writers, creators, technicians, engineers, and producers are mostly men. Female creative roles are limited and mediated through male notions of female ability. Women musicians who make it are almost always singers; the women in the business who make it are usually in publicity; in both roles success goes with a male-made female image. 32 Mavis Bayton, How Women Become Musicians, On Record: Rock, Pop, and the Written Word, Simon Frith and Andrew Goodwin, eds. (New York: Pantheon Books, 1990) 243. For a more detailed
31 30

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women had made since the 70s. The only women you saw [on MTV in the mid-eighties] were singing like Cyndi Lauper and they all seemed really corny to me...I never thought I could play guitar because I thought you had to be perfect as well as male, stated Erin Smith, guitarist for the Riot Grrrl band Bratmobile.33 Additionally, rock-star style traditionally embodied masculine traits; male rock musicians were expected to be aggressive and rebellious as well as sexually promiscuous, all of which correspond to norms of masculinity. If one is a rock musician and wants to be perceived by others as a rock musician, one must act out, perform, or do rebelliousness, aggressiveness, and sexual promiscuity. These rules for doing the rock musician role parallel the requirements of masculinity more generally, which prescribe that all young men be aggressive, somewhat rebellious, and interested in sex.34 How could women, then, possibly forge their own female rock identity when all of the role models in rock (or punk, for that matter) engaged in a glorification of male attributes? Rock was so thoroughly masculine that it was difficult for many women musicians to imagine a feminine construction of rock stardom. Conclusion By the end of the 1980s, women were entering traditionally male-dominated institutions and had more educational opportunities than ever before. However, they were far from occupying a postfeminist utopia in which rape, sexual harassment and access to abortion no longer loomed as problems for young women. The constant bombardment of negative images of women from the media and the lack of female artists in punk and rock also helped constitute a cultural atmosphere in which women felt increasingly oppressed. But instead of allowing

discussion of women musicians, see her book Frock Rock: Women Performing Popular Music (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.) 33 ODair, Trouble Girls, 436. 34 Mimi Schippers, Rocking the Gender Order, Catching a Wave: Reclaiming Feminism for the 21st Century, ed. Rory Dicker and Alison Piepmeier (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2003) 283.

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these repressive practices to continue, young women mobilized and staged a new fight against sexism. These young women became the third wave of feminism, and Riot Grrrl an expression of their ideas and tactics.

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Chapter Two: Summary of the Third Wave and Riot Grrrl This chapter will provide a basic overview of both the third wave of feminism and the Riot Grrrl movement. I will discuss the qualities of each movement to ground the analysis in the following chapters of how Riot Grrrl fits with certain ideals of the third wave. Im not post-feminist; Im third wave. Rebecca Walker Walker expresses the resistance felt by many young women to the term postfeminist in the early 1990s. The term was coined by the media in an attempt to prove that feminism had completed its task of creating equal opportunity for women. As was discussed in the previous chapter, women, particularly women of color, were far from equal in American society. The Reagan and Bush administrations worked steadily to overturn the gains made for women while the media saturated women with ideals of perfect femininity and the myth that feminism created obstacles for women rather than advance their condition. Even some self-proclaimed feminists were participating in the backlash. When Walker stated she was a member of the third wave, she was declaring a new generation of feminists who understood their work was not finished.1 The title third wave was also a way to signify difference from the second wave, which took place in the 60s and early 70s. While there is not sufficient room here to discuss the second wave in detail, it is necessary to discuss how the third wave attempts to differentiate itself from the second wave while adopting some of its practices and theory. Some argue that the name third wave connotes a younger womans feminism, that it is a movement primarily for young (teenaged to 30-year-old) women. However, to label a feminist movement based
1

See third-waver Ellen Newbornes essay, Imagine My Surprise, in Listen Up: Voices from the Next Feminist Generation, ed. Barbara Findlen (New York: Seal Press, 2001) in which she states, Its a dangerous thing to assume that just because we were raised in a feminist era, we are safe. We are not...it is equally dangerous for our mothers to assume that because we are children of the movement, we are

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solely on age would be grossly inaccurate. While the third wave does have a strong youth demographic, the differences separating it are more about the issues affecting these women and their general cultural milieu.2 Some key distinctions between second and third wavers include the emphasis placed in individuality (both in terms of rights and activism) and an increased interest in cultural issues rather than political or economic oppression. Third-wave feminists are concerned with the lack of women in politics and how women are still making less than men for the same work; however, they are also greatly concerned with male hegemony in the mass media and the impact of images of women presented by television, music, magazines and movies. Younger feminists have a greater sense of individual rights while second wavers have an interest in the sisterly unity of a movement. Third wavers adopt a plethora of cultural practices, in contrast to second wave feminists interest in the crude weight of economic or political inequality.3 Another major difference between the second and third waves is the attention given to differences between women. Perhaps the best explanation of the disparities between the second and third waves comes from scholar Ednie Kaeh Garrison. Garrison provides an excellent overview of how the third wave of U.S. feminism obtained its meaning and what the moniker signifies for feminists today. She focuses on how theories and activism of the second wave influenced the character of the third wave, particularly in how the concept of diversity differed between the two. Women of color and lesbians

equipped to stand our ground. In many cases, we are unarmed. The old battle strategies arent enough, largely because the opposition is using new weaponry. (184) 2 Rory Dicker and Alison Piepmeier, Catching a Wave: Reclaiming Feminism for the 21st Century (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2003) 14. We argue that the third wave has less to do with a neat generational divide than with a cultural context: the third wave consists of those of us who have developed our sense of identity in a world shaped by technology, global capitalism, multiple models of sexuality, changing national demographics, and declining economic vitality. 3 Chilla Bulbeck, Simone de Beauvoir and Generations of Feminists, Hecate 25:2 (Nov. 99) 10.

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perceived the Second Wave to be dominated by white, straight, middle-class women; by the early 1980s many previously marginalized women, such as African-Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, and Asian-Americans, began publishing their own theories and questioning the white, straight, middle-class hegemony of most feminist theory.
[T]he emergence of the name-object Third Wave is not simply a move to distance its constituencies and cultural milieu from a particular movement and age cohort, but also a move to distance itself from the problems named by feminists of color, lesbians and poor women in the Second Wave. The renaming is a strategic move to redefine feminism so that racism, sexism, homophobia and heterosexism and classism become integral to meanings attached to the object feminism (at the least among feminists), and the forming of the Third Wave is strategic as a ame for feminists whose praxis is informed by these meanings.4

Garrison points out that the womens liberation movement of the 70s did include women of color but that their writings and activism got pushed to the margins so that they did not have a strong voice. By the mid-80s they were finally being heard; however, the acknowledgement of the other in academic feminist circles was also partly the result of postmodernism. Postmodernist thought rejects binary oppositions such as man/woman or nature/culture.5 Feminist theorists applied this concept to the formerly unified category of woman: rather than conceiving of a single universal notion of women, feminist theorists soon recognized that to think of women this way meant to overlook the diversity of womens experiences. All women have different backgrounds based on factors such as race, class, age, ethnicity, sexual preference, and so on. This conception of difference has influenced the activism of third wavers. Members of this younger generation of feminists do not attempt to organize based on the belief that they all share the same experience, and they acknowledge the

4 5

Ednie Kaeh Garrison, The Third Wave, 89. Barbara Arneil, Politics & Feminism, (London: Blackwell Publishers, 1999) 186. The author notes, Rather than simply adopting the dualistic categories created by western political thought, as second wave feminism has done, and dividing the world into just two groups of people namely men and women, and then attempting, in turn, to move men and women around within the dualistic categories of public/private or nature/culture, as has been discussed, there is a growing recognition that the way the categories themselves have been constructed is flawed.

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diversity of women rather than trying to formulate an all-encompassing definition of women. Because it causes feminists to be aware of the challenges facing each individual woman, this approach greatly enhances the scale of feminist activism and ensures that the needs of all women will attempt to be met. Some scholars have argued that without a common ground on which to unite, meaningful activism could not exist. Postmodern ideology, however, has had a positive influence on activism in that women unite based on a common cause rather than a uniform identity. By embracing cultural, class, sexual-preference, and racial differences among women, the third wave is much more attuned to their needs. Third wavers fight not just against sexual harassment and salary inequality, but also against racism and homophobia. They also take up the plight of women in developing nations and economically underprivileged in the United States. Thus, the acknowledgement of difference is extremely beneficial to feminism because it allows the movement the flexibility to adapt so that the concerns of all women will be recognized.6 In this spirit of individualism and diversity, third-wave activist tactics take on many different forms, all of which are considered legitimate ways of resistance. Third-wave theorists Amy Richards and Jennifer Baumgardner state, [Y]oung feminists are activists in their own individual ways in every tributary of the mainstream...the Third Waves activism has produced its own tactics, style, and generational imprint...just because this generation of feminism is a disparate movement doesnt mean that its not on the path to becoming an active movement.7 Indeed, members of the third wave believe that small, seemingly insignificant actions constitute feminist activism: Your revolution starts in your house...your revolution started with the little things, sometimes with just doing nothing...[it] happens in books and in letters and at two in the
6

Dicker and Piepmeier, 5.

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morning. Your revolution happens with big realizations and small actions, states essayist Sarah McCarry.8 Because of this grassroots approach, it appears to some (especially the media) that feminism is dead. The lack of a clear leader for this generation such as second-wavers Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan also seems to suggest that there is no activism. However, third-wave scholars insist that activism does exist, but as a much more diffuse, less obvious movement than the womens movement of the 70s. In other words, feminism is there but one has to know where to look. According to a 1991 Newsweek article, [The] real action is at the grassroots level, in part because there is something of a vacuum at the top...such nationally known figures as Bella Abzug, Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem are still heard from occasionally, but theyre not the ones who frame the issues and get people thinking thats happening locally.9 Not only do third wavers acknowledge and incorporate the differences between women in their activism, they also declare that it is acceptable for each woman to create her own idea of feminism. Rather than accepting the medias construction of a feminist as a negative stereotype, or allowing for only one definition of feminism, members of the third wave formulate their own definitions of feminism. They recognize, consciously or unconsciously, that meaning in language is never fixed; therefore, the term feminism cannot be definitively determined and its meanings vary from person to person. Moreover, third wavers actively challenge the meaning that the media thrust upon the term feminist in that they destabilize the medias power over language and assert their own power in defining individual feminisms.
Amy Richards and Jennifer Baumgardner, Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000) 289. 8 Sarah McCarry, Selling Out, in Findlen, 250. Essayist and zine writer Nomy Lamm also provides examples of individual feminist activism: For now the revolution takes place when I stay up all night talking with my best friends about feminism and marginalization and privilege and oppression and power and sex and money and real-life rebellion. For now the revolution takes place when I watch a girl stand up in front of a crowd of people and talk about her sexual abuse. (134)
7

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Postmodernism also developed the idea that identity is never stable or solitary but is constantly changing. Identity also consists of multiple, sometimes contradictory aspects.10 [We] are able to see the constructed nature of identity as well as the ways in which gender may be a performance that can be manipulated and politically altered as it is performed. Because this theoretical framework calls into question the very idea of a unified self, it allows for a playful incorporation of performed identities, even when they contradict each other.11 The abstract postmodernist notions of shifting identities and opposition to binary terms manifest themselves concretely in the writings of younger feminists. The best examples of this new way of thinking are provided by the contributors to third-wave anthologies, most notably Listen Up: Voices from the Next Feminist Generation and Colonize This! Young Women of Color on Todays Feminism. Many of the essays discuss how women must negotiate several seemingly conflicting identities at once. This issue is especially relevant for women of color, who sometimes feel they must choose between their racial identity and their female identity. However, these women also appear to be putting postmodern theory into practice by stating that it is possible to live with such contradictions and make room within themselves for all of their various parts. Instead we must redefine these concepts and break the narrow traditional encasings of a mother, father, a wife and a husband. We can make the roles fit our own identity instead of deriving our identity from these labels, says one writer.12 This embracing of contradiction and multiplicity also finds expression in Riot Grrrl, a movement strongly opposed to categories and labeling in any context.

Shapiro and Buckley, Why Women Are Angry. Newsweek 43. Arneil, 206. She summarizes, Three concepts with regard to identity enter the feminist lexicon: one is fluidity rather than fixed identity; the second is multiple rather than singular identity; the third is contradiction. 11 Dicker and Piepmeier, 16.
10

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Riot Grrrl We just want to say that were not here to fuck the band; we are the band.13 Corin Tucker of Sleater-Kinney There were a number of factors at play in the formation of Riot Grrrl, most notably the backlash atmosphere in the U.S., the predominantly male punk scene, and the power of music as a communications medium. It can be assumed that most young women felt a need to seek out alternatives to the mainstream media and a way to resist the conservatism that was slowly eroding their rights. Additionally, music remains one of the most influential and easily accessible ways for young women and girls to reach each other and transmit feminist ideas. Providing a definitive history with specific beginnings and endings is nearly impossible for any political and cultural movement, and Riot Grrrl is no exception. The Riot Grrrl movement is even more difficult to describe than most phenomena given its underground, diffuse nature; although mainstream media outlets attempted to capture what Riot Grrrl entailed, they could not offer a complete or wholly accurate picture of Riot Grrrl. However, it is necessary to give at least a basic description of the movement, including the formation of Riot Grrrl bands, the rise of Riot Grrrl chapters across the U.S. and their activities, and the demise of Riot Grrrl in the mid-90s. The Riot Grrrl movement has its origins in Olympia, Washington, in 1990, when Evergreen State College student and feminist activist Kathleen Hanna read a feminist fanzine called Jigsaw. This fanzine was written by Tobi Vail, then drummer for a band named Go Team. Hanna wrote to Vail and suggested the two start a band, as Hanna had previous experience singing in her band Viva Knievel.14 The two collaborated and invited Kathie

12 13

Sonja D. Curry-Johnson Weaving an Identity Tapestry, in Findlen, 57. Evelyn McDonnell, Theres a Riot Goin On, Rolling Stone 762 (June 12, 1997) 36. 14 Andrea Juno, Angry Women in Rock, Vol. 1 (New York: Juno Books, 1996), 97.

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Wilcox to play bass and Billy Karren to play guitar, and named their newly formed band Bikini Kill.15 Meanwhile, in Eugene, Oregon, University of Oregon students Molly Neuman and Allison Wolfe formed a band called Bratmobile and began publishing their zine Girl Germs.16 Neuman worked briefly for a congressman in Washington D.C. over her winter break in 1990, and there she met Erin Smith, whom she invited to play guitar. The summer of 1991 in Washington D.C. witnessed the rise of the Riot Grrrl movement among high-school and college-age women. Bikini Kill decided to relocate to D.C. and Bratmobile spent the summer there as well; both bands distributed a zine entitled Riot Grrrl. The origins of this moniker came from two sources: Jen Smith, a friend of Wolfes, and Tobi Vail. Smith had previously written to Wolfe about the riots in Mount Pleasant, declaring, We need to start a girl riot! At the same time, Vail had invented the spelling of grrrl to poke fun at second-wave feminists use of womyn and to signify an angry growl.17 In its third issue, Riot Grrrl began posting times and places for meetings at which young women could discuss issues such as sexual harassment at rock shows and how to create a womens-only section at the front of the concert hall. Meetings were held in a space in Arlington known as the Positive Force House. The first meetings consisted of about twenty women; this number grew as they began to be held every week. The conversation at these meetings started to include womens stories of sexual harassment and abuse as well as the pressure they felt to be attractive, in addition to music discussions. Says Kathleen Hanna of the first meeting: A lot of [the girls]

15

The name Bikini Kill was taken from a one-off performance of the same name by [Vails thenbandmate Lois] Maffeo and her friend Margaret Doherty, that was itself inspired by the 1967 low-budget film The Million Eyes of Su-Muru, in which the title character plots to conquer the world with her female army. Gillian G. Gaar, Shes a Rebel: The History of Women in Rock & Roll 2nd ed. (New York: Seal Press, 2002), 381. 16 Ibid. 17 http://www.emplive.com/explore/riot_grrrl/evolution.asp. Gaar includes the same history in her book.

