AFRAM 337 Blog Post #3: Race & Riot Grrrl

Name: Allison Bennett

AFRAM 337 Blog Post #3: Race & Riot Grrrl

With ‘90s Seattle grunge being my all-time favorite musical genre, I was excited to get into this week’s readings, to say the least. I found myself learning (for the first time!) about a scene which thrived alongside the spotlight of Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and the other iconic Seattle grunge bands: the riot grrrl movement. While the Moore piece painted a rosy picture of the riot grrrl movement, the Nguyen piece offered some important critiques regarding the movement’s tendency to ignore or oversimplify questions of race and power. In this way, the Moore piece seems to demonstrate exactly what Nguyen is criticizing: treating the riot grrrl movement as something that empowered all girls universally, rather than acknowledging the complexities that race and institutional racism carry with them in shaping how different individuals experience the world. Importantly, however, both Moore and Nguyen ultimately praise the riot grrl movement, with Nguyen going so far as to say that she “truly [believes] that riot grrrl was…the best thing that every happened to punk” (Nguyen 6). Likewise, in praising Bikini Kill, Moore writes that in their “hands…punk became an instrument of empowerment for young women to create and communicate with one another using a do-it-yourself approach” (Moore 130). However, the two authors’ works differ in that Nguyen points out the darker side of the riot grrl movement, contending that it “often reproduced structures of racism” by attempting to “universalize what weren’t very universal definitions of ‘woman,’ ‘the female condition,’ and ‘women’s needs (Nguyen 6). Nguyen argues that often times, white riot grrrls failed to understand and acknowledge the ways that race, gender, sexuality, etc. interact to create unique systems of oppression and advantage for each individual. Put differently, many grrrls within the movement wrongly treated all women as experiencing the same struggles in the same way (being the middleclass, white female way) (Nguyen 6). Interestingly, this same kind of logic seems to be (unintentionally) deployed by Moore. For example, he explains that “young women used zines to…communicate with a network of others regarding the social and personal problems they faced” (Moore 127). He goes on to argue that riot grrrl zines were a medium for girls to discuss their experiences with shared problems. While this may be true, his language is universalistic, seeming to imply that all girls face the same problems in the same way, without considering the ways in which race might matter. Overall, Moore only considers the “positives” of the riot grrl movement, without critically engaging in questions of who may have been centered within the movement, at the expense of others. Does “Double Dare Ya” resonate with ALL girls in the same way? Ultimately, I find both authors’ pieces compelling, although I wish that Moore had addressed the complexities of the riot grrrl movement by recognizing intersectionality and its effects on how each individual experiences the world. As for my DJ Selections, I have chosen “Oscura Sociedad” by Destruye Y Huye, and “平和の夢” by Krimewatch. I wanted to highlight voices of women of color in punk, exemplifying how race, ethnicity, and gender often interact to shape an artist’s music and experiences as a musician. Made up of women of color, Destruye y Huye’s song lyrics are all in Spanish; the lyrics of Krimewatch’s songs blend English and Japanese, reflecting the multifaceted identity of the frontwoman, Rhylli. Both songs are powerful, potentially serving as anthems for many girls of color whose unique perspectives are often left out of the narrative of punk and music as a whole.

DJ Selections:


Destruye Y Huye, “Oscura Sociedad” (2014): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1yRNAwYP6o&feature=youtu.be

*note: this is the full album; the song ends at 2:18*


Krimewatch, “平和の夢” (2018): https://krimewatch.bandcamp.com/album/krimewatch




Works Cited


Mimi Nyugen, “It’s (Not) a White World: Looking for Race in Punk.” Punk Planet 28


Ryan Moore, “Young, Gifted and Slack,” Sells Like Teen Spirit: Music, Youth Culture and  Social Crisis (New York: NYU, 2009).