QUEERING PUNK: QUEER YOUTH AND THE IMPORTANCE OF PUNK ROCK

DENISE SCOTT

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This thesis explores the reasons that punk is important to those people who are a part of the subculture. It draws on punk books, zines and other independent publications, and song lyrics, as well as my own experiences as a queer punk to argue that, by creating a sense of community and a belief system, punk provides some youth with an alternative to mainstream society. Additionally, it posits that punk provides queer youth with an alternative to both the heteronormative mainstream culture and the dominant, and oftentimes homogenous, gay culture.

This thesis looks at the importance of queer punk bands and spaces, including the queercore movement, to queer youth, and in doing so, it also counters the invisibility of queer punks in punk literature, and in the punk scene more broadly. V Acknowledgements

Completing this thesis has been a long process, and I could not have done it without the support of some truly wonderful people. First and foremost, I would like to thank my mom for her patience and encouragement, and for putting up with my many "freak outs" along the way. To my supervisory committee (Steve Bailey,

Fuyuki Kurasawa, and Bobby Noble), thank you for all your guidance, support, and constructive criticism over the past few years. I would also like to thank my amazing friends for standing by me and providing me with some much-needed distractions, and Morgan and Trevor Holmes for their invaluable advice that helped me get to where I am today. Finally, I am forever indebted to the punk bands cited throughout my thesis, and all the others, that inspired this project, motivated me to keep going, and continue to serve as a soundtrack to my life. The nights spent skanking and slamming in mosh pits more than made up for the days spent staring blankly at a computer screen. TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract

Acknowledgements

Table off Contents

Introduction

Chapter One: Theorizing Punk 2 Resistance 2 Style 3 Authenticity 3 Class 3

Chapter Two: Queer Youth 4 (Mis)Representations of Queer Youth 4 Queer Youth Cultures

Chapter Three: The Importance of Punk Rock ( Defining Punk ( The Importance of Punk Rock J

Chapter Four: Queering Punk 1< Sexuality in Punk 1( Homophobia in Punk 1 Queercore V The Importance of Queer Punk V. Queer Punk Spaces V.

Conclusion V

References 1£ Discography 1€ 1 Introduction

Like many teenagers, high school, for me, was confusing and stressful. I was that misfit kid who wore weird clothes, who cared too much about doing well in school, and who was just generally uncool. I didn't know how to act around the other kids at school so I didn't make any close friends. But then again, how could I expect my peers to know me and accept me when even I hadn't figured out who I was yet?

Teenaged angst and alienation may be so common that it verges on cliche, but that didn't make it any less lonely at the time. Then I discovered punk, and suddenly it felt like at least one thing in my life made sense.

Lawrence Grossberg says that "fandom is, at least potentially, the site of the optimism, invigoration, and passion which are necessary conditions for any struggle to change the conditions of one's life" (1992: 65). If that is true, then I guess I am a

"fan," because at a time when I just wanted to stop and lie down, punk kept pushing me forward. It blocked out the noise in my head and gave voice to my anger and confusion. Punk, for me, was about more than just the politics or the clothes; it was, and still is, important to me in ways that, to this day, I am not sure I can effectively articulate. And the more I listen to the music, read the books, and go to the shows, the more I realize that it is like that for other people too.

About two-thirds of the way through my undergraduate Sociology degree, I discovered that I could incorporate my interest in punk into my schoolwork. This was around the same time that I started to embrace my queer identity, and I began to notice that there was very little acknowledgement of queer punks, both in the academic literature and in the punk scene. This observation was the initial inspiration for this project. It is intended to begin to fill in some of the gaps in the 2 literature by exploring the experiences of queer punks, myself included, and why punk rock is important to us.

Unlike many academic analyses of punk, which commonly focus on what punk means, I am more interested in why punk is meaningful to those youth, queer and straight, who are a part of it. I argue that punk provides some youth with certain things that they may not be able to get from mainstream culture, such as a sense of belonging among a community of likeminded individuals, and music and other cultural products that more effectively speak to their experiences and tastes.

Therefore, this project is less about how the punk subculture affects the wider society, and more about how the subculture provides youth with an alternative to that society.

I argue that the punk subculture, especially queer punk, offers queer youth an alternative to both heterosexual society and the dominant gay community, by which I mean the gay community that is most visible and easily accessible. As a result, queer youth are able to gain access to role models and positive images of queer sexuality and relationships that they may not be able to get from the mainstream media, where they are grossly underrepresented. Additionally, punk allows queer youth to participate in a social network that is different from the dominant gay community, which can, at times, have very specific aesthetic, musical, and cultural styles that do not necessarily resonate with all queer youth. Queer punk bands also increase the visibility of queer individuals within punk scenes, which can be heteronormative, and, on occasion, overtly homophobic. Queer punk therefore offers youth an alternative to the cultures they feel alienated from by providing them with a worldwide network of peers who are more likely to be able to relate to their 3 experiences, as well as their musical and cultural tastes, and by creating spaces where their identities as both queer and punk are recognized and celebrated.

Defining Queer

The idea of defining "queer" is something of a paradox in the sense that its very definition rests on its inability to be defined. Jagose describes queer as "a category in the process of formation," but not because it has yet to finish developing; rather, it is characterized by its "definitional indeterminacy" and "elasticity" (1996: 1).

This conceptualization, however, risks the implication that queer can be used to describe anything and, as a result, describes nothing. Instead, queer calls into question the ways that concepts like sex and gender and categories such as "gay" and "lesbian," or "man" and "woman" are defined. It challenges the very idea that there is such a thing as a coherent, universal definition for these terms.

Queer's potential lies not just at a theoretical level in its ability to disrupt identity categories, but also on a practical, everyday level in the way it speaks to the experiences of people whose lives do not necessarily make sense within the narrow confines of normative subjectivities. For example, Halberstam's (2005) concept of queer temporality demonstrates the fact that many queer people's lives do not follow the heteronormative life-course narrative characterized by marriage, reproduction, and economic stability. Within Halberstam's framework, queerness has "the potential to open up new life narratives and alternative relations to time and space"

(2005: 2). Queer temporality, therefore, provides queer people with an opportunity to imagine their futures along a trajectory other than that which is dictated by mainstream heterosexual society. 4 Similarly, Hammers' (2008) analysis of queer/lesbian bathhouses illustrates queer's potential to carve out spaces for people with non-normative identities.

Hammers explains that the bathhouses in her study were created because "even where gay and lesbian spaces exist, authorization is only given to some, and it is not necessarily to other queers that validation is given" (2005: 154). The bathhouses, which operate using a framework that challenges rigid understandings of categories like "woman" and "lesbian," provide people with an opportunity to embody the ambiguity and indeterminacy that is discussed throughout theoretical analyses of queerness. They also create a space where queer people can be recognized for their queerness. Hammers argues that:

[The bathhouses] provide suggestions for the potential of queer, and how queer spaces, because of their sheer heterogeneity, not only offer respite, but more importantly, allow bodies, in all their queerness to speak, while providing a landscape for what is possible in a queer world (2008: 161).

The importance of queer visibility and external validation, as well as the need for queer spaces, will be taken up in greater detail in relation to queer punks throughout this project.

"Queer," therefore, operates at both a theoretical, discursive level and at a practical, everyday level. As I outlined above, I argue that queer punks also exemplify a kind of bifurcated potentiality. On the one hand, queer punk rock potentially challenges the stability of identity categories by simultaneously disrupting the homogeneity of mainstream gay culture and the heteronormativity that pervades much of the punk scene. On the other, it allows the ambiguous misfits and freaks who call queer punk home to feel a sense of belonging because of their differences, not in spite of them. 5

Youth and "Queer"

Annamarie Jagose outlines a number of the potential uses of queer, including those described above, but also adds that queer can be used as "a way to distinguish old-style lesbians and gays from the new" (1996: 98). More than a decade later, Jagose's assessment continues to ring true. Queer often resonates with many youth in a way that "gay" or "lesbian" does not nor cannot (Driver 2008;

Ritchie 2008; Vaccaro 2009). For these youth, queer offers the promise of ambiguity and self-definition, of life outside the dichotomous boxes of "male" or "female" and

"gay" or "straight." It is at once a noun, a verb, and an adjective that can bend and stretch and change to take on new meanings based not only on gender identity and sexual orientation, but also race, ethnicity, class, and ability.

Queer, therefore, offers a lot of potential for youth whose subjectivities fall outside of normative identity categories. Ritchie describes the term as "gender- bending, disruptive of power, carnivalesque, [and] sexually anti-normative," but he clarifies that the ambiguity and indeterminacy of queer is not intended to "negate the self-referential and umbrella-like quality...but deepens and broadens the word so that it doesn't just mean homo- and bisexual" (2008: 264). While I disagree with his conflation of bisexuality and homosexuality, especially given the amount of biphobia that continues to pervade areas of the gay and lesbian community, his understanding of queer demonstrates its utility to a broader spectrum of people beyond those who identify as gay or lesbian.

This is not to say that all youth enthusiastically embrace the term queer and its categorical indeterminacy for the same reasons. For some youth, their adoption 6 of queer has more to do with "affirmfing] a specific sense of self and community affiliations" than it does with challenging norms and disrupting identities categories

(Driver 2008: 12). For example, Matt Wobensmith, the founder of OutPunk Records, explains, "I don't make Queer Theory, I live it. I don't want theory, I want facts. I'm around too many people who know nothing but theories" (in Sinker 2001: 318). And there are, of course, other youth for whom the concept does not resonate at all.

Linne argues:

Although the tropes driving this narrative—gay identity, gay community, and gay sensibility—are problematized by postmodern queer theorizing as essentialist fictions, they are nevertheless fictions that function for large numbers of people (2003: 671).

The stability of a coherent gay identity and community can be a comforting notion for many youth trying to make sense of their sexual and/or gender identities and as a result, queerness can be perceived as threatening or overwhelming (Welle et al.

2006; Linne 2003).

Throughout this project, I will be using the term "queer." I recognize that this term has a long, complicated history, and that its usage and definition continues to be contested both within and outside of the field of queer theory. Teresa de Lauretis, who is credited with coining the term "queer theory," explains:

This theory would be queer, I thought, not for being about queers or produced by queers, but in its project of questioning, displacing, reframing or queering the dominant conceptual paradigms, from clinical and official discourses on homosexuality to popular and media discourses on gay (lesbian-and-gay) sex, identity, community, life-style—whatever. This theory, I hoped, would removed the hyphens from "lesbian-and-gay", restoring specificities, i.e. exploring 'the respective and/or common grounding of current discourses and practices of homosexualities in relation to gender and to race, with their attendant differences of class and ethnic culture, generational, geographical, and socio-political location', and thus restore the possibility of 7 effective alliance across differences instead of uneasy cohabitation under a label (1999: 257).

This quote refers to the intention within queer theory to have "queer" transcend the

"lesbian-and-gay" experience, but it also demonstrates the way that "queer" continues to predominantly be associated with sexual orientation, rather than gender identity. As a result, there is a growing body of literature by scholars, particularly trans scholars like Namaste (1996), who are critical of prominent queer theorists, such as Butler (1990), for not only failing to address the everyday, lived experiences of the populations they are discussing, but also for conflating the specificities of gender identity and sexual orientation under the umbrella of "queer."

Following Driver, I acknowledge that "queer" is an "imperfect term," and that not all youth feel that it resonates with their identities, but I also believe that it is "both distinct and purposefully pliable enough to allow for contestation surrounding the very boundaries that construct and restrict ideals" (2007: 3). Additionally, as Driver explains elsewhere:

The point is not to ask "who and what are queer youth?" but rather to consider "how do young people forge personal and collective representations that address their immediate conditions and elaborate enriching visions?" (2008: 19).

Therefore, I am less concerned with demarcating the boundaries of who and what is queer, and more concerned with the experiences and cultural practices of the people who (might) use the term. This project is not intended to be generalizable to all queer youth; rather, it is specific to those queer youth who also identify in some way with the punk subculture.

I am choosing to use the term "queer" partially because it is potentially more inclusive than the phrase "gay and lesbian" and less cumbersome than acronyms 8 such as LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning), but also because it is commonly used within the punk subculture, as evidenced by the queercore movement, as well as the punk zine Maximum RocknrolFs "Queer Issue"

(2009) cited throughout this project. However, because trans individuals are underrepresented within punk, "queer" continues to refer predominantly to gay, lesbian, and bisexual punks. Therefore, so as not to perpetuate the conflation of gender identity and sexual orientation, I will be using the phrase "queer punk" to refer to gay, lesbian, and bisexual punks, unless I state otherwise. Specific individuals will also be described as "queer," unless that individual has already used another term, such as "gay" or "trans," to describe themselves.

Defining Punk

Much like "queer," defining the term "punk" is complicated and ambiguous. It has been used to describe a subculture, musical genre, fashion style, and political perspective. Punk's definition is also highly subjective and varies greatly depending on whom you ask. I will present a more detailed definition of punk in the third chapter, but for the moment, I want to acknowledge that there are differences, some of which are quite significant, between the various punk scenes and subgenres that have emerged (and faded away) in the more than three decades that punk has been recognized as a subculture. For example, the macho, aggressive music and violence that characterized the Los Angeles hardcore scene in the early 1980s is very different from the pop punk style of the 1990s, which was less geographically specific and also attracted a much wider audience, and was therefore more 9 commercially successful, as a result of increased airtime on both radio and television channels such as MTV.

I am addressing these differences here because I want to make it clear that I am aware of them and the ways that they will undoubtedly affect the experiences queer punks have/had in the various punk scenes. I recognize that a queer punk in

L.A.'s hardcore scene would probably have had a very different experience than a queer punk who was part of the early British scene in the mid- to late-1970s, and that both of these experiences might differ greatly from a queer punk in any one of North

America's many punk scenes today. Although there are certainly geographically and temporally specific characteristics that are unique to each of these manifestations, there is also a great deal of overlap. The borders between the scenes and subgenres are too porous, and too contested, to be accurately demarcated. As such, this project will, as best as possible, consider the experiences of queer punks across both time and space. When referring to a specific scene or subgenre, I will identify it so that it is clear that I am not discussing punk as a whole. Additionally, this project is specifically from an English-speaking North American perspective.

Although there are active punk scenes in places like Japan, across Europe, and throughout South America, it is beyond the purview of this project to be able to address the experiences of queer punks in all locations.

I also recognize that the dominant discourses and images of punk do not always translate into practice; that is, specific punk scenes are not always as inclusive or politically progressive as they are sometimes made out to be, and the actions of individual punks are not always congruent with the more abstract punk ethos. Although the larger purpose of this project is to demonstrate the importance 10 of punk to those who are part of the subculture, specifically to queer punks, I will also be highlighting some of punk rock's not-so-shining moments. Maria Raha describes both the difficulty of criticizing a subculture from the perspective of an insider, as well as the importance of doing so anyway:

Those of us who criticize it from the inside have been in the uncomfortable position of loving music and art that makes us, at times, feel marginalized, yet it's still what we most closely identify with, the art we are captured by, the music that possesses us. And that's why it's so important to hold it accountable (2005: x).

As I will demonstrate throughout this project, punk is too important to those who are

a part of it to not hold it and its members accountable, to not expect them to know

better and be better. And there are many within punk who quite simply do not know

better. Many punks operate under the misguided assumption that punk scenes are

always a bastion of equality and acceptance, which is not always the case.

However, it is also the existence of some of these flaws, such as homophobia, that

further demonstrates the importance of queer punk1.

1 The term "queercore," which is a queer subgenre of punk, is intentionally not used throughout the entirety of this project. Although I will be discussing the history and importance of the subgenre in the fourth chapter, I choose not to use queercore as a catch-all phrase throughout the project, not only because it most often refers to a specific era of punk (the 1990s), but also because there are many queer punks and bands that, for various reasons, do not identify with the term. For Jon Ginoli (2009) of Pansy Division, the term is too directly connected to hardcore punk, which does not reflect the style of his band, and for Steve and Alex of the Philadelphia noise punk band Extra Tongue, the term is too often associated with satirical bands such as Youth of Togay and Gayrilla Biscuits, which spoof the bands Youth of Today and Gorilla Biscuits, respectively. Alex explains that it "kinda ruined the seriousness of our lyrics because everybody took it as a joke... [W]e got lumped in with the comical queercore and it took the momentum of what we were saying down" (in Jay 2009). It also does not necessarily reflect the experiences of queer punks who came before or after queercore's relatively brief time in the punk rock spotlight, as well as those punks who may not have access to a specifically queercore scene but who still identify as both queer and punk. Therefore, I will use the phrase "queer punk" throughout the project. "Queercore" will be used only when directly relevant to the band, scene, or individual in question. 11 Sources

This project will draw on a combination of primary and secondary sources on the punk subculture and queer youth. The project is designed to provide an overview of the experiences of queer punks, rather than an in-depth analysis of one specific scene or a "Queers in Punk"-type history. Additionally, it will not be limited to the punk subculture of the mid- to late- 1970s, unlike many punk sources, which often focus exclusively on the emergence of punk in New York City and/or London, and cite only a select few bands, such as The Clash, the Sex Pistols, and the

Ramones. Therefore, I have selected sources that not only document the punk subculture from a diverse range of perspectives, but also focus on a variety of different punk scenes, subgenres, and specific locations and time periods.

Primary sources, such as Cristy Road's Indestructible (2004-2007), the recent "Queer Issue" of the long running, influential punk zine Maximum Rocknroll

(October 2009), and Terena Scott and Jane Mackay's anthology Punk Rock Saved

My Ass (2010) provide firsthand accounts of the experiences of individuals, both queer and straight, who were and/or are active in punk. Additionally, sources like

Pansy Division frontman Jon Ginoli's Deflowered: My Life in Pansy Division (2009),

Bad Religion frontman Greg Graffin's A Punk Synopsis (1996) and A Punk Manifesto

(2002), and We Owe You Nothing (2001), edited by Daniel Sinker, which is a collection of interviews with prominent punk icons and bands that were previously published in Punk Planet magazine, allow me to incorporate the voices of individuals who have not only participated in the punk subculture, but have also helped to shape it. The primary sources are supplemented by a number of secondary sources. I draw on the ever-growing body of academic literature from the fields of punk and queer youth studies. Queer youth sources cover a range of topics, including: media literacy and engagement (Lipton 2008; Linne 2003, Driver 2007; Driver 2008; Nylund

2007), victimization and "at risk" youth (Rofes 2004; Taulke-Johnson 2008; Pusch

2005, Quinlivan 2002), multiple subject positions (Blackburn 2007), heteronormativity and homophobia in sex education programs (Harrison and Hillier 1999; Hillier and

Mitchell 2008; Donovan and Hester 2008), activism (Ritchie 2008; Regales 2008), and the importance of participating in queer communities (Valentine and Skelton

2003; Lepischak 2004). Similarly, academic punk sources address topics such as: age (Bennett 2006, 2007), gender (Leblanc 1999; Reddington 2003), anarchy and activism (Clark 2003), the Do-lt-Yourself ethos (Moore 2007), queercore (Du Plessis and Chapman 1997; Fenster 1993), race and class (Malott and Pena 2004), authenticity (Fox 1987), and music and punk shows (Phillipov 2006; Chuang and

Hart 2008; Tsitsos 1999).

Non-academic secondary punk sources include Warren Kinsella's Fury's

Hour: A (Sort-of) Punk Manifesto (2005), Matt Diehl's My So-Called Punk (2007), and Maria Raha's Cinderella's Big Score: Women of the Punk and Indie

Underground (2005). These sources are particularly useful because they not only describe the authors' own personal experiences in punk, but they also provide analytical insights and observations about the punk subculture that could not necessarily be gained from reading song lyrics or attending punk shows.

Additionally, these sources also contain excerpts from interviews with prominent, 13 influential punk icons and musicians to which I might not necessarily have had access otherwise.

Furthermore, I will also be incorporating my own experiences and opinions throughout the project. As someone who identifies as a queer punk, I consider myself to be a member of the population that this project is discussing. As I explained above, I have been listening to punk music and attending punk shows since high school, and have also adopted a relatively stereotypical punk appearance, complete with combat boots, a studded leather jacket, plaid pants, piercings, and a neon mohawk. However, I can only speak directly to my own experiences, and I am neither an authority on every aspect of the punk subculture nor are my experiences generalizable to the experiences of all queer punks. Therefore, my voice will be just one of many; it will be of no more significance than the voices of the other punks, queer or otherwise, that are included throughout the project.

Finally, music is a very significant part of punk, and, as such, lyrics often reflect and shape the dominant discourses within the subculture. Lawrence

Grossberg argues:

By making certain things or practices matter, the fan 'authorizes' them to speak for him or her, not only as a spokesperson but also as surrogate voices (as when we sing along to popular songs). The fan gives authority to that which he or she invests in, letting the object of such investments speak for and as him or her self. Fans let them organize their emotional and narrative lives and identities (1992: 59).

For this reason, I have chosen to use punk lyrics as one of my main sources. Many of the song selections were the result of my own relatively extensive exposure to punk music, and my familiarity with prominent punk bands and subgenres. Although the songs were primarily chosen to be illustrative of the arguments I am making 14 throughout this project, they can nonetheless make a claim about representativeness. I intentionally chose bands that are rarely represented in academic literature on punk, but are nonetheless prominent and influential features in the punk scene. For example, bands like Bad Religion and NOFX have been active in the subculture since the 1980s, and continue to release new records and tour extensively. Certain bands, such as the Dead Kennedys, were chosen because, although they may not be producing new music any longer, they continue to be recognized as punk rock icons. This is evident by, for example, the ubiquity of band t-shirts and the number of other musicians who cite the band as an influence. Other bands were chosen because they represent a specific time period in punk's history, a well-known punk scene, and/or one of punk's many subgenres, including: straightedge (H20); psychobilly (Nekromantix); early- to mid 1990s queercore (Pansy

Division, Tribe 8); ska punk (Mustard Plug); folk/Celtic punk (Dropkick Murphys, the

Real McKenzies); crust/anarchist punk (Leftover Crack); pop punk (Blink-182); 1980s hardcore (Dayglo Abortions, Fear); and street punk (the Casualties; the Unseen).

Interpreting Lyrics

As will become evident throughout this project, punks often use offensive lyrics to shock and provoke. They frequently use irony, satire, and crudeness as a form of political commentary. However, this can make interpreting song lyrics difficult because it means that not all lyrics can be taken at face value. It requires the audience to be familiar enough with the band to recognize the song as parody, not as a sincere reflection of the songwriter's beliefs. Therefore, it is important not only to understand the context of a song so that it is not misinterpreted, but also to 15 differentiate between the politically satirical lyrics and those lyrics that risk pushing the boundaries too far, thereby potentially perpetuating discriminatory and/or violent beliefs and actions. I recognize that this differentiation is a potentially slippery slope, and it is not my intention to demarcate this boundary, nor do I wish to encroach on the limits of free speech; rather, I raise this point as an explanation for my assertion that not all punk lyrics should necessarily be assumed to be ironic or dismissed as

"just a joke."

Seeking to push the boundaries of decency further than most punk bands, even the name of Canadian punk legends, the Dayglo Abortions, provokes shock and disgust. The band's lyrics are blatantly offensive and repulsive, but are intended to serve a purpose; that is, they serve as a commentary on social conventions and expectations of decency. The members of Dayglo Abortions see these types of norms as hypocritical, an opinion which is made clear in their song "Isn't This

Disgusting" (1991):

So you wanna talk about obscenity, EH? Like the way you treated that hooker last night Far fucking out dude, you really dominated her

Penetration, Strangulation, Fornication Grab a dog, spread its legs, ram it in When I say these things I probably get under your skin But you probably get horny and masturbate after beating your kid

Well isn't this disgusting and aren't we gross But it's the things that you do That really are the most.

This particular song is an example a punk song that uses crudeness for a purpose, and is likely a response to the fact that Dayglo Abortions was the first band in

Canada to face obscenity charges in the late 1980s, as a result of their 1986 album

Feed Us A Fetus. Similarly, California punk band NOFX is known for its humorous 16 lyrics and stage antics. With songs such as "Hobophobic (Scared of Bums)" (1996),

"Don't Call Me White" (1994), and "Clams Have Feelings Too (Actually They Don't)"

(2000), NOFX represents the type of punk band that effectively uses irony and satire to make political statements. In the cases of the songs listed here, NOFX tackles the issues of homelessness, racial stereotypes, and vegetarianism, respectively. NOFX and the Dayglo Abortions are therefore both examples of bands that I think exemplify politically satirical punk lyrics.

Conversely, there were, and still are, many punk bands whose lyrics are offensive and controversial, but rather than being political commentary, they cross over into what could be considered discriminatory, or even hate speech. These bands, some of which have played very prominent roles in punk's history, perpetuate ignorant attitudes and violence. For example, the band Fear, which formed in Los

Angeles in the late 1970s, had a significant influence on the sound and style of

American hardcore but their songs, such as "Fresh Flesh" (1982), often contained violent sexist and homophobic lyrics:

I wanna fuck you to death I don't wanna smell your breath Piss on your warm embrace I just wanna cum in your face I don't care if you're dead And I don't care if you're erect I don't care if you're all cut up Blood on your dress! Fresh flesh!

In my opinion, this song is not intended to be ironic and therefore serves no political purpose; rather, it glorifies violence against women and blatantly advocates for rape.

Even if the song was supposed to be ironic, lyrics such as these are nonetheless 17 problematic because they are often "misunderstood by those incapable of irony and prone to violence" (Diehl 2007: 199).

The members of Fear are far from the only punks who could be accused of pushing the boundaries too far. Many punks assumed that the "fuck authority, challenge convention" ethos in punk rock was a license to do or say whatever they wanted, regardless of the consequences. In response to the ubiquity of swastika imagery in early punk, which is probably the most obvious example of an intentionally offensive shock tactic that ultimately lacks political utility, Warren

Kinsella argues that "punk was shocking in effect, so it was alright to use racist imagery to shock. That, of course, is bullshit" (2005: 133). Kinsella goes on to hold the Sex Pistols accountable for their racist, anti-Semitic song "Belsen Was a Gas"

(1979). The use of swastikas, prominent as it was for a certain period of time among punks who did not actually identify as Nazis, was not a universally accepted punk rock phenomenon. In fact the ubiquity, and stupidity, of punks wearing swastikas inspired California punk legends, the Dead Kennedys, to write their infamous anthem

"Nazi Punks Fuck Off!" (1981):

You still think swastikas look cool The real Nazis run your schools They're coaches, businessmen, and cops In a real fourth Reich you'll be the first to go Nazi punks Nazi punks Nazi punks—Fuck Off!

