These Riot Grrrls used their platform as creators to combat larger issues in a way that came across as startling and abrupt. This seems to be both intentional in order to get the kind of attention that they deserved and simply because of this punk/rock style that they embodied that for vanilla white moms of the suburbs could really shake the table. A lot of this movement was underground, but not exactly quiet, which is this "I wont dare tread lightly, f*ck you" type mindset, but still having to work within the bounds of what your audience may accept because these women were still trying to create a career.
First. The name.
The name "Riot Grrl" rhetorically is a visual and audial experience, even if you are just reading the word on a sign or a shirt/merch. One feels the anger and angst that is common in the punk/rock music scene in general, but also this mad woman vibe that is here and not leaving. This is intentional.
Bikini Kill.
(also listen to the song that's in this hyperlink. this whole thing will make more sense)
But this shirt thoooooooo.......
Too much aesthetic. I scream. But this aesthetic was what this movement relied on very heavily. This is rhetoric too. They are physical representations of the lyrics they produce and the rhetoric they speak and stand for.
This is their website presently. Very Red Rum-ish. Or Menstrual cycle-ish. Or the blood of dead hegemonic male power. I dunno. You choose. The specific analysis of the members of this movement is important and can say a lot about the movement as a whole.
This was a band that more or less started this movement. When you are a creator of some sort, there is a heavy amount of influence potential that you can have on a large audience. This lead to a strong of bands and audience members co-existing this rebel grrrl space. It feels like a shoving outward of feminism that is very interconnected down to the very concert experience that was to be had. The fashion. The flyers. The dancing style. The social issues that the bands focused on. Etc.
Kathleen Hanna. Co-founder of Bikini Kill and Riot Grrrl. Recent Youtube chats. It still lives. She is talking about fans and bands and people doing pro-things in anti-ways."A big reason why I started a band is because people kept saying feminism was dead," she says in this interview. Connecting this historical moment to the history of this movement is significant. Cool stuff. Symbolism of why we are still talking about this. How does this apply to 2018? Where are the modern Riot Grrls? Are they the goths? The emo girls? Scene girls? Is this even a necessary question? Lots of things.
We have a documentary. This is focused in New York rather than in Europe where a lot of it started. So this was a movement that definitely crossed oceans, it was underground but partially global.
Here is a flyer. She is not posing in a demure, meek way....she is here and she is ready to riot. The mood transfers.
SO this angry girl thing is problematic if they are being called angry, like labeled and things, but if they are saying "YES I am ANGRY" that is cool. They have every right to be that. But just tossing them off as angry women who need to chill is not okay. That happens now. That happened then.
They are having to justify themselves at the bottom of this. This tells us a lot about the rhetoric that was happening during this movement and the rhetoric that had to been given back in response to this.
We even have Youtube stuff as early as 2018 that is explaining this whole movement. Narrated by a guy, which is interesting, but nevertheless, onward.
The use of their own satire in the rhetoric of their songs in response to that of the male gaze and voice is interesting. "political punk band" is how a lot of these bands were described. There's a lot to be said, but not much is surprising on how they were responded to. They were a weird parallel to second wave stereotypes due to this.
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