AFRAM Blog Post #3

In Alice Bag’s mission statement for the Women Who Rock Oral History Archive, she outlines very similar goals that were first brought up in the early punk rock women’s movement (Bag, 2019). The Women Who Rock Archive and the Riot Grrrl community, specifically Kathleen Hannah, use music as a platform to bring light to women’s issues and rights. Music has historically, and still continues to today, excludes women from being able to be heard and seen the same as male artists in this industry.

In a community of punk rock women, called Riot Grrrls, they used music as their channel to fight for women’s rights. The genre of punk has a masculine connotation to it, which excluded women from enjoying this music, community and genre in the same way as men could. In the clip about Kathleen Hannah, there were clips showing mosh pits at her shows that were incredibly violent. Men jumping on top of people, shoving through the crowd and people getting hurt left and right. There was a woman in the back of the show that expressed frustration with the violence she experienced at these shows that make it almost impossible for women to experience the shows the way that men have the privilege of doing so. Kathleen Hannah addresses these inequities and issues in her music and her shows. She performs unapologetically and aggressively, like men punk artists, and encourages women to come to the front at her shows (Hannah, 2014). Like Kathleen Hannah, The Women Who Rock Archive centers women in music in the fight to bring awareness to women’s rights

References:

Alice Bag, WWR Oral History Archive http://content.lib.washington.edu/wwrweb/

Clip from Girls to the Front featuring Bikini Kill’s Kathleen Hannah,

https://youtu.be/a2juOY5RODw

DJ Selections: 

These two artists are women who use their music as a platform to center the experiences of women. Artist Lido Pimienta is also known for calling up Women of color to the front of her shows, much like how Kathleen Hannah would do in her shows. Pussy Riot is a punk band who have dedicated their career towards fighting gender inequality and are just as much considered an activist group as they are a band.

Pussy Riot: Make America Great Again

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=19&v=s-bKFo30o2o&feature=emb_logo

Lido Pimienta - Quiero Que Te Vaya Bien

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=38&v=aJ25bD5YaB4&feature=emb_logo