This song continues to be popular among punks today, and "Nazi Punks Fuck Off!" patches and t-shirts are now probably way more ubiquitous than swastikas ever were. I have included this explanation, not necessarily with the intention of passing judgement on certain punk songs or bands, but rather to make it clear that I am aware of the fact that irony and parody are frequently used in punk songs, and that context is therefore important when interpreting lyrics. This factor was taken into consideration during the song selection process. As I discussed above, the songs that I have cited throughout this project are those that I understand to be illustrative of my arguments. As a result, songs that I cite as illustrative of, for example, lyrics that perpetuate ignorant beliefs or violence were chosen because I believe that they are, in fact, exemplifying and reinforcing these forms of discrimination, rather than satirizing them.

Chapter Outline

The first two chapters will provide literature reviews of the fields of subcultural theory and queer youth studies, respectively. Chapter One will explore both subcultural and post-subcultural approaches to punk. The chapter is not intended to be a comprehensive review of (post-)subcultural theory; rather, it looks at those sources that specifically address, or are directly relevant to, the punk subculture. It will focus on four recurring themes: resistance, style, authenticity, and class.

Chapter One will also look at the ways that these themes are taken up within punk scenes. Chapter Two will discuss aspects of the growing body of literature on queer youth. It will particularly focus on the relationship between queer youth and the media, including some common (mis)representations of queer youth, and the impact this potentially has on youth. It will also document some of the ways that queer youth challenge, resist, and co-opt mainstream heteronormative media and culture 19 through forms of media literacy and engagement, as well as the development of queer youth subcultures.

Chapter Three takes up the complicated task of defining punk. It outlines some of the basic features and principles of the subculture, including punk as an attitude, the role of anger and aggression, and the Do-lt-Yourself ethos. The chapter then moves into a discussion of some of the reasons that punk is important to those who are a part of it. Specifically, it argues that punk provides both a community and a belief system for some people who feel alienated by mainstream culture. Finally, the chapter adopts an affective perspective to acknowledge the importance of punk music as music, rather than just as a medium for political protest.

Chapter Four continues the discussion of the importance of punk, but focuses specifically on the reasons why it might be important to queer punks. It starts with an overview of the history of sexuality, queer musicians, and homophobia within the subculture. It also documents the emergence of the queercore movement, and describes prominent queer punk bands and zines. The chapter then moves into a discussion of what queer punk might offer queer youth that they cannot necessarily get in heteronormative cultures or in the dominant gay cultures. It returns to some of the issues raised in Chapter Two about the invisibility of queer youth in the mainstream media in order to demonstrate some of the ways that queer punk bands have sought to counter this invisibility. Chapter Four concludes with an exploration of the importance of queer punk spaces, and the ways that they potentially offer validation and recognition of queer punk identities. 20 Chapter One: Theorizing Punk

The term "subculture" was incorporated into academic discourse in the United

States in the 1940s by researchers and urban sociologists studying delinquency, street cultures, and deviance (Gelder 2005). Its use was championed by Milton

Gordon, who defined the term as:

a sub-division of a national culture, composed of a combination of factorable social situations such as class status, ethnic background, regional and rural or urban residence, and religious affiliation, but forming in their combination a functioning unity which has an integrated impact on the participating individual ([1947] 2005: 46, emphasis in original).

Following the Second World War, the term was also applied to the emerging youth cultures, including the phenomenon that became known as punk.

The origins of punk continue to be a point of contention for subcultural studies

scholars, music historians, and punk rockers alike. There is often great debate over whether punk was created in New York City or London, with many remaining undecided about which side of the Atlantic punk actually started on. In fact, it is perhaps most accurate to say that punk was a collaboration between the two cities.

The three chord, sloppy musical form, the "Do it Yourself ethos, and the use of the

term "punk" all originated in New York City (Philo 2004), but it was London's cultural

innovators like Malcolm McLaren, and bands like the Sex Pistols and the Clash, that imbued punk with the fury and the image that made it infamous (Kinsella 2005;

Bennett 2001).

There are two main schools of thought that directly contribute to a theoretical

discussion of punk from a subcultural perspective: the Birmingham Centre for

Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) in Britain in the 1970s, and the more recent 21 post-subcultural studies. The Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies documented and analyzed the development of subcultures in post-war Britain. The

CCCS had a significant influence on the field of subcultural studies and laid the groundwork for most of the subsequent work that emerged within the field in the late

20th and early 21st centuries. Its members saw the formation of subcultures as a reaction by youth, specifically working class youth, to their material circumstances and the dominant parent culture (Clarke et al. [1975] 2005). Their primary focus was on popular media and culture, such as fashion and music, as forms of resistance. In fact, Dick Hebdige was quite clear in his assertion that a subculture "operates exclusively in the leisure sphere" (1979: 95). The CCCS's approach to subcultural studies was largely theoretical and symbolic, and its members were therefore often less concerned with the collection of empirical data. According to Phil Cohen,

"subcultures are symbolic structures and must not be confused with the actual kids who are their bearers and supports" ([1972] 2005: 90).

In order to address the shifting and heterogeneous characteristics of youth subcultures in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, many subcultural theorists have moved away from the work of the CCCS and are operating under the umbrella of

"post-subcultural studies." Muggleton and Weinzierl describe this emergent field as

"a more pragmatic approach compared to the romanticism of the CCCS, whose authors saw radical potential in largely symbolic challenges" (2003: 4). Some post- subcultural scholars no longer see the relevance of the term "subculture" and instead have adopted other concepts, such as "scenes" (Bennett 2006), while others are not so quick to completely disregard "subculture" but prefer to see it as having more

"variable meanings" than the CCCS scholars often did (Widdicombe and Wooffitt 22 1995: 206). Other common perspectives present in post-subcultural studies include: an emphasis on "fluidity and mobility" (Muggleton and Weinzierl 2003: 11); less focus on subcultures as working class and inherently resistant (Gelder 2005); and a recognition that earlier subcultural theory was not necessarily applicable to an

American context (Phillipov 2006).

Instead of presenting a comprehensive review of the works of CCCS and post-subcultural scholars, I have chosen to focus only on those works that specifically reference or are directly relevant to a discussion of punk. Within this literature, four common themes emerged: resistance, style, authenticity, and class.

This chapter will review the ways that these four themes are taken up by both the

CCCS and post-subcultural scholars. It will also, wherever possible, highlight some of the debates and discussions regarding these topics that occur within the punk subculture.

Resistance

The members of the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies were interested in the reasons for which subcultures developed and what they did for the youth that were a part of them. Subcultures were seen as a reaction to the dominant culture and the circumstances that youth found themselves in at the time.

They provided a solution for working class youths' "need to create and express autonomy and difference from parents and, by extension, their culture" (Cohen

[1972] 2005: 91, emphasis in original). Hebdige (1979) explains that subcultural resistance expressed feelings of difference and class consciousness, and was often carried out through the breaking of laws and social conventions. This type of 23 resistance to the mainstream was a defining feature of the early punk subculture in

Britain, as evidenced by the Sex Pistols' appearance on the Today show hosted by

Bill Grundy, in December 1976. The band created quite a stir with their onscreen antics, particularly their use of profanity on live television (Bennett 2001).

Conscious refusals of mainstream society continue to be present throughout subsequent manifestations of the punk subculture. For example, certain members of the Los Angeles punk scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s adopted a relatively drastic approach to resistance by refusing to participate at all in mainstream society.

These youth, many of whom came from middle-class backgrounds, lived in squatter settlements, panhandled for money, and spent their time committing acts of vandalism and abusing drugs and alcohol. Daniel Traber refers to this as a process of "self-marginalization" through which youth attempted to "re-create themselves in the image of street-smart kids who are sceptical about the trappings of bourgeois

America" (2001: 31).

Although the scholars at the CCCS saw these types of actions—which might be referred to as delinquency—as the primary form of subcultural resistance to the dominant culture, they also saw them as only ever a "magical solution" (Cohen

[1972] 2005). By this they meant that, while subcultures were conceptualized as a

solution to working class youth problems, they did not actually provide any concrete

solutions. Becoming a punk, a mod, or a skinhead did not inherently do anything to reduce poverty or unemployment. Cohen argues that the conflicts that went on

between various subcultures served "as a displacement of generational conflict [...]

One consequence of this is to foreclose artificially the natural trajectory of adolescent 24 revolt" ([1972] 2005: 91). Subcultures served as an outlet for youth anger rather than inspiration to fight for structural change and social justice.

The tendency towards issuing empty threats and partaking in forms of resistance that fail to produce a lasting impact is a well-documented occurrence within the punk subculture (For example, see Clark 2003). Widdicombe and Wooffitt observed that among the American punks they studied in the late 1980s (exact location is not specified), their "oppositional narratives [did] not invoke radical activities or public displays of resistance, rather, they [were] fashioned around the routine, the personal and the everyday" (1995: 204). To some, the Sex Pistols epitomize punk bands without any specific political stance or agenda behind their anti-establishment attitude. Warren Kinsella argues:

[T]he Sex Pistols had no manifesto to foist upon the planet [...] Apart from a vague call to anarchy in the first single and a half­ hearted contention that Britain was a 'fascist regime' in 'God Save the Queen,' the Sex Pistols weren't very political at all. No philosophical or ideological fervour gripped them: they were not left wing, not right wing, not anything. Just unbelievably pissed off (2005).

From this perspective, the Sex Pistols' music is little more than catchy anthems and bumper sticker sloganeering. This is, however, not to say that the Sex Pistols had no impact at all. They may not have done much for the unemployment rates among working class British youth, but their influence on music, style, and the lives of youth

(and adults) around the world continues to be evident today.

Despite their recognition that subcultural resistance might be nothing more than a "magical solution," it is still a very prevalent theme throughout the work of subcultural theorists. Conversely, many post-subcultural studies scholars do not see youth subcultures as inherently resistant and, as a result, are critical of the CCCS for 25 overemphasizing the theme. For example, according to Muggleton and Weinzierl, by conceptualizing subcultures as rebellious based on their resistance to consumer culture, the CCCS has obscured the ways that some subcultures actively participate in economic processes rather than just being co-opted by them (2003).

Michelle Phillipov (2006) presents a critique of academic analyses of punk politics, which she argues "rarely interrogated the continued validity of viewing punk as necessarily politically radical" (2006: 387). She points to the continued pervasiveness of sexism in the scene, as well as the presence of conservative, fascist, and/or intentionally apolitical punks as evidence that the subculture might not always be as progressive or radical as it is assumed to be. Phillipov's work echoes

Stanley Cohen's ([1980] 2005) criticism of the CCCS's approach to class-based analyses, which will be discussed in greater detail below. She argues that many punk scholars work backwards in their analysis; that is, they start with the assumption that punk is politically progressive and then analyze a certain "self­ consciously political band or scene (e.g. Fugazi of the D.C. scene) [...] to determine the relationship between music and politics" (2006: 388).

Several other scholars have documented youth subcultures that support

Muggleton and Weinzierl and Phillipov's assertions that certain subcultures ultimately fall short of their revolutionary potential or were never intended to be "resistant" in the first place, as well as their recommendation that subcultural theorists adopt a more critical approach to analyses of resistance. McRobbie and Garber ([1977] 2005), for example, are credited with basically writing girls into subcultural theory. Their contributions to the field will be taken up in the next chapter but, for the moment, it is important to note that they recognized that the girl subcultures they studied did not 26 conform to previous CCCS conceptualizations of youth subcultures as oppositional and rebellious.

In specific reference to the punk subculture, Traber (2001) takes issue with the practices of self-marginalization adopted by punks in the L.A. punk scene in the late 1970s, which are briefly discussed above. The mostly middle-class, white youth left their suburban homes and adopted a lifestyle that they assumed was representative of a more honest way of living. They imitated the activities and lifestyles they associated with an impoverished (and racialized) underclass.

However, Traber argues that in doing so, the L.A. punks relied upon, and ultimately reified, normative identity categories in order to differentiate themselves from what they saw as the masses. He adds that

This does not mean the subversive energy completely dissipates, but it cannot be theorized as a trouble-free dismantling of identity categories because it relied uncritically on the dominant for its difference and forces the subordinated into the role of being an alternative (2001: 32-3).

Traber recognizes that these punks were attempting to critique, or at least live outside of, the dominant culture that they found so abhorrent, but argues that their approach was more about individual autonomy than it was about creating significant political change.

An emphasis on individual freedom over political resistance characterized the

"hardcore" scenes that developed in the suburban communities surrounding Los

Angeles in the early 1980s (the scenes that emerged after the late 1970s punk scene described by Traber). As a musical genre, hardcore was punk that was faster, more aggressive, and stripped of any melody. The scenes became more violent as well.

Hardcore punks were fighting not only with non-punks, but often with each other. 27 The music and politics became less about the spirit of rebellion from previous generations and more about the boredom, alienation, and individualism characteristic of the suburban Southern California lifestyle. Dewar MacLeod describes hardcore politics as "diffuse, inconsistent, cohering only vaguely around such words as

'anarchy,' 'destroy,' and 'my rules' [...] It was a politics of everyday life" (2010: 112).

Unlike other punk scenes, hardcore was not about developing a unifying, cohesive movement. It was a "violent, individualist, antipolitical politics of refusal" (MacLeod

2010: 4).

In complete contrast to the CCCS's overemphasis on subcultural resistance,

Andy Bennett (2007) describes a growing trend, mostly within the mainstream media, that depicts youth as apathetic and apolitical. The assertion is based on the belief that contemporary youth cultures are now associated with pre-packaged, mass- produced music, fashion, and leisure activities, rather than the rebellious, anti-social pursuits of previous generations. Bennett notes that this particular argument is typically purported by a very specific population, "forty- to fifty-something journalists"

(2007: 27). Matt Diehl (2007), although not necessarily incorrect in his description of the "neo-punks" of the late 20th and early 21st centuries as predominantly apolitical, exemplifies Bennett's image of music journalists who are critical of today's youth.

With this description of today's youth as apathetic comes a sense of nostalgia for the past. Bennett is critical of this tendency towards nostalgia not only for its

"rose-tinted" perception of the past, but, more importantly, for the ways that "youth is being constructed for us, and for young people themselves, by empowered

'outsiders'" (2007: 30). This sense of nostalgia does not, however, just come from outsiders. It also occurs within the punk subculture. The band NOFX, which formed in California in the mid-1980s, has been a staple of the punk scene for almost three decades and continues to be known for their satirical approach to political commentary. Their album The War on Errorism (2003) contained the song "The

Separation of Church and Skate," which humorously decries the current state of the punk scene:

When did punk rock become so safe? When did the scene become a joke? The kids who used to live for beer and speed Now want their fries and coke

I want conflict! I want dissent! I want the scene to represent, our hatred of authority Our fight against complacency

Confrontation and politics Replaced with harmonies and shticks When did punk rock become so tame? These fucking bands all sound the same.

NOFX's song reflects a common belief among certain members of the punk subculture that the scenes of the past were somehow "more punk" than today's scenes.

The CCCS's view of resistance as a "magical solution" and the depiction of contemporary youth as apathetic, as described by Bennett (2007), both obscure the very real acts of resistance and activism carried out by youth subcultures. Gary

Clarke argues that the CCCS's relegation of subcultural resistance '"exclusively [to]

the leisure sphere' means that the institutional sites of hegemony (those of school,

work, and home) are ignored" ([1981] 2005: 172). As a result, the areas where

subcultures could actually create a significant and potentially positive impact are left

unexamined. To this critique, Muggleton and Weinzierl (2003) add that it is not just

the CCCS that has denied the presence of activism within subcultures. They argue that the focus on consumer culture, authenticity, and individualism within post- subcultural studies has led to an under-politicization of youth subcultures.

A quick examination of the history of punk would seem to support Clarke and

Muggleton and Weinzierl's assertions that not all youth are as apathetic and disengaged as (post-)subcultural theorists have, on occasion, made them out to be.

From the outset, punks have involved themselves with causes and organizations about which they felt strongly. Early British bands like the Clash were associated with, for example, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the Rock Against

Racism and Rock Against Sexism festivals. The British group Crass were an anarchist collective who used their music primarily as a platform for their political manifestoes (Diehl 2007). Within an American context, California band the Dead

Kennedys had, and continues to have, a profound impact on the political attitudes of punks around the world. Joel Schalit and Daniel Sinker describe the band as

"arguably the most ideologically important band in the history of American punk politics" (in Sinker 2001: 33). Jello Biafra, the former Dead Kennedys frontman and the founder and head of record label Alternative Tentacles, even ran for mayor of

San Francisco in 1979.

Dedication to activism and political engagement is perhaps most commonly associated with the Washington D.C. punk scene in the early 1980s, where bands were known for using music to vocalize their stance against typical authority figures such as parents or the government (Middleton 2002: 343). Some punks within this scene were also critical of the actions of their fellow punks. As a result, legendary

D.C. punk band Minor Threat is credited with starting "straightedge," which grew into an international movement dedicated to abstinence from drugs, alcohol, and, 30 occasionally, promiscuous sex. Many of the D.C. punks were also directly involved with activist networks, such as Positive Force, which supported local grassroots organizations and services such as health clinics and rape crisis centres (Andersen and Jenkins 2001).

Despite Matt Diehl's (2007) assessment of today's "neo-punks" or "mall punks" as apolitical and disengaged, there are many bands currently active in the punk scene that have carried the torch of punk politics into the 21st century. In 2004, the record label Fat Wreck Chords, independently owned and operated by NOFX frontman Fat Mike, released the Rock Against Bush Vol. 1 and 2 albums, which were compilations of "[George] Bush-hating bands"2. The label, and many well-known punk bands, was also associated with the organization punkvoter.com, which encouraged youth to register to vote (Diehl 2007). Pittsburgh punk band Anti-Flag are known for their politically charged lyrics that speak out against, for example, militarism, the former Bush government, homophobia, sexism, and police brutality.

The band is also associated with organizations such as Military Free Zone and

PETA3. Finally, Irish-punk favourites, the Dropkick Murphys, who formed in Boston in the mid-1990s, are strong supporters of local Boston neighbourhoods through their charity, the Claddagh Fund, and are advocates for the rights of workers and unions4.

Discussions of resistance remain a central theme within subcultural and post- subcultural studies. The fact that resistance continues to be such a contentious and debated issue demonstrates that the prevalence and/or effectiveness of subcultural resistance is not nearly as universal and straightforward as some individual authors have made it out to be. The "Anarchy in the UK" sloganeering of the Sex Pistols and

2 www.fatwreck.com. Accessed April 20, 2011 3 www.anti-flag.com. Accessed April 20, 2011 4 www.dropkickmurphys.com. Accessed April 20, 2011 31 the self-marginalization of L A. punks do reflect the CCCS's assessment of subcultures as just "magical solutions," while some of the "neo-punks" of the late 20th and early 21st centuries also support the post-subcultural depiction of contemporary youth as primarily apolitical and apathetic. And the continued involvement of punks with activist organizations and social justice causes demonstrates the presence of political activism within punk, thereby complicating both points, and any other overarching statements about the punk scene.

Style

One of the primary methods of subcultural resistance, according to members of the CCCS, was the use of style and fashion. According to Clarke et al. ([1975]

2005), style was a way for subcultures to develop and articulate a group identity and to mark themselves as distinct from the mainstream. But it was not just what you wore that was important; rather, it was how you wore it. "What makes a style is the activity of stylisation [...] This meant not simply picking [items] up, but actively constructing a specific selection of things and goods into a style" (Clarke et al. [1975]

2005: 102, emphasis in original). Creating a style could involve modifying previously existing styles or combining elements from various sources. It could also involve exaggerating mainstream styles. This is exemplified by Lauraine Leblanc's (1999) study of punk girls in the United States in the mid-1990s, some of whom intentionally wore excessive amounts of make-up as a critique of normative beauty standards.

Clarke et al. also felt that the types of styles specific subcultures created reflected the attitudes, beliefs, and experiences of its members. They used the term

"homologous" to describe the ways that "symbolic objects [...] were made to form a unity with the group's relations, situations, experiences" ([1975] 2005: 103, emphasis in original). They combined "homology" with the anthropological term "bricolage" to explain the process by which subcultures combined various items to create a style and assigned new meanings to everyday objects. John Clarke describes this process:

Together, object and meaning constitute a sign, and within any one culture, such signs are assembled, repeatedly, into characteristic forms of discourse. However, when the bricoleur re-located the significant object in a different position within that discourse, using the same overall repertoire of signs, or when that objet is placed within a different total ensemble, a new discourse is constituted, a different message conveyed" (in Hebdige 1979: 104).

Hebdige (1979) used these concepts to analyze punk fashion, which he believed epitomized bricolage. He was fascinated by the ways that punks combined everyday items like safety pins and garbage bags with cheap fabrics, exaggerated make-up, and bondage and fetish wear to create a look that was obviously and intentionally confrontational, grotesque, and offensive. Hebdige theorized that punk fashion served as a comment on conventional standards of beauty and taste, and that there was a homological connection between punks' confrontational fashion, music, and behaviours and the broader social context of England in the 1970s. He explains that, "[cjlothed in chaos, [punks] produced Noise in the calmly orchestrated

Crisis of everyday life in the late 1970s" (1979: 114).

Like with subcultural resistance, the CCCS's focus on style left them open to criticisms of overemphasizing its importance. Gary Clarke ([1981] 2005) is concerned that a myopic perspective of subcultures structured primarily around style obscures the influence of social relations such as race and gender. Clarke and Stanley Cohen ([1980] 2005) both question the connections that the CCCS drew between style and resistance. According to Cohen, conceptualizing subcultural style as resistant overlooks the instances when it is the exact opposite, when style is conservative or commercial. Clarke argues that Hebdige's belief that the revolutionary potential of style be limited to the original moments of innovation is unnecessarily reductive. As a result, subcultural resistance is "restricted to a flashpoint of rebellion" ([1981] 2005: 171). Finally, Widdicombe and Wooffitt (1995) point out that among the punks they studied in the United States in the late 1980s, style was just one of several oppositional strategies employed.

In addition to its connection to resistance, Stanley Cohen ([1980] 2005) is also sceptical of the symbolism that members of the CCCS have assigned to various subcultural styles. He questions whether Hebdige's analysis can be considered as anything more than conjecture. Cohen argues that the "symbolic baggage kids are being asked to carry is just too heavy [...] This is, to be sure, an imaginative way of reading style; but how can we be sure that it is also not imaginary?" ([1980] 2005:

165). Tsitsos (1999) adds that Hebdige has left himself open to this critique because he relied on his own analysis without conducting ethnographic research with actual punks.

This raises the issue of the level of conscious intent behind the symbolism of subcultural style. Hebdige asserted that one of the defining features of style and what set it apart from mainstream fashion was the fact that it was"obviously fabricated" (1979: 101, emphasis in original). However, as Stanley Cohen ([1980]

2005) points out, Hebdige contradicted himself when he suggested that acts of bricolage and homology need not be intentional on the part of the individual. 34 Hebdige's assertion that many punks were unaware of the symbolism behind the style they were creating resulted in a number of critiques. Specifically, Gary Clarke is concerned about the potential for this argument to undermine the intelligence and creative abilities of subcultural members. He explains that "individual subcultural stylists are, ironically, reduced to the status of dumb, anonymous mannequins, incapable of producing their own meanings and awaiting the arrival of the code breaker" ([1981] 2005: 172).

Discussions about the importance of style do not exist solely in an academic sphere; they also quite frequently occur within the punk subculture. In fact, fashion and style can be quite a contentious issue. The debates about fashion within punk often focus on questions about whether or not dressing like a punk makes you one, or if you have to dress like a punk in order to be one. They come down to a matter of

"substance vs. style." Mark Sinker (1999) makes reference to the zine Looks Yellow

Tastes Red, which was created in 1995 by Collette, a fifteen year old punk from

Cape Cod. She may not be a member of a prominent band or the creator of a well- known, long-running zine, but her statement represents a common sentiment within punk:

If punk means truth and dedication to ideals and saying 'fuck you' to the backwards attitudes and customs that hold us back, if punk means kid power and energy and music and sense of community, I would sell my soul for it. If punk means wearing 'punk' clothes, having the most body piercings, the oddest hair or the best record collection [...] I would rather not have anything to do with it (in Sinker 1999: 121).

This opinion is echoed by New York City straightedge band H20 in their 2008 song

"What Happened?":

But now the biggest part is all about the image and not the art Fashion before passion! 35 And at nights, it makes me mad that I should have to ask: What happened to the passion? What happened to the reason for screaming? What happened to the music and the message that I love?

Here H20, a band that is very vocal about their dedication to straightedge, is concerned about the changes they have seen in the scene in recent years and the ways that an overemphasis on fashion has negatively impacted the community and message that is such a significant part of their lives.

Whether or not fashion is essential to punk politics or a punk identity remains open for debate, but one visit to a punk show demonstrates the continued centrality of style within punk. The styles tend to vary slightly depending on the specific type of punk rock (crust punk, hardcore, ska, psychobilly, folk punk, etc.), but nonetheless, combat boots, studded leather jackets, neon hairstyles, and bondage pants remain relatively ubiquitous

Authenticity

Central to Hebdige's analysis of subcultural resistance and style is a discussion of authenticity. He differentiated between the first group of youth to become involved in a specific subculture, the original innovators, and those youth who joined afterward. Hebdige was adamant that the "distinction between originals and hangers-on is always a significant one" (1979: 122). According to Hebdige, this distinction was necessary because "the style no doubt made sense for the first wave of self-conscious innovators at a level which remained inaccessible to those who became punks after the subculture had surfaced and been publicized" (1979: 122).

Youth who joined the punk subculture later were assumed to simply be copying their 36 predecessors without ever incorporating their own perspective or creativity into the style.

Gary Clarke ([1981] 2005), however, critiqued Hebdige's perspective for being elitist and short-sighted. The focus on original members closed off the potential for analyses of future adaptations and manifestations of subcultural style.

