AFRAM Blog Post 3

In the readings from this week, I concluded an overarching theme: rage against the patriarchal dominant culture in the United States. We started the week by learning about the origins of Indie Rock, and the push against those who are on the "inside" that was led by independent artists, such as Bikini Kill and Kurt Cobain. I find this idea of the outsiders vs. the insiders compelling. Especially when we change perspectives about what it constitutes to be inside vs. outside. In the case of Kurt Cobain, he used this "feud" to ironically, become an insider. The Riot Grrrl movement seemed to place women as "outsiders" compared to the "inside": a sexist dominant culture that affects gendered hierarchies at concerts/in the punk rock scene.

In Alice Bagg's autobiography "Violence Grrrl, " issues contained in the patriarchy are brought to light, and give a view of a female who is also latinX. Bagg discusses the origin of her distaste for the general behaviors of mankind--her father. She relives many traumatic events of domestic violence by her father onto her mother, stating, "My father was a monster. By that, I mean that everything I know about the deep, dark, ugly side of mankind, I learned from him" (Bagg, 19). This made me rethink my own history-- when did I realize the imbalance of power afforded to men over women in our society? And then I understood. The misogyny in America seeps into one's being like a slow cancer; from subtlety to subtlety-- young men and women are made to understand their "assigned roles." Of course, this has gotten better over time, but still exists. "Boys will be boys," "You should smile more," "You were asking for it," "Don't wear that, you don't want the boys to get any ideas." This is what I believe the Riot Grrrl Movement did a good job of emphasizing: the seemingly subtle ways that men, especially white men,  are put on a pedestal and excused in everyday life, while women are groomed to be small and impotent.

Punk bands like Bikini Kill emphasized theses subtleties as they applied to the scene they knew and loved most: the punk rock music concert. They brought attention to the sexual stigmas surrounding women through their choice of attire. They fought against the behavioral roles that are placed on women by screaming and acting "aggressive" at their concerts. They imposed a "women to the front" hierarchy at their concerts, which pushed against the "men to the front" hierarchy in everyday life. "Riot Grrrl is an alternative subculture built around opposition to presuppositions that young (usually white) U.S. girls and women are too preoccupied with themselves and boys to be interested in being political, creative, and loud" (Garrison, 142-143). This emphasizes a way that women have been excluded from contributing to political history. Since women have to deal with violence (such as in Alice Bagg's memoir), oppression, and all other stresses related to patriarchy, they have been forced to work 10x harder for everything--including freedom from their own oppression. When women are preoccupied with appearance, sexual stereotypes, assaults from men, silence from the government on sexual assault issues, body shaming, slut shaming, unequal pay for equal work, etc., they put less time into advancing their socioeconomic position as a whole. The subtleties of the sexist dominant culture have a gargantuan political effect.

Just a Girl- No Doubt

I chose to include "Just a Girl" by No Doubt because I feel that it does a lot of what the Riot Grrrl Movement also worked to accomplish. In this song, Gwen Stefani emphasizes many of the ways girls are taught to act in society by sarcastically exclaiming "I'm just a girl, all pretty and petite, so don't let me have any rights. I've had it up to here." 

Flawless- Beyonce

I chose this song, "Flawless" written by Beyonce, because it demonstrates how outraged women are at the patriarchal stereotypes in society. Especially stereo types concerning body image: Beyonce talks about how we all "Wake up, Flawless. With a spoken part by Ngozi Adichie, the same message that Riot Grrrl and Alice Bagg worked to bring to light is emphasized: that women and men are taught at from birth how to act, which shapes a patriarchal society. "We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller.... we say to girls, you can have amibition, but not too much. You should aim to be successful, but not too successful, or else you will threaten the man."