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TABLE OF CONTENTS 3 : Riot Grrrl Manifesto 4 – 5 : What is Riot Grrl? 8 – 13 : Riot Grrl & Addiction 16 – 23 : Riot Grrrl & Privilege 26 – 33 : Riot Grrrl & Sexism 36 – 39 : Wrap Up
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What is Riot Grrrl Riot grrrl is an underground feminist punk movement that began during the early 1990s within the United States in the Pacific North West and expanded to at least 26 other countries. Riot grrrl is a subcultural movement within punk that combines feminism, punk music and politics. The bands associated with Riot Grrrl often address issues such as rape, domestic abuse, sexuality, racism, classism, sexism, anarchism, and female empowerment. In addition to a unique music scene and genre, Riot Grrrl became a subculture involving a DIY ethic, zines, art, political action and activism.
“I would much rather be the obnoxious feminist girl than be complicate in my own dehumanization.”
“I am not going to have any more ‘fat days.’ I will not be dictated to by patriarchal media bullshit which tells me I’m not good enough. I will wear what I like, eat what I like, fuck who I like and identify however I want.”
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riot grrrl & addiction The following images and quotes come from a Riot Grrrl zine called “April Fools Day” written by Kathleen Hanna in 1996. This zine is all about the intersection between oppression and addiction. This zine focuses on Kathleen’s specific experience with being a recovering alcoholic along with some interviews with other recovering addicts. Addiction has unfortunately always been a big part of punk culture. Because of this there is yet another subculture of punk that calls themselves Straight Edge whose adherents refrain from using alcohol, tobacco and other recreational drugs, in reaction to the excesses of punk subculture.
“I am not at all into the idea that everyone who drinks or uses is an addict or that addicts are fucked up, dirty bad people”
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riot grrrl / addiction
“Yeah, but taking care of ourselves is the loudest most obnoxious “fuck you” we can possibly scream at people & the institutions that hurt us.”
“I hate to say it but he was a better singer before he got clean.” And I’ve heard a lot of that, you know, the idea that you create better when yr tortured or fucked up or whatever. Or even in punk rock the idea is that the more you destroy yr body the more punk you are, whereas, what I think is that punk is about having fun and empowering yrself within a community, and, y’know, that you can do things and it’s not just the people who have a lot of money and access to everything that get to control what gets made or talked about or whatever. WE can get our equipment together and make music with our friends and stuff; and I just hate the idea that punk is about self destruction.”
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“how can a womens group really be working for women if it’s not working against racism and classism? for non-white women, racism is something they face every day. for working class women, classism is something they face everyday. these are major life oppressions. how can a group be activists for a group of people of they don’t fight their opression?”
riot grrrl & privilege Privilege was another thing the Riot Grrrl Movement focused on. Through their zines they acknowledged their privilege and agreed that the way society puts people in categories is fucked up. The spoke up about white privilege, pretty privilege, able–bodied privilege, economic privilege, and others that many others in the punk scene refused to speak on. All the quotes and images from their zines. “the point i’m trying to make is well, something you probably know, there’s a lot of fucking unacknowledged privilege and abuse of that privilege in our pretty punk scene”
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riot grrrl / privilege
“the poor things are just too punk for this american work force... you know employers are very discriminating against mohawks, piercings, tatoos, and dirty hair. read here: the punks need to look this way and desire to look this way because that’s their privilege.” Riot Grrrl zine writers called out their own shit just as much as everyone elses. They were big on making sure they recognized the privilege they had as well as calling people out on abusing their privilege. “Getting a college education has privileged me in so many ways and given me access to lots of resources and even tho it sucked in a lot of ways, i’m not denying what a fucken privilege going to college was.”
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riot grrrl & sexism Sexism was one the main reasons for the creation of Riot Grrrl. Riot Grrrl encouraged women to develop their own place in the predominantly white male-dominated punk scene. Riot Grrrl also stood up against those who degraded women based on their jobs, color of their skin, or their economic standing. “You learn that the only way to get rock-star power as a girl is to be a groupie and bare your breasts and get chosen for the night. We learn that the only way to get anywhere is through men. And it’s a lie.”
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riot grrrl / sexism
“We are totally discouraged from learning to play instruments or fix things because in school it is “suggested” that we have to take Home Ec (instead of Shop) and Chorus (instead of Band) and then we get treated like we are dumb cuz we can’t play Stairway to Heaven on the first try or fix our own cars. But see a lot of us don’t even have our own cars, meaning we have to walk places... and this is horrifying cuz everyone in the world thinks they can judge us like we are in a walking talking beauty contest always. They always comment on you, what HE thinks, what HE sees... it makes you never want to go out and I guess that’s the point.” “We’re not going to starve ourselves, deny ourselves,cut ourselves with knives, suck out our fat, our bodies, with vacuums & leave bruises to satisfy someone else, to line the pockets of the billion dollar diet industry.”
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riot grrrl / sexism
“It is really obnoxious when feminists assume that sex trade workers don’t know what they are doing, and that they have been “duped” by the patriarchy. I mean do they honestly think that you take off your clothes and get up naked in front of a room full of men who wanna stick dollar bills in your butt, and ARE UNAWARE that you are being exploited? Come on... it’s a fucking job, and like all jobs it sucks. I personally decided to be a sex trade worker cuz I feel a lot less exploited making $20 dollars an hour for dancing around naked than I do getting paid $4.25 an hour (and being physically, psychically and sometimes sexually exploited) as a waitress or burgerslinger.”
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“With this whole Riot Grrrl thing, we’re not trying to make money or get famous; we’re trying to do something important, to network with grrrls all over, to make changes in our own lives and the lives of other girls. There is no concrete vision or expectation. We Riot Grrrls aren’t aligning ourselves with any one position or consensus, because in all likelyhood we don’t agree on everything. One concrete thing we do agree on so far is that it’s cool / fun to have a place where we can safely and supportively confront, express ourselves, and bring up issues that are important to us.”
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All images and quotes in this publication come from the original Riot Grrrl zines listed below. The Nerdy Grrrl Revolution 2 / Bikini Kill Girl Power / April Fools Day / Channel Seven / Bikini Kill Color and Activity Book / Growing Pains 1 / Wrecking Ball 2
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