Clarke sees "little purpose in any analysis which worships the innovators yet condemns those youth who appropriate that style when it becomes a marketed product" ([1981] 2005: 173). Others have argued that this approach is similarly restrictive of further analyses of: the long-term viability of subcultures (Andes 1998); the possibility of remaining a subcultural participant beyond one's youth (Davis

2006); and "regional variations and local levels of significance" (Bennett 2001: 65).

Sarah Thornton's ([1995] 2005) concept of subcultural capital reiterates the importance of authenticity to subcultural studies, but does so in a way that offers an alternative to the CCCS's restrictive approach that is only applicable to original members. Within her conceptualization, authenticity is something that can be earned rather than just ascribed to a select few. Subcultural capital is acquired through collecting and displaying specific items and knowledge defined as important to that subculture, including wearing certain clothing and hairstyles, listening to the right kind of music, and knowing and using the right slang words. These displays, however, must appear natural and unrehearsed because, according to Thornton,

"nothing depletes capital more than the sight of someone trying too hard" ([1995]

2005: 186).

Thornton's work, and especially her observation that displays of subcultural capital must always appear natural, is useful for a discussion of the internal debates 37 about authenticity that occur within punk scenes. Authenticity is a central part of punk discourses. MacLeod exemplifies its importance in his description of the L.A. hardcore scene in the early 1980s:

Hardcore emphasized punk's exclusivity, and a valuable way to keep out the uncommitted was to make music that only the committed could tolerate or appreciate [...] It took true commitment to suffer through a half dozen or more such soundalike bands in a row—especially when fights were breaking out all around you" (2010: 96).

For some punks, being regarded by other members of the scene as a "real" or "true" punk is extremely important and, as a result, calling someone a "poseur" can be the ultimate insult. Andes (1998) points out that it is a relatively common practice for punks to go to great lengths to validate their own authenticity and often contest the authenticity of other punks. She also recognizes the variability of definitions of authenticity in punk and explains that the term "poseur" is usually used by punks to refer to "those who don't define punk in the same manner as they themselves do"

(1998: 218).

Anti-Flag, a very vocal and politically active punk band, describe a typical punk poseur in their song "Captain Anarchy" (1999):

He says that for the punk rock scene He'd give his fucking life

You never saw an anarchist With such perfect hair, Or so many ten dollar spikes, Or so much punk rock gear

His name is "Captain Anarchy" But only in his mind A-N-A-R-C-H-Y! So punk that he's a poseur and he'll be one till he dies! This song, although probably intended to be somewhat satirical, demonstrates the way that a poseur is typically defined by those in the punk scene and expresses a common attitude towards poseurs.

Matt Diehl (2007) discusses the continued importance of authenticity to the current generation of "mall punks." Many of the punks in today's scenes grew up watching MTV and shopping for "punk" clothing in their local malls and, as a result, punk style has not only become available to a wider population, but has also become more homogenous and like a uniform. Diehl explains that there are a few slight variations between punk styles and that these markers are an important part of signifying where an individual punk's allegiances lay in regards to the type of punk and specific bands in which they are interested. He says that "the pressure to conform, or at least to define one's place in punk's spectrum and draw a line in the sand was now paramount" (2007: 74-5).

Class

The subcultures analyzed by members of the CCCS in the 1970s were said to be populated not just by youth, but specifically by working class youth. The CCCS scholars were clear that subcultures were a working class phenomenon. Clarke et al. explain that subcultures "take shape on the level of the social and cultural class- relations of the subordinated classes" ([1975] 2005: 97). Subcultures were, as discussed above, a way for working class youth to address the problems faced by the dominant parent culture. Cohen even argues that subcultures could not develop within the middle class. He states that, "I do not think that the middle class produces subcultures, for subcultures are produced by a dominated culture, not by a dominant culture" ([1972] 2005: 92).

In response, many post-subcultural studies scholars have argued that the

emphasis that the CCCS placed on class obscured the influence of other social categories such as race, gender, and sexual orientation, and therefore call for a more intersectional approach to the analysis of subcultural participation5. In addition

to being concerned about the overemphasis on class, Stanley Cohen ([1980] 2005) is also critical of the actual manner in which members of the CCCS approached their

analysis. He states that the "problem arises from starting with groups who are

already card-carrying members of a subculture and then working backwards to

uncover their class base" ([1980] 2005: 168, emphasis in original). Cohen and Gary

Clarke ([1981] 2005) both explain that this approach has the potential to lead to the

erroneous assumption that all working class youth are subcultural participants and,

conversely, that all subcultural participants, are working class youth.

As Andy Bennett (2001) points out, it would be incorrect to assume that all

punks come from a working class background. From his perspective, it is possible to

make the argument that punk was actually the "product of middle class artists and

fashion designers" (2001: 66). This is not to say that all punks were part of the

middle class, but certainly a great many were, particularly in the United States.

Recognition of the predominance of middle class youth in punk scenes in the United

States also demonstrates the inapplicability of aspects of CCCS subcultural theory to

an American context.

What made the Southern California hardcore scene of the early 1980s

different from previous incarnations of punk was the fact that these kids mostly came

5 For example, see Roman 1988 40 from middle class, suburban homes, and many had no intention of leaving them.

MacLeod states that although "suburbia had always been essential to punk, as the place to leave and destroy, now suburbia was subject to assault from within" (2010:

3). Middleton adds that the music gave "form to collective experiences of middle- class disaffection" (2002: 341). These sentiments can also be seen in the song

"Suburban Home" (1982) by the Descendents6, a punk band from Hermosa Beach,

California:

I want to be stereotyped I want to be classified I want to be a clone I want a suburban home

I don't want no hippie pad I want a house just like mom and dad.

As the L.A. hardcore scene demonstrates, not all punks come from working class backgrounds. There continues, however, to be a certain level of valorization of

the working class within punk. This creates, for some punks, the need to hide or

reject their middle class backgrounds, just as the punks in Los Angeles (before the

emergence of hardcore) did through the process of self-marginalization described by

Traber (2001). The tendency within punk to adopt a working class fagade is

represented in the remainder of "Captain Anarchy" (1999), the Anti-Flag song cited

above:

But he only ever paid to see a show once Maybe twice Instead he stands outside the halls And pan handles for beer, Then sneaks into the hall To deface the bathroom mirror

6 Interestingly, the Descendents' lead singer, Milo Aukerman, is part of a small but influential group of punk musicians with advanced academic degrees. For example, Milo holds a doctorate in biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and Bad Religion frontman Greg Graffin received his doctorate in zoology from Cornell University. 41

He said he used his welfare checks To buy his boots and plaids In reality it was all paid for By his mommy and his dad!

Middle class punks, like the character in Anti-Flag's song, pretend to be working class in order to be viewed as authentic and to gain subcultural capital. Within Sarah

Thornton's conceptualization of subcultural capital, "class is wilfully obfuscated...The assertion of subcultural distinction relies, in part, on a fantasy of classlessness"

([1995] 2005: 187).

Conclusion

Although far from an exhaustive summary of the fields of subcultural and post-subcultural studies or the intricacies of the punk subculture, the above literature review was designed to provide introductory insight into the ways that previous scholars have discussed punk. As will be discussed throughout the coming chapters, definitions and interpretations of punk continue to be elusive, ambiguous, and highly individualized. It is perhaps fitting, then, that there is no universal academic approach to the study of punk as a subculture, musical genre, fashion statement, or political ethos. Punk is about thinking for yourself and making your own decisions, and the diversity of perspectives provided by the CCCS and post- subcultural studies creates an opportunity to do just that. 42 Chapter Two: Queer Youth

Despite the recent widespread growth and visibility of large gay communities, mostly in major urban cities, queer youth remain relatively invisible within these predominantly adult-oriented settings. Increasing numbers of youth are coming out and/or transitioning at younger ages and yet there continues to be limited resources available to them, particularly with regard to recreational activities, as opposed to social services (Lepischak 2004). However, the erasure of queer youth is not limited to mainstream gay communities. It also occurs within academic and public health research, as well as within popular culture and the media (Driver 2008; Welle et al.

2006). As a result, queer youth are left "stranded as neither fully belonging within mainstream heterosexual cultural research nor integrated within queer cultural niches" (Driver 2008: 11).

This chapter will explore the growing body of literature that attempts to fill in the gaps in the fields of sexuality and youth studies, where, until relatively recently, analyses of the specificities of queer youth identities and experiences were largely nonexistent (Driver 2007; Driver 2008; Talburt et al. 2004; Blackburn 2007; Linne

2003). It will begin by documenting some of the common (mis)representations of queer youth as either passive victims or active agents within the media and academic literature, as well as some of the possible implications that these images have for queer youth. Then, the chapter will move into a discussion of some of the ways that queer youth challenge this reductive binary logic through embodying multiple subject positions and through critical media literacy and engagement.

Finally, in order to tie this chapter into the larger project, it will conclude with a brief overview of queer youth cultures and subcultures, including queer punk. In 43 particular, the chapter will look at the ways that these subcultures and cultural productions allow queer youth to create their own alternatives to both mainstream heterosexual cultures and to dominant gay cultures.

(Mis)Representations of Queer Youth

Dominant representations of queer individuals in the mainstream media construct a very specific image of what a queer person looks like; that is, white, middle class, gay, gender normative, able-bodied, and usually male (Shelton 2008;

Lipton 2008; Rigney 2008). This homogenized image does not go unnoticed by queer youth, many of whom do not or cannot conform to it. For example, Kisha, who is a member of the Chicago queer punk band Bromance and is also a queer woman of colour, explains that, "what pisses me off is the stereotype in the media [...] The queer community is diverse; we're not all skinny white boys with faux hawks pelvic- gyrating to club jams in Boystown" (in Gorgeous 2009). Similarly, Limp Wrist, a well- known queer straightedge band, takes on the media representations of queer individuals in their song "Fake Fags" (2006):

Fake fags on the radio don't sing for me Metrosexuals annoy the shit out of me Fake fags in Hollywood don't impress me Try to demonstrate how I'm supposed to be

Submissive, tired fucking scene Boring predictable queens Absorb and swallow what's being pushed Individuality is crushed.

In addition to homogenizing the demographics of the queer community, media depictions also limit the roles that queer people can play in society. Queer characters become caricatures. They are reduced to hapless sidekicks, comedic relief, and are practically asexual. They are often the catalyst that moves a heterosexual storyline forward instead of being the centre of their own storyline. And on a disproportionately frequent basis, queer characters are either deranged killers or the victims of horrific violence (Linne 2003).

In discussing the relationship between representation and violence, David

Valentine argues that "representations or ideologies have effects in and of themselves [and] that representations are linked in a causal way to institutions of power beyond the control of the individual" (2003: 39). With regards to queerness in the media, the effect of these representations is a very specific message to queer people: that participation in mainstream society is contingent upon assimilation and compliance with heteronormative standards. The images serve the dual purpose of increasing the visibility of certain identities while simultaneously containing and erasing many others. Cait Keegan refers to this as the "'fixing' of queer difference" and explains that it requires a process of both depoliticizing and de-eroticizing queer identities such that they are stripped of that which makes them queer, thereby forcing queer individuals to embody a kind of ersatz heterosexuality (2006: 109). As this chapter, and parts of later chapters, will demonstrate, the erasure and sanitization of queerness within the media has a particular impact on queer youth, many of whom are then required to develop gender identities and sexualities without the abundance of diverse role models that heterosexual and/or gender normative youth are offered.

"At Risk" Youth and the Martyr-Target-Victim Paradigm

Common representations of queer youth that currently pervade both academic literature and the mainstream media construct queer youth as being a 45 population "at risk." The tendency to only portray queer youth as victims of violence and homophobia or at greater risk of suicide, self-harm, and drug and alcohol abuse is becoming a growing concern for many researchers (Talburt et al. 2004; Blackburn

2007; Taulke-Johnson 2008; Driver 2008). They are particularly concerned about the implications that the ubiquity of these images has for young queers. Eric Rofes analyzes this phenomenon using what he calls the "martyr-target-victim" paradigm, which describes the way a "specific cohort of youth [are] defined by their victimization" (2004: 47).

Rofes' martyr-target-victim paradigm problematizes the gay rights organizations' exploitation of violence narratives, which, according to Valentine, have become a "central 'tool kit' in drawing attention of the state" (2003: 43). Rofes recognizes the effectiveness of suicide statistics and stories of gay bashings in garnering political and financial support, but is critical of the messages that queer youth are receiving as a result of this tactic. He is concerned that the repeated victimization and pathologization of queer youth may deter young people who are questioning their sexuality and/or gender identity from claiming a queer identity and becoming involved with a queer community. If you were a young person who thought you might be queer but was constantly bombarded with stories of other queer kids being bullied, beaten, or committing suicide, would you be in a hurry to tell other people, let alone admit it to yourself? Within the martyr-target-victim paradigm, the lives of queer youth are reduced to violence, depression, and negativity, which, consequently, erases the possibility of pleasure, healthy relationships, or safety. As one of Rofes' students asked, "Where is the joy?" (2004: 47). 46 It also creates a situation where immediate issues or specific instances can be addressed without having to challenge systemic forms of homo- and transphobia.

For example, Quinlivan (2002) argues that the discourses of "at risk" youth allow schools to depict sexual orientation and/or gender identity as a private issue that can be dealt with on a case-by-case basis through the school's guidance department, thereby giving the appearance of meeting the needs of individual queer students without ever having to question the culture of heteronormativity and homophobia that pervades the education system. This is also exemplified by the recent "It Gets Better

Project,"7 which was started as a response from within the queer community to a rash of highly publicized teen suicides in the United States that were linked to homophobic bullying. The campaign was designed to encourage queer youth to stay strong and to show them that there is hope for the future, but it has also had other, perhaps unintentional, consequences. In an article about the generation gap between queer youth and adults, Bohan et al. explain that "adults are prone to consider adolescents as 'the future,' disregarding their presence and impact in the present" (2002: 19). The "It Gets Better Project" similarly focuses on what things will be like for queer youth in the future, rather than addressing their immediate circumstances. The campaign implies that youth should simply bide their time until adulthood, and many of the video contributors assumed that youth, especially those in small, rural communities, would leave their hometowns for major urban cities with large queer communities. Additionally, it also gave celebrities, politicians, and average citizens the opportunity to chastise teenage bullies without necessarily having to speak to a wider culture that systematically devalues and discriminates against queer individuals.

7 www.itgetsbetter.org. Accessed May 2, 2011. 47

Success Stories

Recognizing the potentially serious implications of the repeated victimization of queer youth, attempts to counter these overwhelmingly negative images often include a shift to the opposite end of the spectrum; that is, they circulate uplifting accounts of individual successes and examples of tolerance and acceptance. For example, Driver (2008) cites recent media stories about an openly trans-identified student who was elected to their high school student council and a lesbian who took her girlfriend to prom. While these examples may be an important part of showing queer youth that there is more to their lives than violence, Driver cautions that these positive representations may also have the (unintentional?) consequence of normalizing and containing the heterogeneity of queer youth identities. Queer youth are taught to strive for tolerance rather than equity and respect, and to expect that it comes with the condition of conformity to a model of sexuality and/or gender identity that is significantly less threatening to heteronormative society. Wyss (2004) explains that it is not uncommon for teachers and school administrators to fail to intervene on the behalf of queer students being harassed or discriminated against, citing the belief that these students are bringing this treatment upon themselves.

Tribe 8, a popular dyke punk band from San Francisco, describes this type of experience in their song "People Hate Me" (1996):

People hate me I know it's the case Is it the metal in my face? Is it the ring in my tit?

People hate me For the colour of my skin and the shape of my eyes 'Cause I might take revenge for the lies their daddies told my kin People hate me 'Cause I'm not like them.

Queer youth, therefore, "become valued and supported as long as they don't challenge the status quo by looking and acting too queer" (Driver 2008: 5).

Additionally, this tactic is left open to the same general criticism as the representations of "at risk" youth to which the tactic is reacting: it presents a one­ sided account of the experiences of queer youth. While the martyr-target-victim paradigm obscures the pleasure and positive experiences associated with being a queer youth, the uplifting stories gloss over the possibility of violence and discrimination. For many queer youth, violence is very much a part of their daily reality. According to the report Youth Speak Up About Homophobia and

Transphobia: The First National Climate Survey on Homophobia in Canadian

Schools released by Egale Canada, three-quarters of queer students in Canada, including 95% of trans students, reported feeling unsafe at school (Taylor et al.

2009). One in four lesbian, gay, and bisexual students and two in five transgender students reported being physically assaulted because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, respectively. Cristy Road, a queer Latina punk originally from Miami, describes her experiences being queer in high school:

To most kids, being all over the place as far as choosing a gender who you wanted to fuck was a phase. The invalidation pressed on everything by my life in high school made my desires offbeat—never normalcy. This put a fault in how visible I wanted to be, so I began changing that year. I began concealing my emotions from those outside my comfort zone (2004-2007).

As a young woman of Cuban heritage, Cristy also describes experiencing a disjuncture between her Latina identity and her identity as a queer woman. It is therefore important to note that not all queer youth experience homophobia and transphobia in the same way. For this reason, the experiences of queer youth are better represented by analyses that adopt a more nuanced approach that recognizes the intersections between homophobia and other forms of discrimination based on, for example, race, ethnicity, class background, and ability.

For example, Andil Gosine (2008) explores the unique experiences of queer youth immigrants in Canada and the tensions they encounter between nationalist discourses and the reality of life in Canada. He explains that:

Young queer immigrants appear to feel compelled to explain their experiences of isolation and marginalization as a consequence of their 'freshness' to Canadian society [...] and, furthermore, to couch their reflections and analysis within a nationalist framework that maintains its celebratory demeanour— to insist that they will be 'gloriously free' even as they are riot (2008: 231, emphasis in original).

Furthermore, it is not uncommon for studies to document the ways that gay and lesbian youth encounter homophobia and the effects it has on them, and then map these results onto trans youth. Critical of this conflation, Rob Pusch (2005) outlines examples of discriminatory and insulting experiences that he argues are more likely to be unique to trans individuals, such as having friends and family explicitly deny their trans identity and refuse to adopt preferred pronouns and names or receiving advice on how to look and act like a "real" man or woman. Hansbury

(2005) adds that simply going about everyday activities can be an emotionally exhausting, if not physically dangerous, experience for many trans people, particularly those who do not "pass" as male or female. Using a public washroom, having to show legal identification, or checking the "M" or "F" box on paperwork can be stressful, and often unsafe, tasks for trans individuals who are then forced "to place themselves in a classification system of gender and sexuality that intuitively they know is not made to include people like them but also is the site of cultural acceptance and rewards" (Regales 2008: 89).

Multiple Subject Positions and Youth Agency

The opposing representations of queer youth that depict them as either helpless victims or inspirational success stories have created what Blackburn (2007) describes as a "false dichotomy." Blackburn argues that it is necessary to adopt an approach to analyses of queer youth that recognizes multiple subject positions.

Such an approach would take into account other facets of youth identities, like race and class, as discussed above, but would also demonstrate that queer youth are never just victims or agents; rather, they are both. According to Driver, this type of research is essential because it "acknowledges that for many marginalized youth, surviving depends on averting either/or logics, embracing the challenges of growing up with contradictions" (2008: 8).

An approach that understands queer youth as embodying multiple subject positions identifies the ways that these youth both acknowledge and challenge the violence they experience. It recognizes queer youth as active agents who consciously negotiate the tensions of being queer in a heteronormative society. For example, the gender variant youth in Wyss' study "strategically analyzed the situations confronting them and gendered themselves in ways that balanced their need to be true to self with their need for physical and sexual safety" (2004: 723-4).

Wyss' participants were well aware of the possible dangers they faced by transgressing gender norms, but did not passively accept their victimization; instead, 51 the students developed methods of resisting, or at the very least coping, with the harassment. This can mean refusing to tone down or de-queer their appearance, or it can mean accepting that a certain amount of conformity is unfortunate but necessary in order to make it through the day. For some participants, it meant

"cultivating a sense of fear in one's schoolmates through a butch or punk gender

presentation" (2004: 721).

Media Literacy and Engagement

Queer youth also exhibit agency on a more personal, individual level that is

less about interactions with other people and more about empowering themselves.

For many youth, this is done through interactions with the media and popular culture.

Shelton explains that "media literacy and media making provide queer young people

a way to inventively represent themselves and control their self-image" (2008: 78).

Not seeing themselves accurately represented (or represented at all) in the

mainstream media, queer youth create their own cultural productions, such as zines,

films, and music that tell the stories of their lives and offer alternative narratives and

images. Some of these practices and cultural productions, which Linne describes as

"strategies for resisting normalizing discourses" (2003: 674), will be discussed

throughout the remainder of this chapter, and in later chapters.

Not all queer youth have easy access to alternative media, and so they

develop techniques of interacting with the mainstream media in ways that co-opt and

reinterpret the texts that are available to them (Nylund 2007; Dhaenens et al. 2008;

Lipton 2008). Mark Lipton (2008) refers to this process as queer hermeneutics and

argues that it can include imagining that a specific character is queer even if they are not "out" or searching out hidden messages and references that a straight audience would not pick up on. He gives the example of his own experiences as a young gay man reading Archie comics, and describes the pleasure and comfort he derived from his belief that the character known as Jughead was gay, even though this was never explicitly stated in the comics. Similarly, the members of the queer punk band Pansy

Division also employ this kind of queer co-optation of mainstream, heterosexual media with songs such as "Bill and Ted's Homosexual Adventure" (1993), which is a reference to a series of popular comedy movies, as well as "Rock & Roll Queer Bar"

(1993), which is a re-write of the popular Ramones song "Rock 'n' Roll High School"

(1980). Another type of queer hermeneutics is referred to as slash fiction, which involves audience members and fans writing their own queer storylines for popular television shows and movies, and creating queer romantic relationships between characters that are either explicitly or implicitly heterosexual in the actual show or movie (Dhaenens et al. 2008). The practice originated with characters such as Kirk

and Spock from Star Trek, but, with the advent of the internet, has expanded to include a wide variety of forms of slash fiction across many movie and television genres.

Media literacy and forms of media engagement, such as queer hermeneutics, can have a significant, positive impact on queer youth. Nylund, for example, argues

that "learning how to critique and resist media manipulation can help create a context

for self-empowerment giving people more power over their cultural environment"

(2007: 14). Queer youth are therefore potentially able to resist the homogenizing

and restrictive media representations of their identities and experiences, some of 53 which are discussed above, and are also potentially able to imagine a wider variety of possibilities for their lives. Lipton explains that:

Queer reading practices provide the conditions for a range of possible identities and subject positions. Since popular cultural production is unable to provide queer youth with sufficient models for behaviour, queer reading practices help queer youth negotiate these identity needs (2008: 173).

I will resume a discussion of the relationship between queer youth and the media, specifically how queer punk bands seek to counter the invisibility of queer youth, in a later chapter. The remainder of this chapter will briefly introduce queer organizations and subcultures.

Queer Youth Cultures

In addition to the media engagement and queer hermeneutics described above, many queer youth also create and participate in events, organizations, and subcultures that are specifically by and for queer youth. These subcultures and cultural productions provide queer youth with the opportunity to exercise agency, and they foster self-empowerment and offer an alternative to both mainstream heterosexual cultures and the dominant, and largely adult-oriented, gay cultures. As

Valentine and Skelton argue, becoming involved in a queer youth culture can be "a more important marker of a young person's independent adulthood than traditional school-to-work, domestic and housing traditions (2003: 853).

Queer youth cultures often allow youth to not only celebrate their queerness, but also to embrace the numerous other subject positions that they embody and to find new ways to engage in politics and activism. For example, groups such as

FIERCE!, which is an activist organization for queer and trans youth of colour in New York City, combine art and politics to challenge homo and trans-phobia, racism, and poverty, as well as static interpretations of activism (Davidson 2008). Events like the

"punk rock drag shows" that Ritchie (2008) describes demonstrate the ways that queer youth creatively deconstruct normative understandings of gender and sexuality. Ritchie explains that "there is a carnival atmosphere at these shows, a celebration that redefines what is and is not 'political,' that mocks the straight world outside its doors" (2008: 267). Finally, organizations such as Toronto's Supporting

Our Youth (SOY), which, among other things, sponsors and facilitates the youth- oriented performance stage known as Fruit Loopz at Toronto's annual Pride celebration, helps queer youth carve out a space for themselves at an event that

"historically, youth have had difficulty finding a place in" (Lepischak 2004: 83).

Of particular importance to an analysis of queer punk is the recognition of the influence of queer music subcultures. The topic of music will comprise a large portion of my arguments in the next chapters; however, for the moment, it is important to note that music plays a very significant role in the lives of many queer youth. Dave from the Chicago queer punk band Bromance exemplifies this common sentiment. He says, "we all really love playing music. It's one of the only times I'm actually happy" (in Gorgeous 2009). Driver (2007, 2008) also adds that queer music subcultures allow queer youth to humorously and creatively challenge heteronormativity, to explore their identities and desires, and to experiment with new forms of political expressions. John, another member of Bromance, explains that the band "sing[s] about things that we've gone through, things that make us angry,

[and] things that make us happy" (in Gorgeous 2009). Queer Youth and Subcultural Theory

Until relatively recently, the work of subcultural theorists, particularly those with the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS), largely failed to address queer youth subcultures, or even acknowledge the involvement of queer individuals in predominantly heterosexual subcultures. Analyses of queer subcultures therefore challenge or, at the very least, amend previous subcultural theories that often have very rigid, narrow understandings of what a subculture and its participants look like, and what it means to participate in a subculture. Driver argues:

Work on subcultures is both useful and limiting when considering the scattered, and sometimes underground, lifeworlds of queer youth. Assumptions about groups of youth as bounded, unified, and visible entities become questionable when considering intersectional and permeable identifications shaping sexual and gender variant youth affiliations (2008: 20).

Elsewhere, Driver (2007) also explains that queer subcultures cannot easily be reduced to the binary logic of mainstream versus underground/alternative cultures that pervades subcultural theory. Halberstam builds on Driver's arguments by explaining that the study of queer subcultures disrupts the dichotomous relationship between researcher and participant, as well as the adolescence-adulthood binary, and provides a more nuanced analysis that will "account for nonheterosexual, nonexclusively male, nonwhite, and nonadolescent subcultural production" (2008:

35).

