Afram post #3

The two pieces I am examining for this reflection are Emily White’s “The Rolling Stone Book of Women In Rock” and Mimi Nguyen. “It’s (Not) A White World: Looking For Race In Punk.” Both pieces tell a compelling viewpoint in the differences, similarities, and the conflicts of Women in the punk rock genre. Emily White’s article paints a picture of bands such as “Bikini Kill” taking a stand against the normative--orthodox values in punk rock. For example, in a video posted below the readings, we can see the lead in Bikini Kill (Kathleen Hanna) demands women to make their way to the front of the stage before kicking off into the music. Bands like Bikini Kill and Heavens to Betsy help propagate a new type of sound and cultural movement called “Riot grrl.” Riot grrl bands stood on feminist values and thus wrote/sung songs addressing social issues such as domestic abuse, sexuality, racism, and patriarchy.  As much energy they spent defining who they were (Riot grrl movement) they also spent defining who they are not. It seems that the antithesis of these bands was the major labels and the rock bands who “sell-out” by signing on to them—even going as far as calling Courtney Love a “Corporate Whore” from the Bikini Kill and Love feud.

Interestingly, this seems to go against the issues that Bikini Kill is addressing in their songs. Mimi Nguyen’s piece highlights an alternative narrative that the Riot Grrl movement was similar in their structures of exclusion by their attempts to categorize the discrimination a white middle-class woman is in the same likeness of black slavery. “ In the hey-day of the second wave, Euro-American feminists caught a lot of flak for comparing (white, middle-class) housework to (black) slavery and riot grrrls are hardly innocent.”

This conflict made me think if it’s ever possible to represent a “unified front” that addresses the social problems of everyone equally. Regardless of the probable good intentions, such an organization would have, I think it will always stop short somewhere.

https://youtu.be/UO-qjKEcLZg

"Say what you mean" --- The Lunachicks

https://youtu.be/Q5wZEn_aGYo

"Nothing Can Stop me" ---- Heavens to Betsy