Survival Of The Feminist - Evolution Of The Riot Girl Scene
Riot Girl (officially known as “Riot Grrrl”) was an underground punk rock movement “of the girls, by the girls, and for the girls,” which was quite a rage among the new generation feminists in the 1990s. It started in 1991 as the voice of women in the male-dominated punk rock scene of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Not long after, it underwent a metamorphosis and became the harbinger of the so-called third wave feminism.
A Brief Outline Of The Evolution Of The Riot Girl Movement
The band’s popularity grew exponentially in the first four or five years. It began in the West Coast of the USA, spread to the other parts of the country, and then crossed the Atlantic to create waves in the UK. Before the accidental founders of the movement even realized it, this presence had spread to a number of countries including Brazil, Malaysia, and Australia.
However, members of the movement found the widespread media attention too uncomfortable to live with. There were differences of opinion about what paths they should take. The lead figures of the movement were frequently misquoted in the media. In fact, they became exactly the thing they had opposed all along: an object of public curiosity and sexual desire. The pungent sarcasm in their activities, lyrics, and writings failed to open the eyes of a society that is punch-drunk with male dominance.
The Riot Girl movement is still active but has lost the aura it once had. To use a metaphor straight from male-dominated jargon, it is a Lolita who has grown old.
History Of The Movement
Two punk rock bands acted as the pillars in the growth of the movement: Bikini Kill and Bratmobile. Bikini Kill is widely regarded as the first of the riot-girl band. Kathleen Hanna and her friends Kathi Wilcox and Billy Karren started this band as a response to the arrogant dominance of men in the Punk Rock Scene. They focused more on passion and performance than on instrumental perfection. They were amateurs and proud of it. Their songs were about issues that resulted from the perceived inequality of women: rape, physical submission, and the portrayal of women as sexual objects.
Their music attracted similarly-minded girls, and subsequently paved way for the International Pop Underground Convention in 1991, at Olympia Washington. It was then that Bratmobile and other similar bands joined the fray, and many other functions occurred later. These meetings triggered a do-it-yourself (DIY) frenzy of zine publishing.
Zine is the short form for magazines published informally. Write as much as desired on whatever form of paper available, take photocopies of it, and bundle it all together to create a zine ready and raring to be read.
These zines were memorably and provokingly titled, such as 7-year bitches, CWA (short form for Cunts with Attitude), the Phantom Pregnancies, and Pussycat Trash. Through these zines, the Riot Girls projected themselves as feminists, but not man-haters. They were sick of a world run by males and wanted a slice of the power pie.
The Riot Girl movement didn’t sustain its initial momentum. Internal conflicts came into the fore, and media attention and the rough attitude of male audiences proved stumbling blocks in the path of progress. It never achieved the girl revolution its founders had hoped for, but it remains a sparkling phase in the history of feminist movements.
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