As I discussed briefly in the previous chapter, McRobbie and Garber ([1977]

2005) are recognized for their significant contribution to subcultural theory, which almost exclusively focused on subcultures predominantly comprised of young men.

Their groundbreaking work on girl subcultures brought analyses of gender into the field. They argued that rather than being marginally involved in subcultures, girls were simply involved in different subcultures, which were most often located in the domestic sphere, specifically in the girls' bedrooms. McRobbie and Garber discussed girls' participation in their own subcultures, specifically the teenybopper subculture, in a way that recognized the girls as active, agentic subjects. They explain:

Girls who define themselves actively within these teenybopper subcultures are indeed being active, even though the familiar iconography seems to reproduce traditional gender stereotypes with the girl as the passive fan, and the star as the active male ([1977] 2005: 112, emphasis in original).

McRobbie and Garber's influence can be seen in the work of subsequent generations of subcultural theorists, such as Roman (1988) and Leblanc (1999), who acknowledge and analyze the ways that girls experience subcultural participation differently from their male counterparts.

However influential McRobbie and Garber's work may be, it is also hetero- and gender-normative; that is, their work does not address the gender identities or sexual orientations of queer girls. McRobbie and Garber speculate that "girls' subcultures may have become invisible because the very term 'subculture' has acquired such strong masculine overtones" ([1977] 2005: 106), but they do not appear to consider that, for some girls, this may not be a deterrent. In response,

Halberstam argues:

There tends to be little recognition that some girls, usually queer girls, may in fact involve themselves in subcultures precisely because of the strong masculine overtones associated with the activity. And so, a young queer girl interested in punk will not be put off by the masculinity of the subculture—she may as easily be seduced by it (2008: 37-8). 57 This is not to say that all girls are attracted to punk because of the masculinity that characterizes it, nor do I wish to obscure the identities and subcultural participation of queer femme youth; nonetheless, punk does offer girls, queer or otherwise, the opportunity to embody a gender identity outside of the strictures of normative femininity.

Writing specifically on punk tomboys, Halberstam also acknowledges that punk even provides a queer alternative to the more mainstream forms of feminism:

Punk allowed for a different trajectory of rebellion than feminism did. While feminism has been preoccupied with producing strong women out of strong girls, subcultural forms like punk and riot grrl have generated queer girls, often queer tomboys with queer futures (1999: 153).

This sentiment is also articulated by some young women, queer and straight, who are active in today's punk scenes. For example, queer punk Cristy Road explains that she "thought riot grrrl was better than neo-folk feminist bands that didn't realize how hard it is to love being a girl sometimes" (2004-2007). Similarly, Diehl (2007) references Brody Dalle of the Distillers and Aixa Vilar of Go Betty Go, who have both expressed frustration with the limits of feminism.

Alternatives to Mainstream Gay Culture

As I discussed above, Valentine and Skelton note the importance of

participation in gay and lesbian communities to a young queer person's

development. However, they also recognize that young people, especially those

new to the scene, can be vulnerable to, among other things, low self-esteem, unsafe

sex, substance abuse, and violence. They add that "the lesbian community—and

the gay men's scene too—can be insular and exclusionary" (2003: 861). As a result, many adult-oriented gay and lesbian communities and organizations are characterized by what has been called "homonormativity" (Halberstam 2008) and/or

"lesbian normativity" (McDonald 2006). In specific reference to lesbian communities,

Cooper and Trebra argue that:

For a marginalized group subject to harassment, oppression, and pressure to conform from the "sexual majority," not to mention the patriarchal system of gender discrimination, lesbians have an awfully bad reputation for defining what is authentically female or lesbian [...] and making negative judgements on nonconformity (2006: 155).

Exclusionary attitudes can therefore make certain events and spaces unwelcoming to, for example, bisexuals, trans individuals, and/or people involved in the polyamorous and sado-masochist communities. In some cases, these people find themselves barred from participation altogether. For example, the policies of the

Michigan Womyn's Music Festival do not allow for the open participation of trans

individuals, which Green partially attributes to "anti-inclusion feminism" that is

"triggered by a fear that trans inclusion could potentially undermine feminist theory

and ideology" (2006: 232).

In addition to overtly discriminatory practices, forms of homonormativity are

also evident in the assimilationist tactics of some gay and lesbian rights

organizations. Certain gay and lesbian rights activists market themselves as being

"just like you" to the mainstream, heteronormative society, thereby making their

message more palatable in an attempt to gain tolerance and equal rights (Davidson

2008; Weiss 2004). Queer hardcore band Limp Wrist satirizes this method in their

song "Just Like You" (2006):

We can be normal, we swear we can Love is love, man 59 Relinquish the odd gender I am not a social blender I'm not a freak

I'll go to church, join the P.T.A. Have a kid just like you

Detain us, contain us, you have a right to hate us Detain us, sedate us, would you please fucking hate us.

Limp Wrist is highlighting and critiquing the fact that some gay and lesbian activists and organizations are complying with the homogenized, sanitized standard of acceptability dictated by heteronormative society, which I outlined in the

"(mis)representations" section above.

Activists also capitalize on the celebrity of "gaycons" (Ritchie 2008), or gay icons, in the popular media, who champion very specific causes, most often same- sex marriage. However, in doing so, gay and lesbian rights organizations often fail to address the needs and experiences of some of the members of their constituency whose primary concerns are in no way related to equal marriage rights. Ritchie points out:

Trans people can be denied healthcare, jobs, housing, the ability to change their name, and adoption rights, they have been beaten, raped and murdered by police, all because they temporarily or permanently transcend the appropriate "m" or "f boxes our society clings to (2008: 271).

Despite the obviously immediate need for basic rights and protections that many trans and queer individuals experience on a daily basis, activists continue to predominantly advocate for causes such as same-sex marriage, which directly benefits only a certain, often more privileged, population who are deemed less threatening to mainstream society. 60 Similarly, Davidson (2008) adds that in recent years, many gay and lesbian rights organizations have added "bisexual" and "transgender" to their names and mission statements, but she argues that this step towards inclusion on paper has not translated into inclusive actions and advocacy. She cites the Human Rights

Campaign (HRC), a prominent gay and lesbian advocacy organization in the United

States, as an example, explaining that the organization "supported the Employment

Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) without protections for 'gender identity and expression"' (2008: 250). The HRC therefore campaigned for employment protection for gays and lesbians, but did not advocate for the same protections for trans and gender variant individuals.

This is not to say that these discriminatory and/or assimilationist attitudes and practices are universally characteristic of all activist organizations or social events and spaces; nonetheless, as the variety of sources cited above demonstrate, they are not uncommon. As a result, there is an increasing number of organizations, including SOY (Lepischak 2004) and FIERCE! (Davidson 2008), cited above, and subcultures, such as queer punk, that not only attempt to speak more directly to the complicated, nuanced experiences and needs of queer youth, but also offer alternative social and political opportunities and spaces to those of mainstream gay culture. As Jon Ginoli explains, "I wasn't getting much out of gay culture. Instead of adjusting to gay culture, I wanted gay culture to adjust to me" (2009: 23). This led him to form Pansy Division, which became one of the most well-known queer punk bands and was a driving force behind the queercore movement. I will argue, throughout the upcoming chapters, that the punk subculture, and specifically queer 61 punk, exemplifies the queer youth subcultures that provide an alternative to both mainstream heterosexual society and dominant gay culture.

Conclusion

Queer youth confound the binaries that structure heteronormative society. By actively constructing identities that resist easy containment and normalization, they prove that their gender identities and sexualities, their very subjectivities, cannot necessarily be easily explained by the either/or logics of "male/female,"

"heterosexual/homosexual," and "victim/agent." In doing so, queer youth embody the possibilities of queerness. They challenge the homogenization and erasure of youth within academic discourses and the gay and lesbian community, as well as the sanitization and depoliticization of their queerness by the heteronormative media.

Instead of waiting to be offered a chance to participate in mainstream culture, queer youth carve out a place for themselves. They create spaces and communities where they can live by their own terms and be recognized and supported because of their differences and queerness. Chapter 3: The Importance of Punk Rock

"Some live a life of indecision Strung out in the petty schisms I heard GBH, I made a decision Punk rock is my religion

You want it, you got it This is the place where everyone can belong

To all out friends, by this I swear"

-"You Want It, You Got It," Rancid (2009)

Rancid's song "You Want It, You Got It," is like the band's love letter to punk rock. It's about how punk brought meaning to the band members' lives and gave them a sense of belonging. The song is a vow of dedication to their friends and their community. And in the canon of punk songs, its message is not unique. In fact, songs about punk and the influence it has had on those who are a part of it are fairly common. Yet, the importance of punk and why it is meaningful to punks remains a relatively unexplored area of academic analyses.

As briefly discussed in the first chapter, Michelle Phillipov (2006) is critical of the tendency within punk studies to reiterate and re-examine the same general arguments and topics. For example, common areas of inquiry include: punk's DIY ethos (Moore 2007); gender dynamics (Leblanc 1999; Roman 1988); authenticity

(Middleton 2002; Andes 1998; Fox 1987); and resistance and anarchy (Clark 2003).

Sabin explains that this has created a kind of "orthodoxy—i.e., whenever we approach a new piece of writing on [punk], we think we already know what it meant"

(1999: 2). As a result, there is often a great deal of repetition within punk studies despite the fact that there continues to be gaps in the body of literature.

Interestingly, Phillipov argues that Sabin is also complicit in the reification of this orthodoxy because his anthology, like many other punk books and studies, focuses on punk as a social and cultural phenomenon rather than as music. She explains that punk music is repeatedly depicted as "a vehicle for the expression of politics rather than something which is embedded in a variety of meanings and affects in its own right" (2006: 388).

This chapter draws on Phillipov's assertions about the erasure of the importance of punk as music rather than only politics, in combination with my own belief that the reasons that punk is meaningful to punks remains relatively under- analyzed, in order to fill in some of the gaps in the literature. It begins by contemplating the possibility of a definition of punk, first by exploring the ways that punk resists definition and then by outlining some of the basic tenets of punk, including punk as a state of mind, the role of anger and aggression, and the Do-lt-

Yourself (DIY) ethos. The chapter then moves into a discussion of the importance of punk rock, from the perspective of punks. It draws on song lyrics, published interviews with known band members, and the writings of past and present punks to illustrate how punk created a sense of community and solidarity between outcasts and misfits, as well as how it brought meaning to their lives, and in some cases actually saved their lives. Finally, it examines music from an affective perspective in order to document what it feels like to listen to punk music and attend live shows.

Defining Punk

Punk, like "queer" in many ways, resists easy definition. It can be an identity, a musical genre, a subculture, a fashion style, or a state of mind. Its definition is 64 elusive and highly subjective. According to Greg Attonito of the New Jersey band

Bouncing Souls:

The best part about punk rock is you can define it however you want, and there is no right answer [...] Punk rock is whatever you want it to be. It's a blank page for you to write on [...] It's as shallow as the kiddy pool or deeper than the deepest ocean. You love it or hate it and it doesn't care...cuz...it's...punk (in Diehl 2007: 31-2, emphasis in original).

And Attonito is not the only punk with this opinion. Greg Graffin, frontman for Bad

Religion, believes that it is "an inane task to try and define punk universally. Its meaning is fuzzied everywhere by contextual circumstance" (1996). Graffin compares a teenage girl that goes to church with a green mohawk and a "Fuck

Jesus" shirt to a biology professor who believes Darwin was wrong to explain that, although they live very different lives, both individuals embody a kind of punk attitude. Similarly, Ian MacKaye, of legendary punk bands Minor Threat and Fugazi and the (somewhat unintentional) founder of the straightedge movement, explains:

I don't want to jump into the fray of defining punk rock, given the nebulous nature of the word and concept of 'punk' [...] The truth is, I celebrate the elusiveness of the term 'punk': if I'm bothered by anything, it's the idea that there should be a single orthodoxy with the term" (in Diehl 2007: 31).

Given the recognition within the punk scene of the term's definitional ambiguity, it is important not to adopt a totalizing, reductive perspective when studying punk; rather, studies that recognize the variability and contradictions within punk, such as

Widdicombe and Wooffitt (1995) and Andes (1998), provide a more nuanced analysis of the subculture that are at less risk of reifying a narrow theoretical or cultural orthodoxy. 65 Many punks, including the three quoted here, embrace both the musical and political diversity that allows punk to resist easy categorization and co-optation8.

MacLeod explains that the punks in the Los Angeles hardcore scenes in the early

1980s "refused a unitary position, rejecting universals and even strategic thinking"

(2010: 129). More than twenty five years later, punks are still refusing to be pigeonholed into one political stance. Diehl describes today's "neo-punks" as adopting "an iPod approach to choosing one's ideological stance" (2007: 204). He uses the examples of straightedge Christians and Republican punks to demonstrate the mix-and-match diversity of punk politics. This recognition and support of multiple viewpoints is perhaps best exemplified by the Warped Tour, a hugely successful day-long punk festival that tours North America every summer. In addition to an extensive line-up of bands, the tour also includes booths from political and activist organizations. In my experiences at Warped Tour, groups like Amnesty International and PETA have been particularly visible but, according to Kevin Lyman, the tour's founder and director, groups like the Marines have also been allowed to attend.

Lyman explains that he welcomes participation from organizations with a wide variety of perspectives, to a certain point. He says "everyone's opposing views are there...The only ones I wouldn't allow at the shows were those with straight racist views. I couldn't do it" (in Diehl 2007: 198).

Punk musicians incorporate the sounds and styles of a wide variety of musical influences and in doing so they have created a myriad of subgenres and variations of punk music. For example, the influence of reggae and ska on punk can be heard in many of the early British bands, such as The Clash, as well as American

8 There are, however, limits to the types of political beliefs that most punks are willing to accept or tolerate, particularly in regards to, for example, racism and sexism. These limits will be highlighted throughout both this chapter and the next chapter. bands like the Bad Brains (Kinsella 2005). Bad Brains, who formed in Washington

D.C. in the late 1970s, are significant not only because of their lasting influence on

American punk but also because the band's members were all African-American, which is still a rarity in an otherwise predominantly white subculture. Ska punk bands often incorporate the loud, fast guitars of punk with the trumpets, trombones, and reggae style of ska to create a hybrid sound that continues to be a crowd pleaser at punk shows.

In addition to ska punk, psychobilly bands such as Toronto's The Creepshow and Nekromantix, who are originally from Denmark, also create a hybrid sound.

Psychobilly music combines punk rock with rockabilly, specifically the use of an upright bass, and monster movie themes to create a kind of rock 'n' roll horror show.

Crossovers between punk and folk/Celtic music are also quite common. Irish punk bands like the Dropkick Murphys from Boston and Flogging Molly from California, as well as the Scottish-Canadian band The Real McKenzies from Vancouver, incorporate instruments such as bagpipes, tin whistles, mandolins, and banjos, and often perform punk rock versions of traditional Celtic folk songs. Folk punk band The

Dreadnoughts, also from Vancouver, who often sing punk rock sea shanties, might best be described as pirate punks. They are staunch supporters of folk music, which is perhaps most evident in their 2010 album entitled Polka's Not Dead. It is important to note, however, that although the musical diversity that bands like these create does contribute to punk's ability to evade easy definition, it still falls within a relatively narrow range when compared to all possible forms of musical expression.

Punk, regardless of the subgenre, relies heavily on three-chord aggressive, guitar- driven music. 67

Punk Rock Border Patrol

Not all punks, however, are as welcoming of diversity or receptive to the ambiguous, subjective definitions of punk as others. For every punk trying to break down the walls, there are those who go to great lengths to build them back up again.

In his anti-manifesto about punk, Detroit-based music journalist Ryan Cooper speculates that just minutes after the birth of punk, whenever that may have been, someone probably "looked at or heard something and said, That ain't punk'" (2010).

What he means is that for however long punk has been around, people have been vehemently disavowing other bands and other punks as being "not punk" for just as long.

Petty debates and elitist arguments about who and what is or is not punk are relatively pervasive throughout the subculture. Greg Graffin cites a letter from a former Bad Religion fan as evidence of the "'punk police' out there monitoring whether bands like ours fit the stereotype, and match their dogmatic view of accountability" (1996). Mark Hoppus, whose band Blink-182 is often the subject of elitist punks' derision, admits that he too was once guilty of wanting punk to stay relatively insular. He recalls a time when the music that was so important to him as a teenager began to increase in popularity among the popular, jock crowd at his school: "I was so pissed off. I was actually sad. But, when I really thought about it, I shouldn't have been sad because people are finally catching on to good music.

That's being a snob" (in Kinsella 2005: 197).

The irony is that this in-fighting and elitism is both hypocritical and contradicts many of the dominant discourses that characterize punk. You can still be a 68 conformist without conforming to mainstream standards. Punk fashion, for example, loses a lot of its anti-establishment credibility and becomes little more than a uniform when it is made mandatory. This kind of punk rock border patrolling is criticized by

Florida punk band Against All Authority in their song "Shut it Down" (2006):

They're young but the lines have been drawn And they're still gonna be here when you're gone And years from now when your clique has moved on They'll still be in the basement till the break of dawn Sweating blood into every single song And still feeling like they don't belong

You can's shut this fucker down

They're young but you were there too Don't think they're posing just because they never knew The songs or the scene, it was there before you And it's way more important than your hair and tattoos.

The song is about how punk will always "be here for the down and out" despite those who try to brand new members as "poseurs." Similarly, the song "Punk Rock"

(2001), by New York City street punk band The Casualties, also has something to say about the hard-line punks who try to enforce certain rules:

All these rules you have created Won't force the kids just for your sake So get it through your fucking head It's up to you what you eat and wear Militant close-minded fools You're the church and schools of the youth.

Here, the Casualties are referring specifically to the increasing militancy of certain straightedge and vegan punks, hence the line about what you "eat and wear."

Attempting a Definition

Punk, at its very best, is about pushing certain boundaries and challenging

aspects of the status quo. It is about refusing to passively comply with normative expectations and social codes. Joey "Shithead" Keithley of legendary Vancouver hardcore band DOA says punk is "about kicking the establishment in the groin as hard as possible, repeatedly" (in Kinsella 2005: 69). Punk is about asking questions and educating yourself about whatever is meaningful to you. It is about understanding what is going on in the world around you and celebrating the good and trying to fix the bad. And it is about standing your ground, taking control of your own life, and living in a way that works best for you, not for everyone else. Warren

Kinsella, a Canadian lawyer, political pundit, and long-time punk rocker, provides the following definition of punk:

Punk is about trying to scratch out some meaning in a big old world that seems pretty meaningless, most days. It's about being angry at being lied to [...] Punk is about raging against all the powers that be, to try to make things better, if only for just an instant. It's about being yourself, and finding something that is real, and holding onto it as though your life depends on it. Which, when you get right down to it, it does (2005: 12, emphasis in original).

Punk is about finding a place to belong, a place where your life just makes sense.

Based on his description, Kinsella obviously found a "home" in the punk scene, as

did many others, myself included.

While punk generally seems to thrive on ambiguity and indeterminacy, refusing any sort of definition means that punk risks falling into the same trap as

"queer"; that is, its applicability becomes too diffuse and it loses any meaning and

specificity it may have had. In fact, I had this exact experience in high school when I

was approached by a few of the popular girls at school, who were curious about my

funny clothes and wanted to know what punk was all about. After my rather pathetic

attempt at an explanation, which probably included phrases like "being yourself," one

of the girls asked, "So then, aren't we all, like, punks?" I don't remember what I said 70 at the time but my response now is quite simply, "No, we are not." And for that reason alone it is important to at least try to define punk.

In an interview promoting Bad Religion's 2002 album The Process of Belief,

Brett Gurewitz, who is also the founder of Epitaph Records, was asked about what he thought punk meant, to which he replied: "Punk rock means something different to all people but if you have to ask what it means, you might never know" (2002). And he is right. Making sense of punk is very personal and subjective. For example, to

Dylan Clark (2003) punk is no longer about being a subculture at all; rather, it is about radical anarchy and underground activism. Boston punk Elie Falcon defines punks as "the 1% that don't fit & don't care" (2010: 104, emphasis in original). He lives a kind of punk rock lifestyle that is typically referred to as crust or gutter punk, which can include (but, of course, is not limited to) living on the streets or in squats and potentially self-destructive behaviours like drug addiction. Conversely, Jessica

Williams, who grew up in a suburban, middle class family and could not relate to the crust punk perspective, credits the band Strung Out for showing her that "it was okay to want to have an education and want more out of life than to just piss people off

(2010: 70).

Punk has a definition; it just varies greatly depending on who you ask.

Outlined below are some of the basic tenets of punk, as I understand it. And in the words of Greg Graffin, whose music has had a significant influence on me:

If my attempt offends the purists, collapses the secrecy of a closed society, promotes confidence in sceptical inquiry, provokes deeper thought, and decodes irony, then I have done my job and those who feel slighted might recognize the triviality of their position (2002). 71 Punk as a State of Mind

One of the central principles of punk is the belief that being a punk is not just about the music to which you listen or the clothes that you wear; it is also, and perhaps more importantly, about how you think. Punk is an attitude or a state of mind that affects how you see the world and interact with other people. As one of the participants in Andes' study explains, "punk is not a rip in your jeans, it's a rip in your mind!" (1998: 227). This attitude is based on the idea that punks live their lives on their own terms. Punk is about being an individual and celebrating the things that make you unique9. For Greg Graffin, "learning to be an individual was the best gift I ever got from growing up punk. I am conscious of stereotypes, and try not to fit them

[...] I am proud of this unpredictable uniqueness" (1996). As a respected geologist and famous musician, Graffin defies conventions in two very different worlds.

Punks pride themselves on staying true to who they are and not giving in to other people's expectations of who they should be. And many punks, especially those of us who adopt any sort of unconventional appearance, are used to hearing what other people think. For example, I once had a hairdresser who, with the best of intentions I'm sure, first reassured me that she had no problems with my appearance and then went on to suggest that I would grow my hair out once I decided to get married. I have been told on numerous occasions that my punk identity is just a phase, something I will grow out of eventually. While I may not have a mohawk for the rest of my life, I like to think that being a punk will, in one way or another, always

9 The discourse of individualism is not unique to punk; rather, it is quite similar to the discourse of individualism that pervades the corporate world. However, as the above sources indicate, it continues to be a relatively central tenet of punk, regardless of whether or not it actually translates into practice. The punk subculture does have its own conventions, and it would be naive and inaccurate to imply that all expressions of "individuality" are unquestioningly accepted within the subculture. 72 be a part of who I am. This type of punk attitude is exemplified by the Bouncing

Souls' anthem "True Believers" (2001):

Well you can fight or you can run Hide under a rock till the war is won Play it safe and don't make a sound But not us, we won't back down

We live our life in our own way Never really listened to what they say The kind of faith that doesn't fade away We are the true believers.

A punk attitude, however, is not just about going against the grain and defying social conventions simply for the sake of doing so; that, of course, would just be another kind of conformity. Instead, punk is about asking questions and deciding for yourself how you want to live. Eve, one of the participants in Lewin and Williams' study, explains that,

[Punk] doesn't have to mean just rejecting everything outright just because it may seem conformist to someone else [...] It definitely means that instead of just sort of giving that knee jerk reaction of rejection towards things to really actively think about them and to create my own viewpoint (2009: 72).

For Eve, coming to this realization allowed her to recognize that her punk identity and her faith in Christianity did not have to be mutually exclusive. Additionally, most punks do not necessarily defy all social conventions; for many punks, there is a line that you do not cross. As Bouncing Souls member Bryan Kienlen says, "The only thing I ever remember being anything close to rules within the punk scene were rules against racism, sexism, homophobia" (in Diehl 2007: 200). Therefore, this kind of punk attitude, in theory at least, allows an individual to find a balance between going against and with the grain. 73 There is, however, another type of attitude that, although less common, still pervades certain areas of the punk community; that is, the nihilistic, "no future" attitude that is perhaps best exemplified by the Sex Pistols. The attitude is characterized by a kind of apathetic, "I don't give a fuck" perspective that sees little hope for the future. These punks typically would rather drop out of mainstream society than do anything to try to make it better. But to many other punks, especially those who are politically active, this type of attitude is not punk at all; rather, it is just another form of compliance. Punks who believe that the future is too doomed to even try pose no threat to the social order.

As a teenager in the early 1980s, Warren Kinsella had the opportunity to interview Joe Strummer, the legendary frontman for the Clash. During that interview,

Strummer had this to say about his fellow British punks, the Sex Pistols:

It ain't punk to believe there is no future at all. That's what poor old Sid [Vicious] thought, and it didn't do him any fuckin' good, did it? There is a future, and I don't give a toss what the Pistols think. That's what Thatcher and the right wing want us to believe, anyway, that there's no future. That way, they don't have to contend with our anger. But they're not gonna shut me up" (in Kinsella 2005: 239, emphasis in original).

Anti-Flag similarly use their song "Rotten Future" (1996) to take issue with the subsequent generations of punks who followed in the Pistols' footsteps:

All you punkers with your no future dreams Follow Johnny Rotten and all our preset beliefs Following society, be what they want you to be Drunk and quiet, "there's no future for me"

Of course you'll bring no change when you sit home on your couch We need to stand up and fight, bring our future to a start We can change anything just as long as we take the time Generations, generations, generations. . . they're not the same. For Anti-Flag, it was important to show the newer cohorts of punks that the "no future" attitude was not their only option. Just because Johnny Rotten and the Sex

Pistols once epitomized punk rock doesn't mean that that is the only way to be a punk.

Punk as Anger and Aggression

Punk is about being pissed off! Across the myriad of definitions and interpretations of punk is an underlying sense of anger that is just as subjective and diverse as each definition. Most of the people that become involved with punk are angry about something, anything. It could be outrage at social inequality, poverty, and war, or it could be frustration with social conventions that seem to work better for some people than others. Or it could just be the desperation that comes from feeling trapped in a boring town, a "broken" home, or at a high school where the other kids make your life a living hell.

Massachusetts street punk band The Unseen capture this sense of anger in the title track from their 2001 album The Anger and the Truth:

There comes a day when you finally realize That everything you've been taught was a fucking lie They always said you should always tell the truth Do as I say, but don't do as I do Where's the anger? Where's the fucking truth? Did you lose it somewhere in your youth?