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had never been in a room with only women before, and were blown away by what it felt like: everybody had so much to say.18 The movement underway in D.C. was being felt in Olympia. After hearing about the activities of Bikini Kill and Bratmobile, Evergreen student Corin Tucker made a film for a class assignment documenting all-female bands. [My film] was all about girl bands and how they were going to change everything...I could just see it, I knew something really interesting was about to happen...it really inspired me, Tucker said.19 Tucker then began playing guitar and found a drummer, Tracy Sawyer. Together they formed Heavens to Betsy20 and made their debut in the International Punk Underground convention held in Olympia in August 1991, to which Bikini Kill and Bratmobile returned. Bratmobile dubbed the first day of the show, called Girl Day, prdct (Punk Rock Dream Come True) because the lineup of performers was one of the first instances of all-female punk shows.21 By early 1992, Riot Grrrl chapters had sprung up across U.S. cities, due in part to Kathleen Hannas manipulation of the press. When interviewed about Riot Grrrl by L.A. Weekly, she told the reporter that Riot Grrrl chapters had been started and named some cities that had them; in reality, nothing of the kind had been done.22 However, girls read the article and went looking for Riot Grrrl meetings in their respective cities. Upon finding none the girls decided to start chapters themselves. The activities at the chapters included reading and distributing homemade zines, sharing personal stories, and self-defense workshops. In this way the meetings were very similar to the consciousness-raising groups of the 1970s in which women discussed the oppression they felt in their daily lives, captured by the slogan The
18 19

Juno, 99. Gaar, 438. 20 In 1994 Tucker formed the band Sleater-Kinney with Carrie Brownstein, a guitarist she had met in 1992 at a concert. See Gaar, 438-440.

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personal is political. Unlike their predecessors, however, Riot Grrrl meetings also examined racism and solutions to end it, as well as issues relating to queer identity such as coming out to parents and friends.23 They also offered a space for catharsis, a place where women could discuss personal tragedies relating to sexual abuse. Punk star Joan Jett stated that Riot Grrrl meetings and zines provided a healthy outlet for young women. I think there have to be women out there who are willing to get in peoples faces, just to let them know that women exist. These subjects [rape and incest] get swept under the rug, and nobody wants to deal with them, because theyre icky, she stated in an interview.24 In the summer of 1992 the D.C. Riot Grrrl chapter held a weekend-long convention. Female-only workshops discussed topics such as racism, rape, sexuality, fat oppression and domestic violence, while the Washington Peace Center hosted all-female bands and performance artists over the course of the weekend.25 This convention inspired other chapters to hold their own, including one in Los Angeles in 1994 and one each in New York City and Philadelphia in 1996.26 Riot Grrrl and Punk Punk subculture appeared to be an attractive alternative to mainstream culture for young girls. For all the rebellion against conventionality, however, punk remained very much a maledominated scene. Riot Grrrl wanted to create an alternative to this state in which women were not excluded or forced to be one of the boys but rather celebrated. They wanted to form their

21 22

White, 398. Juno, 99. 23 http://www.letigreworld.com 24 Juno, 73. 25 Melissa Klein, Riot Grrrls, Off Our Backs, 23:2 (Feb. 1993), 6. 26 For coverage of these conventions, see Mandy Stadmiller, Riot Grrrl Redux, The Village Voice 41:36 (Sept. 3 1996), 41; Tamra Spivey, The L.A. Summer Riot Grrrl Convention: A Report from the Front, Rockrgrl Dec. 31, 1995, 12; and Susannah Shive, Grrrls Riot in Philadelphia, Off Our Backs 26:9 (Oct. 31, 1996) 7.

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own culture within the greater subculture of punk but also in opposition to its male hegemony. In challenging the masculinist standards of punk, Riot Grrrls have been marginalized, indeed, have formed their own subculture now quite distinct from punk. Punk girls who want to remain within the subculture restrict their resistance to the masculinism of punk to rhetorical, general comments rather than to confrontation of male punks.27 Thus, Riot Grrrl can be considered an oppositional subculture within another oppositional subculture. Although it employed traditional punk tactics, Riot Grrrl was a separate culture from the greater punk scene because of its feminist sentiments.28 It made use of the DIY (do-ityourself) philosophy and zines, but gave these elements of punk culture a different character by concentrating specifically on womens rights:
Taking the DIY ethos of punk that had inspired early female bands like the Slits, the Riot Grrrls made music, but beyond that gave a subcultural network of emotional support to young women...the difference between this subculture and punk in the early days is that the women in this space recognize themselves as being firmly situated within patriarchal discourse and roblems of race and class.29

Indeed, the DIY aspect of punk proved to be the most powerful source of self-expression for these young women. By getting up and doing it, girls felt as though they finally had a voice with which to speak out against the injustices they witnessed in everyday life.30 The thing

LeBlanc, Pretty in Punk, 133. Theres a strong element of post-punk demystification: a fierce questioning of conventional ideas of femininity, a concerted rejection of traditional rockist ideas of cool and mystique, a forthright challenge to the notion that technical virtuosity is a prerequisite for creative endeavour. Riot Grrrls preach empowerment through forming bands and producing fanzines its the old punk DIY ethos of anyone can do it, but with a feminist twist (theyre rejecting masculine notions of expertise and mastery.) Simon Reynolds and Joy Press, The Sex Revolts: Gender, Rebellion, and Rock n Roll (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1995) 324. 29 Cressida Miles, Spatial Politics: A Gendered Sense of Place in The Clubcultures Reader, 76. See also the web site for Kathleen Hannas new band Le Tigre, in which she describes how Riot Grrrl both was influenced by and broke away from punk. http://www.letigreworld.com/sweepstakes/html_site/fact/fact.html 30 See Reynolds and Press, 327-8, in which they write, Riot Grrrl is foremost about process, not product; its about the empowerment that comes from getting up and doing it...Riot Grrrl ideologues tend to believe that the proliferation of DIY culture is a good thing in itself: the more bands, the more zines, the merrier.
28

27

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about Riot Grrrl is the whole do-it-yourself thing, which comes from punk values. I think thats very empowering and important for all people....if youre a group thats being ignored and no ones listening, no ones telling your story tell it yourself...dont sit around waiting for someone to do it. Do it yourself. Thats the punk connection, says one Riot Grrrl.31 One example of such adaptation of punk tactics was the use of zines. These homemade, Xeroxed publications adopted the hastily written, seemingly sloppy style of 70s punk fanzines and were a key component of any Riot Grrrl meeting or convention. Subculture theorist Dick Hebdiges description of 70s zines can easily be applied to a Riot Grrrl zine: The language in which the various manifestoes were framed was determinedly working class (i.e. it was liberally peppered with swear words) and typing errors and grammatical mistakes, misspellings and jumbled pagination were left uncorrected in the final proof. Those corrections and crossings out that were made before publication were left to be deciphered by the reader. The overwhelming impression was one of urgency and immediacy, of a paper produced in indecent haste, of memos from the front line.32 Indeed, many Riot Grrrl zines used these techniques, only their meaning was different: instead of denoting a working-class perspective, obscene language and careless grammar were an expression of womens necessity to express rage at the injustices inflicted on women, including rape, incest and sexual harassment.33 Some zines contained personal narratives of abuse while others discussed political issues the authors felt were important, such as abortion rights. Zines were important not just so disseminate information on issues affecting young women but also because they related personal thoughts, allowing girls an outlet for their emotions. In addition to being vehicles for the spread of information, zines offered a platform from which girls could share personal experiences, notes
31 32

Rosenberg and Garofalo, Revolutions from Within. Hebdige, Subculture, 111.

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scholar Marion Leonard.34 Thus, the publication of zines was a feminist stance in that it encouraged girls not to be silent about the forms of oppression they faced but to express it in powerful, personal terms. Although circulation and readership of zines were low, they were nevertheless an important form of communication and source of empowerment for their writers.35 While the Riot Grrrl movement did borrow some punk tactics for its own ends, it was also interested in changing the punk scene entirely. For all the appropriation of punk methods, Riot Grrrl was decidedly against the male domination in punk culture and devised their own practices to create a distinct group simultaneously within and separate from male punk culture. Riot Grrrl wasnt just about music, it was also about style: creating all kinds of different worlds and personas that werent determined by a male community, states Candice Pedersen, owner of K records in Olympia.36 One example of this style is the creation of women-only spaces at shows. For women to come to the front of the stage during shows is in direct opposition to the punk scene of the 70s and 80s. Riot Grrrl wanted to disrupt the pattern of sexual harassment and thus designated women-only spaces at shows. Bikini Kill, along with Englands premier Riot Grrrl band Huggy Bear, directed boys to the back of the concert hall and passed out lyric sheets to girls only.37 But the practices of excluding males from the front of the stage during

33 34

Reynolds and Press, 323. Marion Leonard, Feminism, Subculture, and Grrrl Power, in Sexing the Groove: Popular Music and Gender ed. Sheila Whitely, (London: Routledge, 1997) 238. 35 For a detailed analysis of Riot Grrrl zines, see Starr 165-195; for a discussion of the empowerment felt by girls who write zines see Kristen Schilt, Ill Resist with Every Inch and Every Breath: Girls and Zine-Making as a Form of Resistance, Youth and Society 35:1 (Sept. 2003) 71-97. 36 Juno, 177. 37 Amy Raphael, Grrrls: Viva Rock Divas, 156-157. Members of Huggy Bear are quoted: They [women] were not peripheral to the event...there is a very real threat that you will be crushed while the opportune scumbag will squeeze you...Leaflets on the subject have been handed out to encourage OK, aggressively point out that we as a group will not ignore (and thus condone) that Neanderthal

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shows, coupled with the frank expression of anger, were misinterpreted as male-bashing separatism. The calling of the girls to participate more visibly was hysterically interpreted as complete exclusion of boys from our shows, said Huggy Bear member Niki in an interview.38 Lauren Spencer of The Washington Post claims that Riot Grrrl was attempting to change the distribution of power within the punk scene. Much grrrl anger focuses on male domination in the subcultures of music, which is why, when boys come to grrrls rock shows, they are often told to stay away from the front of the stage. For once, the girls can be up there without being pushed and shoved.39 The purpose of these practices was not separatism but a way for girls to enjoy the pit at the front of the stage without worrying about getting groped or beaten.40 The formation of girl-only spaces at shows serves as one example of Riot Grrrls opposition to punk culture and the importance they placed on the safety and enjoyment of girls at the shows. Although Riot Grrrl is rooted in punk culture and borrowed its tactics, it nevertheless evolved into a subculture distinct from punk. Grrrl Culture: Character and Purpose of Riot Grrrl You dont make all the rules I know what Im gonna fuckin do Me and my girlfriends gonna push on thru We are gonna stomp on you, yeah! Bikini Kill41 While Riot Grrrl became a subculture with diverse activities and stances, it always maintained a strong relation to the music that helped create it.42 In this section I will emphasize

behavior...we had to affect the crowd physically, totally upturn the accepted pit reality where only the strong survive. 38 Ibid., 157. 39 Lauren Spencer, Grrrls Only: From the Youngest, Toughest Daughters of Feminism Self-Respect You Can Rock To, Washington Post 3 Jan. 1993: C.01. 40 For a discussion of Riot Grrrl as separatist subculture, see Mary Celeste Kearney, Dont Need You: Rethinking Identity Politics and Separatism from a Grrrl Perspective, Youth Culture: Identity in a Postmodern World ed. Jonathon S. Epstein (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1998) 148-188. 41 Bikini Kill, This Is Not a Test, The CD Version of the First Two Records, Kill Rock Stars, 1994.

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the critical role music played in the formation and spread of Riot Grrrl. Bands associated with Riot Grrrl were generally characterized as angry, loud, and intent on overthrowing male hegemony in punk and society in general, calling for Revolution girl style now.43 Young women connected to these bands through their anger; many were enraged at the current conditions for women but previously had no outlet or means to express their rage. They also felt the need for women-only spaces but believed such spaces were impossible to implement. Riot Grrrl bands articulated feelings of anger at the status quo through their lyrics and strongly encouraged women to form their own spaces free from men. In this way Riot Grrrl channeled young womens fury into positive outlets, providing a network in which girls could meet likeminded others and put their energy into fighting sexist practices they witnessed in their everyday lives. The songs produced by Riot Grrrl bands often contained angry lyrics rooted in the band members personal experiences. Many of Bikini Kills songs, for example, come from Hannas own experience of rape at the age of 15 and her work at domestic violence and rape crisis shelters.44 Assertiveness was another quality in many Riot Grrrl songs. Band members wanted to send the message that women were present in the music scene and would not be silenced, heckled, or treated as sex objects. On This Is Serious the Lunachicks declare, Lunachicks make lots of noise/to prove rock & roll's not just for boys...gonna take over the world someday/stay off our path or get out of the way!45 On Heavens to Betsys Nothing Can Stop

42

Starr notes, What does music have to do with girls community? If its Riot Grrrl the answer is: everything. Riot Grrrl music transmits, constructs, questions, and expresses a feminist culture that emphasizes creation of, and participation in, temporary and permanent girls communities. (95) 43 See track 2 on the supplemental CD. 44 Juno, 97. 45 See track 3 on the supplemental CD.

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Me Corin Tucker sings, If you think that Im not strong/you best watch out/nothing can stop me.../I aint never gonna shut up.46 Riot Grrrl bands also challenged traditional notions of femininity and how young women were expected to behave. They articulated feelings and emotions that girls feared or knew how to express. Says third-wave essayist Kristina Gray, They were everything girls werent supposed to be. They were brazen, loud-mouthed and opinionated. Just by getting onstage, they were making a powerful feminist statement. Finally, someone was singing about everything I never had the guts to say.47 When these bands took the stage and belted out lyrics like Get on your knees and suck my clit, they provided an extremely intense experience for teenage girls. Young women finally felt as though they had people who understood their anger and feelings of powerlessness. They also felt a sense of hope and liberation, even if it only lasted as long as the show. Spencer articulates the passionate energy generated by Bikini Kill at a 1991 show:
Drummer Tobi Vail, wearing only jeans and a bra, was supporting Kathleen Hannas unearthly screams with a sloppy beat. While the lyrics were raw and disjointed, the emotion in the room was moving. Every girl knew every lyric to every song. They were taking off their clothes, rushing the stage and generally acting with a fearlessness that I had only seen in males in rock shows. The message delivered that night was about girls creating sounds, styles and sexualities for themselves instead of passively accepting the roles and ridicules so often assigned them.

Above all, Riot Grrrl offered a community for young women who felt disconnected from feminism as it was portrayed in the media. Many considered themselves to be feminists but were afraid to express it because of the negative stereotypes associated with the movement, or, more commonly, young women simply did not have the means of meeting of other feminists. Fear and lack of communication prevented younger feminists from finding each

46 47

See track 13 on the supplemental CD. Kristina Gray, I Sold My Soul to Rock and Roll, in Colonize This! Young Women of Color on Todays Feminism, ed. Daisy Hernndez and Bushra Rehman (New York: Seal Press, 2002) 263.

