RIOT GRRRLS!

 So far in this class, my favorite article that we were assigned to read is Pussy Rioting: The Nine Lives of the Riot GRRRL Revolution.  I was already fond of and familiar with the Riot Grrrl movement before this class but that article made me appreciate it more. I wish that I had grown up during this movement because I myself am and woman involved in the punk scene. I found it very interesting that they tried to redefine the word girl. They were “angry at a society that tells us that girl=dumb, girl=bad, girl=weak,” and want to want to change the meaning of word to represent soul force and something that can change the world for real.  I look up to the bands and woman involved in Riot Grrrl because they didn’t make their music for the purpose of making money or to get famous, they made their music to reach out to girls all over and take a stand for the rights that they all deserve. They did not try to perfect their music but focused on the noise and messages they tried to get out in their songs. Their music was rebellious, in your face, and fast paced, which are qualities still instilled in punk music today.  They wanted Riot Grrrl to be something that all girls could feel a part of and wanted it to defined by whatever anyone wants it to be. Riot Grrrl’s were against the norms and of society and went against the media. They used DIY ethos to get their messages out by preforming and setting up their own shows, recording and handing out their own cds, and by creating their own vine. It was brave of them to go on stage with words like bitch and slut written on their barely clothed bodies. I believe they did this to backlash against getting stereotyped as just sexual objects to men. They wanted to take away the rights of those stereotyping them by plasting it on themselves. They raised up a lot of controversy by singing about and speaking out about issues such as sexual identity, racism awareness, sexual abuse, and self-preservation. No other artists at the time were so freely and outspoken about these issues. In the article it says that the Riot Grrrl was seen to have died by saying, “For some Riot Grrrls, the exploitative media scrutiny was the accomplice if the not the killer itself”. The media did use this movement to profit by selling punk fashion in stores and placing very thin and done up models on the cover of magazines wearing underwear to advertise the movement.  I don’t believe that this movement died though, because its cause spread to all parts of the world. Its significance is still important today because woman are now more accepted in the punk scene.