Punk provides an outlet for that anger. In reference to the early British punks of the mid- to late-1970s, Simonelli explains that "punks were categorised as dole-queue kids, bored and frustrated and taking out their aggressions on their guitars, on themselves and on their audiences" (2002: 133). Punk validates anger, and even encourages it. It capitalizes on that anger and uses it to motivate and inspire punks to speak out about and fight for what they believe in. This, in fact, is what attracts a lot of people to punk in the first place, as Terena Scott demonstrates in the introduction to her anthology Punk Rock Saved My Ass:

I needed the angry charge of punk to keep me believing that there was still people in the world who were pissed off about the status quo, who believed a revolution was possible. The love possessed by the hippies was too passive. I didn't love everybody. I hated George Bush and Rush Limbaugh and Walmart. I didn't want to love them, I wanted to kick their collective asses! (2010: 12).

However, punk rock, and its validation of anger, does not necessarily attract all youth; that is, it most frequently attracts white youth, most of whom are also male and heterosexual. Anger is also not unique to punk—it can also be found in other subcultures and musical genres such as hip hop.

Additionally, it is important to note that the anger that punk validates and encourages does not always have a positive outcome. While anger and frustration can be turned into motivation to fight for social justice, they can just as easily become hatred and motivation to fight simply for the sake of violence. As Dylan

Clark points out, punk rock's anti-establishment attitude has led some punks "to valorize anything mainstream society disliked, including rape and death camps; some punks slid into fascism" (2003: 226). While this may be an extreme example, it is nonetheless true that many punks used punk rock as an excuse for hatred, violence and dogmatic politics. This was especially true of the Los Angeles hardcore scene in the early 1980s. The L.A. punks didn't usually have any specific political agenda to push; many of them simply lived for the violence:

Whatever the cause, a punk show became an undeniably violent affair. The violence within the punk scene—police raids, fights 76 between punks and 'rednecks' or 'hippies,' and fights between rival punks—escalated[...] The rise of postsuburban punk coincided with the beginnings of police violence against punks, and the beginnings of violence by punks against other punks, and against anyone else (MacLeod 2010: 112).

Punk shows have always had an element of danger and violence to them, in the sense that punks could go to a show and let out their frustrations and aggression on the stage and in the mosh pits. The affective and therapeutic aspect of listening to music and going to shows will be discussed in greater detail below, but for the moment it is important to differentiate between this kind of aggression and the violence that characterized the L.A scene. NOFX's song "Hardcore '84" (2003) documents some of the acts of violence that occurred in Los Angeles between 1981 and 1984:

Albert took golf clubs to heads James shot twice and left for dead This is L.A., fight for fun This is Hardcore '81

Neighbourhood watch, backyard brawl Riot at Longshoreman Hall Violent rule, it's sad but true This is Hardcore '82.

The song goes on to detail other incidents in '83 and '84. NOFX's frontman Fat Mike recalls that this scene "was for sure the most violent and deadliest scene ever. I'd witnessed two murders, one rape, one shooting, several stabbings, and countless severe beatings" (in Diehl 2007: 48). Fat Mike moved north to San Francisco in the mid-1980s to escape L.A.'s violence. This level of violence does not necessarily compare to that of certain other subcultures and communities, such as some hip hop scenes; nonetheless, the Los Angeles punk scene was particularly violent relative to other punk scenes. 77

Do-lt-Yourself

Even more central to punk than anger is the Do-lt-Yourself (DIY) ethos. It is a big part of what made punk so revolutionary and so resistant to consumer culture.

Warren Kinsella describes DIY as "one of punk's singular achievements," because although punk music and style are different from mainstream standards, "they are not so different that they are incapable of being assimilated by mainstream rock 'n' roll or commercial youth culture. DIY was always different" (2005: 45). DIY is quite literally about "doing it yourself; it is about forming your own bands, recording your own records, organizing and promoting shows, publishing your own writing, or starting your own business. And, as a result, it means not being controlled or silenced by the profit-driven major record labels. In fact, "the most subversive element of punk may be that its methods of production give mavericks and heretics a chance to scream from the margins of popular culture" (Moore 2007: 468)10.

DIY also means not waiting for permission or for someone else to go first.

This is something that Myles, a queer punk musician living in Oregon, wishes other queer punks would take to heart. He would like to see:

A punk/metal scene where queers get involved and don't wait for a goddamn invitation [...] The bottom line is, if you're waiting for permission from anyone or for some social tide to change, you missed the whole point of punk and this will never be a subculture you're a part of (in Ayla and Myles 2009).

As Myles points out, punk means charging ahead and making your own path. And that is exactly what bands like Black Flag, the legendary hardcore band from Los

10 I recognize that DIY is not completely unique to punk, and that similar practices were, and still are, present in other music subcultures and genres; rather, the DIY ethos that characterizes aspects of the punk subculture is one of the primary factors that distinguishes it from the stadium rock stars to which the subculture is reacting. 78 Angeles, did (Diehl 2007). The members of Black Flag were punk rock pioneers of sorts. They toured the United States numerous times, playing as many shows as they could, wherever they could. They made very little money and often slept on the floor in fans' homes. In the process, the band helped create a nationwide network of punk fans and venues and laid the groundwork for generations of punk bands to

follow in their footsteps.

This network was also fostered through the production of zines that punks

traded at shows or ordered through the mail. Zines are a way for punks from a particular country, and around the world, to connect with each other and to learn

about different local scenes (Moore 2007). Most zines contain a "Letters" section

that publishes letters other punks had sent in, thereby allowing a diffuse population

of punks to engage in debates and dialogues about punk. These letters are an

important part of establishing a worldwide network of punks. They also hold a lot of

significance at a personal level. In his solo project, Justin Sane of Anti-Flag

demonstrates how letters can be a form of encouragement and support, in his song

"Thanks for the Letter (From a Kinder, Gentler America)" (2002):

Contemplating the struggle we're engaged in Does anybody really even care? But then I thought of your letter and I knew better! So I'll do it again, yeah I'll sing again For my family, myself, my friends, the kids!

The importance of the sense of community that punk creates will be taken up later in

the chapter.

In addition to creating a worldwide network of punks, the philosophy of DIY

also, in theory, means that anyone can start a band. The great part about punk is

that you don't have to be good; you just have to grab an instrument or a microphone 79 and get up on stage. A now-iconic image from one punk zine demonstrated the

fingering for three guitar chords with the caption "Now Form a Band" (Moore 2007:

446). Until relatively recently, there was not necessarily a lot of money to be made in punk music, so punks mostly play music for themselves and for each other. Mustard

Plug, a ska punk band from Michigan, demonstrates this exact sentiment in their

song "We're Gunna Take on the World" (1999):

It started back in '91 Started playing just for fun And couldn't stop ourselves, didn't know how Then we began playing shows And kids started tapping their toes And people kept askin' for more And even though we really sucked We kept it up, didn't give a fuck 'Cause that's what the music is for

We're gunna take on the world!

Then a man from Hollywood He said to sign, he said we should

But we were too punk to move on So we went back on the road And kids kept on coming to shows

Many punks, just like Mustard Plug, revel in their amateur musicianship and the

freedom of independent labels; it is a big part of what they believe separates

themselves from the vapid, arrogant rock gods and pops stars who they so

vehemently abhor11. It also opened up opportunities for groups of people who were

otherwise excluded from or marginalized in the rock music industry. This was

especially true for women who, prior to punk, were primarily relegated to the roles of

sex symbols and backup singers. Reddington (2003) explains that punk allowed

11 While most punks continue to valorize and romanticize independent record labels, many prominent punk bands over the years, including the Sex Pistols, have actually signed to major labels. women to actually be musicians who played their own instruments, started their own bands, and wrote their own songs. This is another example of how punk distinguished itself specifically from the mainstream rock industry, not from all musical genres. Women did play integral roles in other genres, such as disco and

R&B.

Despite the prominence of bands like The Slits, who paved the way for future generations of women punk rockers, including those women who would go on to create the Riot Grrrl movement, punk scenes have always been, and continue to be, disproportionately comprised of men. From the very beginning of punk, there were men who felt that women did not belong there or were there to be treated as sexual objects. For example, on more than one occasion, the prominent punk zine Sniffin'

Glue declared that women were not punks (Kinsella 2005). Furthermore, the punk history books and discographies are so overpopulated by male punk bands and icons that Reddington has argued that there is "no better example of male hegemonic control over popular cultural history than the rewrite of punk to exclude

the very large and productive presence of young women" (2003: 239). She also

notes that, when female punks were acknowledged by music journalists, they were

regarded with a level of disrespect and derision that was disproportionately higher

than their male counterparts. For example, many female punks in the early British

scenes were referred to as "punkettes" by the press. And thirty years later, not much

has changed, as Diehl points out when he discusses the way that female punks'

physical appearances are valued over their musicianship. He cites a review of the

Distillers, which described frontwoman Brody Dalle as "one of the hottest girls in 81 punk. I felt like a teenager in heat when I saw them live. Anyway, they actually sound great too" (in Diehl 2007: 227).

The Importance of Punk Rock

As outlined at the beginning of this chapter, I argue that there are gaps in the body of academic literature on punk. Specifically, previous studies, including those cited above, tend to focus on punk in relation to politics, style, authenticity, and resistance to mainstream society. They attempt to answer questions about what punk means, but largely fail to ask questions about why punk is meaningful, particularly on a micro, individual level. Many punks believe that it is actually at the level of the individual where punk is most influential12. For example, in reference to the lasting impact of punk, Ian MacKaye of Minor Threat and Fugazi states:

I think too often people will just study the end result and say that things didn't change. But that is really such a cynical way of doing things...Because punk changed you, didn't it? It affected you, in your life (in Kinsella 2005: 77, emphasis in original). •

Punk rock clearly had a profound effect on MacKaye and many others, myself included.

Being a punk is a defining feature of many individuals' identities. The passion with which some punks insist that "Punk's Not Dead!" leaves little doubt about the centrality of punk to their lives. Its importance and meaningfulness is plain to see in the way that punks, like Maria Raha, talk about it: "Punk rock began in order to give voice to the voiceless [...] Fame, beauty, and money are fleeting, but

12 This is not to say that punk had no influence on the social, cultural, and/or political realms; rather it is intended to highlight the areas where punk's influence has often been overlooked. truepunkrocksoul can last forever" (2005: 261-2). And in the way that bands, like the

Street Dogs, sing about it:

Well they say that punk rock has died away I don't believe a word they say Sing for tomorrow, sing for today We all need a little punk rock and roll

Got my friends and my music and we're feeling alright

Forget about our problems and put the world on hold We all need a little punk rock and roll ("Punk Rock and Roll" 2010).

While these are relatively romanticized opinions of punk, they nonetheless demonstrate the level of importance that many individuals assign to punk.13 Even

Dylan Clark, who has a generally pessimistic opinion about the current and future state of subcultures such as punk, recognizes that "perhaps it is cruel or inaccurate to call these classical motifs dead, because they can be so very alive and real to the people who occupy them" (2003: 224).

I believe that there are still questions that punk scholars need to ask— questions about what punk does for those who are a part of it, how it influenced them, how it changed their lives, and how it made them feel. The remainder of this chapter will attempt to answer some of these questions. It will look at how punk created a community and sense of belonging for generations of people who felt they didn't fit in anywhere else. And it will explore how punk rock gave punks something to believe in, brought meaning to their lives, and in some cases, saved their lives.

Finally, it will briefly explore the importance of punk music as music by looking at the ways that punks talk about how they feel when they listen to music or go to punk shows.

13 It is also important to note that individual (romanticized) opinions of punk are not necessarily congruent with the actual reality of punk in practice. 83

Community

Jama Shelton (2008) discusses the importance of establishing oneself in a community to adolescents' transitions into adulthood and to the development of self- esteem. She explains that "there is strength in community, and the more active a community, the more likely they are to be recognized and reckoned with" (2008: 80).

Additionally, according to Albert Cohen ([1955] 2005), an early American subcultural theorist, fostering a sense of community or "group solidarity" among members was necessary for a subculture's continued existence. This is exactly what punk, at its very best, does; it creates a sense of community among a diverse group of people, and in doing so demonstrates both its importance at an individual level and its potential long term viability as a subculture. Like all communities, however, punk is not without its faults; therefore, the discussion below will also acknowledge some of the occasions when punk is not as positive or inclusive as it is sometimes made out to be.

As much as punk rock is about individuality, it is also about unity. Early

British band Sham 69's anthem "If the Kids are United" (1979) captures the sense of camaraderie that strengthens punk as a community:

Just take a look around you What do you see? Kids with feelings like you and me Understand him, he'll understand you For you are him, and he is you If the kids are united then we'll never be divided.

One of the ways that punks encourage unity within the scene is by both literally and figuratively breaking down the barriers between fans and musicians. At punk shows there is often no barricade separating the audience from the stage and it is quite 84 common for punks to climb up on stage, dance around, maybe sing along with the band for a moment, and then jump or flip off the stage back into the crowd (and hope that someone catches them). Punks are also critical of the self-important rock stars who isolate themselves, and so most punk musicians strive to make themselves accessible to their fans in a way that rock stars rarely do. This usually means interacting with fans before and after shows, and hanging out at the merchandise table. For Ryan Cooper, it is this accessibility that attracts him to punk:

The type of person whom punk rock brings me in contact with almost daily speaks volumes for the strength of character and sense of unity in the scene. After shows, musicians who've just given everything they have to their fans are more than happy to be hanging out with those same fans [...] It's the sense of community and the nearly nonexistent partition between musician and music fan that truly forges my connection with the music (2010: 141).

By making themselves more accessible to their fans, punk musicians disrupt the hierarchy that they believe exists between fans and rock stars14.

The sense of community that punks foster and thrive on is one that aims to celebrate diversity and tolerance. Chestnut, a punk musician from Boston, describes his punk community as a "wolf pack" and explains:

It was one of the most communal groups I've ever been in, in my life. In the middle of a conservative bastion, we were a group of kids who said, 'It's okay if you're black, it's okay if you're gay, it's okay if you've been abandoned'" (in Mackay 2010: 44).

But this (over)emphasis on community can also mean that individual needs and experiences are overshadowed sometimes. Greg Graffin speculates that this may

14 This is something that distinguished punk from stadium rock stars, not from musicians and artists across all genres. It is also not characteristic of all punk musicians, particularly some of those who have achieved a certain level of fame and notoriety. Additionally, the advent of the internet, specifically social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, has redefined the ways that musicians, both rock stars and independent artists alike, can make themselves accessible to their fans. be why he lost so many friends to drug abuse and suicide. He also adds that it probably contributed to some of the gender inequality in the punk scene: "I just assumed that girls were equals on every level [...] Their suffering was our suffering, it seemed to me. I never thought that maybe they saw the punk scene from a unique perspective" (1996).

Lawrence Livermore, the founder of Lookout! Records, provides an even more overt example of the ways that some punk men fail to recognize that women's experiences in the punk scene, and society in general, are not necessarily congruent with their own experiences. As a record label executive, Livermore has played a relatively significant role in shaping certain punk scenes, but he is not particularly receptive to or supportive of the female punk rockers that bring gender politics into their music:

The female or female-fronted bands that I like are the ones where the woman or women involved don't seem to be stressing so much about gender identity issues, but are just themselves (in Diehl 2007: 222).

He goes on to describe his "rule about not making an ideology of one's gender" (in

Diehl 2007: 230). Statements such as these represent the hypocrisy of many punks'

approaches to politics. It is perfectly acceptable, and commendable even, to speak

out against war, police brutality, nuclear weapons, and even animal rights, yet there is often very little tolerance for discussions about gender or sexual orientation.

In addition to having a complicated history with women and gender politics,

the punk subculture has a similarly complicated history with racial diversity. It is an

undeniably white subculture, perhaps even more so than it is disproportionately

male. Punks are often vocal in their support for anti-racist causes and

organizations, yet people of colour continue to be grossly underrepresented in most 86 punk scenes. This is, however, not to say that there are no people of colour active in punk. For example, for Cristy Road (2004-2007), a queer punk of Cuban heritage, the Miami punk scene where she grew up was infused with Cuban and other Latino cultures. Even more noteworthy is the legendary Washington D.C. band, Bad

Brains. Having formed in the late 1970s, Bad Brains was, and continues to be, an anomaly in the punk subculture in the sense that they were an extremely influential hardcore band that was comprised entirely of African-American members. More recent bands that challenge the all-white punk stereotype include Go Betty Go, which is comprised of four Latina women from Los Angeles who sing pop punk songs in both Spanish and English, and Whole Wheat Bread, made up of three African-

American men from Jacksonville, Florida, which performs "hooky, basic pop punk

that's more the province of young white men while looking more like of [sic] gangsta

rappers" (Diehl 2007: 202).

Additionally, although all the members of Rancid are white, they grew up in

impoverished, racialized communities in the San Francisco Bay Area and, as a

result, race and racism are frequent topics in their music15. "Avenues and

Alleyways," off their 1995 album ...And Out Come the Wolves, speaks out against

racially motivated inner city violence:

Actions could erase all the fear that we suffer People segregated, no one understands each other He's a different colour but we're the same kid I'll treat him like my brother, he'll treat me like his.

15 This in not intended to conflate the experiences of the members of Rancid, or any other white punks, with the experiences of people of colour; rather, it is intended to serve as an example of one of the ways that race is addressed by white punks. For further analysis of racism in punk, see Traber (2001) and Malott and Pena (2004), and for analysis of people of colour in punk and the connections between punk and reggae and ska music, see Kinseila (2005) and Diehl (2007). Diehl (2007) commends the members of Rancid for their collaboration with known

Jamaican musician Buju Banton, which he sees as an acknowledgement of the influence of reggae and ska culture on punk music. However, what Diehl fails to point out is that Banton has long been connected to the subgenre of reggae and dancehall music called murder music, which is extremely homophobic and openly advocates the torturing and murdering of queer people.

While most punks would agree that the members of Rancid are not themselves openly homophobic, by choosing to work with this artist and by producing music to which they attach both his name and their band's name, are they not implicitly condoning his hateful attitudes? Most punks would be outraged to find out that one of their favourite bands had done something as relatively innocuous as, for example, having their photo taken with George Bush, so why would they be so quick to dismiss Rancid's collaboration with a known homophobe? Given that Rancid is one of my favourite bands, I am admittedly also guilty of overlooking this collaboration, but I continue to wonder whether or not Rancid should be held accountable. The New York City anarchist punks in Leftover Crack think that Rancid should be, as they make clear in their anti-homophobia anthem "Gay Rude Boys

Unite" (2001):

Unity! Ha! You're such a saint today You may be anti-racist but then you're anti-gay

You can celebrate your unity till every gay is dead But why don't you stop your fronting with real unity instead

Intolerant society rears its ugly face You're turning your hardcore music into a homophobic disgrace The gay ones, the straight ones, the white, tan, yellow, and black Gay rude boys and girls, we're gonna take that dancehall back. 88 This song, which is critical of the hypocrisy of punks who claim to be anti-racist but are then openly homophobic, is directly inspired by the collaboration between Rancid and Buju Banton16

Despite the complicated histories regarding diversity in the subculture, the people who do become involved in punk tend to congregate around one specific shared identity: the outcast. The people who are attracted to punk are usually the freaks and rejects who don't feel like they fit in anywhere else17. James Stewart describes punk as "a hole that all the misfits fell into" (2010: 118), which I think perfectly describes how punk scenes develop. The people shut out from or ignored in other parts of society come together to create their own spaces and revel in their freakishness. Jessica Williams explains that "it wasn't necessarily the music that brought us all together but the feeling of being unwanted [...] The scene was warm and welcoming, something most of us were unfamiliar with" (2010: 67).

The music did, however, play its part. Punk songs, like Bad Religion's "You

Don't Belong" (2002), allow punks to connect with each other over their shared sense of rejection:

Just look at all the things we did We were different, just like all the other kids

Well let me tell you that there's nothing wrong It's just that ones like us will never belong

Hey you, is there something worth belonging to? You know we've been here all along Like a confederacy of the wrong And I confess it might be prejudice But to you I dedicate this song.

16 At the time, Leftover Crack was signed to Rancid frontman Tim Armstrong's record label Hellcat Records, but has since severed ties. 17 This is not say, however, that everyone who experiences alienation or is in some way marginalized is necessarily attracted to punk rock. As I have noted elsewhere, punk typically speaks to the alienation of a certain population, usually young, white males. Although I have not included them here, the verses of this particular song also contain specific references to the band's friends and history. For example, the line

"Milo went to college but you knew about that" refers to Milo Aukerman, whose band

The Descendents' first album was titled Milo Goes to College (1982). Knowing the meanings behind these types of references can also create a sense of insider status, whereby punks pride themselves on being "in the know."

For queer punks, alienation from mainstream society is compounded by the fact that, as punks, they often also find themselves ostracized within the gay and lesbian community. Welle et al. (2006) point out that many youth, especially queer and trans youth, feel trapped or restricted by the gay culture that is most easily accessible to them. Sam Sunshine, a queer punk from Los Angeles, explains that she "can't relate to queer space in LA [...] queer culture in LA is drinking, drowning in drugs, [and] sex" (2009). Similarly, Jon Ginoli, the frontman for the queer punk band

Pansy Division, describes his opinion of the music commonly played at gay bars and the gay culture he experienced when he first came out in the 1980s:

[l]n the gay bar setting disco transformed gay men from people into product, a soundtrack for conformity. All of this was reinforcing my Invasion of the Body Snatchers theory of gay men. As soon as they realized they're gay, they become pod people who start spouting catty movie dialogue, keep poodles as pets, and buy disco and Judy Garland records. That was 'gay culture.' It just didn't make sense to me. (2009: 22-3).

Jon even recounts times when other gay people insisted that he couldn't possibly be gay because of his affinity for rock and punk music.

Feeling uncomfortable or alienated in the gay community, many queer youth

find refuge in the punk scene. Punk is able to do things for these youth that gay 90 culture perhaps cannot. For example, Brontez, a queer punk living in San Francisco, says:

I lived in Chattanooga with all these drunk white boys, some of which who taught me more about ego and being my out bold self than some of the loudest queens I know. It wasn't from the viewpoint of white male privilege, more from the viewpoint of punk underdog politics—they taught me well. Assholes can smell fear, therefore: walk boldly and talk boldly no matter what (2009, emphasis in original).

Punk offers queer kids like Sam, Jon, and Brontez an alternative to the dominant gay culture that often emphasizes conformity to a specific image and identity18.

However, as Jon Ginoli discovered, claiming a queer punk identity and still trying to interact in the gay community does not always go over well with many members of the mainstream gay culture, who can, at times, be openly hostile to queer punks. A mainstream gay newspaper from Chicago once refused to write a story on Pansy Division because of the anti-Judy Garland line in their song

"ANTHEM" (1993):

We're here to tell you, you better make way We're queer rockers in your face today We can't relate to Judy Garland It's a new generation of music calling We're the buttfuckers of rock & roll We wanna sock it to your hole With loud guitars we're gay and proud We're gonna get ya with your pants down.

Apparently, the newspaper's editor felt that no gay person would ever "put down

Judy that way" (Ginoli 2009: 67).

Queer or otherwise, many punks share a kind of unspoken bond. Early subcultural theorist Albert Cohen describes subcultural participants as "kindred

18Punk is not necessarily a solution, or even a challenge, to the mainstream gay culture; rather, it is simply one alternative. It is also not without its own set of orthodoxies and conventions. souls" ([1955] 2005: 58), which, although not necessarily universal, does reflect the relationships between some punks. Even if they are complete strangers, there is often an implicit connection and understanding between punks. Boston musician

Chestnut, for example, knew that no matter where he travelled, "he would find a home among fellow punks—all he had to do was search out the Mohawks" (Mackay

2010: 40). The same can be said for the kilt-wearing, bagpipe-playing Vancouver folk punks The Real McKenzies, who describe their experiences touring Scotland in the song "Kings of Fife" (2008):

We got the kilt to Leven The kids up there had multicoloured hair A bunch of gnarly punks They welcomed us with open arms We shared together everything we had 'Twasn't much So here's to the lasses Here's to the lads And the good times we were to glad to have Drinking in the Kingdom of Fife.

Throughout many parts of the world, there are people who make instant connections

and form new friendships simply because of punk rock.

It is also important to note that similar to how the anger and aggression of punk rock can lead to hatred and violence, the sense of community that punk fosters has, on occasion, also led to the development of less-than-positive social networks.

The hardcore scenes, in particular, became a breeding ground for gangs. Duncan

Barlow of the hardcore band Endpoint, which formed in Louisville, Kentucky in the

late 1980s, observes that:

[T]he toughest of the losers that got chased home from the bus stop are now bullying the rest of the losers [...] I went to parties in high school and got beat up by the football team. And now in hardcore, people just like those football players are lashing out at 92 others. I don't think it's right. I can't really be a part of something that people don't feel safe in (in Sinker 2001: 307-8).

Hardcore punks often formed packs to protect themselves from the violence of the jocks, rednecks, and police. Gang rivalries were also relatively common, so some punks spent a lot of time and energy fighting each other.

In addition to the development of gangs, there is also another slightly less extreme example of the potentially negative implications of punk's emphasis on community: community through conformity. By this I am referring to the kind of border patrolling that I previously discussed above. I am returning to this phenomenon here briefly to speculate about a possible explanation. Welle et al.

(2006) discuss queer youths' contradictory experiences of embodying their own unique subjectivities while simultaneously trying to become a part of a larger community. They argue that once queer youth have established themselves within a specific community, "they may participate in a rigid enforcement of group solidarity"

(2006: 60). I wonder if punks might be doing something similar. Perhaps the value that some punks place on the sense of belonging they have gained through participation in a specific scene is part of the reason they so passionately defend its borders. Their community is too important to them to allow someone else to

"threaten" it.

Punk Rock Saved My Life

Even more so than the importance of punk as a community, I argue that previous punk scholars have largely failed to address the impact of punk at a personal level, the way it provides a belief system and a sense of purpose. In their 93 search for something meaningful in their lives, many people, including the members of the Bouncing Souls, turn to punk rock:

I'm driving listening to my radio Checkin' out the airwaves for something to believe in Gimme something to hold true Gimme something to sing about Gimme a reason to care I'll sing along forever

Give it to me straight, touch my heart I'll sing along forever ("Sing Along Forever" 2003).