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other. Riot Grrrl provided a way for them to get in touch. D.C.-based Riot Grrrl Jen Smith states, I recognized the vital importance of this opportunity for young women (women in their teens or those lacking access to or interest in a college campus)...our ability to transform a space collectively as performers, as audience members, as women, was a critical example of selfcreation and the possibility of feminist community.48 This possibility was extremely important to many young women who felt cut off from mainstream culture because of their feminist beliefs. Some girls took notice of everyday cases of inequality and harassment but saw that others did not, causing them to feel alienated from even their closest friends. Riot Grrrl allowed girls to discuss their perspectives and gave them a community they could relate to; in short, it provided girls with a network that prevents them from thinking theyre insane.49 Younger women could not associate with academic feminism and believed there was a need to make it more accessible to teenagers. Says Jo of Huggy Bear: I dont know why it should have caught on like it did, except that it was so much more of an exciting and alive idea of feminism that we were all coming across in books. It was imaginative and active, and it not only worked in theory, it also related to everyday life.50 Alison Wolfe of Bratmobile explains that she had taken womens studies classes in college but felt they were out of touch with the issues facing young women and teenagers. It was too academic, it was too, you know, '70's, or whatever. We were forced to use the word 'woman,' and if we ever used the word 'girl' or 'lady' or whatever, that was not okay, that was disrespectful. I was like, we have to be allowed to use our own language and we have to be allowed to use examples that speak to us and things that speak to our lives and our experiences, she stated in an interview.51 Thus, Riot Grrrl was

48 49

Jen Smith, Doin It for the Ladies," Heywood and Drake, 229. Juno, 177. 50 Ibid., 151. 51 Interview by Amy Phillips, Perfect Sound Forever March 2003. http://www.furious.com/perfect/bratmobile.html

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important for teenage girls because it offered a means to understanding feminist ideals that were relevant to the kind of sexism they faced in their daily lives. Demise of Riot Grrrl By the mid-90s Riot Grrrl activity experienced a decline across the country. This ceasing was due in large part to the mainstream media, who ruthlessly co-opted the movement, condensing it into the slogan Girl Power. This brand of marketable faux feminism was made popular by the advent of female performers such as the Spice Girls and Britney Spears. Although some Riot Grrrl chapters are still active today, the movement peaked in the early 90s and quieted around 1996. Riot Grrrl always maintained a distant and reluctant relationship to the media. From the start of press coverage in 1992, bands and chapters alike viewed the media as an entity that would distort the movement for its own purposes. Additionally, many girls became involved in Riot Grrrl because they rejected the misogynist and sexist messages of mainstream media.52 Riot Grrrl offered a means to produce non-corporate zines and music, a way to escape the negative images of women they witnessed in conventional media. Thus many Riot Grrrls were irritated at the thought of being represented in the mainstream media they had fought so hard to reject. Riot Grrrl went so far as to declare a media blackout in 1993; various chapters asked their members not to talk to reporters and the bands refused interviews. Many grrrls felt the movement was being inaccurately represented and resented the neat categorization and summarizing of the movement. In early 1994 Tobi Vail of Bikini Kill wrote,
52

Notes Starr, The characterization of the media as anti-feminist ties girls culture to the idea of noncommercial production. Rather than hold a press conference and give a statement about the misrepresentations the press subjected them to, Bikini Kill refused to legitimate the publicity machine by ignoring it, continuing in direct dialog with their fans and communities of activist artists. Riot Grrrl

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We have been written about a lot by big magazines who have never talked to us or seen our shows. They write about us authoritatively, as if they understand us better than we understand our own ideas, tactics and significance. They largely miss the point of everything about us because they have no idea what our context is/has been...no matter what we say or do there continues to be this media created idea of bikini kill/riot girl that has little or nothing to do with our own ideas and efforts...we want to be an underground band, we dont want to be featured in newsweek magazine.53

This statement demonstrates the medias insistence on labeling and simplifying a complex phenomenon such as Riot Grrrl. By pairing Bikini Kill with Riot Grrrl they were effectively pigeonholing the band and reducing Riot Grrrl to its music. Conclusion The third wave and Riot Grrrl share the same cultural influences and background; moreover, both are comprised of multiple, sometimes conflicting perspectives that make both entities difficult to condense to any one set of principles or tenets. That being said, there are some issues with which both are concerned, and these can be identified and analyzed. The brief summaries of third-wave feminism and Riot Grrrl in this chapter provide an introduction for three key overlapping aspects of both: the concept of difference, issues relating to the body, and feminist identity, which will be discussed in the following chapters.

culture is presented as something that has to be protected from the media, something that is not for sale. (67) 53 Tobi Vail, liner notes, The CD Version of the First Two Records, Kill Rock Stars, 1994.

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Chapter Three: Third Wave, Riot Grrrl, and Difference This chapter will examine how feminists combined postmodernism and feminisms other than the standard white, straight middle-class one to develop a new feminism that takes into account individual experiences and multiple identities, and how the third wave and Riot Grrrl put these theories into practice. A theme that is present in nearly all of the major second-wave theories is the idea that women are fundamentally different from men and share a collective identity of woman. Both cultural feminism and radical feminism espoused this view, and were soon criticized by feminists representing minority groups. The rise of black feminism, Hispanic feminism, lesbian feminism, and other feminisms relating to previously marginalized groups attempted to give a voice to those neglected by most radical and cultural feminist theories, which were predominantly white, heterosexual and middle-class despite their calls to inclusion of all women. The details of each of these feminisms are beyond the scope of this paper, but they carried tremendous importance in shaping third-wave feminism.1 Such attempts have greatly influenced the third waves perspective in terms of inclusion for all women. [The] emergence of a Third Wave owes a great deal to critiques of the homogenization of the category women articulated most directly in the political and intellectual work by radical women of color, poor women, and lesbians dating from at least the Second Wave...feminist critiques of feminism are part of the very origins of Third Wave feminism rather than trailing behind an already unitary model of the movement, says Ednie Kaeh Garrison.2 By the early 90s, the work of feminists coming from a background other than the white, straight middle-class one was being

For more on these feminist theories, see This Bridge Called My Back edited by Cherri Moraga and Gloria Anzldua, Women, Race and Class by Angela Davis, Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence by Adrienne Rich, and Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center by bell hooks. 2 Ednie Kaeh Garrison, U.S. Feminism-Grrrl Style! Youth (Sub)Cultures and the Technologies of the Third Wave Feminist Studies 26:1 (spring 2000) 145.

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incorporated into womens studies courses across the country. This curriculum, along with the new emphasis on multiculturalism and diversity in American culture, influenced many young white middle-class women to consider the situation of women different from themselves. The other influence on the third waves recognition of difference was postmodern thought. In the early 80s the theories of scholars such as Jean Baudrillard and Michel Foucault invalidated traditional modern philosophies that conceived of man as a rational being with a stable, fixed identity. Once introduced into the academic realm, these ideas produced fundamental changes in certain fields of study, including feminism and womens studies. The modernist notion that all individuals possess a human essence is important to radical and cultural feminists because their theories rely on the supposition that every woman has a fundamental female character, and this character is different from that of men. The distinguishing feature of humanist discourses is their assumption that each individual woman or man possesses a unique essence of human nature...In feminist forms of humanism the central concern is with womens nature and its identity with or difference from the nature of man, says scholar Chris Weedon.3 Although womens experience may differ across race and class, all women are united simply by being women. Postmodernist feminism, however, questions this generalized categorization of women. Postmodernist theory posits that there is no essence of humanness for men or women; therefore, women as a group cannot be described. Scholar Marysia Zalewski states that modern humanists view individuals as apples, each with an essential core that fixes their identity as human while postmodernists see individuals as onions, or a series of layers that may be peeled away but do not reveal an inner core. She goes

Chris Weedon, Feminist Practice and Poststructuralist Theory. (London: Basil Blackwell, 1987) 80.

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on to say that while modernists are concerned with finding a definition of women, postmodernists want to examine the process through which women become defined.4 It is impossible to pin down exactly what makes a woman Woman because there is no essential core that forms female character. Moreover, any attempts to define Woman are only representations of women, creating what Diane Elam calls a ms. en abyme, a play on the phrase mise en abyme.
We do not yet know what women are. It remains uncertain what it would mean to be a woman (to be part of the group women), just as it remains uncertain what precisely would constitute knowledge of women...and yet we do know what women have been and done. Women have been determined. After all, we operate everyday under the assumption that we readily understand to which group the word women refers...women both are determined and are yet to be determined. There are established, pre-conceived notions of what women can be and do, at the same time that women remains a yet to be determined category...women may be represented, but the attempt to represent them exhaustively only makes us more aware of the failure of such attempts. Hence the infinite regression that I specifically call the ms. en abyme.5

According to Elam, an abyss composed of various representations of women is the only result of trying to define women. This abyss is infinite, and each image of Woman affects all the others that have gone before it into the abyss. Thus women are influenced by all the previous representations formulated by the media, or for that matter, anyone who tried to establish a concrete definition of women. Elam also points out that it is impossible for anyone to flesh out a stable, fixed notion of women; such notions will only be added to the abyss. Its not, then, the case that the mass media will ever define all possibilities for womens sexuality or that womens studies will ever finally arrive at the truth of women. Women may yet be and do an infinite number of things.6

Marysia Zalewski, Feminism After Postmodernism. (London: Routledge, 2000) 23-24. She explains, For modernists there is an ultimate core to the self or the subject which inspires modernist feminists to tell it like it is about woman, in other words to say what woman is and should be. Postmodernist feminists, on the other hand, claim that there is no vital core and thus prefer to ask, How do women become or get said? 5 Diane Elam, Feminism and Deconstruction: Ms. en Abyme (London: Routledge, 1994) 27-28. 6 Ibid., 30.

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Postmodernist feminism also contends that not only is it impossible to establish a category of Woman but that it is not desirable to do so. Forming a group in which all womens experiences are lumped together does not allow for the expression of differences between women.7 The needs of individual women are overlooked if the feminist movement continues to adhere to the humanist ideas so prevalent in radical and cultural feminism.8 Postmodern feminist Joan Scott adds that such thinking continues the male-dominated humanist and modernist discourse and would lead us back to the days when Mans story was supposed to be everyones story, when women were hidden from history, when the feminist served as the negative counterpoint, the Other, for the construction of positive masculine identity.9 To avoid upholding such patriarchal discourse, feminists must understand that each womans experience is unique. In addition, feminist goals will be limited if one believes in fixed categories of Woman and Man. Weedon explains, Humanism [offers] a sense of security to individual subjects. If you accept that your individuality and your femininity are fixed qualities which constitute your very nature, then you are likely to assume in advance what you can achieve.10 Elam expands on this statement to say that if we can define and know Woman, then the possibilities of what she can do become limited, and feminists risk ignoring the various forms of oppression women
7

Judith Grant, Fundamental Feminism: Contesting the Core Concepts of Feminist Theory (New York: Routledge, 1993), 137. She states, For postmodernism, the very fixity of the category Woman means that it can not allow for diversity, change, or evolution; in short, that it disallows the possibility of freedom. 8 See Mary Pooveys essay Feminism and Postmodernism: Another View, in which she asserts, ...I think that a feminism that elevates sex over all other determinants of difference inevitably, and inadvertently, participates in other forms of oppression, which invariably arise in a cultural logic that privileges sex over other demarcations of identity. In privileging sex, in other words, feminism, like humanism, marginalizes all other forms of difference that would fracture the gendered binary... Feminism and Postmodernism Margaret Ferguson and Jennifer Wicke, eds. (Durham: Duke University Press, 1994) 51.

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suffer. [A] feminism that believes it knows what a woman is and what she can do both forecloses the limitless possibilities of women and misrepresents the various forms that social injustices can take, she states.11 When radical and cultural feminism utilize the modernist philosophy to claim that the category Woman can be established and that women are united based on an essential female essence, they eschew important differences between women and cease to acknowledge their individual identities. For them, women constitute a monolithic mass that can be gathered for meaningful political activism; without the common ground of femaleness, they are not able to accomplish their goals of advancing womens situations. Postmodern feminists argue the contrary: feminists must see the diversity of women in order to overcome oppression rather than ignore differences. Along with differences between women, postmodernist theory holds that individuals have to recognize the conflicting identities within themselves. Women struggle with certain parts of themselves a mother may grapple with her workplace role, a mixed-race woman may find herself immersed in two separate cultures, and a Christian woman may have difficulty resolving her faith with issues such as abortion. The postmodern period...had to accommodate the idea of seeing the world as a woman would with the idea that there is no stable or consistent self, that is, no simple woman but rather a number of selves that occupy certain distinct positions.12 This idea is especially important for women of color, who sometimes feel as though they must emphasize either their race or female identity in order to combat sexism and racism. White women, however, never were forced to consider their whiteness. Have white

Joan W. Scott, Deconstructing Equality-Versus-Difference: Or, the Uses of Poststructuralist Theory for Feminism. Feminist Social Thought: A Reader, ed. Diana Tietjens Meyers. (New York: Routledge, 1997) 766. 10 Weedon, Feminist Practice and Poststructuralist Theory, 83. 11 Elam, 32. 12 Sondra Farganis, Postmodernism and Feminism, Postmodernism and Social Inquiry, ed. David R. Dickens and Andrea Fontana (New York: Guilford Press, 1994) 107.

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women asked themselves to distinguish between being white and being a woman? asks scholar Elizabeth Spelman. She concludes, [Though] all women are women, no woman is only a woman.13 This postmodern stance has raised considerable opposition from some feminists who believe that destabilizing the categories of man and woman will lead to a halt in political action. While thoroughly adopting postmodern theories of the body, Susan Bordo14 disagrees with the postmodern notion that it is possible and desirable to examine differences between women. She asserts it is impossible to acknowledge all differences when writing about feminism. No matter how local and circumscribed the object or how attentive the scholar is to the axes that constitute social identity, some of those axes will be ignored and others selected...this selectivity, moreover, is never innocent. We always see from points of view that are invested with our social, political, and personal interests, inescapably -centric in one way or another, she states.15 Bordos argument is that for all the talk of diversity among women, postmodern feminists are unable to accurately express and account for these differences when formulating theory; their own perspective interferes with forming a feminist ideology which may include all women. Another criticism of postmodern feminism involves the problem of organizing for political action. Women can no longer unite merely on account of being female if no concrete idea of female or woman exists, as postmodernists claim. Moreover, if woman cannot be

13

Elizabeth V. Spelman, Inessential Woman: Problems of Exclusion in Feminist Thought, (Boston, Beacon Press, 1988) 167-187. 14 I will discuss her work on the body in Chapter 4. 15 Susan Bordo, Feminism, Postmodernism, and Gender Skepticism, in Theorizing Feminism: Parallel Trends in the Humanities and Social Sciences ed. Anne C. Herman and Abigail J. Stewart. (Boulder: Westview Press, 1994) 463.

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unambiguously defined, how can women fight for womens rights?16 Postmodernism, then, threatens the very goals of the feminist movement and may make meaningful activism impossible. The criticisms directed at postmodern feminists are slightly misguided and shortsighted. Bordo misunderstands the postmodern feminist agenda in that she perceives the idea of including difference when formulating feminist theory as merely lip service to the notion of diversity. She misses the point: postmodern feminist theorists are not trying to create a feminism that suits all women and their racial, class, and sexual orientation differences but rather establish a feminism which acknowledges these differences and one that can adapt to each individual woman and her concerns. For feminism to adapt in this way, feminists must consider the context of certain issues pertaining to women. In an essay defending postmodern feminism, Scott asserts that postmodern feminists are not attempting to reinstate different feminisms for groups of women as black or lesbian feminism tried to do, or devise a feminism invoking a happy pluralism that half-heartedly attempts to include all women and their multiple perspectives. Rather, feminists need to develop a theory that can be appropriated by all women.
There are moments when it makes sense for mothers to demand consideration for their social role, and contexts within which motherhood is irrelevant to womens behavior; but to maintain that womanhood is motherhood is to obscure the differences that make choice possible...An insistence on differences...does not deny the existence of gender differences, but it does suggest that its meanings are always relative to particular constructions in specified contexts. In contrast, absolutist categorizations of difference end up always enforcing normative rules.17

In Scotts view, it is necessary to contemplate the value different women place on particular issues; what matters to a woman with children may not matter to one without children.

16

Nancy C. M. Harstock, Theoretical Bases for Coalition Building: An Assessment of Postmodernism, Feminism and Social Change: Bridging Theory and Practice ed. Heidi Gottfried (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1996) 265. 17 Scott, Deconstructing Equality-Versus-Difference in Meyers, 767.

