Dissertation

DISSERTATION Titel der Dissertation “We’re Punk as Fuck and Fuck like Punks:”* Queer-Feminist Counter-Cultures, Punk Music and the Anti-Social Turn in Queer Theory Verfasserin Mag.a Phil. Maria Katharina Wiedlack angestrebter akademischer Grad Doktorin der Philosophie (Dr. Phil.) Wien, Jänner 2013 Studienkennzahl lt. Studienblatt: A 092 343 Studienrichtung lt. Studienblatt: Anglistik und Amerikanistik Betreuerin / Betreuer: Univ. Prof.in Dr.in Astrid Fellner Earlier versions and parts of chapters One, Two, Three and Six have been published in the peer-reviewed online journal Transposition: the journal 3 (Musique et théorie queer) (2013), as well as in the anthologies Queering Paradigms III ed. by Liz Morrish and Kathleen O’Mara (2013); and Queering Paradigms II ed. by Mathew Ball and Burkard Scherer (2012); * The title “We’re punk as fuck and fuck like punks” is a line from the song Burn your Rainbow by the Canadian queer-feminist punk band the Skinjobs on their 2003 album with the same name (released by Agitprop Records). Content 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................... 1 2. “To Sir With Hate:” A Liminal History of Queer-Feminist Punk Rock ….………………………..…… 21 3. “We’re punk as fuck and fuck like punks:” Punk Rock, Queerness, and the Death Drive ………………………….………….. 69 4. “Challenge the System and Challenge Yourself:” Queer-Feminist Punk Rock’s Intersectional Politics and Anarchism……...……… 119 5. “There’s a Dyke in the Pit:” The Feminist Politics of Queer-Feminist Punk Rock……………..…………….. 157 6. “A Race Riot Did Happen!:” Queer Punks of Color Raising Their Voices ..……………..………… ………….. 207 7. “WE R LA FUCKEN RAZA SO DON’T EVEN FUCKEN DARE:” Anger, and the Politics of Jouissance ……….………………………….…………. 257 8. “We’ve got to show them we’re worse than queer:” Epilog ……………………………………………………………….……………. 289 References ………………………………………………………………………… 313 Abstracts ………………………………………………………………………….. 335 CV ………………………………………………………………………………… 337 Acknowledgements The completion of this doctoral dissertation was facilitated by grants from the Austrian Agency for International Cooperation in Research and Education (the Marietta Blau scholarship), the University of Vienna (Short Term Grant abroad) as well as the Students Union of the University of Vienna (ÖH-Uni-Wien-Topf zur Förderung feministischer/queerer Nachwuchswissenschafter*innen). I want to thank my supervisors Astrid Fellner and Hanna Hacker for their important and careful comments, their patience and critique. I am very grateful for their support of this unconventional project. I also want to thank Antke Engel for her critique and advice that helped me immensely to develop my theoretical approach. I want to express my gratefulness to my dear friend Nina Aron, who supported me with her riot grrrl wisdom as well as with her scholarly expertise. I also want to thank Cora Leighton and Lauren Perlman for discussing my work and sharing their knowledge with me. Moreover, I thank my interview partners Christy Road, Lee Frezari, Glynis Hull-Rochelle, Nein and the ‘Gay Campers,’ Osa Atoe, Errin Donahue, Karen Pittelman, Emily Rems, Kate Watkins, Lauran and the For the Birds Collective, Mary Feaster, and Selena from the band NeighTrain. Additionally, I thank Johanna Maria Rodriguez and the Gender and Women’s Studies Department at the University of California Berkeley for hosting me as visiting researcher. Last but not least I want to thank the participants of the Queer People of Color Reading group and the Decolonial Feminism Reading Group (2011/2012) at the Gender and Women’s Studies Department at the University of California Berkeley for working with me and inspiring me with their knowledge and critical thinking. 1 “We’re Punk as Fuck and Fuck like Punks:”1 Queer-Feminist Counter-Cultures, Punk Music and the Anti-Social Turn in Queer Theory 1. Introduction The topic of this doctoral dissertation is queer-feminist punk in the US between the mid- 1980s and today. What I understand as queer-feminist punk includes countercultures, as well as individual bands, musicians, writers and organizers, their politics and productions. Some of them are known as queercore, homocore or dykecore, as well as riot grrrl, some might be signified through different labels. Despite their different labels, and self- identifications, I understand the individual protagonists, scenes as well as their artistic and political discourses that I collected for my analysis as connected. Accordingly, I argue that queer-feminist punk countercultures belong to or form a political movement and that their productions—lyrics, writing, sound and performances—should be seen as a form of queer- feminist activism and agency. Furthermore, I argue that queer-feminist punk countercultural agents do not only