Revolution Girl Style Now

In the past few months, folks seem to have rediscovered punk rock revolutionaries like Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, Heavens to Betsy, and Huggy Bear. Riot grrrls and their predecessors have been getting a lot of press recently: Bikini Kill has a new archive on the web, the book Girl Power: The Nineties Revolution in Music was released, Kathleen Hanna has resurfaced for interviews, the Sundance Film Festival held three screenings of The Runaways (Joan Jett is often cited as an influence for many of these musicians).

At a time when few women even came out for rock shows, the riot grrrls were a a no-holds-barred voice for women. They took feminism from the inaccessible world of theory and criticism and dropped it into music and popular culture. They made it relevant for a younger generation, bringing third wave feminist thinking to the forefront. And they did so amidst cries of “show us your tits” and threats of violence from the audience. The resulting media firestorm painted them as adversarial attention-seekers but ignored their core messages: women can be empowered, they can play music just as well as men, sexuality is nothing to be ashamed of, sexual and domestic violence must stop. They opened up the doors for women in the music world, both concertgoers and musicians alike. We can thank them in part for the feminist groups that followed, such as Sleater-Kinney, The Gossip and Le Tigre.

Unfortunately, popular culture is slow to change. Google “women in music” and you'll find proof that many still place more emphasis on women's looks than talent. It can be discouraging to see young female musicians play into someone else's idea of sexuality rather than being able to establish their own. Girl power has become a commodity.

There is still hope. One of the many goals of the riot grrrl movement was to have women create a culture they could feel good about. They made music and zines without much money or outside support, proving that DIY culture could have a widespread influence. Though their message is still misinterpreted, the fact remains that we benefit from their work today. Feminist zines have turned into feminist blogs, and rock and roll camps for girls have sprung up. The framework the riot grrrls established still exists, ready and waiting. Perhaps the world is finally ready for another feminist movement in popular culture. We don't need to be famous, we don't need money, we don't need anything more than determination and desire. But one thing is for sure: we still need revolution girl style now.