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Therefore, there can be no single feminist movement that answers the needs of all women, but it is possible to craft a feminism that allows for differences and one to which all women can relate. Nancy Fraser and Linda Nicholson, two other postmodern feminists, agree with Scott: [Feminist political practice] is increasingly a matter of alliances rather than one of unity around a universally shared interest or identity. It recognizes that the diversity of womens needs and experiences mean that no single solution, on issues like child care, social security, and housing, can be adequate for all...this, then, is a practice made up of a patchwork of overlapping alliances, not one circumscribable by an essential definition.18 In theory, a postmodern feminism that embraces difference sounds viable and necessary. However, it will take much work on the part of white, middle-class women to truly be aware of other womens experiences. Some scholars have noted that phrases such as Feminist theory must take differences among women into consideration, we need to hear the many voices of women, and feminist theory must include more of the experiences of women of different races and classes, only express white womens dominance in feminist theory and do not really acknowledge womens situations.19 To say feminist theory needs to be more inclusive is akin viewing it as a kind of white womens club in which they decide which theories by other women are valid and which ones are not. Additionally, a white, straight middle-class viewpoint doesnt disappear because reference is made to the existence of aspects of womens identities other than gender, or to forms of oppression other than sexism, notes

18

Nancy Fraser and Linda J. Nicholson, Social Criticism without Philosophy: An Encounter between Feminism and Postmodernism. Feminist Social Thought: A Reader ed. Diana Tietjens Meyers. (London: Routledge, 1997) 144. As a background to this essay, see Nicholsons essay in Feminism and Postmodernism ed. Jennifer Wicke and Margaret Ferguson, entitled Feminism and the Politics of Postmodernism. 19 Spelman, 162-163.

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Spelman.20 Thus, it is difficult to abandon the dominant perspective and avoid making womens experiences mere shadows of their reality. Given these issues, how are young women supposed to relate to other women whose circumstances are different from their own? The answer lies in something called respectful recognition or relational thinking. Scholar Sonia Kruks defines respectful recognition as a way to relate to the Other not by adopting her experience nor by over-empathizing, but by keeping a small distance between herself and the other while at the same time expressing concern for her situation.
By respectful recognition, I mean a relationship in which one is deeply and actively concerned about others, but neither appropriates them as an object of ones own experience or interests nor dissolves oneself in a vicarious experience of identification with them. Such a relationship allows others space of their own and recognizes a distance between us that is not the distance of unconcern...we can increase our capacity to feel-with another woman by choosing to learn as much as we can about her world. For the more sense we have of her world, the more easily may we feel-with her, the more possible is an immediate apprehension of her experience...when I feel-with the pain of another, the immediacy of the experience temporarily suspends our social differences. I remain subliminally aware of them, insofar as I am still aware that I am not the other, but they remain at the periphery of my attention and do not directly color my relation to the other.21

Kruks solution appears feasible to feminists, especially when they face the danger of transforming womens unique lives into tokens of diversity instead of real understanding. This theoretical tactic, along with the technique of organizing around issues rather than identities, is put to practical use by women of the third wave and Riot Grrrl. Third Wave and Difference Because third-wave feminists embrace the postmodern ideologies of difference and multiple identities and have grown up with a culture that increasingly acknowledges diversity, they are more sensitive to the needs of a diverse female population than their second-wave

20 21

Ibid., 166. Sonia Kruks, Retrieving Experience: Subjectivity and Recognition in Feminist Politics. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2001) 154-161.

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foremothers.22 This understanding enables third wavers to organize around specific issues rather than coming together under the monolithic umbrella of women.23 Moreover, they are able to adjust their activist tactics accordingly to suit the particular issue.

According to scholar Amanda Lotz,

[T]hird-wave activists recognize the racist, heterosexist, classist and other implications of the erasure of difference...differential consciousness, then, proposes that feminists constantly shift the construction of the social movement and tactics for activism according to the situation. Applied at the personal level, differential consciousness provides for the individual to be a self-determined site of feminism, variously positioning oneself on issues (for or against the criminalization of pornography), tactics (arguing women are the same as men or women are different from men), and identities (today I foreground my race, tomorrow I foreground my sexuality).24

Third wave activism, then, is a realization of the proposal theorized by Scott. Instead of coming together solely on the basis of being women, third wavers join forces to fight for specific issues. These problems are not considered womens issues in their eyes but rather issues that happen to affect women.25 Although some critics may believe this approach is ineffective in bringing about political change, not to mention the difficult task of recognizing all womens needs, many feminist scholars believe this method to be more effective in advancing the state of women.26 Third wavers also realize the concept of relational thinking due to their understanding of numerous fluid identities. Third wavers have created modes of thinking that can come to terms with the multiple, constantly shifting bases of oppression in relation to the multiple, interpenetrating axes of identity, and the creation of a coalition politics based on these
22 23

Bulbeck, Simone de Beauvoir and Generations of Feminists, 5. Garrison, U.S. Feminism Grrrl Style! 155. 24 Amanda Lotz, Communicating Third-Wave Feminism and New Social Movements: Challenges for the Next Century of Feminist Endeavor, Women & Langauge 26:1 (2003) 5. 25 Joanie M. Schrof, Feminisms Daughters, U.S. News and World Report 115: 12 (Sept. 27 1993), 6872. 26 Deborah Siegel, The Legacy of the Personal: Generating Theory in Feminisms Third Wave, Hypatia 12:3 (1997) 50. She says, Because the third wave is about how to practice feminism differently,

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understandings understandings that acknowledge the existence of oppression, state Leslie Heywood and Jennifer Drake.27 A white woman may be oppressed because she is female, but she can be viewed as the oppressor in the eyes of a black woman because of her whiteness. A black middle-class woman, however, may be the oppressor of a lower-class white woman because of her higher socioeconomic status. Thus women can be both oppressed and oppressor simultaneously.28 In keeping with the spirit of acknowledging differences among women and the realization that women may have several identities within themselves, third wavers are committed to other causes. For them, feminism is not just about fighting on behalf of women but is also about combating oppression of the poor, the disabled, homosexuals, and people of color. I wanted to analyze the culture that maintained my middle-class white neighborhood...I made the decision to confront every homophobic, racist, or sexist word I heard, says essayist Cristina Tzintzn.29 This attitude reflects the separation between second and third-wave feminisms; while the second wave was largely concerned with the rights of women, the third wave commits itself to fighting for the rights of all oppressed groups. Riot Grrrl and Difference There's more than two ways of thinking there's more than one way of knowing there's more than two ways of being there's more than one way of going somewhere. Bikini Kill, Resist Psychic Death

to broaden and deepen the analysis of gender in relation to a multiplicity of issues that affect womens lives, third wave theory places differences among women at the center of the project. 27 Heywood and Drake, 3. 28 Arneil, Politics & Feminism, 216-219. She writes, Third wave feminisms think and write in terms of the fluid relation between different identities, people, and spheres. Relational thinking is a recognition that the world is composed not of binaries but of multiplicities, and each thing within the world is defined in terms of not just the other but many others. Moreover, these identities are not fixed, but shift in relation to their own evolution and that of others. 29 Cristina Tzintzn, Colonize This! in Colonize This! Young Women of Color on Todays Feminism Daisy Hernndez and Bushra Rehman, eds. (New York: Seal Press, 2002) 27.

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The above lyrics demonstrate how Riot Grrrl understood the nature of constantly shifting identities and show their opposition to thinking in binary, absolute terms. This perspective is consistent with the third waves attitude towards multiplicity and contradiction. Riot Grrrl encouraged each young woman to embrace her individuality and declared that since the name Riot Grrrl was not copyrighted, each girl could express her opinion under the moniker even if it did not correspond to other girls opinions. Rather than deny this sense of complex identity and differing positions, grrrls have embraced this as a facet of their existence...Whilst bands and zines issued declarations of intent under the name of riot grrrl, they were quick to stress that these were not representative of all grrrls, offering individual and sometimes conflicting responses, says scholar Marion Leonard.30 This approach was seen as positive in the eyes of young women, who believed that the diversity and individuality of girls was a vital part of the movement. Kathleen Hanna was particularly vocal about allowing contradiction within Riot Grrrl. To force some forever identity on other people is stupid...every fucking feminist is not the same, every fucking girl is not the same...my whole life is constantly felt by me as a contradiction. In order for me to exist i must believe that two contradictory things can exist in the same space.31 The commitment to individuality and contradiction corresponds to Riot Grrrls interest in fighting all forms of oppression in addition to sexism. As was stated earlier, Riot Grrrl was composed almost entirely of white, middle-class young women. However, Riot Grrrl activities, zines, and song lyrics illustrate that the women involved with Riot Grrrl were acutely aware of their status and privilege, and struggled to have a respectful recognition of others circumstances. In doing so, they helped shape a feminism that fit within the third waves goals

30 31

Marion Leonard, 251-253. Kathleen Hanna, Jigsaw, 1991, rpt. The CD Version of the First Two Records, Kill Rock Stars, 1994.

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of ending not only sexism but also racism, homophobia, fat oppression, able-ism and classism. [Riot Grrrl] allowed and encouraged individual responses. In this sense riot grrrls echoed the works of feminists who have demanded that we think in terms of feminisms rather than a monolithic block thus allowing for a variety of responses and ensuring that no viewpoint is excluded on the grounds that it does not fit with the dominant view.32 An article written by Erika Reinstein in a 1992 issue of the zine Riot Grrrl NYC declared a new feminism was needed to accommodate various social injustices. She captures the spirit of Riot Grrrl in that she recognizes that white, straight, middle-class people may inadvertently contribute to classism, racism, etc. and that to combat sexism means undertaking an attack on other forms of oppression as well. In Reinsteins eyes, Riot Grrrl was needed BECAUSE...I am still dealing with internalized racism, sexism, classism, homophobia, etc. and I dont want to do it alone. BECAUSE I see the connectedness of all forms of oppression and I believe we need to fight them with this awareness.33 While Riot Grrrls focus was the struggle for womens equality, members understood that other forms of oppression went handin-hand with sexism. When journalists Jessica Rosenberg and Gitana Garofalo asked several self-identified Riot Grrrls about the movements goals, one responded: Seeing oppression as a sort of system, seeing the ways that people are affected according to sex, age, belief, life experiences, economic situations they may have faced, all of the different factors that can make up someones life, while another said, Theres a lack of knowledge about others racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia for no reason...theres still a lot of ignorance and bigotry. Riot Grrrl is speaking out against this, [saying], This is wrong. Change it.34 Such responses indicate that although Riot Grrrl was largely composed of white middle-class girls, they see that
32 33

Leonard, 249. Erika Reinstein, Riot Grrrl NYC 1992, rpt. in Starr, 52.

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oppression in one arena (such as sexism) is intertwined with other oppressions. The Bikini Kill song Liar, for example, reads Hate blacks/beat your fuckin wife/its all the same thing,35 thus asserting that domestic violence and racism are not two separate forms of domination but rather linked within a larger system. The acknowledgement of inequality for other people besides women led to an increased concerned for issues outside of sexism. At Riot Grrrl shows it was not unusual to see girls working for a host of causes besides those of women; they would collect food and clothing for the homeless and money for AIDS sufferers.36 Thus Riot Grrrl was highly politicized due to the recognition of privilege (or lack thereof). While Riot Grrrl was concerned with a range of issues, awareness of racism played a significant part in Riot Grrrl activities and songs. There were almost always discussions and workshops on unlearning racism at Riot Grrrl meetings and conventions.37 Girls attending were mostly white but were anxious to learn how to ease the oppression of women of color. At the first Riot Grrrl convention in Washington D.C. in 1992, a workshop entitled Unlearning Racism was presented by an African-American woman from the Peace Center. Song lyrics and zines also demonstrate the sensitivity of Riot Grrrls to racism and their struggle against the dominant, white-male perspective. Bikini Kills White Boy, for example, contains the lyrics White boy/dont laugh/dont cry/just die!38 What is most telling about the song, however, is an impromptu exchange between Kathleen Hanna and what sounds like a young white male just before the music starts. He states that he does not think rape is a problem because most of the girls ask for it. When asked how girls ask for it, he replies, the way they act, then goes on to say some dumb hoes, those slut rocker bitches walking down the street
34 35

Rosenberg and Garofalo, Revolutions From Within. Bikini Kill, Liar, The CD Version of the First Two Records, Kill Rock Stars 1994. 36 Margaret R. Saraco, Where Feminism Rocks: From Riot Grrrls to Rasta Reggae, Political Music in the 90s Is Raw and Real, On the Issues 5:2 (Apr. 30 1996) 26. 37 Susannah Shive. Grrrls Riot in Philadelphia, Off Our Backs 26:9 (Oct. 31, 1996) 7.

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theyre asking for it and they deny it but its true. These comments provide a clear indicator of some white males assumption that they are the dominant group within society; a white middleclass male has little to contend with in terms of being oppressed. Although white middle-class women face sexism, however, they do not have to handle racism and classism. Many Riot Grrrls were aware of this fact and acknowledged that they may act as oppressors to women of color. Heavens to Betsys Corin Tucker makes a note about her song White Girl in the liner notes to the CD. I wrote the song White Girl because I wanted to address the audience for this record mainly white people about racism in the punk/alternative community, in myself, in riot grrrl...it is really scarey to take responsibility for your own privilege and racism but I think that it necessary for this to happen before anything will change, before any productive dialogue will take place. She then suggests that listeners spend their money on books by or about women of color, including those by bell hooks, Toni Morrison and Alice Walker.39 These lyrics and notes show the bands awareness of their privilege and the need to share this perception with their listeners. In this way Riot Grrrl bands helped set the tone for the movement; they influenced their fans to recognize their position and develop ways to alleviate unequal power relations. The primarily white, young female audience viewed these musicians as leaders and perhaps admired them as idols. Thus the bands were instrumental in shaping anti-racist views among Riot Grrrls and making the combat against racism as important as the fight against sexism. Many Riot Grrrl zines also expressed concern about white privilege. Perhaps the best example is a zine called Wrecking Ball which ran an article entitled Things Im Gonna Stop Doing with My White Privilege, providing a list of goals the author hoped to accomplish or at

38 39

See track 12 on the supplemental CD. Heavens to Betsy, Calculated, Kill Rock Stars, 1994.

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least keep in mind. These included asserting my knowledge of [racism] with non-white people, think im disconnected from racism cuz im white; the ways in which racism affect me are often invisible because i benefit from it, and [not] feel safe or comfortable at the expense of the safety or comfort of non-white people.40 This list demonstrates the sensitivity of Riot Grrrl to the advantages of being white and the willingness to stop engaging in these benefits to the detriment of non-whites. The Failure (?) of Third-Wave and Riot Grrrl to Address Difference Although the third wave continues its attempts to provide a feminism of inclusion, some young women, particularly women of color, feel feminism is still primarily a white womans movement. The most convincing evidence of this continuing racism is offered by the contributors to the anthology Colonize This! Young Women of Color on Todays Feminism, in which several essayists discuss how racism is still present in their womens studies classes even as they claim to be attendant to the needs of all women.41 Ethnic studies scholar Rebecca Hurdis states that she had started her academic work in womens studies, but felt it did not adequately address issues for women of color. I am now in an ethnic studies graduate program trying to explore if women of color are within feminisms third wave, and if so, where...it was difficult locating voices that represented generation X or third wave women of color feminism. She goes on to critique Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future by Amy Richards and Jennifer Baumgardner, a text widely praised for its analysis of the third wave. But Hurdis disagrees with these accolades: This book markets itself as the being the text for the third wave of feminism, and I had high hopes that it would address issues of race, gender and class sexuality. Instead, I found the specific history of white (privileged) women...it is as if their
40

Karen Green and Tristan Taormino, 189.