engage with queer and feminist politics, as well as academic theory, but also produce queer-feminist political theory—a more or less coherent set of ideas to analyze, explain and counter oppressive social structures, as well as explicit and open violence and oppression. The usage of the terminology of queer-feminist politics—rather than queer politics—is inspired by the tradition of many activists around the world who account for the still prevalent sexism, misogyny and inequality in mainstream cultures as well as queer movements by foregrounding the feminist aspects of their queer politics. More recently, similar politics found their way into academic accounts, for example, through the book Feminism is Queer: The Intimate Connection between Queer and Feminist Theory (2010) by Mimi Marinucci, as well as the work of José Muñoz,2 Judith Jack Halberstam,3 and 1 The title “We’re Punk as Fuck and Fuck like Punks” is a line from the song Burn your Rainbow by the Canadian queer-feminist punk band the Skinjobs on their 2003 album with the same name (released by Agitprop Records). 2 Especially the books Disidentifications: Queers of Color and the Performance of Politics Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999 and Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity New York: New York UP, 2009 by José Muñoz are from a decidedly feminist and queer perspective. 2 others. Such activist and academic accounts alike conceptualize their queer politics as a continuation of feminist movements and theory rather than as a revolutionary break with it. Furthermore, such accounts seek a dialogue between lesbian and gay movements, second wave feminists and the diverse range of queer movements to build alliances and forms of solidarity. My examples of queer-feminist punk rock activists equally seek to find alliances with different groups of queer, feminist and decolonial thinkers and activists. They and their allies understand the usefulness of queer, feminist and decolonizing politics, activist strategies and social analysis against racialized discrimination, misogyny, homophobia, ableism, and transphobia of mainstream culture as well as the countercultural environments of punk rock and queer scenes. They combine feminist and decolonial accounts with their specific punk philosophy of anti-social queerness or queer negativity. Analyzing lyrical content, writing, music, sound, performances and countercultural settings in general, I provide examples of queer-feminist anti-social accounts of punk music, like expressions of negativity and anger, and argue that queer-feminist punk rock as such can be understood as a politics of negativity. Relating such queer-feminist punk negativity to academic concepts and scholarly work, I show how punk rock is capable of negotiating and communicating academic queer-feminist theoretical positions in a non-academic setting. Moreover, I argue that queer-feminist punk does not only negotiate, translate and appropriate academic accounts, but also produce similar negative and repoliticized queer-feminist theories without any direct inspiration through academic discourses. Taking queer-feminist punk countercultural discourses seriously, I, furthermore, argue that queer-feminist punk communities accomplish what academic queer theory following the Anti-Social Turn often does not achieve: they transform their radically anti- social queer positions into (models for) liveable activism. Moreover, they form social bonds through queer negativity that exceed normative forms of relationality. 3 Halberstam explains her feminist take on queer theory strongly in her books In a Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives. New York: New York University P, 2005 and The Queer Art of Failure Durham and London: Duke University P, 2011. 3 1.1. Radically queer Considering contemporary usages of the term queer within theory as well as political activism, I claim that queer-feminist punk offers a perspective on queerness as well as models for queer and feminist critique and social activism able to counter the ongoing inclusion of queerness into neoliberal capitalism. Such politics are able to reactivate the radical potential the term and concept queer used to have in earlier times. From a historical perspective the term queer emerged on the landscape of political discourse and activism in the 1990s as a counterposition or intervention. It was a term of resistance against oppression and a statement for radical social change.4 “It was a term that challenged the normalizing mechanisms of state power to name its sexual subjects: male or female, married or single, heterosexual or homosexual, natural or perverse,” as the scholars David Eng, Judith Jack Halberstam and

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