Women: The Riot Grrrl Movement

In common sense, when people think of punk music they still think of the eighties. However people often associate the message of all punk music as containing nothing more then violent anti-government statements and messages of alienation. Many people share the view that it has nothing to say and has offered nothing but a continued sentiment of hostility towards its fans. This is an unfair judgment of a genre of music whose fans are as variable as the messages of the music itself. Punk music has indeed offered a message of abstinence rather then promiscuity, faith rather then hopelessness, understanding rather then hate, and love rather then hate. The public in general often takes the messages negative, angry and mostly childish. Women

By adopting the punk Do It Yourself philosophy, creating their own zines and forming bands, those involved in creating riot grrrl utilized established punk methods to develop their own independent movement. The philosophy of riot grrrl was developed in response to the exclusion many women experienced within the punk subculture, a movement they had joined to escape their alienation from dominant culture and resist mainstream influences. The rejection of hierarchy, formal organization, and designated leadership was central to the Riot grrrl philosophy. Participants were encouraged to adapt the movement to fit their needs, define it in relationship to their experiences, and engage with other Riot grrrls in order to expand the influence of the movement. As Riot grrrl music became popular and those associated with it received media attention, young women across the United States began to identify with riot grrrl and participate in the new movement. While many simply assumed Riot grrl as part of their identity, others sought out communities of like-minded young women in order to join in and contribute to the movement. These communities were manifested through the formation of “riot grrrl chapters,” meetings where women would discuss political goals, experiences, beliefs and ideas, as

While there are similarities between the movements, many of these collapse under close research. In addition, by conflating riot grrrl and the third wave, or even by categorizing Riot grrrl as a display of third wave ideals, critics have undermined the self-rule of Riot grrrl and ignored the difficulties of third wave feminist thought. This represents the first step in addressing these effects. By engaging in a detailed analysis of both Riot grrrl and the third wave, these findings are based largely on the consideration of Riot grrrl zines, which represent an important under utilized method for analyzing the movement. Due to increasing availability, other scholars interested in the Riot grrrl subculture can engage with these texts in ways that were prohibited only a few years ago. While Riot grrrl zines have a significant portion of the theoretical and philosophical production of the movement, they are also the autobiographical works of young women. Although the distribution of the Internet has provided an outlet and community to many individuals who feel lonely from mainstream society, these zines represent the collective expressions of a small but vocal group of individuals in opposition to leading culture and their privileged