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work is the master narrative of feminism, with women of color feminism as an appendage, she writes.42 The only positive aspect of the work is that it presents a need for women of color feminists to assert their place in the third wave. Many minority feminists agree that white women have been paying lip service to the idea of diversity within feminism and womens studies instead of fully integrating the work of women of color into the (white) canon of feminist theory and genuinely addressing the needs of women who are not white and middle-class. The editors of Colonize This! describe the tokenism of much feminist theory and womens studies classes, stating that while women have made many advances since the 70s, women of color and poor women are still neglected: The difference is that now we talk about these issues in womens studies classes, in classrooms that are multicultural but xenophobic and in a society that pretends to be racially integrated but remains racially profiled.43 Additionally, many young women of color feel they have to choose between their racial or ethnic identity and their womanhood. We live in a white supremacist culture that banks on dichotomous thinking to keep people divided and fragmented within themselves. Those of us who do not fit into either/or boxes therefore experience an enormous amount of pressure to choose one side of ourselves over another...I often feel pressure to choose one community over another, one part of myself over another.44 The idea that white women are merely speaking the language of inclusion rather than actively incorporating the work of non-white women and addressing their needs is present in Riot Grrrl as well.

41

See also Siohban Brooks, Black Feminism in Everyday Life: Race, Mental Illness, Poverty and Motherhood in Colonize This!, 99-118. 42 Rebecca Hurdis, Heartbroken: Women of Color Feminism and the Third Wave, in Hernndez, 286287. 43 Introduction in Hernndez, xxiv. 44 Weiner-Mahfuz in Hernndez, 38.

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For all the lyrics, zines, and workshops devoted to fighting racism both within Riot Grrrl and the rest of society, it was clear that women of color felt abandoned by the movement. Kristina Gray describes how she did not find out about Riot Grrrl until ten years after it started despite living in D.C., a predominantly black city. Why hadnt its [Riot Grrrls] message been spread around the rest of Chocolate City and its very black surrounding suburbs? Didnt the girls I grew up around who lived in Section 8 housing and were pushing baby strollers by the age of fifteen deserve a revolution grrrl-style, too? she asks in an essay.45 Gray also observes the inherent racism in punk and rock in general. Traditionally both genres were dominated by white men, while rap and hip-hop were considered the only types of music African-Americans should listen to or participate in. Gray states that whites make her feel as though she does not belong at punk or rock concerts. There are those who would argue that there is nothing stopping black kids like me from going to rock shows. The same well-intentioned types who scratch their heads and wonder, Why arent there more people of color at punk/riot grrrl/indie shows? Wed like more to come, but they never do. But we dont need an invitation. We just want to feel welcome.46 Grays perspective casts doubt on the plight of Riot Grrrl to help eliminate racism, and she suggests that like third-wave womens studies classes, Riot Grrrl dealt with race as a trivial afterthought to their main agenda. Conclusion The concept of difference is integral to the third wave, as evidenced by their exposure to postmodern theory and theory by women other than the white, straight middle-class norm. All third wavers black, white, lower class, lesbian - are genuinely trying to reach out to women different from themselves and attempting to understand that their needs are different

45 46

Kristina Gray, I Sold My Soul to Rock and Roll, in Hernndez, 263. Ibid., 266.

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from their own. Riot Grrrl, although comprised mostly of white middle-class girls, shared the third waves goal of relating to women of diverse backgrounds. Both also understand how other forms of oppression are linked to sexism, and devote themselves to these causes as well. However, adequately addressing difference is an area that still needs work, as evidenced by the writing of some third wavers. I do not wish to conclude that the third wave remains oblivious to the needs of non-white, lower-class women, nor that Riot Grrrl was inherently racist and classist. But the work of third-wave women of color illustrates that the old divisions along race and class lines are not completely erased in this new generation of feminists.

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Chapter Four: The Body, Femininity, and Resistance

The above picture1 shows Bikini Kill singer Kathleen Hanna engaged in one of Riot Grrrls most subversive practices: the writing of words typically deemed as slurs to describe women on ones body, thereby destabilizing its meaning. This chapter will examine the postmodern construction of femininity as it is performed through the female body, issues of body image and sexual harassment, and how members of the third wave and Riot Grrrl developed ways in which to resist control and objectification of their bodies, realizing postmodern feminist theories of the body and power. Early radical feminist theory2 held that women were oppressed because of their sex. Due to reproductive abilities, all women, regardless of class or race, were subject to mens control of womens sexuality and reproduction. However, postmodern feminist theories exploded the previously stable categories of women, gender, and sex, and challenged the notion that biology was wholly responsible for womens powerlessness. Women are not oppressed simply by virtue of being women, but by social and cultural constructions of what a woman should be. The theories of Michel Foucault and Judith Butler hold that bodies construct

1 2

http://www.angelfire.com/co/alienSHE/ See, for example, The Dialectics of Sex by Shulamith Firestone and Sexual Politics by Kate Millett.

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femininity or an identity society reads as female; femininity is inscribed on the body by womens submission to certain practices (dieting, makeup, etc.). Womens bodies and femininity are also seen as inferior to mens bodies and masculinity, therefore subject to their domination. As is true today, many young women in the 1990s viewed their bodies as sources of shame, fear, and feelings of inferiority. Issues surrounding body image, sexual harassment, and rape are different for each woman, particularly in terms of race, class, culture, age and sexuality; these differences cannot be homogenized or overlooked. However, as Riot Grrrl was largely a young (teenage to college-aged), white, middle-class phenomenon, I will examine the issues that resonate most strongly with that category of young women. Much feminist theory has been devoted to the female body and how it is the locus of male domination. For my purposes, I choose to focus on the work of scholars who use Michel Foucaults theories of power, the body, and resistance as a springboard for understanding the oppression of womens bodies in American society. While some feminists criticized Foucaults work for its failure to recognize gender differences in the social construction of the body3, many have found his work to be greatly beneficial in analyzing the control of women via their bodies. According to Foucault, bodies are historically constructed; bodies do not exist without being subject to a multitude of meanings. These meanings vary according to culture, historical period, and power relations. Rather than revealing a complicity in transcendental, ahistorical structures, Foucaults genealogy of sexuality will fiction a truth of bodies as products of time, space and force...what is called the body will be a site and expression of different, interested

Lois McNay, Foucault and Feminism: Power, Gender and the Self (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1992) 11.

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power relations in various times and places, states scholar M.E. Bailey.4 Feminist theorists extend Foucaults theory to argue that the late 20th-century female body is a product of various cultural forces. Femininity is inscribed on the female body through socialization. It is not innate or biological but rather constructed through gender expectations, which in turn are the results of culture and history. Feminist theorists are also careful to note that norms of femininity are not the spawn of one particular male conspiracy but rather hundreds of years of patriarchal cultural ideals.5 Moreover, this theory does not entail the belief that body at one point was a tabula rasa; bodies always are imbued with meaning and there is no such thing as a totally natural body free of cultural significance. This is because Western culture chooses to mark bodies as male and female based on biological differences rather than using other criteria. Thus, the body is always a signified body and as such cannot be understood as a neutral object upon which science may construct true discourses.6 Sandra Lee Bartkys book, Femininity and Domination, best explains how Foucaults ideas may be applied to the social construction and oppression of the female body. She describes how women discipline their bodies through dieting, hair removal, even body language, and argues that these practices create an inferior female subject.7 The disciplinary practices I have described are part of the process by which the ideal body of femininity and

M.E. Bailey, Foucauldian Feminism: Contesting Bodies, Sexuality and Identity, Up Against Foucault: Explorations of Some Tensions Between Foucault and Feminism, ed. Caroline Ramazanoglu (London: Routledge, 1993) 106. 5 Frost, Young Women and the Body, 50. She writes, The restrictions and possibilities of gender imposed on girls, the meanings in which and with they live and act, then are not primarily the conscious, deliberate impositions of either individual or social categories of groups of boys or men, but products of a vast historical and cultural edifice of meanings. 6 Moira Gatens, Power, Bodies and Difference, Feminist Theory and the Body: A Reader, ed. Janet Price and Margaret Shildrick (New York: Routledge, 1999) 230. 7 Sandra Lee Bartky, Femininity and Domination. Studies in the Phenomenology of Oppression (London: Routledge, 1990) 66-71.

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hence the feminine body-subject is constructed; in doing this, they produce a practiced and subjected body, i.e., a body on which an inferior status has been inscribed.8 To attain femininity, to be acceptable as a female in society, women must perform a number of beauty rituals. Bartky notes the discrepancies between the expectations for men in terms of appearance as opposed to those for women, stating that men only have to engage in basic hygiene to be presentable but that society expects women to do much more for her appearance.9 Through participation in these disciplinary practices to become feminine, womens bodies become docile bodies.10 Moreover, Foucauldian theory holds that bodies constitute sites in which power relations are expressed. Using this notion as a basis for their theory, Bartky and others assert that the female body exists as a manifestation of patriarchal control. In their pursuit of becoming feminine, female bodies reveal the unequal power relations between men and women. Echoes of Bartkys theory can be found in the work of third wavers. Writer Jennifer Reid Maxcy Myhre describes how one day she ceased to participate in societys expectations of femininity because of the work involved; this refusal coincided with the realization that femaleness is socially constructed, not natural. That summer I started to appreciate the amount of time, labor and money women put into their appearance in order to become women, which in our culture is synonymous with not-men. Femininity isnt inherent, natural or biological. It takes work to look like a woman.11 Myhre also questions why women feel forced to

8 9

Ibid., 71. Ibid. 10 Susan Bordo, Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993) 166. She writes, Through the pursuit of an ever-changing, homogenizing, elusive ideal of femininity a pursuit without a terminus, requiring that women constantly attend to minute and often whimsical changes in fashion female bodies become docile bodies bodies whose forces and energies are habituated to external regulation, subjection, transformation, improvement. 11 Jennifer Reid Maxcy Myhre, One Bad Hair Day Too Many, or the Hairstory of an Androgynous Young Feminist, in Findlen, 86.

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participate in practices that mark them as women when it is not necessary. Why should I have to waste all that time and effort when I looked perfectly fine as I was? Her remark is reminiscent of Bartkys observation that men are acceptable by following basic hygienic practices while women have to devote much effort to their appearance. The Beauty Myth Were not gonna prove nothing, nothing Sittin around watching each other starve What we need is action/strategy. Bikini Kill12 Bartkys ideas are not new, but the demands placed on the female body to be acceptable have greatly escalated in the past twenty years, a fact that has not escaped the third wave. In the early 90s, young women were living with a paradox: as women gained access to careers and educations previously dominated by men, beauty standards rose. In 1991 twentyeight year-old Naomi Wolf published The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women, a best-seller that influenced millions of young women and one that helped shape the third waves perception of bodies and beauty standards.13 Wolfs book explained why white middle-class women, although they had more opportunities in terms of work and education, were now more unsatisfied with their looks than ever. The reason was that traditionally male-dominated spheres were being infiltrated by women and enforcement of beauty standards was a way for these spheres to uphold their control over women. Wolf states:
12 13

Bikini Kill, I Like Fucking, The Singles, Kill Rock Stars 1998. Wolfs book has some important ideas, but does not discuss how beauty standards are different for women of color. Many feminists have been dismissive of Wolfs work for this oversight, including myself. However, as Im discussing Riot Grrrl, which was predominantly a white movement, her work is relevant here. Some work on beauty standards and women of color include Maxine Leeds Young African-American Women and the Language of Beauty, in Ideals of Feminine Beauty: Philosophical, Cultural, and Social Dimensions ed. Karen A. Callaghan (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1994, 147-159), Changing Perceptions of Feminine Beauty in Islamic Society, by Amira Sonbol in Callaghan, Medicalization of Racial Features: Asian-American Women and Cosmetic Surgery by Eugenia Kaw in The Politics of Womens Bodies: Sexuality, Appearance & Behavior ed. Rose Weitz (Oxford: Oxford

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The more legal and material hindrances women have broken through, the more strictly and heavily and cruelly images of female beauty have come to weigh upon us...during the past decade, women breached the power structure; meanwhile, eating disorders rose exponentially and cosmetic surgery became the fastest-growing medical specialty...the ideology of beauty is the last one remaining of the old feminine ideologies that still has the power to control those women whom second wave feminism would have otherwise made relatively uncontrollable: it has grown stronger to take over the work of social coercion that myths about motherhood, domesticity, chastity, and passivity, no longer can manage. It is seeking right now to undo psychologically and covertly all the good things that feminism did for women materially and overtly.14

In other words, women were granted the right to work and attend college, they were kept in their place by impossibly high beauty standards. Women who attempted to attain such standards were distracted by their pursuit of perfection, so much so that they could not fight back. Wolf focuses on the cultural ideal of thinness and eating disorders as the result of extreme measures to attain it. She claims that a cultural fixation on thinness is not an obsession about female beauty but an obsession about female obedience.15 An anorexic woman becomes the perfect woman in a society still dominated by men because she is unable to focus on anything but food and weight. She has no energy to get angry or get organized, to chase sex, to yell through a bullhorn, asking for money for night buses or for womens studies programs or to know where all the women professors are.16 Although this is an extreme example, it shows how women may be so consumed by their desire to be attractive that they neglect to think about how it contributes to their oppression. Women who spend hours getting ready for work or school in the morning, or who exercise for hours each day have no time to be active in the struggle for womens equality. In this way the beauty myth keeps women from advancing their status.
University Press 2003, 184-200), and Beauty Secrets: Women and the Politics of Appearance ed. Wendy Chapkis (Boston: South End Press, 1986). 14 Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women, 10-11. 15 Ibid., 187.

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Third-wave essayist Abra Fortune Cherniks analysis of her bout with anorexia and bulimia is almost identical to the ideas presented by Wolf. She had succumbed to the beauty myth and had no energy or time to do anything other than count calories and exercise. Gazing in the mirror at my emaciated body, I observed a woman held up by her culture as the physical ideal because she was starving, self-obsessed and powerless, a woman called beautiful because she threatened no one but herself...as long as society resists female power, fashion will call healthy women physically flawed.17 Cherniks story affirms third wavers awareness of the beauty myth and the damage it inflicts on young women. Riot Grrrl shares the third waves recognition of the demands placed on womens appearance and the emphasis on understanding the mechanism of the beauty myth. Body image issues were central concerns among members of Riot Grrrl, particularly because so many of the women were teenagers. The changes in girls bodies during adolescence cause them to be considered sexual beings, and this transformation is an uncomfortable development for many young girls. As Riot Grrrl was comprised mostly of teenage to college-aged women, much of their writings and music were devoted to body image issues. For example, Heaven to Betsys My Red Self speaks of the embarrassment teenage girls were made to feel about menstruation: What is the color of shame?/Is it blood blood red?/Does it creep out/from my two legs/up to my face/if you notice the stain/never wear white/or your shame will creep through.18 This song underscores the cultural construction of menstruation as a cause of shame and feelings of inferiority. Eating disorders and the cultural pressure on women to be thin were also key concerns among Riot Grrrls. The Lunachicks song Binge + Purge cynically describes the ravages of bulimia (complete with retching noises): Ipecac & Exlax are my best
16 17

Ibid., 199. Abra Fortune Chernik, The Body Politic in Findlen, 108.

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friends /I'll have my head in the toilet till the end /fingers just not long enough /this time the purge is gonna be tough.19 One zine writer discusses the widespread phenomenon of young women engaging in disordered-eating habits while not actually suffering from a full-blown disease. To her, anorexics and bulimics compose only a fraction of women who feel they must deprive themselves of food and exercise to excess.
There is something horribly, terribly wrong when so many girls suffer from eating problems. Im not talking about the clinically-diagnosed anorexics and bulimics Im referring to me, perhaps you, and I believe most middle and high school girls in this country who have made food our best friend and worst enemy...they are not in serious medical danger, but this is killing their spirit, diverting their wonderful discipline and power to a futile cause, and they are shelling out their money to the system that perpetuates the whole process.20

These examples demonstrate the attentiveness of Riot Grrrls to cultural standards of female beauty and their desire to overturn them. It is important to note why some women partake in societal demands for the perfect female body when it clearly inflicts damage on their emotional and sometimes physical wellbeing. After all, women are not passive dupes simply doing whatever they are told. They understand that trying to measure up to beauty standards hurts them but nevertheless participate in dieting and other practices. There are several reasons for this. One is that society rewards women who engage in beauty rituals and appear feminine, and punishes those who do not measure up or who choose to appear masculine. In her discussion of cosmetic surgery, scholar Kathryn Pauly Morgan outlines why women submit to the tyranny of attempting to look both feminine and pretty. [Beauty] offers her the potential to raise her status both socially and economically by increasing her opportunities for heterosexual affiliation...by committing herself to the pursuit of beauty, a woman integrates her life with a consistent set of values and choices

18 19

Heavens to Betsy, My Red Self, International Pop Underground Convention, Kill Rock Stars 1991. See track 7 on the supplemental CD. 20 Sarah F., excerpt from Pisces Ladybug in A Girls Guide to Taking Over the World: Writings from the Girl Zine Revolution, ed. Karen Green and Tristan Taormino (New York: St. Martins Griffin, 1997) 31.

