Back in the early 90s I was in a punk band. Our town had only two punk band with girls in them, and the local venue invited us to open for Bikini Kill when they came to town.
It was crazy because all of these skinheads showed up and started spitting on us and yelling "Dyke". I didn't see it, but apparently Kathleen Hannah went ballistic and started screaming at the guys running the show to do something.
Ooohhhh, Riot Girl! The very first things I ever looked up on the brand spanking new "interscapewebnetz" circa 1994 /1995 was fan sites for Riot Girl bands. Especially Bikini Kill, Hole and Babes in Toyland. I used to make spcial visits to my mum's work just to use Alta Vista to search "Courtney Love". Lo, I am a child of the 1990s.
I was just thinking of how I got introduced to feminism the other day (thank you Women's Studies 100) and thought back to being exposed to riot grrl at a young age. When I was 11 I had a subscription to seventeen magazine and in 1993 there was an article that featured that same picture of the knuckles with riot grrl written on it. I devoured the article but never knew how to get the music until a couple years later. I worshiped Bikini Kill, saw Sleater-Kinney about 15 times, my friend got dissed by the girl from Bratmobile.
I miss being in my teens and discovering music and feeling like a part of a scene. Ever since SK broke up I haven't felt that kind of connection at shows.
this post makes me so proud to be born and raised in olympia, WA! i currently live on sleater-kinney rd... as in, the same street the ladies got their name from. sorry, i just gotta boast a little.
Even though I was already a confirmed feminist when Riot Grrrl started happening, and even though I liked many of the individual bands, there was always something about the movement that made me unable to fully get on board with it. It was often too clumsily ideological, in spite of my agreement with a lot of the ideology. Too regional, maybe; too white, definitely. My ideal revolution would connect me with something much larger than my own demographic, and I didn't see Riot Grrrl doing that, much. Am I alone here?
In case I haven't already completely killed my cred with the above, I'll confess to something even more dubious: I also failed to connect with and love the shit out of Sassy like I was supposed to. I think I'm definitely alone here. I've never been able to put my finger on exactly why, but there it is.
Having said that, I plan to watch the above clips at my leisure - maybe I'll figure something out that has eluded me before. I also think it would be a bummer if this post died a late-night death. This is a totally Jezebel topic that deserves a thorough discussion.
@MockMyWorld: This is old and I know it's dead but I wanted to say that your criticisms are shared by a lot of people I know, including girls who were heavily involved with the whole scene at the time. I've heard a lot about how it was super white and super middle-class and kind of snotty how ultimately it amounted to little more than cultural activism. A lot of ex-riot grrrls don't have very nice things to say about ladies like Kathleen Hanna and Alison Wolfe.
But as for me...well, I was a teenage girl in Utah who occupied weird space as both a Mormon and an out-and-proud feminist, and so things like riot grrrl and Sassy spoke to me in ways little else did. I was really nothing like those girls - I was not punk, I did not wear Doc Martens until I was 16 and I didn't pierce anything until I was 18 - but just knowing they existed gave me hope for life outside of what I knew.
@tomatoheart: and nomy if you read this...i'm sorry for being such a twit, i was underexposed to any sort of political activism, despite knowing people who were very much in the scene. Live and learn.
I used to live in a house in DC that previously housed Riot Grrrl Press. We used to get mail all the time addressed to them and I always felt bad about it.
This is crazy. I'm in the process of writing/directing a play about riot grrrl, and suddenly all this stuff is popping up. The Guardian article was the most fortuitous, considering I'm in London. Keep it coming, Universe!
I was never into the whole riot grrrl thing (I thought I was cool and only listened to DC/Dischord bands at the time), but I think I only disliked it because of the way my friends bastardized it. You know, because mid-90s skater boys liked barrettes and plaid skirts. Ugh, no wonder I could never get a date.
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It was crazy because all of these skinheads showed up and started spitting on us and yelling "Dyke". I didn't see it, but apparently Kathleen Hannah went ballistic and started screaming at the guys running the show to do something.
*sigh*
I still have a girl-crush on Kathleen Hannah.
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I miss being in my teens and discovering music and feeling like a part of a scene. Ever since SK broke up I haven't felt that kind of connection at shows.
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In case I haven't already completely killed my cred with the above, I'll confess to something even more dubious: I also failed to connect with and love the shit out of Sassy like I was supposed to. I think I'm definitely alone here. I've never been able to put my finger on exactly why, but there it is.
Having said that, I plan to watch the above clips at my leisure - maybe I'll figure something out that has eluded me before. I also think it would be a bummer if this post died a late-night death. This is a totally Jezebel topic that deserves a thorough discussion.
03/12/09
But as for me...well, I was a teenage girl in Utah who occupied weird space as both a Mormon and an out-and-proud feminist, and so things like riot grrrl and Sassy spoke to me in ways little else did. I was really nothing like those girls - I was not punk, I did not wear Doc Martens until I was 16 and I didn't pierce anything until I was 18 - but just knowing they existed gave me hope for life outside of what I knew.
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It's far more difficult than you'd think.
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Dad: "What's the girl's name?"
Me: "Oh, she's Corin Tucker, and the band is called Sleater-Kinney"
Dad: "Are they all girls?"
Me: "Yup, they are, and they're awesome"
Dad: "Oh."
Then he commented on how angry they sound, and proceeded to call my music satanic for the next two weeks.
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@lookatmissohio: haha, my parents couldn't get Tori. "Who is she and why is she breathing so much?"
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