Partially inspired by this song, and in conjunction with Lawrence Grossberg's (1992) analysis of the affective aspects of fandom, the remainder of this chapter will explore how punk can change, and even save lives, as well as the importance of listening to music and going to punk shows.

Grossberg provides the following definition of affect:

Affect is not the same as either emotions or desires. Affect is closely tied to what we often describe as the feeling of life. You can understand another person's life: you can share the same meanings and pleasures, but you cannot know how it feels (1992: 56).

He goes on to explain that affect shapes what matters to us, the way some things matter more than others, and how it influences our level of investment. Grossberg uses the concept of affect to make sense of fans' fervent dedication to whatever it is that they are passionate about—rock music in the case of Grossberg's analysis. He argues that "it is in their affective lives that fans constantly struggle to care about something, and to find the energy to survive" (1992: 59). This is exactly what I believe punk can do: it can give someone a reason to care and the energy needed to move forward, or to keep moving at all. 94 Punk is about the empowerment that comes from resisting marginalization and homogenization. There is something very liberating about being given permission to not have to ask permission and about being encouraged to figure out what it is you want to do and then actually going out and doing it. Punk is about feeling like you can make a difference, and whether or not that is a realistic belief is not the point; the point is that it gives people a reason to try. And, while punk cannot be reduced to a hairstyle or a fashion statement, there can still be something powerful about walking down the street "flying the punk colors":

I liked the attention of being a spectacle [...] I was ugly and I made myself more so. It made me feel better about myself and protected me from the snide remarks at the mall or worried looks from parents. I liked that I disturbed them. I was never status quo and I quit trying (Wismar 2010: 60).

As someone who struggles with social anxiety, for me the experience of sculpting my neon mohawk, lacing up my combat boots, and putting on my studded leather jacket is what I can only imagine putting on a suit of armour must feel like. It's like nothing can touch me19.

Punk rock does more than empower youth, encourage critical thinking, or create communities. As I have alluded to throughout this chapter, it can also save lives. The belief that "punk rock saved my life" is a common sentiment among some punks (hence this section's subtitle). Bryan Kienlan of the Bouncing Souls, for example, says:

Punk was my savior as an angry confused kid; it actually saved my life more than once [...] It became my religion when I needed one—through the years, it gave me a home to grow up in and find myself; it meant everything to me, so I dedicated my life to it (in Diehl 2007: 33).

19 This is my own individual experience and is not necessarily universal to all punks. Certainly it is possible, for example, that another person with social anxiety may be unable to adopt a stereotypical punk appearance because of their anxiety. 95

For Bryan, punk became a kind of religion, whereas for Rick Wismar punk was a way out of the religion of which he was already a part. He believes that, "if I hadn't found punk when I did [...] I probably would have given in to the stress and stigma I felt from family, the deep South, and the Church, and killed myself (2010: 59).

Punks know what it feels like to not belong, to be frustrated with the world around you, to feel despair and so they reach out to each other20. Through songs like Pennywise's "Bro Hymn" (1991), punks learn that they are not alone:

Ever get the feeling you can't go on Just remember whose side it is that you're on You've got friends with you till the end If you're ever in a tough situation We'll be there with no hesitation Brotherhood's our rule we cannot bend

When you're feeling too close to the bottom You know who it is you can count on Someone will pick you up again We can conquer anything together All of us are bonded forever If I die you die, that's the way it is.

This is one of at least two Pennywise songs that directly address suicide, a subject that hits very close to home for the band: their original bassist Jason Thirsk committed suicide in 1996 (Diehl 2007).

Punk has also been a life raft of sorts for queer kids who live everyday in a world that both literally and figuratively beats them down. For some queer youth, like

Sam Sunshine, punk rock is what allows them to resist, or at least cope with the kinds of violence and discrimination that I detailed in the previous chapter:

Moving through the world as a queer? It's a serious, violent fucking battlefield where I've been refused medical treatment, kicked out of cafes for showing little kids the 'wrong message,'

20 Again, this sense of alienation is not unique to punks; rather, punk rock simply provides one of many possible outlets. 96 faced unemployment and invisibility, felt suicidal, lonely, and isolated. As a white, queer, boyish femme in the daily struggle in Los Angeles, my survival has depended on punk (2009).

This is exactly the reason that the members of Green Day have always been outspoken supporters of queer punk bands like Pansy Division. Frontman Billie Joe

Armstrong describes Pansy Division as "the kind of band that saves people's lives"

(in Diehl 2007: 229). Green Day even asked Pansy Division to open for them in

1995 when they went on their first major stadium tour. Despite certain negative reactions, Green Day's members remained supportive of Pansy Division throughout the tour and, on a few occasions, even refused to perform when a venue owner or show promoter tried to ban the queer punks from taking the stage first (Ginoli 2009).

I will return to Green Day and Pansy Division, as well as queer punk in general, in the next chapter.

The belief that "punk rock saved my life" is, of course, not an entirely universal sentiment. There are those who caution against putting too much faith in punk rock:

Everyone is looking for something And they assume somebody else knows what it is No one can live with the decisions of their own It seems, so they look to someone else

I don't believe in self-important folks who preach No Bad religion song can make your life complete Prepare for rejection, you'll get no direction from me (Bad Religion "No Direction" 1992).

Recognizing that punk rock can't necessarily provide all the answers, Bad Religion reiterates punk's message to "think for yourself and look for your own answers.

There are also those who believe that it is entirely unrealistic to think that punk can

save lives: i am opposed to "Punk Rock saved my ass..." type books. They take the story out of context and try to make it somehow important. As if without punk rock, none of us would have survived the banality of the eighties. They give the false hope that because you listened to Black Flag your life was magically transformed into what it is today. I've got news for you kids: it's the total experience of your life that shapes who you are [...] Your life saved punk rock, not the other way around (Stewart 2010: 121).

Perhaps it is an over-simplification to describe punk as the sole factor that prevented some youth from committing suicide, but to the punks cited above and to many others, it did just that. And for that reason alone, punk is important.

The Music

As my previous section was intended to demonstrate, sometimes punk is not about the politics, the rebellion, or the anarchy. "Sometimes it didn't matter that we weren't out to prove some revolutionary dichotomy, sometimes it just mattered that something was keeping us alive" (Road 2004-2007). And sometimes punk is simply about hanging out with your friends, listening to music, and going to shows; it's about having fun. Nonetheless, Michelle Phillipov (2006) observes that analyses of the value of punk music as music and the pleasure that comes from listening to punk continue to be relatively nonexistent within punk studies. She argues that there is a kind of hierarchy in punk scholarship that constructs the cultural and political aspects of punk as more important than the musical aspects. Chuang and Hart (2008) add

that the goofy, suburban pop-punk music of bands like Green Day have especially been overlooked or are dismissed as not being punk enough. This final section,

therefore, will attempt to begin to fill these gaps by documenting some of the ways 98 that punks talk and sing about how punk music makes them feel, as well as their experiences at punk shows.

Chuang and Hart explain that because it communicates with "discursive and non-discursive symbols," music is able to "free itself from the rules of the conventional language system" (2008: 198). For this reason, music can effectively speak to and speak for punks, who also seek to resist certain conventions. There is something almost visceral about punk music that grabs you and won't let go. Cristy

Road explains why she listens to punk:

Because the sound made me happy, it made me elevated, unlike any other feeling of elevation, unassisted by marijuana, sex, or nature. This made sense to me—an audible vice that carried the weight of both torture and sanctuary (2004-2007).

Love it or hate it, punk music makes you feel something, anything. It can lift you up, energize you, piss you off, and make you want to sing along. Somehow, at its very best, punk rock can make you feel like everything is going to be ok:

If you wanna get the feeling and you wanna get it right Then the music's gotta be loud For when the music hits I feel no pain at all

Here it is, here I am Turn it up, fuckin' loud Radio, Radio, Radio When I got the music, I got a place to go (Rancid "Radio" 1994).

More than fifteen years later, this song is still a fan favourite and Rancid continues to perform it regularly at shows. It is also one of my personal favourites because of how it effectively captures the way punk music makes me feel.

Punk music is a communal experience and one of the best ways to achieve the sense of community discussed above is by going to shows. In their song "Sunday Hardcore Matinee" (2011), the Dropkick Murphys describe the way that the diffuse network of punks came together at shows:

Heard them on a compilation we traded in the mail Been waiting such a long time, tonight we cannot fail On the way to a matinee, a Sunday hardcore show They played it loud, they played it fast, most folks don't want to know

The last band has played, the show is done, the kids have all gone home Beaten, bruised, and bloodied, never made us turn away Next weekend they'll be more great bands at the Sunday matinee.

The song is about the band members' experiences of growing up in Boston at a time

before the internet and before hardcore and punk music was readily available at

record stores; instead, kids learned about punk through word of mouth and by going

to all-ages shows.

There are very few academic studies that explore the experience of being at

a punk show. William Tsitsos (1999) does study mosh pits and slam dancing, but he

does so from a homologous perspective that equates different types of moshing and

slamming with the political ideologies of different punk identities, like the apolitical

"drunk" punks and straightedge punks. However, Phillipov points out that "the

distinction between slamdancing and moshing which is so integral to his study is

rarely upheld so rigidly within the punk scenes he is discussing" (2006: 391).

Therefore, his argument, although extremely thorough, risks the same kinds of

criticisms that the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies faced—that

is, it risks overanalyzing punks' actions and ascribing political motivations where

there may not actually be any. In contrast to Tsitsos, I am more interested in mosh

pits and slam dancing from an affective perspective. Grossberg explains that "the 100 fan's investment of energy into certain practices always returns some interest on the investment [...] in the form of the further production of energy" (1992: 64). By this, he means that dancing or moshing is both exhausting and energizing at the same time.

A good punk show is truly a sight to see; there are few experiences like it.

Even if you aren't moved by the music, just watching the audience is, as Jonathan

Formula says, like "looking into the face of a tidal wave" (in MacLeod 2010: 123).

But even more incredible than watching the audience is the experience of actually being a part of it. Punk shows and mosh pits can be scary, violent, and unpredictable, but they can also be exciting, energetic, and just plain fun. You walk away from a show feeling alive and completely exhausted in the best possible way.

Legendary music journalist Lester Bangs describes what it is like to attend a punk show:

The politics of rock 'n' roll, in England or America or anywhere else, is that a whole lot of kids want to be fried out of their skins by the most scalding propulsion they can find, for a night they can pretend is the rest of their lives, and whether the next day they go back to work in shops or boredom on the dole or American TV doldrums in Mom 'n' Daddy's living room, nothing can cancel the reality of that night in the revivifying flames when for once if only then in your life you were blasted outside of yourself and the monotony which defines most life anywhere at any time, when you supped on lightning and nothing else in the realms of the living or dead mattered at all (in Kinsella 2005: 172).

This quote comes from a review of a performance by The Clash, but in my experience it is a pretty accurate, although perhaps slightly effusive, description of any good punk show.

Leslie Roman (1988) adopts an affective approach in her analysis of punk girls' experiences in mosh pits. She describes slam dancing as a kind of "therapeutic 101 release." Punks go to shows to see their favourite bands and to spend time with friends, but they also go in order to dance and slam and mosh. Mosh pits allow punks to take out all their frustration on each other, in a semi-controlled fashion.

They walk away having left all their aggression on the dance floor. Against All

Authority's song "I Just Wanna Start a Circle Pit" (2006)21 vocalizes that visceral need to let loose:

I tried so hard it's tearing me apart The pressure's building up inside me everyday And I can see it welling up in you, you feel it too We're both afraid to say it

There's something that I found, buried deep within this sound That seems to make it go away. It's something they can't see and just between you and me It scares them when we don't obey. So we move in unison to the sound that sets us free from you They're scared of what you'll turn into Once you step inside the circle of friends they're through I just wanna start a circle pit Right here, right now, I'm sick of it.

Attitudes towards mosh pits, however, are not entirely universal within the punk scene. Ian MacKaye, of Minor Threat and Fugazi, feels that slam dancing and stage diving are representative of a past generation of punks and that today's punks are simply copying what they see on television. This opinion was not well received by many punks who believed that "MacKaye [was] trying to exclude them from enjoying rituals he himself once enjoyed" (Middleton 2002: 349). There are also many punks, including MacKaye, who are concerned about the level of violence that occurs in mosh pits. Ska punk band Mustard Plug takes up this issue in their song

"Skank By Numbers" (1993):

We don't want to see you slammin' in the pit, NO!

21 A circle pit is a type of mosh pit where punks move collectively in one direction in a large circular formation, instead of individually in random different directions. 102 We don't want to see our girlfriends kicked, NO! We just want to see you movin' faster and faster To the beat of the super ska master

To dance with us you needn't act like a jerk Skanking's meant for fun, not for getting hurt!

To clarify, "skank" refers to a style of dance, not to the derogatory slang word for a woman who is considered sexually promiscuous.

Although punk shows, and mosh pits in particular, are intentionally violent and chaotic by their very nature, they also present additional dangers for women, given that they can be the site of sexual harassment and assault. The use of mosh pits as an opportunity to assault women is mocked and encouraged by the Vandals in their song "And Now We Dance" (1995), which is supposed to be about moshing as an outlet for frustration:

And now we dance like soldiers on the battlefield The only triumph in a moment of glory Crack your head open and sue somebody Cop a feel on a punk rock girl in bondage pants And now we dance!

The Vandals are a punk band known for their supposedly humorous and satirical lyrics and, as such, this song could be dismissed as "just a joke." However, the sexual assault of women at punk shows is not a joke; it is a very real experience for many women. Leslie Roman, for example, describes an instance where a young punk woman was "being 'felt up' from behind. Two older working class men slipped their hands up this young woman's skirt as she grimaced and held her arms tightly folded across her chest" (1988: 154). Additionally, it is not just heterosexual punk bands that exhibit behaviours and attitudes similar to those in the Vandals song. For example, certain Pansy Division songs, including some of those cited throughout this 103 project, such as "Anonymous" (1994)22, could be interpreted as encouraging people to initiate non-consensual sexual contact while in a mosh pit.

The members of Mustard Plug, cited above, are not the only ones who acknowledge the potential dangers of mosh pits. In fact, there is something of a code among punks that dictates mosh pit etiquette. While the behavioural expectations may vary depending on the band, the particular audience members, and the type of punk music being played, the most universal unwritten rule is to look out for each other. It is inevitable that people will trip and fall in mosh pits and when they do, there is a general expectation that the people around them will help them back up again before they get trampled. On many occasions, I have heard members of the band remind the punks in the crowd to make sure no one gets seriously hurt. I have also seen people act as a buffer for someone who needs to bend down to tie their shoe (or put it back on) so that they can do so without getting slammed into.

There are always going to be a few drunken jerks in the crowd, but for the most part punks take care of each other.

Conclusion

This chapter sought to enrich the field of punk studies by addressing areas

previously overlooked or underdeveloped. It connected punk to "queer" by

demonstrating that punk resists simplistic, reductive definitions but still needs to be

defined, at least broadly, in order to retain some degree of specificity. Punk, like

"queer," is about pushing boundaries and challenging certain conventions. It is about

taking your anger and frustration and turning it into something useful and productive.

22 See Chapter Four for an excerpt from "Anonymous" (1994). 104 Punk is about learning to "do-it-yourself and not waiting for permission. Additionally, this chapter also explored the importance of punk from a personal and affective perspective. It looked at the ways that punk unites a diverse group of freaks and misfits from all around the world. The outcasts and underdogs come together through punk to create a home for themselves. And in doing so, they also discover a belief system and community that can give them a sense of purpose. Some punks even find salvation from suffering. They find music that makes them feel alive and angry, exhausted and inspired; it makes them feel. In the words of Warren Kinsella,

Punk takes a young person's anger and makes them do something, and feel something, and be someone. It makes a kid feel that he or she actually can shape the future—and, sometimes, it helps kids to actually do it. It makes those unliveable parts liveable again. It gives hope. It sings" (2005: 250, emphasis in original).

And that is why punk is important! 105 Chapter 4: Queering Punk

This chapter will serve as an extension of the previous chapter, which discussed some of the reasons that punk rock is important to punks, queer and straight, including how it can foster a sense of community and bring meaning and purpose to their lives. In addition to those factors, I argue that punk rock that is specifically by, for, and about queer punks potentially serves additional purposes that are also of significance, especially to queer youth. That is, queer punk rock seeks to counter the invisibility of positive representations of queer lives and relationships. It provides queer youth with access to role models as well as an alternative to the mainstream gay and lesbian community. Like punk spaces in general, queer punk spaces also help create an environment where queer youth can feel comfortable and where their queer punk identities are validated and celebrated, rather than gawked at and scrutinized.

The chapter will begin by presenting a brief history of both sexuality and the presence of queers in the punk scene. It is not intended to be a "Queers in Punk" type history that extensively documents the biographies of punks who are (or may be) queer. I do not wish to contribute to speculation about the unconfirmed sexualities of punks based on the lyrics of their songs or their support for the queer community, as Brian Cogan does in his Encyclopedia of Punk Music and Culture:

Other prominent, nearly out members of the punk community included Gary Floyd from the Dicks and Dan Dictor from the political band MDC [...] and not-straight (presumably) punk singers Tesco Vee of the Meatmen and Henry Rollins of Black Flag were featured in the gay porn magazine In Touch (2006: 96). 106 Dan Dictor and Henry Rollins are both examples of instances where speculations such as Cogan's have proved incorrect. This, of course, does not imply that they should feel insulted about being incorrectly thought of as queer; rather, I simply do not wish to perpetuate the assumption that vocal support for the queer community inherently implies membership in the community.

That being said, I will discuss the contributions of some of the openly queer members of the punk scene and the various manifestations of sexuality within punk, as well as the pervasiveness of homophobia within certain aspects of the subculture.

From there, the chapter will explore the subgenre of punk known as queercore, including some of the more prominent bands and zines. Finally, I will conclude with an analysis of the importance of queer punk and what it offers queer youth that they may not otherwise find in mainstream culture, specifically with regard to increased visibility, access to information, and queer-positive spaces.

Sexuality in Punk

The punk scenes of the late 1970s were characterized by sexual ambiguity and androgyny. According to Diehl, "sexuality was worn openly like a badge" (2007:

209). Many of the punks in the early British scene appropriated elements of S&M culture by incorporating bondage and fetish wear into their fashions. This was a direct result of the influence of Vivienne Westwood and her business partner

Malcolm McLaren, who was the driving force behind the Sex Pistols. Westwood and

McLaren operated a fetish wear shop called Sex (hence the name of the band), which became a central hub for London's punk scene. As I discussed in the chapter

on subcultural theory, punks often used style to resist social conventions and to push 107 the boundaries of acceptable behaviour, and so by adorning themselves with bondage gear, grotesquely exaggerated displays of cosmetics, and even pornographic imagery, punks challenged normative ideas about fashion, beauty, and gender.

Tony Walsh, a poet from the UK, celebrates the messy queerness of the punk scene he knew growing up:

From my maddest, baddest, wettest dream they were bite me nightly gutterfuck queens. In leather pants and cheap cosmetics, "smack addicted fag" aesthetics. He-male, female, she-male dudes who left the teenage boys confused. Looking like they fell from Mars As partial Martian superstars! (2010: 62).

Similarly, as a gay man, it was this queerness that attracted Jon Savage to punk. In an interview, the author of the widely cited history of punk, England's Dreaming

(1991), explains that he "liked punk's sexuality, I liked the hopeless boys and dominating women [...] They were like hurt, scared boys and I find that a very attractive idea in rock 'n' roll" (in Diehl 2007: 228). Additionally, although there certainly were differences between the American and British punk scenes, some of this sexual ambiguity did manage to cross the pond, so to speak, especially in the

Los Angeles scene in the late 1970s. For example, Vaginal Davis, an African-

American queer punk musician and artist, explains that the early L.A. scene was

"dominated by art school damaged kids, and was female and queer-centered" (in

Coleman 2009), while Brett Gurewitz of Bad Religion and Epitaph Records described

L.A. bands such as Screamers and the Germs as having a "dangerous homosexual undercurrent" (in Diehl 2007: 226). 108 In addition to a general tendency towards sexual ambiguity and gender bending that pervaded aspects of both the American and British punk scenes, there were also a number of openly queer punks. Queer straightedge band Limp Wrist pay tribute to queer punk pioneers in their song "The Ode" (2005):

Orgasm addict with Pete Shelley I sing Dicks like Gary Floyd I truly adore I want Biscuit from the Big Boys knocking on my door

For all who are living out Putting life on the line—it's a constant bout We want you to know Limp Wrist sings this song for you too

Punk dykes fore fronted this fight for so long And we're backing them up, 'cause we know they ain't wrong.

This section of the song references Pete Shelley, of British punk band the

Buzzcocks, who came out as bisexual in the early 1980s, as well as Gary Floyd and

Biscuit, of Austin, Texas hardcore bands the Dicks and the Big Boys, respectively.

Although both of these men were openly gay, their sexuality was often not acknowledged or accepted by others in the punk scene. Gary Floyd, for example, experienced a lot of homophobia in punk. He explains the common reaction from fans once they find out that he is gay: "[T]hey act all weird [...] They don't want to feel emotional about music that a queer is singing because being queer has such a weird connotation in society" (in Ensminger 2009)23.

When the American punk scene changed in the early 1980s and developed into what became known as hardcore, attitudes towards sexuality changed along with it, and not necessarily for the better. Hardcore was tougher and more macho, and as a result, there was little to no room for the sexual ambiguity, androgyny, and queerness of the previous generation of punk. Sexuality was no longer openly

23 I will return to the issue of homophobia in punk, including Gary Floyd's experiences, later in the chapter. 109 discussed and celebrated, and when it was, it was explicitly heterosexual. The homoerotic undertones (which were definitely still there) were either not acknowledged or completely denied. According to Matt Diehl, the "straight-edge mantra of 'don't drink, don't smoke, don't fuck' became a smokescreen for garden- variety, suburban-style emotional repression [...It] ended up taking the sex out of the neo-punk equation entirely" (2007: 227). Straightedge is about abstaining from mind-numbing distractions such as drugs and alcohol, and so the "don't fuck" part of this phrase was intended to refer to promiscuous sex, not sex altogether, but it nonetheless became indicative of hardcore's denial of sexuality.

The general state of sexlessness that characterized American hardcore of the

1980s carried forward into the pop-punk and emo manifestations of punk in the

1990s and early 2000s. Cristy Road, a queer punk musician and artist originally from Miami, expresses her frustration with the ways that sexuality was (not) addressed in the punk scene in which she grew up:

I was tired of the scene pegging my anger as whiny and my experience as my fault for being sexual, too slutty. I wanted to feel comfortable singing about sexual themes, whether it was orientation or desire [...] I didn't want to blame my friends, so I blamed Catholic and Christian guilt for amplifying repression in the supposedly safe, free, and radical punk rock scene" (2004- 2007).

Cristy found that very few of the punks she encountered were willing to acknowledge her bisexuality as anything other than an excuse for promiscuity, and that even fewer punks were willing to perform in a band with her if she insisted on writing songs about sex and her desire for both men and women. 110 Although the 1990s did see the emergence of the punk sub-genres Riot Grrrl and Queercore24, when sexuality was discussed in the mainstream punk scene it often took the form of "the cartoon juvenilia of a band like Blink-182" (Diehl: 210).

This is exemplified by Blink-182's song "Happy Holidays You Bastard" (2001):

It's Labour Day and my grandpa just ate seven fuckin' hotdogs And he shit, shit, shits his pants He always fuckin' shits his pants And I'll never talk to you again Unless your dad will suck me off I'll never talk to you again Unless your mom will touch my cock I'll never talk to you again Ejaculate into a sock.

This is not to say that all mainstream punk bands of the 1990s and early 2000s were completely unwilling to acknowledge queer sexualities in a serious manner. As mentioned in the previous chapter, Green Day asked queer punk band Pansy

Division to open for them on their first major stadium tour in the mid-1990s. They wanted to "mess with the minds of the dumb jock following they had recently acquired with their MTV exposure" (Ginoli 2009: 83). In fact, Green Day's frontman

Billie Joe Armstrong even came out as bisexual to The Advocate in 1995, when he said, "I think I've always been bisexual [...] I've never really had a relationship with another man. But it is something that comes up as a struggle in me" (in Diehl 2007:

228-9). The band addressed the experiences of a teenager struggling with their sexuality in the song "Coming Clean" on their 1994 album Dookie.

It should also be noted that the sexual ambiguity and queerness of the early punk scenes is not completely gone. Take, for example, the recent song "Horny in a

Hearse" (2007) by psychobilly band Nekromantix:

Shallow graves and ghouls gone wild

24 Queercore will be discussed in greater detail below. 111 See me cruising down Route 666 in style Seeing through the eyes of the dead while my baby gives me... Ya know...

Tic Tac Toe Tags High heels and latex body bags No more French maid or naughty nurse She wanna go for a ride all the time My ghoulfriend gets horny in a hearse.

The song, although technically heterosexual, given that it is sung by a man, still maintains a certain kind of queerness to it. Nonetheless, as Leblanc points out, the

"normative expectation of heterosexuality" (1999: 127) that pervades most punk scenes means that most of punk's queerness has become relegated to the subgenre known as queercore.

Homophobia in Punk

Despite the punk scene's queer undercurrents and the long history of queer individuals actively participating in punk, the subculture continues to be overwhelmingly heterosexual and, at times, can be very unwelcoming to queer people. Tammy Rae Carland, of Mr. Lady Records, explains that the punk scene in which she grew up, in Boston in the early 1980s, "wasn't very queer friendly or girl- friendly. For all punk's liberal meanderings, it was an entirely homophobic space" (in

Wilson 2008: 54). Although this statement cannot be universally applied to all punk scenes at all times, numerous other sources would seem to indicate that many other queer punks had similar experiences (Fenster 1993; O'Hara 1999; Ayla and Myles

2009).

Queer punk bands have often been subjected to both homophobic slurs and threats of physical violence. Jon Ginoli of Pansy Division recalls numerous instances 112 when, while on tour, the band encountered openly hostile audience members, like the person who came to their show wearing a "SILLY FAGGOT—DICKS ARE FOR

CHICKS" t-shirt (2009: 91). Jon goes on to describe one show where the audience pelted the band with coins, drinks, and anything else they could find, as well as several occasions where then band had to be escorted to their vehicle by security or supportive fans because of threats from violent punks and skinheads waiting outside for them. Similarly, Craig O'Hara recounts being in the audience at a NOFX show when several members of the crowd hurled insults such as "fuckin' dykes" at the opening band, Tribe 8 (1999: 120).