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that bring her widespread approval and a resulting sense of increased self-esteem, she states.21 The second reason for womens collusion with societys expectations is the notion that women are much more connected to their bodies than are men, and these expectations are for the most part learned unconsciously. Ideas of nurturance, maternal instinct and thinness have been ingrained in womens psyche (not all women, of course) such that women find it nearly impossible to escape them. These reasons are outlined by Susan Bordo. She states:
Through routine, habitual activity, our bodies learn what is inner and what is outer, which gestures are forbidden and which required...these are often far more powerful lessons than those we learn consciously, through explicit instruction concerning the appropriate behavior for our gender, race, and social class...for women, associated with the body and largely confined to a life centered on the body (both the beautification of ones own body and the reproduction, care, and maintenance of the bodies of others), cultures grip on the body is a constant, intimate fact of everyday life.22

The last reason so many women succumb to the quest to be feminine and beautiful is the scattered, diffuse nature of societal demands. There is no one specific site or institution that promotes perfect beauty; rather, these standards are everywhere at once. Bordo builds on Foucaults theory of power to explain how it is exerted over women. In Foucaults arrangement, power is not something owned by one group and wielded over another. No particular group has power over another; power is distributed throughout various segments of society, a dynamic or network of non-centralized forces.23 Though there is no central source of power, some groups or areas can be said to be more powerful than others. Bordo explains that modern power is non-authoritarian, non-conspiratorial, and indeed nonorchestrated; yet it nonetheless produces and normalizes bodies to serve prevailing notions of dominance and subordination, and states that power structures are not random or haphazard, but configure to assume particular historical forms, within which certain groups and ideologies
21

Kathryn Pauly Morgan, Women and the Knife: Cosmetic Surgery and the Colonization of Womens Bodies, in Weitz, 171. 22 Bordo, Unbearable Weight, 16-17.

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do have dominance.24 In contemporary American society it can be argued that men still dominate women; their perspective is the norm against which all other perspectives are measured. While there is no single patriarchy or male-dominated institution, men remain the dominant group. They constitute the big picture, a large, complicated system of domination that seeks to prevent women from being equal. Bartky explains, Insofar as the disciplinary practices of femininity produce a subjected and practiced, an inferiorized, body, they must be understood as aspects of a far larger discipline, an oppressive and inegalitarian system of sexual subordination. This system aims at turning women into the docile and compliant companions of men just as surely as the army aims to turn its raw recruits into soldiers.25 Bartkys and Bordos theories are best supported by the dominance of the media. Male power cannot be traced to any particular source, just as the power of the media cannot be assigned to a single corporation or institution. As the media is everywhere and nowhere simultaneously, it is arguably the most insidious expression of female beauty standards. Advertising, television, pop music and young womens magazines all play a significant role in the formation of body image. According to feminist cultural critics, the media not only transmits dominant standards of female beauty and behavior but enforces them as well; as we have seen from Wolfs work, beauty regimens became the new way of controlling women and preventing them from gaining equal power to men. This form of domination fits with Foucaldian theory because of its diffuse nature. The power exerted by the media in shaping young womens body images does not come from one source. Instead it is subtly distributed throughout various outlets, the most influential of which are magazines.

23 24

Ibid., 26. Ibid. 25 Bartky, 75.

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In her study Inside Womens Magazines, scholar Janice Winship outlines the three reasons why magazines have the most impact on young womens body image: first, roughly half of their material is composed of ads; second, these images are sandwiched in with the articles and are stable, not fleeting images as they are on television; and third, women tend to be more influenced by magazines because they offer healthy content as well as ads.26 Media critic Susan Douglas asserts that magazines such as Glamour and Vogue are composed of a schizophrenic landscape in which women are advised to be assertive and political but offer lengthy features on losing weight and other beauty tips.27 For example, a magazine may run a long article on the danger of eating disorders but separate the pages of the article with ads featuring stick-thin models. Advertising is perhaps the most powerful instrument the media uses to ensure womens constant preoccupation with their bodies. Because ads exist only to help make money for a particular company, messages for products cruelly play on womens insecurities and invent new problems that can be solved with a womans willingness to spend money on the product. Ads implicitly give the message that womens bodies are deficient in some way; dieting ads tell women they are not at the right weight, while ads for anti-wrinkle cream express the notion that older women who choose not to do anything to correct their facial lines are unattractive.28 The impact of the media is not lost on the third wave and Riot Grrrl. Several zines are devoted to combating the messages transmitted through media and advertising and express the anger young women feel at the media for perpetuating impossible standards, most notably Nomy Lamms Im So Fucking Beautiful. Lamms work focuses on what she calls fat
26 27

Janice Winship, Inside Womens Magazines, (London: Pandora Press, 1987). Douglas, Where the Girls Are, 271-272. 28 Bartky, 71. She notes, The strategy of much beauty-related advertising is to suggest to women that their bodies are deficient, but even without such more or less explicit teaching, the media images of

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oppression and rejects the notion that people lose weight to meet societys requirement of thinness. When i complain of fat oppression, ive often been told, well, just lose weight...instead of changing the oppression, well just assimilate? imagine saying to your gay friend who complains of homophobia, just be straight. 29 Lamms goal is to change the way in which society perceives overweight people, particularly overweight women who suffer the most discrimination. Another zine writer, Jasmine Kerns, encourages her readers to ignore ads for products that claim to make their users more attractive. Most feminine or beauty items are being geared for the average, white, middle class teenager, and that is WRONG. Fuck teen magazines. Fuck TV. Fuck ANYTHING or ANYONE that tells you that in order to be beautiful, you must alter the way you look, she writes.30 These sentiments reiterate Myhres idea that women need not spend a lot of time or money in order to be considered attractive. This brief discussion of magazines and advertising demonstrates how the media develops and enforces standards of female beauty, and presents these as the norm against which all women measure themselves.31 This does not mean, however, that all women receive these images in the same way. Factors such as race, age, even personality determine a womans perception of these images and the extent to which they psychologically affect her. Bordo notes, [P]eoples identities are not formed only through interaction with such images, powerful as they are. The unique configurations (of ethnicity, social class, sexual orientation, religion, genetics, education, family, age, and so forth) that make up each persons life will determine how each actual woman is affected by our culture.32 While the media seeks to influence

perfect female beauty which bombard us daily leave no doubt in the minds of most women that they fail to measure up. 29 Hillary Carlip, Girl Power: Young Women Speak Out! (New York, Warner Books, 1995) 56. 30 Ibid. 52. 31 Bordo, 25. She writes that these images normalize that is, they function as models against which the self continually measures, judges, disciplines, and corrects itself. 32 Ibid., 62.

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womens body image through normalizing, homogenous images, each womans unique identity ensures that she will not be influenced in exactly the same way as other women. Though many women have the same insecurities about their bodies, the fact that they are individuals presents a chance for resistance to such images. Butler, Resistance and Riot Grrrl I would like to turn now to Judith Butlers idea of gender as a performance to examine how women can resist becoming docile bodies. If femininity does not inherently correspond to biological sex but rather is dictated by culture, as Butler asserts, there are ways in which women can combat societys expectations regarding their appearance. Additionally, Foucaults theory of power as a diffuse force allows for an equally diffuse resistance. Members of the third wave and Riot Grrrl in particular understand that effective resistance does not necessarily occur in collective, unified action but rather at an individual level. One of the most common ways of engaging in resistant practices involves challenging traditional notions of gender and femininity. I will now discuss Butlers work in relation to the subversion of gender indicators in Riot Grrrl. In her book Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, Butler agrees with Bartkys theory that bodies exist as male and female due not to anatomy but to cultural practices.33 In other words, there is no natural body that escapes being marked as male or female; bodies are always already signifiers of male or female. Since there is no natural body, the process by which bodies are perceived (how they indicate male or female, i.e. gender) is a performance. Gender is not a conscious performance but rather a series of practices learned from birth through repetition. Butler explains,
As in other ritual social dramas, the action of gender requires a performance that is repeated. This repetition is at once a reenactment and a reexperiencing of a set of meanings already
33

Judith Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (New York: Routledge, 1990) 8. She writes, Bodies cannot be said to have a significable existence prior to the mark of their gender.

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socially established...the effect of gender is produced through the stylization of the body and, hence, must be understood as the mundane way in which bodily gestures, movements, and styles of various kinds constitute the illusion of an abiding gendered self.34

If gender is nothing more than a set of actions repeatedly performed by individuals, it is possible not to participate in such actions to resist the boundaries presented by gender. Another approach is to parody indicators of gender in order to defy them. Butler uses the example of gay men dressing in drag to poke fun at cultural expectations for both men and women. Although the gender meanings taken up in these parodic styles are clearly part of hegemonic, misogynist culture, they are nevertheless denaturalized and mobilized through their parodic recontextualization.35 Women may adopt these same practices to oppose cultural ideals of femininity and beauty. By taking traditional markers of female gender and using them in new ways, women can create new meanings for gender through their bodies. In this way they resist patriarchal demands on their appearance. This type of resistance is valuable for a diffuse, underground network of young women such as Riot Grrrl. Resistance to ideals of feminine perfection cannot take the form of collective action against one dominant group. As was discussed earlier, the powerful groups that dictate female beauty standards are not isolated and easily categorized. Rather, they are everywhere and nowhere. Thus resistance to these forces must also be everywhere and nowhere. Notes scholar Jana Sawicki, [I]f relations of power are dispersed and fragmented throughout the social field, so must resistance to power be.36 She continues to say that liberation is possible if women resist the ways in which we have already been classified and identified by dominant discourses.37 Rather than trying to fight abstract terms such as the

34 35

Ibid., 140. Ibid., 138. 36 Jana Sawicki, 185. 37 Ibid., 186.

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patriarchy and the media, women must understand that resistance is most successful at an individual level against individual instances of domination.38 Riot Grrrls awareness of body-image issues allows them to have an understanding of oppositional practices. The principal method by which girls can fight back against images of perfect female beauty is destabilizing the attributes that constitute it. The third wave and Riot Grrrl in particular bring Butlers theories to into real life by challenging traditional gender indicators. If gender is a performance, and female gender nothing more than a combination of socially constructed feminine qualities acted out by females, young women can reverse the powerlessness usually assigned to women by giving new meanings to traditional feminine trappings. In other words, femininity is conceived as a game and women can win by changing the rules: The femininity game described above conceptualizes gender as a set of norms and practices, the rules for the game and the actions which girls and women perform to conform to them. Changing the rules of the game calls for a radical change in how we view gender and do gender...it is the practice of femininity that shapes the normative conceptualization of femininity. Thus, the norms of femininity can be changed through practice, and the rules change as we play them out differently.39 Women challenging gender roles are not abandoning typical indicators of female gender (such as skirts and cosmetics) but rather using them in new ways to give them new meaning and assign them new strength.

38

In her essay Resistance: Lessons from Foucault and Feminism Karlene Faith writes, Feminist resistance...begins with the bodys refusal to be subordinated, an instinctual withdrawal from the patriarchal forces to which it is often violently subjected. Power/Gender: Social Relations in Theory and Practice, H. Lorraine Radtke and Henderikus J. Stam, eds. (London: Sage Publications, 1994), 39 [chapter from 36-66] 39 LeBlanc, Pretty in Punk, 138.

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Riot Grrrls introduced power into traditional feminine trappings. Some would dress in baby-doll dresses and wear plastic, little-girl-like barrettes in their hair.40 In this way they would mock the performance of gender that virtually all women enact. Third-wave writer Rita Alfonso explains:
I interpret these antics as an intentional putting on of the girlishness and innocence preserved with the societal ideal of femininity...riot grrrls donned and reclaimed, in a perverse manner, the accoutrements of femininity. They made a display of the power that these accoutrements brought to them, and simultaneously mocked this power through parody...riot grrrls were about performing their gender.41 (emphasis added)

The Lunachicks were perhaps the leaders in the parody of girlish attire. Knee socks and girls baseball uniforms were staples of their performance garb; they caricatured the all-American, wholesome teenage girl by donning matching vinyl cheerleading outfits, with one member wearing enough eye makeup for the whole band, according to one critic.42 Riot Grrrls did not just use girlish attributes to subvert gender roles but would utilize any artifact or practice related to ideals of feminine beauty, especially ones that were considered attractive to men. Kathleen Hanna, for example, sometimes took the stage in Lycra stockings, sequined bikini bottoms, and her shirt pulled up to ridicule the sexy outfits strippers perform in for mens sexual gratification. The fact that Hanna danced in strip clubs made her statement of scorn all the more powerful. The Lunachicks, while focused on lampooning the norms of girls appearance, also wore garments associated with sexualized adult women such as corsets and rubber tube dresses.

40

Creating their own anti-fashion style through an uncategorizable amalgam of couture faux pas...riot grrrls appropriate the accoutrements of girlhood, femininity, and alternative youth culture for an ironic (dis)play and disruption of the signifying codes of gender and generation, states Mary Celeste Kearney in Dont Need You, 158. 41 Rita Alfonso and Jo Triglio, Surfing the Third Wave: A Dialogue Between Two Third-Wave Feminists, Hypatia 12:3 (Jul. 1997) 7. 42 Pamela Simmons, Rockrgrl 33 (June 30, 2000), 19.

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Perhaps the most interesting and subversive way Riot Grrrls used their bodies to overturn gender norms was their practice of writing traditionally negative words used to describe women on their bodies. This technique has several purposes: first, it provided a way for girls to connect; and second, it was a way to preempt the thoughts of a male-dominated society about assertive women. Bikini Kill and Bratmobile in particular were vocal about encouraging Riot Grrrls to write on their bodies in noticeable places so that they could find each other, and as Hanna noted in an interview, photographs dont have sound, so I felt that if I wrote slut or whore or incest victim on my stomach, then I wouldnt just be silent.43 More importantly, however, it was a way to challenge the male gaze and force society to confront its perceptions of women. Women are on constant display, everywhere, as semen receptacles. The gaze, when it comes to women, is real; Riot Grrrls write BITCH, RAPE, SLUT and WHORE on their bodies because thats what a lot of men already see there, says one scholar.44 Indeed, Hanna claimed that writing such words on her body was akin to holding up a mirror to what [guys] were thinking.45 In this way Riot Grrrls were able to destabilize the objectifying gaze, directly challenging the men who looked at them. Sexual harassment is another form of objectification of women; men verbally assault women at the same time they employ the gaze. If we combine Foucaults theory that the body is the site of power relations with Bartkys and Bordos assertion that the female body is the locus of patriarchal control, then comments made by men about womens bodies can be construed as expressions of male dominance within these power relations. Men assert their power over women by verbally assaulting them, most often on the street as a woman passes. Afraid of or angered by these attacks, many women feel their freedom to roam in public, as well
43

Juno, 100.

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as their choice of clothing, is restrained. Third-wave writer Melissa Klein discusses why sexual harassment in public places is a problem for young women: The lifestyles we lead and the fact that we cant always afford cars means that we are outside often and sometimes late at night, and because we are young we are considered prime sexual targets by men...we feel as if we are entering a war zone every time we walk down a crowded sidewalk wearing shorts.46 However, rather than allowing sexual harassment to curtail their freedom, some members of the third wave decided instead to confront the harasser.47 This response is a different strategy than that of the second wave; most second wavers would either ignore the comments or choose a more androgynous look so as not to be gazed upon as a sex object. A chief goal of the third wave is to be equal to men while preserving the right to adopt feminine styles of dress if they choose, instead of attempting to look like men to prove their worth. Constant sexual appraisal is exasperating and degrading. Yet we want to be able to feel good about our bodies, and we do not want to give up the freedom to walk anywhere or to wear what we like, Klein continues.48 Thus the solution to street harassment involved not limiting ones travels or choice of clothing, but direct confrontation. Riot Grrrls employed this third-wave strategy both on the stage and in real life. Songs dealing with sexual harassment encouraged the girls in the audience to stand up to their harasser instead of passively absorbing his comments. The Lunachicks Superstrong reads, dont touch us in the street /'cause we aint your tits & meat...dont look too long /'cause chicks are

44

Neil Nehring, Popular Music, Gender, and Postmodernism: Anger Is an Energy. (Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 1997) 153. 45 Juno, 100. 46 Melissa Klein, Duality and Redefinition: Young Feminism and the Alternative Music Community, Heywood and Drake, 218. 47 LeBlanc, 209-213. A more proactive alternative to ignoring harassment involves responding to the harasser in kind, or confronting him. Some women may find this option unacceptable...however, this was by far the most common strategy employed by punk girls. 48 Klein, 218.

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superstrong /you've got no right to touch us /you are all dead wrong!49 Music also showed the rage women felt and their assertiveness in handling harassment. You follow me on the fuckin street/you make me feel like a piece of meat...i'm not your prey i'll make you die...i've had it just about to here/i'm not kidding/i threaten everything you hold dear, sings Corin Tucker in Heavens to Betsy Terrorist.50 These songs both express the anger many girls feel when they are harassed and help cultivate the courage necessary to stand up to an attacker. It is possible that such lyrics influenced girls to channel their anger in a productive way. One Riot Grrrl talks about how she confronted a boy at her high school who had grabbed her in the hallway: Dont ever touch me OR my friends again! she told him.51 Rather than simply shrug off the incident or completely ignore the boy, she tells him directly that she will not tolerate his behavior and protects her friends at the same time. While not all Riot Grrrls or third wavers may employ a confrontational strategy, this discussion of writing and songs shows that a younger generation of feminists refuse to give up their femininity in exchange for avoiding harassment. They prefer instead to hold onto the rights to dress the way they want and walk wherever they wish, challenging harassment head-on when it occurs. Conclusion Feminist theories of the body, power and resistance manifest themselves clearly in the third wave and the Riot Grrrl movement. This generation understands the diffuse nature of power and recognizes that the most effective weakening of patriarchal power takes place at an individual level. The writings and music of the third wave and Riot Grrrl show that their members are acutely aware of gender expectations and female beauty standards. While the third wave grasps the fact that resistance, like power, can be everywhere and nowhere, Riot
49 50

See track 11 on the supplemental CD. See track 5 on the supplemental CD.

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Grrrl brings to fruition this resistance through a variety of tactics. Writing on the body, pairing girlish attributes with displays of female power, and parodying the idea of woman-as-sex-object are all ways in which Riot Grrrl defies control of womens bodies imposed on them by beauty standards and sexual harassment.

51

Farai Chideya and Melissa Rossi, Revolution, Girl Style, Newsweek 120:21 (Nov. 23 1992) 84.

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Chapter Five: Feminist Identity I don't believe in shying away from labeling myself as feminist. I think that is emotional suicide for girls to do that. Allison Wolfe of Bratmobile Members of the third wave absorbed a negative view of feminists as they grew up in the 1980s. To some, the word feminist conjured up the image of an unattractive, male-bashing woman; although they believed in feminist principles such as equal pay and reproductive choice, they were loathe to use the term to describe themselves. However, while some third wavers were hesitant to adopt the feminist label, many understood that the word feminist needed to take on new meaning. The purpose of this chapter is to examine a chief third-wave goal: to shatter the stereotype of the militant feminazi and help young women understand that feminism is not about hating men or abandoning feminine practices. Additionally, this chapter will analyze how Riot Grrrl, in much the same way the third wave is reclaiming the word feminist, reclaimed the word girl by infusing it with a new sense of power and assertiveness. As with issues of body image, power, and difference, postmodernism plays a key part in the reestablishment of meaning in language. According to postmodern theorist Jacques Derrida, language does not have an innate meaning; meaning only exists in reference to other meanings.
[T]here can be no fixed signifieds (concepts) and signifiers (sounds or written images), are subject to an endless process of deferral...the meaning of the signifer woman varies from ideal to victim to object of sexual desire, according to its context. Consequently, it is always open to challenge and redefinition with shifts in its discursive context...neither social reality nor the natural world has fixed intrinsic meanings which language reflects or expresses...for example, the meanings of femininity and masculinity vary from culture to culture and language to language. They even vary between discourses within a particular language...all forms of poststructuralism assume that meaning is constituted within language and is not guaranteed by the subject which speaks it.1

Because meaning is always changing depending on the context in which certain terms are used, it is not possible to construct a single or fixed definition of woman. The term woman is

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impossible to define because it conjures up many different and contradictory meanings. Moreover, whoever establishes these meanings possesses power over peoples view of their individual identity. Since our perception of who we are depends on terms that construct identity such as woman, man, black, white, etc., whoever defines those terms has the power to shape the notions of our personal selves. But, we can take away this power by deducing who assigns meaning to certain terms and examining the context in which such terms are employed.2 Thus, the goal of postmodern feminists is to deconstruct the meanings given to certain words that attempt to establish identity and to reveal who assigned these meanings. In this way feminism can avoid the pitfall of making sweeping generalizations about women, and by extension, I would argue, about the word feminist. In the eyes of many feminists, men possess the authority to construct meaning within language. Meaning-making and control over language are important resources held by those in power. Like other valuable resources, they are not distributed equitably across the social hierarchy...mens influence over language is greater than that of women...more men are published and men control the print and electronic media.3 I would like to use this statement and the discussion of language, meaning and identity as a starting point for an analysis of feminist identity. My argument is that if the (male-dominated) media control the definition of words that construct identity such as feminist, and if practitioners of feminism can destabilize this power and give the word feminist new meaning, we can forge a new, all-inclusive feminist identity, one with which more women can associate. In other words, by disregarding the negative image of feminists portrayed by the media and what its definition of a feminist is,

Weedon, Feminist Practice and Poststructuralist Theory, 25. Zalewski states, We can see therefore that those who define woman whoever they are are playing a power game...a postmodern feminist task is not then to find out what woman is, but to expose the power/truth/knowledge game that goes on in defining what woman is (26). 3 Mustin and Maracek, 51.
2

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more women feel that they can declare themselves to be feminist and therefore feel more confident in working towards change. By allowing a feminist identity to be whatever it wants as long as it remains faithful to improving womens lives, more women feel comfortable adopting the label feminist. If feminist can have more meanings than the one presented by the media, then more women can be a part of the movement. The issue of feminist identity poses problems for some members of the third wave. Young women feel conflicted about asserting a feminist stance because they feel their lifestyle or values clash with those of the second wave, the wave that is always associated with negative stereotypes of feminists. This feeling of incompatibility is caused mainly by popular misconceptions of the definition of feminism. Rebecca Walker best explains this dilemma in her introduction to the third-wave anthology To Be Real: Telling the Truth and Changing the Face of Feminism:
The ever-shifting but ever-present ideals of feminism cant help but leave young women and men struggling with the reality of who we are. Constantly measuring up to some cohesive fully down-for-the-feminist-cause identity without contradictions and messiness and lusts for power and luxury items is not a fun or easy task...Buried in these vibrant young womens words are a host of mystifications, imagistic idealizations, and ingrained social definitions of what it means to be a feminist. For each young woman there is a different set of qualifiers, a different image which embodies an ideal to measure up to, a far-reaching ideological position to uphold at any cost. Depending on which mythology she was exposed to, she believes that in order to be a feminist one must live in poverty, always critique, never marry, want to censor pornography and/or worship the Goddess.4

Walkers assessment reveals that young women are fearful of being labeled a feminist and think they cannot reconcile their beliefs with the ideals embodied by second-wave feminism. Indeed, many young women are afraid of being identified as feminists because of the negative stereotypes associated with them: the image of the man-hating, hairy-legged butch lesbian prevents many young women from openly declaring their feminism. Many feminist scholars

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agree that the media is largely responsible for this image.5 Additionally, the media presents only this mythical brand of feminism instead of depicting the various feminisms to which different women ascribe. [Media outlets] continue to cover feminism and describe feminists as if the movement is monolithic and feminists are all alike. At the same time, in their stories and hiring practices, we see that in the news media (as elsewhere) feminism is many things to many women; that there is not one feminism but many.6 Additionally, the word feminism managed to become synonymous with the interests of only white middle-class women. Ednie Kaeh Garrison claims that the name second wave equaled white womens movement. Since the media chose to focus only certain second-wave feminists (interviewing Betty Friedan, for example, rather than bell hooks), many people came to believe that not only were feminists unattractive but also white. [T]he name the white womens movement has become synonymous for many people in the U.S. (regardless of race, gender and political orientations) with feminism...the term feminism is frequently rejected on the premise that it is always the same: feminism is always the white womens movement, says Garrison.7 This inaccurate portrayal of feminists had an impact on women of all colors; white women did not want to be associated with feminism for fear of possible racism, and women of color felt that feminism was solely the domain of white women and that its goals did not concern them.

Rebecca Walker, Introduction in To Be Real, xxxi-xxxii. See xxxiv-vi for a continuation of her ideas on identity. 5 Douglas states, On the one hand, few women want to take on the baggage of the feminist stereotype. On the other hand, they embrace much of what feminism has made possible for them which they also learned about, incidentally, from the media and are uninterested in returning to the days of woman as doormat...what the mass media dont convey, and cant convey, is that feminism is an ongoing project, a process, undertaken on a daily basis by millions of women of all ages, classes, ethnic and racial backgrounds, and sexual preferences. Where the Girls Are, 273. 6 Ibid., 279. 7 Garrison, The Third Wave, 41-42.

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This detrimental definition of a feminist most likely comes from a conservative, maledominated viewpoint that heavily influenced women growing up in the 1980s. Some feminists theorize that men have the power to assign meaning and create definitions for certain words, and it is possible that media outlets owned by men during this time constructed the derogatory meaning of feminist. Whether or not it is true that men possessed the authority to confirm meaning to the word feminist, the fact remains that many young women were hesitant to adopt the feminist moniker in the early 90s. That is, regardless of who constructed the negative definition of feminist, the definition itself affected how young women viewed feminists and how their personal identity was shaped. According to a 1991 Newsweek poll, only 34 percent of women polled declared themselves to be feminists, even though 45% believed the womens movement had helped improves womens lives. Susan Marshall, a sociologist at the University of Texas, was quoted as saying, Tremendous gains have been made, but not under the label of feminism...such a number has been done to that term that people shy away from it.8 Feminist scholars have also noted that while young women shun the label, they have strong feminist opinions.9 Additionally, some third-wave writing expresses how feminism is negatively perceived by men and boys as well as women. Third-waver Erica Gilbert-Levin discusses the negativity she encountered when attempting to establish a feminist club at her high school: One of my (male) teachers suggested to me that the name Feminist Alliance sounded militant and conjured up images of shrieking women demanding that men do as they are told...students joked about it during classes, calling me a man-hater and warning that radical, hairy-legged feminists

L. Shapiro and L. Buckley, Why Women Are Angry, Newsweek Oct. 1991. Angela McRobbie, Shut Up and Dance: Youth Culture and Changing Modes of Femininity, in Feminism and Cultural Studies ed. Morag Shiach (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999) 68.
9

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were going to take over the school and make all of the boys their slaves.10 Another writer in the same anthology states that the boys say feminist like its a nasty insult.11 Given these reactions to mentioning the word feminist, it is not surprising many young women were cautious about describing themselves as such. At the same time, however, the third wave has figured out a way to overcome the negative portrayal of feminists in the media by destabilizing the meaning the word feminist and forging their own definitions. Thoroughly grasping the postmodern concept of constantly shifting meanings that exist solely in relation to other meanings, third wavers declare that a feminist can be many different things at once. Scholar Jennifer Drake explains, Theres a postcard by third-wave artist Stella Mars that proclaims Redefine feminism so it includes you, and thats what this third-wave feminist generation is up to. Orthodoxy is out, if it was ever in. It is no coincidence, then, that third-wave feminists, despite and because of our differences, seem to agree that contradiction, as well as multiplicity and coalition, define third-wave feminist desires and strategies.12 They have overthrown the medias definition of feminist and replaced it with a series of definitions that vary from woman to woman. In this way the third wave now possesses power over meaning in language (at least for the term feminist.) This dismantling of feminist stereotypes is evident in much third-wave writing. Third-wavers attempt to dispel the myth of the militant, man-hating feminist and turn the word into a label every woman can be proud to adopt in describing herself. The one word all phallocrats most

10 11

Erica Gilbert-Levin, Class Feminist, in Findlen, 169. Curtis Sittenfeld, Your Life as a Girl, in Findlen, 7. 12 Jennifer Drake, The Mis/Education of Righteous Babes, Growing Up Postmodern: Neoliberalism and the War on the Young, ed. Ronald Strickland (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2002) 182.

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fear (and well they should), I wear like a badge of honor, my pride, my work, my glowing, spiked tiara. That word is feminist, states a third-wave writer.13 I would like to further examine the idea of multiple identities within the definition of feminism. The third wave has not only reclaimed the word feminist but has also seized the postmodernism concept of constantly shifting and multiple identities within the individual, and young women have realized this abstract principle by forming seemingly contradictory identities. A young woman today proclaims herself a feminist if she believes in supporting reproductive rights, but she can also wear makeup and enjoy the attention of men. Third-wave feminists are beginning to see that being a good feminist does not mean having to live up to the criteria outlined by Walker, who asserts that such requirements for feminist living are part of a larger mythology espoused by the media. All of the contrasting definitions of feminism and what it means to be a feminist agree on one point: a feminist is someone who actively believes and participates in advancing the state of all women, no matter her lifestyle and personal habits. The third wave of feminists has redefined feminism such that the old rules of the second wave no longer apply.14 Rather than having to be against pornography and fashion, feminists can enjoy the attention of men, they can have a manicure, they can be strippers as long as they remain faithful to overcoming oppression of women, and recognize that women are not a monolithic mass. The contradictions between traditional feminism and the accoutrements of feminine appearance are obvious in the writings of third-wave feminists. Many declare that it is not only acceptable but also a source of pleasure to indulge in customary girl practices, such as

13 14

Anastasia Higginbotham, Chicks Goin At It, Findlen, 13. Not all second-wavers were against pornography and fashion so I do not want to generalize that generation; however, the media made these views seem universally adopted by members of the second wave.