However, the homophobia that punks, queer or otherwise, experience does not come from just the members of the audience; it also pervades the lyrics and onstage antics of many punk bands. The members of the band Guttermouth, which is known for its controversial lyrics, pride themselves on being equal opportunity insulters. By this I mean that anyone is fair game when it comes to being a target for their offensive and discriminatory lyrics. Take, for example, the song "Big Pink

Dress" (1997):

I'm so confused, what's to lose I think I might be gay On the day my bitch left She said stick it up your rear

I live with Bill, it's such a thrill We get it on so fine We tend our garden everyday Sometimes we get 69 Play dress up and have puppet shows We skip and dance and sing.

Unlike Pansy Division and Limp Wrist songs, which also have explicit references to

gay sex, this song is not only performed by heterosexual men, but it is also done so 113 in a way that intentionally makes gay sex and relationships seem ridiculous. This song, and Guttermouth in general, exemplify the way that hateful and discriminatory messages are often dismissed as "just a joke."25

Although not known for being overtly homophobic, Southern California pop punk pioneers, the Descendents, do have one song, entitled "I'm Not a Loser"

(1982), which contains homophobic lyrics:

You're a fucking son-of-a-bitch, you arrogant assholes Your pants are too tight, you fucking homos You suck, Mr. Buttfuck, you don't belong here Go away, you fucking gay I'm not a loser!

Jon Ginoli recalls being at a Descendents show in the early 1980s, and upon hearing the song, which is supposed to be an insult to the rich, frat boy-type individuals that often harass punks, he "quickly stopped enjoying the show [...and] stormed out of the concert" (2009: 182-3). Like with Guttermouth, these lyrics are also often dismissed by fans. In this case, the most common excuse is that the band members where teenagers when they wrote the song in the early 1980s, and didn't know any better at the time. This is also exactly what the band told Jon Ginoli when he had the

opportunity to discuss it with them.

Once again, the American hardcore scene epitomizes the punk subculture's not so tolerant and inclusive attitudes. As I discussed previously, the subgenre of punk, which started in the early 1980s, was largely responsible for making punk

tougher and more violent, and as a result, more homophobic. Dave Dictor, of the band MDC, describes the hardcore scenes as "rather homophobic [...] There were

very few out singers that were gay—the ones that were, like Gary Floyd [of the

25 This example also demonstrates the importance of knowing the context surrounding a particular song. A song like "Big Pink Dress" (1997) would likely take on a very different meaning if it were written and performed by bands like Pansy Division or Limp Wrist. 114 Dicks], got a lot of shit" (in Ensminger 2009). One of the bands that gave queer people "a lot of shit" was the highly influential New York City hardcore band Agnostic

Front. In a 1985 issue of the punk zine Flipside, Roger Miret, the band's frontman, stated:

I don't beat up gay guys, but let them stay on the West Side. If I see a guy rubbing his crotch and licking his lips, I'll put him out. I have friends who are, but I don't want to know what they do" (in O'Hara 1999: 55)

Although this quote is from more than two decades ago, Roger Miret continues to be an active and prominent member of the hardcore scene. And he also continues to be a homophobe, or so the lyrics to "Turncoat" (2005) by Miret's side project, Roger

Miret and the Disasters, would seem to indicate:

You're nothing but a two face Another leech of society Suck another dick Kiss another ass Hope to see you fall into a 67 foot ditch.

In this song, like so many others, references to being gay or participating in gay sex are used as an insult that is directed at a presumably heterosexual man.

Despite the homophobia that pervades aspects of the punk subculture, there are many punks and bands that are not willing to quietly accept that this kind of discrimination and intolerance simply comes with the territory, so to speak, or is "just a joke." As this chapter will demonstrate, many queer punks formed their own bands as a way to counter the almost complete invisibility of and hostility towards queer members of punk scenes. Rather than engage homophobic audience members in futile debates, bands like Pansy Division often responded with humour and wit, thereby turning the table on the hecklers and making them into the ones who look

ridiculous. For example, to the oh-so-clever insult "You suck," the band has been 115 known to reply, "Of course we suck, that's the point! We suck goocf' (Ginoli 2009: 83, emphasis in original). And when someone called him a "fuckin' faggot," Jon Ginoli corrected him by saying, "That's buttfucking faggot, thanks!" (2009: 89, emphasis in original).

However, some queer punks have expressed frustration about always being the ones expected to speak up when something homophobic occurs. Myles, a queer punk musician, describes encountering homophobic audience members while on tour with his band. He explains that "my [straight] band mates watched me get angry but didn't say a word [...] It was like everyone was waiting for my cue to flip out and baptize the situation as homophobic and bad" (in Ayla and Myles 2009). Although their work is not directly connected to the punk subculture, Mclnnes and Davies

(2008) perpetuate this expectation throughout their analysis of "sissy boys," particularly when they (unintentionally?) admonish sissy boys who choose to tone down or hide their personalities and identities, which is usually done out of fear for their own physical safety. Mclnnes and Davies argue that if the sissy boy hides who he is, then "the conditions of an autonomous masculine subjectivity remain unaffected and the reality-producing split from the feminine on which masculinity depends remains unquestioned" (2008: 116). Although Mclnnes and Davies are technically correct that a sissy boy's decision to conform to normative standards of masculinity shuts down a potential opportunity to question those standards, this once again puts the responsibility on queer people to always be the only ones to speak up and bring about change. As queer punk artist and musician Cristy Roads says, "Why do I have to do all the fucking work? I already have to deal with the challenge of surviving" (2004-2007). 116 Fortunately, though, queer punks are not the only ones actively opposing the homophobic attitudes of some punks. Similar to Leftover Crack's song cited in the previous chapter, the punk rockers in Propagandhi address another kind of hypocrisy displayed by some punks in their song "Less Talk, More Rock," the title track from their 1996 album:

I'd like to actively encourage the toughest man to dance as hard as he can to this, my song And bring your stupid friends along We wrote this song because it's fucking boring to keep spelling out the words that you keep ignoring And your macho shit won't faze me now It just makes us laugh, we got your cash, court jester take a bow

And all the fists in the world can't save you now 'Cause if you dance to this, Then you drink to me and my sexuality With your hands down my pants by transitive property.

The song mocks the stupidity of ignorant, intolerant punks who oppose the band's opinions and politics, and yet ultimately support the band by listening to their music and paying to attend their shows. As queer punk musician Myles said in a similar situation, "I'm getting paid for this shit, what's your excuse?" (in Ayla and Myles

2009).

Queercore

Queercore, which was originally referred to as "homocore," was a movement that began in the North American punk scenes in the mid- to late-1980s. It emerged as a reaction to both the marginalization of queer sexualities within punk and to the perception that mainstream gay culture was becoming increasingly homogenous and commercialized. Toronto queer punks Bruce La Bruce and G.B. Jones are often considered the original queercore pioneers because of their "Don't Be Gay" 117 manifesto about the marginalization of queers in punk that was published in the popular punk zine Maximum Rocknroll in the mid-1980s (Cogan 2006). Their highly influential zine J.D.s inspired the creation of other notable queer punk zines such as

Homocore, both of which will be discussed in greater detail below.

Queercore took off in the 1990s, with bands like Pansy Division and Tribe 8, and events like Homo A Go Go and Queeruption. Many in the queercore scene were very politically active and there was a lot of crossover between queercore and certain queer activist organizations such as ACT-UP and Queer Nation (Fenster

1993). In true punk fashion, and due in large part to the lack of support from other punk labels, many queercore bands started their own record labels, such as Candy

Ass Records, Chainsaw, and OutPunk. In addition to releasing albums by individual bands and artists, OutPunk also released the compilation albums "There's a Faggot in the Pit" and "There's a Dyke in the Pit" (Cogan 2006: 148).

Like the larger punk subculture, there was a certain amount of diversity within queercore, although not so much in terms of racial or ethnic diversity (like punk, it was predominantly white); rather, there was variation in the bands' approaches to both musical and fashion styles. Juxtaposing the bands Limp Wrist and Pansy

Division, both of which are comprised of gay men, perhaps best exemplifies the significant differences between queer punk bands. Straightedge band Limp Wrist epitomizes the fast, aggressive sound of hardcore, whereas Pansy Division has the light, goofy sound of pop-punk. Similarly, the bands also have distinct approaches to fashion. On very rare occasions, the guys in Pansy Division would perform naked but, as frontman Jon Ginoli explains:

When we did wear clothes on stage, we dressed fairly ordinarily, usually in jeans and T-shirts. I was against being costumed [...] 118 We may have formed in San Francisco, but I was from Peoria [Illinois], and Chris was from Aberdeen [Washington], We didn't want to throw off our backgrounds; we wanted to subvert them, so we literally wore them on our sleeves" (2009: 49).

Limp Wrist also challenges assumptions with their fashion choices, but they take on macho, heterosexual masculinity by performing aggressive hardcore songs while clad only in very short shorts or their underwear and, on occasion, fishnets and feather boas. In doing so, the band subverts the dominant stereotypes of both hardcore punks and gay men.

Queercore was not just an opportunity to challenge the heteronormativity of punk; it also provided many queer punks with an alternative to the mainstream gay and lesbian community. Halberstam, for example, describes queer punk as a "potent critique of hetero- and homo-normativity" (2008: 28) and Regales elaborates on this with her assertion that queer punk challenged "the 'homogenous' gay culture that had evolved, including 'gender segregation and strict codes of dress and behaviour"

(2008: 91). Blatant critiques of mainstream gay culture are relatively common in queercore songs. Pansy Division have several, including "Negative Queen" (1994):

He drips disdain, he's lacking tact He's popular in a scene Where being nice is a radical act

Everything's got to be just so, If it's not, he'll let you know Don't put up posters on Castro Street He'll rip 'em down so he can shop in peace He's a negative queen, he's a negative queen.

In this song, Pansy Division is referring specifically to San Francisco's gay neighbourhood, the Castro. At the time the song was written, there was a group in the increasingly gentrified area that complained about posters and event flyers in public spaces, because they were apparently not aesthetically pleasing. 119 It wasn't just that queer punks were necessarily opposed to mainstream gay culture simply on principle (although some of them probably were); rather, it often had more to do with the fact that the gay culture that was most visible and accessible was neither appealing to them nor relevant to their lives. The members of Limp Wrist express their discomfort in the gay community with the song "Rainbows" (2005):

How do I fit in this rainbow machine? Pride and waves of flags in this beauty boy scene Shaved bodies, tight tummies all around I am such a lost queer walking the streets of boy's town

Punk queers let's put it where it's at Bald or hairy, thin or thick, you know I like that fat Pull off your punk shirts and let's not hide Let's work this thing they call pride.

Not only does this song demonstrate how many punks feel a sense of alienation in the gay community, but it also takes aim at the pressures to conform to a certain body image. Many queer punk women were similarly uncomfortable in certain lesbian spaces, partially because of the rigid gender binaries that were reified through "womyn-born-womyn-only" events, such as the Michigan Womyn's Music

Festival (Wilson 2008: 63).

Queer Punk Zines

As has been discussed in the previous chapter, and at length elsewhere, zines have played a very influential role in the development of the punk subculture

(For example, see Moore 2007). They provide a diffuse network of individuals with an opportunity to engage in debates about music, the meaning of punk, politics, and social justice issues, including sexuality. During the late 1980s, the topic of sexuality, usually discussed as "homosexuality," became a topic of discussion in the 120 popular punk zine Maximum Rocknroll and, over the years, the magazine has even published a few special editions specifically dedicated to sexuality. Fenster notes that the letters published in the zine represented a spectrum of attitudes and opinions about the presence of queers in punk, which ranged from blatant homophobia to supportive straight punks to queer punks frustrated with the current state of the scene (1993). He points out that when homosexuality is addressed in

Maximum Rocknroll, it is most often framed as an issue or a problem:

The queer punk presents a "problem" that needs to be eradicated (for homophobes), a "problem" for straights uneasy with the notion of an empowered homopunk, a "problem" that needs to be confronted (the concerned straight participant's rhetoric of "let's make the scene safe for gays"), and a "problem" of possibility (for gays and lesbians who express displeasure or discomfort in the hardcore scene) (1993: 87).

Fenster concludes that, overall, Maximum Rocknroll was supportive of queer punks and even included a few openly queer members on their staff26.

In addition to the recognition of queer punks in zines from the wider punk scene, there were also numerous zines that were created by and for queer punks.

These zines were important to an even more diffuse network of punks, who not only felt like outsiders in mainstream society (like many other punks do), but also felt marginalized in both the punk subculture and the gay community. Limp Wrist pays tribute to zines in their song "Thanks" (2001):

Thank you for the records and all the fanzines With photos of the cuties that grace our hot ass scene But most of all, thanks for the beefy cake drawings Of straightedge-looking gods It's a Tom of Finland for teens.

26 Maximum Rocknroll has published at least three special "Queer Issues." While the older editions are not included in this project, due to the unavailability of archive copies, the 2009 edition is cited throughout this chapter, and the entirety of the project. 121 Queer punk zines allowed youth to share their experience of homophobia, coming out, violence, and relationships. And for some punks, like the members of Limp

Wrist, the zines were also an opportunity to eroticize other punks without worrying about potentially violent responses.

Queer punk zines represent a wide variety of perspectives, particularly with regard to punks' relationships to the wider punk scenes and gay communities. Some zines, such as J.D.s and BIMBOX, both from Toronto, adopted a more radical, separatist approach that championed the creation of a distinct queer punk identity and community. J.D.s, which is widely recognized as the first queer punk zine, intentionally pushed the boundaries of "standards of decency" by incorporating pornographic literature and photography (Fenster 1993: 84). Even more so than in

J.D.s, the separatist queercore perspective is reflected in BIMBOX, which completely disavowed any association with the mainstream gay and lesbian community:

You are entering a gay and lesbian-free zone...BIMBOX has transformed into an unstoppable monster, hell-bent on forcably [sic] removing lesbians and gays from non-heterosexual society. Effective immediately BIMBOX is at war with lesbians and gays. A war in which modern queer boys and queer girls are united against the prehistoric thinking and demented self-serving politics of the above-mentioned scum (in Du Plessis and Chapman 1997: 47).

The zine even went so far as to state that victims of gay bashings got what they deserved, but that "all victims of queer bashing are unfortunate cases of mistaken identity" (in Du Plessis and Chapman 1997: 47)27. For both these zines, their

27 This particular opinion is not universal to all queer punks. It represents a very extreme example of the disjuncture between "gay and lesbian" and "queer," and, in my opinion, the authors take their rejection of the "gay and lesbian" community too far. There is a significant difference between disavowing a connection with a certain group and encouraging or condoning violence against it. 122 general intention was to co-opt the punk DIY ethos in order to create something completely new and separate.

Unlike its predecessors, the zine Homocore was not necessarily intended to foster a separate queer punk community. It was started in 1988, by Tom Jennings and, although it was designed to put a queer spin on the punk scene and to provide an alternative to the mainstream gay culture, similar to J.D.s and BIMBOX, this zine's general focus was on supporting and affirming gay and queer identities within the punk scene rather than in a new space outside of it (Fenster 1993). Homocore and the punks that contributed to it were primarily looking for acceptance and for the opportunity to be present in punk spaces as openly queer people without the fear of homophobic violence. Like other zines, the letters section was a very important part of Homocore and many punks wrote in describing the "emancipatory possibility of

Homocore itself as a focal point for a dispersed community" (Fenster 1993: 79).

They also expressed frustration with the lack of music that resonated with both their tastes in music and their personal experiences.

Queercore Bands

Angela Wilson (2008) points out that the term "queercore" has largely been used to refer to bands comprised of gay men. Bands like Limp Wrist sing about their experiences as gay men in the punk scene, the gay community, and in heterosexual society. They write songs about homophobia, feelings of alienation, and violence, as well as songs about cute boys, dating, and bad break-ups. Limp Wrist spells out their intentions as a queercore band and sends a message to other queer punks in their self-titled anthem "Limp Wrist" (2001): 123 Hey we're the kids We're here to set the score We're tired of fucking hiding We won't do it no more Come out of the closet and into the pit Boy on boy contact You know it's the shit

Limp Wrist

No more bullshit tough attitudes Mimicking Daddy will no longer do Challenge the system and challenge yourself And if you're man enough You got to do it Limp Wrist style.

Prior to forming Limp Wrist, frontman Martin Sorrondeguy was the frontman for the well-respected hardcore band Los Crudos, which was a Latino hardcore band that wrote songs about, among other things, racism and immigration issues. They wrote and performed almost all of their songs in Spanish, often to predominantly white audiences. Limp Wrist is therefore significant not only because they brought awareness to the experiences of queers in the hardcore scene, but also because they represent the experiences of queer punks of colour, an even more marginalized and invisible population.

In addition to Limp Wrist, the queercore band that probably gained the most visibility and popularity is Pansy Division. They formed in San Francisco in the early

1990s, mostly as a result of frontman Jon Ginoli's frustration with being ostracized in both punk and gay communities. The band's name is a play on the name of a military tank, the Panzer, from Germany, where the mass murder of queer individuals took place during the Holocaust. The men of Pansy Division never expected the band to be more than a hobby but, as mentioned previously, they became relatively 124 well-known in the mid-1990s, at least in the punk scene, as a result of their tours with

Green Day.

Pansy Division songs are fun, goofy, and, according to Jon, "horny" (2009).

For example, the song "Groovy Underwear," off their 1994 album Deflowered, has always been a crowd favourite:

Tight briefs on your sexy butt White fabric surrounding your nuts Bike shirts put it on display You're wearing it to the left today Sweat pants clinging to your crevice Boxer shorts for easy access I'm digging your...

Groovy underwear, groovy underwear, ooh ooh It's so groovy.

I will discuss the importance of the sexual content of Pansy Division's song in greater detail later in this chapter,* but it is also important to note that the band's frankness was not always well received. They were criticized by some members of the gay community who thought that their blunt, open approach to sex and sexuality was

"hurting the cause and setting the gay agenda back years" (Ginoli 2009: 122). Ginoli also recalls one punk commentator who was critical of the band because he felt that any straight punk band that sang about sex the way Pansy Division did would automatically be labelled sexist. In response, Ginoli argues that, "he missed the point (as he usually did) that our songs are about sharing and enjoying sexuality equally, not imposing it on the other partner [...] It's about mutual desire, not sexist conquest" (2009: 61). The members of Pansy Division even identify as feminists and have performed with Riot Grrrl and dykecore bands such as Bikini Kill and Tribe 8. 125 Dykecore

Dykecore is music by and for queer women. Like queercore, it developed in the early- to mid- 1990s, alongside the Riot Grrrl movement. In fact, there was a great deal of overlap between dykecore and Riot Grrrl, and many of the bands identified with both subcultures. Dykecore bands draw on the typical sounds of punk music but also incorporate slower ballads, as well as the influences of lesbian feminist folk music from the 1970s (Wilson 2008). Their music, which is usually intimately personal and politically charged, addresses sexism, homophobia, relationships, gender binaries, love, and queer stereotypes. It is outrageous, playful, and angry. Dykecore bands helped create a space for the participation of queer women in an otherwise predominantly male subculture.

One of the most well-known dykecore bands was Team Dresch. The band formed in Olympia, Washington in 1993, and its members prided themselves on being a political punk band with a message. According to Jody Bleyle, one of Team

Dresch's vocalists and guitar/bass players, the band wanted to have a "broader vision than 'we rock, we're dykes' [...] because that's playing into the hands of the product-makers. The discourse doesn't grow, it becomes calcified" (in Sinker 2001:

224). They also refused to give in to the critics who felt that the band was alienating straight fans by focusing specifically on queer issues and experiences. Team

Dresch responded in their song "Yes I Am Too, But Who Am I Really?" (1995):

Don't tell us we only care about the dykes and fags Don't try and find fake reasons to hate us Some people get it, lots more people need it Freedom is freedom It's for all or it's all for nothing

It's what we choose to say And how certain things are said. 126

Kaia Wilson, vocalist and guitarist for Team Dresch, adds that "there always were going to be people who wanted to tell us that we were being exclusive, alienating straight audiences [...] But the positives always outweighed the negatives" (in Raha

2005: 218).

Tribe 8, who formed in San Francisco in 1990, was another of the more widely recognized dykecore bands. Like Team Dresch, Tribe 8 was known for their political music, but they were just as famous, or perhaps infamous, for their onstage antics and their provocative lyrics. According to Raha, at a time when "much of academia and the political left was embroiled in lengthy debates about politically correct language and behaviour" (2005: 190), Tribe 8 refused to be silenced or toned down. In true punk rock fashion, the band wrote and performed intentionally controversial songs, such as "Tranny Chaser" (1996):

I'm a tranny chaser Manly made up faces With the corsets laced up Set my heart to racing Skirt as big as a postage stamp Package tantalizing just below the hem Tell me how do you spell camp D-R-A-G-Q-U-E-E-N

Silly faggot, dicks are for dykes!

Tribe 8 songs such as this one challenge the supposedly rigid boundaries of sexual and gender identity categories. The band pushed these boundaries even further with their live shows. Lead singer Lynn Breedlove often performed castration simulations using a strap-on dildo, which she also used when she invited presumably straight male audience members on stage to have them simulate fellatio (Raha 2005; Cogan

2006). These displays of sexuality, however, were often not well received, especially 127 in mainstream gay spaces. Once, while at the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, the band was even accused of "promoting violence against women and children"

(Raha 2005: 191).

The Importance of Queer Punk28

The remainder of this chapter will return to some of the ideas laid out in

Chapter Two, about the importance of queer subcultures, in order to demonstrate that punk, specifically queer punk, offers something that queer youth cannot necessarily get in the dominant heterosexual society, and potentially even in the mainstream gay community. In doing so, it will also build on my argument in Chapter

Three, which posits that punk offers youth something more than just politics or a fashion style. The remainder of this chapter will therefore begin by exploring the ways that queer punk seeks to counter the invisibility and misrepresentations of queer youth in the media by addressing issues relevant to the lives of queer youth and by providing them with access to open, honest information about queer sexualities. Finally, the chapter will end with a discussion of the importance of queer punk spaces, which potentially allow queer punk youth to celebrate and support themselves and each other because of their queerness, not in spite of it.

(In)visibility

Chapter Two discussed the influence of media representations of queer youth on those youth. I am returning to that topic here to specifically discuss the

28 As I outlined in the introduction to this project, the term queercore refers to a subgenre of punk within a specific era (the 1990s), which does not necessarily reflect the experiences of all queer punks. Therefore, instead of using "queercore" as a catch-all phrase, I will continue to use "queer punk" throughout the remainder of this chapter. 128 implications of the overall invisibility of queer youth in the popular media. My analysis of invisibility is intentionally brief, as it is designed to provide a context for my argument about the importance of queer punk rather than be an argument on its own. Driver argues:

The very constitution of identifications and queer rites of passage are inextricable from dynamic uses of popular culture [...] Popular cultures matter to all youth, but the stakes are higher for those who struggle against pervasively narrow racist, homophobic, and sexist representations (2008: 159-60).

Given that popular culture holds such significance to the lives of youth and the development of their identities, the almost complete lack of representations of queer youth in pop culture is particularly problematic.

Linne refers to queer invisibility as a "large-scale social experiment: Let's find out what happens when a social group is so effectively silenced and isolated that each prospective member must [...] initiate her- or himself into the group" (2003:

669). This is especially true for youth whose bodies and identities do not or cannot conform to normative standards of gender and beauty predicated on expectations of whiteness, gender normativity, slenderness, and able-bodiedness. Despite the fact that representations of queer youth have increased in recent year, for many queer youth, their only opportunity to access the images and stories that more accurately reflect their lives and experiences is through the internet. One of the participants in

Driver's research noted that queer youth were so invisible that "when we walk away from our computers and out our front doors, we're no longer there" (2007: 5).

Through interacting with the media, youth learn important lessons about relationships, sex, and desire. However, because queer relationships are so rarely represented, queer youth, most of whom come from heterosexual homes, are often 129 left without a model for behaviour or any examples to help them make sense of their desires. According to Linne, many of the participants in his study "spoke of not knowing what to do with their desires, of not knowing 'how to be gay'" (2003: 670).

Queer punk band The Butchies, formed partially by former members of Team

Dresch, address the challenges of being a teenager and struggling to make sense of your queer sexuality in the song "Insult to Injury" (1999):

They say you're too young Too young to know how much you feel Thank hormones but anyone can tell Add insult to injury

A loss for words Your need to see this girl A crush born at 14 Don't doubt sincerity She'd wait for you forever.

This song also addresses the common argument that children and teenagers are too young and too immature to know that they are queer; of course, no one ever questions a young person's certainty about their heterosexuality.

Media Engagement and Positive Images

Forms of media engagement, such as Upton's queer hermeneutics (2008) discussed in Chapter Two, are an important part of how queer youth resist and counter their erasure and misrepresentation in mainstream media. Queer youth actively co-opt and rearticulate popular culture to seek out and/or create more accurate representations of their lives (Driver 2007; Driver 2008; Linne 2003). In the words of one of Linne's participants,

What I most craved, I think, was a worldview that did not oppress me, that recognized my own worth as a human being. I think this was the first sort of personal work I ever did, the initial stages of 130 reclaiming a lost and battered identity, and I did it through text (2003: 684-5).

Popular culture, although potentially oppressive, is therefore also the site of empowerment and agency.

For many queer youth, however, alternative representations are not necessarily easily accessible due to, for example, geographical location, financial constraints, or safety concerns. As a result, these youth may feel compelled to quite literally take whatever they can get and to accept available, but perhaps inaccurate or oppressive, images because they are perceived as better than no images at all

(Linne 2003). Jon Ginoli (2009) of Pansy Division describes this type of experience by referencing a Milwaukee duo from the late 1980s, called The Frogs, who described themselves as a gay band. However, upon actually hearing the band's album, Ginoli discovered that they were, in fact, straight musicians who were pretending to be gay as a joke. Jon explains that he "met gay guys who'd been desperate enough to find an out gay group that they bought the fraudulent thing, since the real thing was nowhere in sight" (2009: 21).