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knitting, applying makeup, and paying attention to fashion. This new way of perceiving femininity is not only a response to negative media stereotypes but also to second-wave feminists themselves. According to Leigh Shoemaker, second-wavers believed that to be on equal footing with men in the workplace and academia meant that women had to give up their femininity. Women were now allowed to compete with men, but were forced to adopt notions of masculinity and eschew traditional feminine characteristics. Feminists of my generation learned at a young age that we were girls and that we could do anything that the boys could do (thanks to second wave feminism), but also that to achieve that goal, we could no longer be girls (thanks to 1980s conservatism). By valorizing masculinity and devaluing femininity, feminists were reaffirming the old, restrictive dualisms that we were trying so fiercely to rebel against.15 Third-wavers rebel against the second-wave notion that women must relinquish any traces of femininity to be equal to men. Indeed, young feminists have created a new kind of girl culture that allows for the celebration of girlishness. Amy Richards and Jennifer Baumgardner coined the word Girlie to describe third wavers who boldly proclaim their feminism and their femininity simultaneously. Girlie is not a return to a cultural feminism in which women cut themselves off from the rest of the world to form an all-woman society, nor is it a demonstration of womens submissiveness to male standards of female beauty. Rather, it is a re-appropriation of girlish rituals to erase any sign of the weakness and passivity so commonly associated with young womens activities and interests, a means of reclaiming traditional femininity. Girlie says were not broken, and our desires arent simply booby traps set by the patriarchy. Girlie encompasses the tabooed symbols of womens feminine enculturation Barbie dolls, makeup, fashion magazines, high heels and says using them isnt shorthand for

15

Leigh Shoemaker, Part Animal, Part Machine: Self-Definition, Rollins Style, in Heywood and Drake, 105.

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weve been duped.16 The authors acknowledge that the use of girlish accoutrements is not meant to foster serious social change, it can be a confident gesture.17 Indeed, as one thirdwaver puts it, I am a feminist and I am going to click my platform heels and smack my glossed lips and grind my manicured nails all over the face of patriarchal institutions/ideas/people until they are a quivering mass at my well-dressed foot promising to make me an omelette.18 An analysis of band interviews and zine content shows that Riot Grrrl also embraced a seemingly contradictory feminism. Riot Grrrl overturned the negative stereotypes associated with feminists and helped create a new girl culture. The movement also resisted those who criticized feminists that participated in this girl culture. One zine article entitled Ode on a Feminist, discusses how women must not be limited by strict rules regarding who qualifies as a feminist:
[Many] modern independent women not only will not call themselves feminists, but will deny the name if given it and speak badly of those who would claim the name. And there are those who claim the name who then take it upon themselves to dictate to others the acceptable forms of dogma, vocabulary, and political orientation...contradiction enters into the picture only when I am told by my feminist sisters or mothers (or brothers) that my choices must be constrained, that I must change, alter to someone elses design, in order for me to be free.19

In an interview with Andrea Juno, Kathleen Hanna stated, I get a great deal of pleasure out of dressing myself Im not giving that up! Why should I have to? If I want to wear make-up like a mask one day, Ill do it. And if I dont want to do it, I wont...the notion that if youre a feminist you cut your hair short, you wear big pants, you hide your breasts, you dont wear make-up...Im not saying women who adopt that dress are wrong or bad in any way, I adopt that dress at certain times, and I will continue to. But if sometimes I want to dress up

16 17

Richards and Baumgardner, Manifesta, 136. Ibid. 18 Leah Rumack, Lipstick, Turbo Chicks: Talking Young Feminisms ed. Allyson Mitchell, Lisa Bryn Rundle and Lara Karaian (Toronto: Sumach Press, 2001) 96. 19 Avia Midons, Ode on a Feminist, h2so4, in Green and Taormino, 175.

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and use what is feminine drag well, men use feminine drag, so why cant I?20 Hannas comments show that Riot Grrrl adopted the third waves enthusiasm for girl culture. However, the movement took the acceptance of feminine and girlish trappings a step further, transforming the word girl itself to signify a more aggressive and powerful force than traditional girlhood accoutrements could offer. Riot Grrrl: Definition and Etymology BECAUSE we are angry at a society that tells us Girl = Dumb, Girl = Bad, Girl = Weak. Bikini Kill Much as third-wave is reclaiming the word feminist, Riot Grrrl reclaimed the word girl. By spelling the word differently and pairing displays of female power with traditionally girly items, Riot Grrrl destabilized the connotations of weakness with girl. Grrrl also represented the general character and spirit of Riot Grrrl: it was a movement comprised of anger, rebellion, and outspokenness. As was stated in Chapter Two, grrrl was invented by Bikini Kill drummer Tobi Vail, who was making fun of older feminists who insisted on spelling women as womyn or wimmin in order to overturn what they perceived to be patriarchal language. Although Vails coining of the term was meant to be playful, it took on a more serious meaning as Riot Grrrl began to spread. The opposition to girl also corresponds to Riot Grrrls general opposition to mainstream culture. Mainstream movies, television, ads and music all promoted an image of girls passivity and weakness. Girls were paired with displays of submissiveness and fragility as well as being concerned only with physical appearance in order to attract boys. In this way conventional cultural artifacts supported and enforced the word girl to signify inferiority and frailty.

20

Juno, 102-3.

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Riot Grrrl, however, turned these traits associated with girl upside down through zines, song lyrics, and performances. As Riot Grrrls began to show that girls were indeed the opposite of societys definition, they needed a new phrase to accommodate their vision of girlhood/adolescence and wanted to demonstrate that being called a girl was not derogatory or offensive. Thus Grrrl was a fitting term because it denied the negative meanings associated with girl and also conveyed the anger so central to Riot Grrrl expression. The grrr imitates a growl, a sound usually used in conjunction with angry response. Riot Grrrl scholar Mary Celeste Kearney explains, instead of bonding as girls, these female youth have appropriated the word girl from its dominant connotations and reformulated that social category by creating a new identity that better represents their revolutionary spirit. Riot grrrl, therefore, symbolizes the enraged girl who empowers herself and others to speak out against oppression.21 This rage was one of the most effective ways Riot Grrrl reclaimed girl.22 Females are socialized from childhood not to show anger, and girls are often called derogatory names if they openly express their anger. Riot Grrrl sought to change this common social norm by actively asserting their fury through both lyrics and the way they performed these songs. As anger is the one emotion that has been deemed masculine, womens reclamation of this emotion to critique patriarchal society is an extremely effective political tool. Anger plays a large role in liberating women in the punk scene, allowing for a critique of mainstream culture, as well as punk itself.23 Band members would growl or shriek their lyrics, providing an intense, earsplitting declaration of rage. This style of singing can be found in Suck My Left One by Bikini Kill in which Kathleen Hanna literally snarls the words, a low guttural sound emanating

21 22

Kearney, Dont Need You, 156. Wald and Gottlieb. 23 Heather Davis, Screaming as Loud as the Boys: Women in Punktopia, Turbo Chicks 321.

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deep from her throat.24 The incorporation of sounds hardly ever uttered in female vocals was integral to the shifting meaning of girl. Even if one does not listen to Riot Grrrl bands deafening screeches and rumbling growls, their anger is clearly manifested in writing. One only has to look at the bands lyrics or read individual grrrl zines to get a sense of Riot Grrrl rage. i hate you with a passion/that will run for a million years/my fury is a force that is equal/to a billion of your tears, read the lyrics to Calculated by Heavens to Betsy. Bratmobiles Brat Girl contains the line, well i got something to confess/im gonna throw this knife right thru yr chest.25 Zines were probably the most accessible format for girls to express their fury. While Riot Grrrl encouraged girls to start their own bands, for some it was simply easier to pick up a pen and write down their thoughts rather than having to learn an instrument and write lyrics. One zine writer states on behalf of Riot Grrrls, We ARE angry! We are pissed off how we as grrrls (females) are treated in society. We are angry that patriarchy rules our lives from birth to death...womyn are seen as the lesser gender: the one to be dominated, owned, ruled.26 Zines helped young women communicate their anger that they felt could not be discussed anywhere else, particularly on the topic of sexual abuse. The ferocity and frankness with which Riot Grrrls conveyed their rage not only succeeded in reclaiming the word girl, but demonstrated how they fit within the third wave. One of the chief concerns of third wavers is the definition of feminist and how meaning is assigned to the term. In its attempt to destabilize the stereotypes associated with older feminists, this new generation breaks away from the ideals of the second wave by asserting defying the prescribed rules for being a feminist, including the insistence on being called a woman rather
24 25

See track 6 on the supplemental CD. See track 9 on the supplemental CD.

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than a girl. Riot Grrrl exemplifies the third-wave break with the previous feminist generation by resurrecting the word girl and equating it with a powerful adult, just as woman was. The feminist insistence on the use of the term woman to some extent reduced the value of the term girl. Where woman was equated with an empowered feminist adult, girls, defined by their immaturity, were depoliticized. Riot Grrrl was, then, a reclamation of the word girl and a representation of it as a wholly positive term.27

Conclusion
The word feminist has conjured many negative images in the heads of young women in the past thirty years, but the third wave is actively working to transform these images into more positive ones that affirm and celebrate femininity without connoting a hatred of men. Third-wavers choose not to swap makeup and high heels for short hair and flats but realize that they can participate in feminist activism at the same time they assert their right to engage in traditional feminine rituals. In this way the third wave reclaims the term feminist and weakens the stereotype of the unattractive man-hating feminist. Similarly, Riot Grrrl overturned the conventional meanings associated with girl primarily through the expression of anger in music and zines. The fierceness of their lyrics and articles demonstrated that girls were not weak, frail and passive but rather strong, opinionated and outspoken. Thus the movement helped girls gain self-confidence and courage to speak out against the sexist practices they encountered.

26 27

What is Riot Grrrl? Green and Taormino, 185. Leonard, Feminism, Subculture and Grrrl Power, in Whitely, Sexing the Groove, 232.

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Epilogue Whatever happened to Riot Grrrl? Is the third wave still carrying out feminism for a younger generation? What is the lasting impact of Riot Grrrl on the third wave? These queries have no easy answers, but it can be said that the spirit of Riot Grrrl lives on and the third wave is continuing to bring about change for women into the new millennium. While Riot Grrrl was an example of third-wave ideals and strategies, it helped shape the third wave in turn. By the late 1990s, Riot Grrrl activity had diminished, the movements message diluted and co-opted. Performers such as the Spice Girls and Britney Spears were dominating the airwaves, encouraging Girl Power while reverting to traditional roles for women in music (i.e. attractive vocalist whose image is constructed by male record executives.) Corporations slapped meaningless slogans on everything from shirts to shoelaces to appeal to the pre-teen crowd. One third-waver describes the co-opting of Riot Grrrl politics this way:
From the Spice Girls to the latest in change purses at Le Chteau that proclaim Girls Rule, Boys Drool, its now cool to be a grrrl. Fashionable. Sexy. Very millennium. But what is really going on is that its cool to be a grrrl, as long as youre cute. If youre pushy, loud, sexually aggressive, political or angry, fat or plain or hairy or old, then youre so not a grrrl. Youre just ugly. Feminists are ugly. Grrrls are hot.1

In this way Riot Grrrl was hijacked by businesses that discarded the politics and turned the movement into a fashion fad. In addition to this commercialization of Riot Grrrl, misogynist rap-metal bands such as Limp Bizkit and Korn were turning rock back into an entirely masculine genre, which culminated in the sexual assault of several women in the mosh pit at the 30th anniversary celebration of Woodstock in 1999. Some of the musicians originally associated with Riot Grrrl responded to this atmosphere with renewed vigor and opposition, carrying on feminist ideals and paving the way for all-female bands. Bikini Kill disbanded officially in 1998, but Hanna formed a new band in

Rumack in Mitchell et al., 98.

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1999 called Le Tigre. Their goal is to make great music that radical people can recognize their values in2; while the groups musical style is quite different from the raw punk characteristic of Riot Grrrl3, Le Tigre nevertheless succeeds in expressing profound feminist ideals. Meanwhile, Sleater-Kinney has transformed itself into an indie favorite while still delivering a strong feminist message.4 Bratmobile had broken up in 1994 but was relaunched in 1999, their fierceness undiminished. The latter two bands were instrumental in the formation of Ladyfests, weekend-long festivals held in cities across the U.S. and Europe that are exclusively for women performers and artists, with each one featuring artists from the area or city in which they are based.5 Many critics and musicians see Ladyfest as a new version of Riot Grrrl or a continuation of the movement. Says Allison Wolfe of Bratmobile, With Riot Grrrl, there was such a sense of community, but it had been broken off, and I wanted to get women back together to make music, to build community, to network, to have a specific goal.6 Not only was the spirit of Ladyfest reminiscent of Riot Grrrl, the stylistic touches at the festivals bore a sharp resemblance to the Riot Grrrl aesthetic. The photocopied programs were constructed in the style of many zines, and the A in Ladyfest was remodeled to resemble the symbol for anarchy, thus maintaining Riot Grrrls revolutionary force.7 Ladyfest attests to the lasting influence of Riot Grrrl and how is has impacted the third wave. My argument throughout this paper has been that Riot Grrrl fits within the third wave

http://www.letigreworld.com/sweepstakes/html_site/fact/fact.html See track 15 on the supplemental CD. 4 See track 16 on the supplemental CD. 5 Theres something different for every town...each ones organized to speak to that city or that community feeling, to highlight performers and artists from that area, stated Allison Wolfe. Eric Brace, Ladyfest D.C.: Grrrls, Uninterrupted, Washington Post 2 Aug. 2002: T05. 6 Ibid. 7 Sue Carpenter, This Ladys More Riot Grrrl than Lilith; Rockers at This Feminist, Grassroots Festival Do It Their Way And Dont Care About Money or Critics, Los Angeles Times 7 Aug. 2000: F1.
3

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due to their overlapping focus on diversity, body issues, and their reclaiming of the feminist title. The idea that Riot Grrrl was an expression of third-wave ideals, however, also leads one to conclude that the movement influenced the third wave. In other words, while Riot Grrrl is useful as a case study for understanding the third wave, it is important to note its contribution, however small, to this new generation of feminists. The third wave is difficult to definitively characterize; it is a mix of complicated ideas and forces, some of which contradict each other. However, there is one quality that most third wavers and scholars agree on as being a defining trait of the third wave: the emphasis on individuality. Riot Grrrl encouraged women to express themselves in however manner they wished, insisting that each grrrl cultivate her own version of the movement and feminist ideals. That spirit is very much alive today, as evidenced by the proliferation of zines8 and the variety of ways in which young women engage in feminist activism. Most importantly, Riot Grrrl fostered a sense of importance in these seemingly small actions of resistance and encouraged the belief that individual acts, while differing widely from girl to girl, are just as significant as large-scale collective activism. Kathleen Hanna captures this sentiment in an essay appearing in Jigsaw Youth:
Resistance is everywhere, it always has been and always will be. Just because someone is not resisting in the same way you are (being a vegan, an out lesbian, a political organizer) does not mean they are not resisting. Being told you are a worthless piece of shit and not believing it is a form of resistance. One girl calling another girl to warn her about a guy who date raped her, is another. And while she may look like a big haired makeup girl who goes out with jocks, she is a soldier along with every other girl, and even though she may not be fighting in the same loud way that some of us can (and do) it is the fact that she is resisting that connects us...9

It is interesting to compare Hannas writing, published in 1991, to the writing of third wavers eleven years later. Any political movement is only as advanced as the individual it represents.
8

Elke Zobi, Lets Smash Patriarchy! Zine Grrrls and Ladies at Work, Off Our Backs 33: 4, 60. See also http://www.grrrlzines.net.

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Ultimately, the successes of feminism can only be measured by individual womens quality of life, states one essayist.10 This is the point where Riot Grrrl and the third wave coincide the most. It cannot be said that Riot Grrrl had a large, significant impact on the third wave. Many third wavers today are unfamiliar with Riot Grrrl, and some of the ones that did know about it as it took place in the early 90s were uninterested. However, Riot Grrrl is important for the third wave for two reasons. First, the study of Riot Grrrl practices and ideas helps people to better understand the complex nature of the third wave. The second reason is that despite the lack of interest or familiarity with Riot Grrrl, many third wavers unknowingly adopt some of the same strategies and embody the same principles as Riot Grrrl in their writings and activism. Thus the movements ideology subtly and indirectly impacted the third waves mode of thinking. This is the legacy of Riot Grrrl.

Kathleen Hanna, Jigsaw Youth, spring 1991. Reprinted in the liner notes to The C.D. Version of the First Two Records, Kill Rock Stars, 1994. 10 Kiini Ibura Salaam, How Sexual Harassment Slaughtered, Then Saved Me, in Hernndez, 335.

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