Positive representations of queer identities and relationships are of particular importance to queer youth who, unlike most heterosexual youth, cannot take for granted that their lives and experiences will be visible or accessible (visually or audibly) through popular culture. This is not to say that certain heterosexual identities are not also obscured in the media but, on the whole, heterosexual romance, relationships, and sex are more widely acknowledged and represented than any sort of queer equivalent. Specifically with regard to dating in the punk scene, Myles, a queer punk musician from Oregon, points out that "a lot of my straight friends are oblivious to the fact that having the option to date within your own 131 subculture can sometimes be a major factor to stick around, and a privilege" (in Ayla and Myles 2009).

Queer youth therefore seek out what Linne (2003) calls "counterscripts," which provide an alternative to the ubiquity of heterosexual images. These types of positive images allow queer youth an opportunity to imagine their lives, their futures, and their bodies in a way that challenges the normative stereotypes of gayness. A photo essay by Cass Bird, which is included in Driver's Queer Youth Cultures (2008), is an example of images that offer this potentially liberating experience. Driver says this of the photos:

Viewing these images gives the impression of physical proximity, a closeness to young queer embodiments that is so rarely accessed within public spaces. These images defy the idealized seductions and simplistic stereotypes that pervade mainstream media [...] The defiant strength and intimacy captured within these portraits raises critical questions about how queer youth look and are looked at by others (2008: 24).

Images such as these therefore allow queer youth to see other people like them, to celebrate their queer bodies and desires, and to feel connected to a broader community, which is not unlike the purpose of zines within the punk scene.

Queer Punk and Visibility

Countering the invisibility of queer lives has always been one of the express purposes of queer punk music and culture. The bands and musicians seek not only to make music that they and their fans would enjoy, but that also tells stories to which they can relate. Lynn Breedlove of dykecore band Tribe 8 describes the band's philosophy as "queer visibility, no assimilation, and love" (in Raha 2005: 187).

The music, zines and events demonstrate to queer punks that although they might 132 feel isolated a lot of the time, they are connected to a larger community of queer punks around the world, and that there are other people out there going through similar experiences. One such experience shared by many queer people is the experience of feeling unsafe or unwelcome in public spaces. Team Dresch address this experience in their song "I'm Illegal" (1995):

I'm afraid walking down the street Holding hand with my girlfriend That some cop is gonna arrest me (uh, excuse me ladies) Sometime I think I've even done something wrong

I'm illegal I'm nearly gone

I'm not sure whether I didn't get that job (we hired someone else) Because my hair's parted on the wrong side Or I'm a flaming S&M rubber dyke (whack!).

This song tells the story of worrying about how people (police and employers in this case) will respond to someone who is queer, and how being openly queer can affect relatively mundane tasks such as walking down the street or applying for a job.

The existence of queer punk bands has been of great significance to many queer youth. By this I mean that, to many of their fans, queer bands are important

simply because they exist. Lynn Breedlove describes fans' responses to Tribe 8:

You know, people were starving for it, and they were really happy [with Tribe 8] as a result of this big hole [...] I was creating something I believed in and they were hearing it and going, 'Yeah! Thank you. You're talking about shit that we need to hear onstage, because this is the stuff we live every day.' Nobody ever sings about that shit, and when people don't hear their lives accepted in pop culture or in the media or anything, that's when they feel invisible" (in Raha 2005: 189).

Pansy Division received similar responses from fans that were grateful that their

stories were finally being told, and particularly that they were being told in a fun,

celebratory manner. For example, at a show in New York City with an especially 133 receptive crowd, Jon Ginoli yelled into the microphone, "You're the crowd we've been waiting for—a queer audience that gets it!" to which an audience member replied, "You're the band we've been waiting for!" (2009: 95, emphasis in original).

As previously mentioned, queer punk provides youth with an opportunity to connect with each other. However, it is not just the music and the zines that provide this opportunity; fans can also use band merchandise, such as t-shirts, as a visual cue to signify their affiliation with queer punk. This is what early subcultural theorist

Albert Cohen referred to as an "exploratory gesture" ([1955] 2005). For example,

Jody Bleyle of Team Dresch explains that "people wear Team Dresch T-shirts because if someone else sees them in one, they're gonna maybe know that they're queer or a freak" (in Sinker 2001: 227). While this could be interpreted as implying that wearing Team Dresch merchandise could potentially make someone a target for violence (which is always a possibility), what Jody is actually saying is that band t- shirts allow queer punks to spot each other. The quote is part of a longer answer to an interview question about whether or not Jody is concerned about the commercialization and fetishization of queer punk. To her, the benefits of increased visibility outweigh concerns about commodification.

Messages to Queer Youth

Queer punk bands are not just trying to increase queer visibility; they also use their music to send messages of hope and empowerment directly to queer youth.

For example, The Butchies, who were concerned about the frequency with which youth were being bombarded with homophobic messages, such as the "misguided notion that homosexuals need to be saved or healed," emphasized the importance of 134 loving yourself for who you are (Raha 2005: 242). Pansy Division also recognized that the world can often be a very unfriendly place for queer people. The understanding that even family events and holidays can be difficult experiences was the inspiration behind the song "Homo Christmas" (1992):

You family won't give you encouragement Let me give you sexual nourishment Licking nipples, licking nuts Putting candy canes up each other's butts

I want to be your Christmas present I want to be your Christmas queer I want to be your Christmas present Have a homo Christmas this year.

Jon explains that he "imagined this as a song that you could sneak off to play away from the rest of the family [...] that would make you smile and raise your spirits"

(Ginoli 2009: 52).

For Beth Ditto of The Gossip, whose members are originally from Arkansas, the message she wanted to send to youth was one of acceptance and empowerment. Her message, however, was not just about queerness, but also body image. Both Leblanc (1999) and Daugherty (2002) have documented the pressure to conform to specific beauty and gender expectations that young women, queer or otherwise, face both in and out of the punk scene, as well as the ways that punk fashion and discourses can provide women with a chance to challenge those standards. Beth Ditto embodies the rebellious, non-conformist spirit of punk in the ways that she celebrates her body and her size. Her band encourages people to be proud of their bodies in songs such as "8th Wonder" (2009):

There was a time Before girls knew they weren't pretty yet There was a time Before boys knew they weren't tough enough 135

You're the 8th wonder of the world So don't abuse it You're just another beating drum A rhythm for generations to come You're the 8th wonder of the world Undisputed Not just another bleeding heart But a masterpiece, a work of art.

With regard to her fat-positive activism, Beth adds that "the most important thing is to empower fat people, so they can [...] feel as beautiful as possible [...] That's revolution; that's a revolution inside of you" (in Raha 2005: 255).

Access to Information

For many queer youth, especially those who live in rural locations or other areas far removed from urban centres or major queer communities, gaining access to information about queer sexualities can be difficult. This is also true for youth who

are not, for various reasons, out or open about their identity. As Driver points out,

"for a girl who is not out, or not accepted by family and friends [...], to go to the store, buy Curve magazine, and take it home and read it is a risky undertaking" (2007:

14)29. While there are some resources, such as pop culture texts, that are therefore

not easily accessible, there are also types of information, such as sex education, that

are even more difficult to access because they are almost never discussed at all.

Linne (2003) draws on the concept of "open secrets" to describe the contradictory

manner in which queer sex is approached in mainstream society. He argues that

queer sex is relegated to the private sphere in the ways that it is deemed

inappropriate for mainstream society, and yet is made public because it is often the

29 Admittedly, listening to a queer punk band is probably no less conspicuous than reading Curve. 136 only aspect of queer people's private lives that others are actually concerned about.

He also adds that, "that which is not acknowledged often serves as a louder message than that which is spoken in a culture" (2003: 670).

The silencing of queer sexuality is particularly evident in sex education programs in school systems, which focus almost exclusively on sex for the purposes of reproduction, thereby reinforcing penis-vagina heterosexual intercourse as the only option. The absence of same-sex and queer sexualities in sex education, which likely varies depending on geographical location, is becoming increasingly recognized within the fields of sexuality and education studies (Donovan and Hester

2008; Hillier and Mitchell 2008; Harrison and Hillier 1999)30. As a result of this almost complete erasure, queer youth are often left without access to crucial information about, for example, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), safer sex practices, and partner violence. Hillier and Mitchell (2008) argue that queer youth often felt that nothing addressed in sex education classes was relevant to their lives, and so they simply did not pay attention. This potentially leaves youth unprepared for safe, healthy sexual relationships.

Queer punk bands and artists often speak bluntly and honestly about queer sex in an effort to bring it out into the open and to educate. Education about safer sex practices was a very important and personal issue for the members of Pansy

Division, who grew up in the 1980s, during the AIDS crisis. They sing about the importance of using condoms in their song "No Protection" (2006):

How could I miss what he meant? He suddenly seemed less intelligent He said if it's not spit then it's not love So put away those penile gloves

30 It is likely that students attending school in major cities will potentially have easier access to information about queer sexualities than students in smaller and/or rural communities. 137 And I said No, no, no this won't do And I lost my erection

Now listen to me Oh, oh, oh I want you But no, no, no this won't do No, no I won't screw with no protection.

The band, whose frankness about sex often got them in trouble, believed in the importance of providing youth with the opportunity to hear queer sex discussed in a positive, honest manner. Jon Ginoli argues that he "had the right to sing about sex, and kids had the right not to have what they heard censored" (2009: 111). Pansy

Division even included diagrams and descriptions of safer sex practices with their albums, as well as contact information for queer youth organizations. Their decision to include this information is particularly significant, given that most of their albums were released in the early- to mid- 1990s, before access to the internet was completely ubiquitous in North America.

Similarly, dykecore bands such as Tribe 8 and Team Dresch wanted to empower youth to have sexual relationships that were not only safe, but also enjoyable. Tribe 8's sexually explicit stage shows have already been discussed above, and even the band's name is indicative of their commitment to openly celebrating queer sexuality. "Tribe 8" is a play on the word "tribade," which refers to

"women who rub up against or penetrate other women (or men) during sex" (Raha

1005: 188). Team Dresch share a similar commitment, as represented in "Musical

Fanzine" (1995):

Hey you, say what he needs to hear Queer sex is great It's fun as shit Don't worry Jesus is dead and God don't exist and swearing is fun 138

Queer sex is great It's fun as shit Don't kill yourself 'cause people can't deal with your brilliance Sometimes I can't remember why I want to live Then I think of all the freaks And I don't want to miss this.

Jody Bleyle of Team Dresch explains that the band supports a fluid approach to queer sexuality, rather than adhering to expectations of decency or reinforcing boundaries. She adds that success means nothing "if I can't talk about spanking" (in

Sinker 2001: 225)31.

Queer Punk Spaces

As I discussed in the previous chapter, punk shows provide an opportunity for punks to come together, to connect with other youth who share similar experiences and/or similar tastes. This can also be an especially important experience for queer youth, and so I am returning to the topic here in order to discuss the significance of specifically queer punk spaces. In their analysis of the importance of participation in a gay community to young queers' development, which I discussed in Chapter Two,

Valentine and Skelton (2003) note that many youth seek out queer spaces as an alternative to mainstream heterosexual society, where their identities and desires are often not recognized or accepted. They explain that youth often describe their first experiences in queer spaces as a "homecoming" (2003: 853). In "Remember Who

You Are" (1995), Team Dresch also recognizes the empowering and uplifting experience of being in a queer-positive environment:

31 This quote refers to an instance when Bleyle, using a pseudonym, posted a comment on the band's message board and many fans responded that Jody would be outraged if she saw the comment. 139 But then I just want a public place Where girls can meet each others stare Sometimes that's what it takes Just to know you're alive To feel yourself burning just from some girl's stare.

The remainder of this chapter will explore queer punk spaces as a sight of recognition and pleasure.

Recognition

According to Hammers (2008), there is a connection between physical spaces and identity with regard to how certain spaces are sexed and gendered. She argues that bodies that are "non-ambiguous," that conform to sex and gender expectations of a specific space, are "given authorization in that they are easily locatable and automatically valued for their gender conformity" (2008: 152). One of the most commonly cited examples of how this system of authorization proves problematic for queer and gender variant individuals is with regard to public washrooms. Tribe 8 exemplify this frustrating and potentially dangerous experience in their song "Wrong Bathroom" (1996):

Rolling into the truck stop 'cause I gotta take a leak Everybody's staring like I'm some kind of freak Fuck all this attention I'll try to sneak Into the ladies room Without getting caught Excuse me, sir? Over by the stall? Um, wrong bathroom, Men's is down the hall

Is that a he or a she? Is that a him or a her? Oh excuse me ma'am -uh, sir? Am I supposed to feel ashamed 'Cause you're confused? 140 'Cause I don't fit in your box, you loser? I'm gonna have a bladder burst While you ponder gender.

This song calls into question the seemingly ordinary, taken-for-granted experience of using a public washroom. Like the Team Dresch song "I'm Illegal" cited above,

"Wrong Bathroom" demonstrates how being an openly and/or visibly queer person can be both emotionally exhausting and physically unsafe.

Hammers argues, "queer spaces, because of their sheer heterogeneity, not only offer respite, but more importantly, allow bodies, in all their queerness to speak"

(2008: 161). Queer spaces are therefore of potentially great significance to queer punks because they provide an opportunity to receive the validation and authorization that they might not get in heterosexual spaces. An anonymous contributor to punk zine Maximum Rocknroirs recent queer issue (October 2009), who lives in Boston, describes how it felt the first time she went to a queer punk event in New York City:

[l]t was probably the first time I've gone to a show where I felt like I belonged [...] I left that night feeling totally energized, wanting to bring some of that atmosphere back to shows in Boston. But while I could always go to shows in Boston, in New York I could just be.

For this queer punk, and many others, queer punk shows are spaces where they can not only feel comfortable, but can also receive external validation because of their queerness, rather than in spite of it. Although not a specifically queer punk song,

Rancid's "Spirit of '87" (2003) also speaks to this experience:

There's a club on the coast where the kids get lost and no one's gonna stare Chuck T's, bleached jeans with dayglow mohawk hair Misfits and homeless kids all call their home there Don't tell me it ain't real 141 Don't you fuckin' dare

There's a club on the coast where all the kids get along Skins and punks and wayward ones Nothing can go wrong!

Of particular importance to me is the line "no one's gonna stare." As someone who is visibly queer and punk, and can relate to both this song and to Tribe 8's "Wrong

Bathroom," I have often felt a sense of relief in punk spaces. At punk shows, my appearance and identity are validated, not gawked at32.

The Pleasure of Queer Punk Shows

Valentine and Skelton (2003) note that participation in a gay community not only helps youth develop a sense of identity, but can also be a genuinely enjoyable experience. They explain that frequenting gay bars and clubs, like punk shows, can be an escape from everyday reality. Cristy Road demonstrates how punk shows can be an escape when she says, "We remember the ways the [school] halls reeked of perfume, and we preferred the way the warehouses reeked of common sweat"

(2004-2007). Here, she is referring to how the positive memories of punk shows eclipsed the less-than-positive memories of high school.

Additionally, Valentine and Skelton describe a certain kind of pleasure that comes from the "sensuality and physical closeness of sharing sounds, touch and movement to music" (2003: 855). In the previous chapter, I discussed punk music and shows from an affective perspective, and I will continue that discussion here, but with a queer twist. By this I mean that there is a queer kind of pleasure that can be

32 This is my own personal experience, and can not be generalized to all queer punks. It is possible that individuals who do not adopt a stereotypically punk appearance, or who are visibly queer in other ways, such as effeminate gay men, will in fact feel more vulnerable at (heterosexual) punk shows. 142 experienced at punk shows. For example, although many punks would vehemently deny it, there is something undeniably homoerotic about a group of sweaty, shirtless young men (or young women, but it is usually mostly men) bumping into each other, putting their arms around each other's shoulders, and moving around in close proximity to one another. Pansy Division make this clear in their song "Anonymous"

(1994):

Going one on one Guys won't accept you touch But they'll gladly take it When it's anonymous

A guy made him hot, but he won't admit Face to face that he was getting off on it To cop a feel, a sneaky kind of joy A moment of connection with another boy.

This song acknowledges both the homoeroticism and the tendency of punk guys to deny that they participated in, and even enjoyed, sexual contact with other men33.

It is important to note, however, that not all experiences in queer spaces are necessarily positive and empowering. Alongside the benefits, Valentine and Skelton

(2003) also outline some of the potential dangers of participation in the gay community, including unsafe sex, substance abuse, low self-esteem, and pressure to engage in unwanted sexual encounters. The dangers faced by queer punks within the punk scene, specifically with regard to homophobia and physical violence, have been discussed throughout this project. Additionally, while most queer punks would presumably express a desire to be able to participate in punk without fear of

33 As I briefly mentioned in Chapter Three, this song could also potentially be interpreted as encouraging non-consensual sexual contact in mosh pits. 143 violence, there are some queer punks who problematize and/or disagree with the idea of punk scenes as "safe spaces."

Jama Shelton defines a "safe space" as a "neutral meeting ground where individuals are allowed and encouraged to present multiple aspects of themselves, free from judgement and emotional and physical harm" (2008: 70). For all its progressive and liberal intentions, punk scenes often fail to meet Shelton's criteria.

Cristy Road, for example, recognizes that "as much [as] we can love any space— ultimate safety was a pipedream" (2004-2007). But, she also adds that "my subculture was never perfect, but for me—it gave me that extra push. That belonging we sometimes needed in order to unveil ourselves when the world out there translates into perpetual fear and rejection" (2004-2007). As flawed as they were, punk spaces were where Cristy belonged.

Other queer punks, such as the members of Limp Wrist, weren't looking for punk to be a safe space, or at least not the kind of safe space that (unintentionally) resulted in segregation. Frontman Martin Sorrondeguy explains:

Don't' make bubbles, burst them [...] I think a lot [of] people do that, they hide out. Even back when Los Crudos played and people would create a space for people of color, I was like nuh- uh I've been living in a ghetto most of my life I'm not going to be ghettoized in the punk scene, fuck that [...] I think visibility and being out amongst everybody breaks shit down. Isolation is not going to get us anywhere" (in Purnell 2009).

Like the contributors to Homocore cited above, the members of Limp Wrist are among a population of queer punks who want acceptance within punk spaces rather than separate queer punk spaces. To Limp Wrist, the concept of "safe spaces" feels like being further marginalized and excluded. In the same interview, Martin's band mate Paul expresses the belief that safe spaces are often created and supported by 144 white (and/or straight) people out of guilt. Limp Wrist is critical of people who claim to be allies because they supposedly create safe spaces for members of a marginalized population. As Scott, another member of the band, says, "if I have so many allies in this room, why am I not getting my dick sucked?" (in Purnell 2009).

However, the band members acknowledge that this is their own opinion, and they recognize that it is an individual's right to want to seek out and participate in spaces that are specific to their identity, such as queer-specific spaces.

Conclusion

This chapter has attempted to continue my argument about the importance of punk from the previous chapter by demonstrating the further significance of specifically queer punk rock. In order to do this, I have first outlined a brief history of sexuality and the presence of openly queer members of the punk subculture.

Frustrated with their position as marginalized individuals in the punk scene and mainstream gay culture, many queer punks came together in the late 1980s through to the 1990s, in order to form a subgenre of punk known as "queercore" or

"homocore." Queercore bands challenged the homophobia that pervades the punk scene and also spoke openly about queer sex in order to push the boundaries of conventions of public decency and normative assumptions about gender and sexuality.

Queercore and other queer punk bands are important because they counter the invisibility of queer sexualities and relationships, and empower youth to embrace their queerness and to love themselves and each other for you they are. They also supply youth with information about safer sex practices and positive sexual 145 relationships. Finally, queer punk spaces provide youth with an opportunity to feel

(relatively) safe and supported, and to receive validation and authorization from other queer youth. Ultimately, queer punk is important because it allows and encourages queer youth to revel in their messy, freaky, punk rock queerness. 146 Conclusion

Filling in the Gaps

Punk's lasting influence with regards to bringing about positive social change may well be more at the level of the individual than at a broad, macro level. As one punk, by the name of Lucy Toothpaste, said in a zine in 1977, "Punk isn't gonna change the world. But punks might, one of these days" (in Kinsella 2005: 69). This observation highlights one of the gaps in the punk studies literature. Although not all academic analyses discuss punk with regard to whether or not the subculture has been influential, those that do often focus almost exclusively on its influence on the wider society and culture, in terms of politics, music, and fashion, but rarely address the ways that punk influences those individuals who are a part of it34. Throughout this project, I have looked at some of the reasons that punk is important to punks, such as creating a sense of belonging and the affective experience of listening to music and going to shows.

Additionally, queer punks have largely been invisible in both the academic and non-academic literature on the subculture. Even when sexual orientation is addressed, it is most often only superficially acknowledged, as if it represents an afterthought. This project has endeavoured to fill in some of these gaps. It has demonstrated that, although they are not always present in the literature, queer individuals have been active, contributing members of punk scenes for as long as they have been recognized as a subculture. In addition to participating in the wider punk subculture, queer punks have also created specific areas for themselves

34 Some studies do focus on topics that are more internal to the punk subculture, but are often limited to the analysis of internal structures and hierarchies, such as discourses of authenticity (Fox 1987). 147 through the development of the queercore movement and queer punk zines and bands.

This project also sought to fill in gaps in the fields of youth and sexuality studies, where, until relatively recently, queer youth have been largely underrepresented. The project documented discussions within the field regarding common (mis)representations of queer youth in the mainstream media, as well as the potential impact that these images can have on youth. Additionally, it outlined the growing body of literature that explores the ways that queer youth actively resist and reinterpret the dominant stereotypes that pervade heteronormative culture, using forms of media literacy and through the development of queer youth subcultures. I argue that queer punk represents such a subculture because it has countered the invisibility of queer youth in mainstream culture and the wider punk scene, in addition to providing an alternative social network to the dominant gay community.

In a guest column for the recent "Queer Issue" of the punk zine Maximum

Rocknroll, a queer punk referred to as Boitel describes queer punk as "one facet of the celebration that not all areas in life are run by ignorant straight men" (2009).

Therefore, it is not necessarily about trying to change the minds of "ignorant straight men"; rather, it is about reaching out to a group of people who are searching for an alternative to a culture that is characterized by heteronormativity and homophobia.

Queer punk allows youth to connect with others who share similar tastes and experiences, and it creates spaces where they can receive external validation for their identities as both queer and punk, rather than one or the other. 148 Future Research

This project was intended to be the beginning of a discussion about queer punks. It raised questions and ideas about how queer youth experience punk differently and the reasons that punk is important to them, but there is still more research that can be done to move the discussion forward. For example, knowledge about queer punks could be enriched through ethnographic research and in-depth interviews, which could, for example, be used to highlight the experiences of queer punks in a particular scene, or as part of a comparative study between geographically specific punk scenes and/or between specific subgenres. Future research could also discuss the intersections of gender and sexuality, and how this affects queer punks' experiences. By this I mean, not just focusing on how queer people as a whole experience punk, but specifically on the unique experiences of just queer men, queer women, or trans people. This is particularly important for queer men and trans people, given that Riot Grrrl, which included many queer women, has been the frequent subject of academic analyses.

Additionally, this project focused more on queer punks' experiences in the punk subculture than it did on their experiences in gay and/or queer communities.

Therefore, more research is needed to better understand the ways that queer punks participate (or don't participate) in mainstream gay culture. For example, do they feel accepted as a punk, or, like many of the punks in this study, are their punk identities dismissed? Further research could also explore the relationship between the punk subculture and the queer rights movement, given that there was an overlap between the members of certain punk scenes and the members of queer rights organizations such as ACT-UP and Queer Nation. 149 Final Thoughts

Punk rock has never been perfect. There have been, and will continue to be, times when parts of the subculture are sexist, homophobic, and racist. There have been punks who used the "no future" attitude as an excuse to give up and drop out of society, or who took the "fuck authority" and "challenge convention" discourses as an open invitation to commit acts of violence or perpetuate ignorant beliefs. And there are punks who go to great efforts to build walls around the subculture, to make punk an insular, exclusive club. But these punks do not go unchallenged. There are activist and politically motivated punks advocating for positive social change within punk, and in the wider society. And there are queer punks, punk women, and punks of colour who challenge the straight, white, heterosexual male image of punk simply by standing up and saying, 'We're here too!" Queer straightedge band Limp

Wrist, for example, took on the macho, heteronormative masculinity that oftentimes characterizes punk by writing songs about being gay and performing in short shorts and feather boas, while simultaneously disrupting certain gay stereotypes by playing aggressive, hardcore punk music.

Within the punk subculture, there is a kind of resilience that manifests itself as the "Punk's Not Dead" narrative. The ubiquity of this phrase could lead one to wonder why, if punk really isn't dead, it is necessary to go to such lengths to convince others of this fact. However, the passion with which punks adamantly declare that "punk's not dead" demonstrates the level of importance that the subculture continues to have for punk rock icons and fans alike. As Rancid frontman Tim Armstrong says,

There are always gonna be new kids who live in squats or play in garages, which means punk rock will always be around [...] As 150 long as America is the way it is, punk is never gonna die. Kids are always going to be going through shit, and will be using guitars as vehicles to express how fucked up they feel (in Diehl 2007: 241).

Throughout this project, I have discussed several of the different punk scenes and subgenres that have come and gone during punk's history, as well as the reasons that they are important to the youth who are a part of them. The scenes and subgenres didn't always sound the same or look the same, but they were what those youth needed and created at the time. So, perhaps, punk doesn't die, it simply changes shape.

For many queer punks, what they needed from punk rock was someone to tell their stories, to talk about their experiences. They needed someone on stage to whom they could relate. Tired of being invisible in the mainstream media, and in most punk scenes, queer punk musicians formed their own bands and wrote their own zines, and in the process, they created what became known as queercore.

Although the queercore movement was limited to a relatively brief period of time (the early- to mid-1990s), it is nonetheless an important part of punk's history. Queer punks came together to tackle the heteronormativity, and overt homophobia, that pervaded the scenes in which they participated. Queercore bands, as well as the queer punk bands and individual musicians who came before and after queercore, not only carve out a space for themselves within punk, but they also provide an alternative for queer youth who feel alienated from or marginalized in the mainstream, heteronormative society and the dominant gay communities.

Being a punk is, in many ways, a communal experience. Even before the advent of the internet, punks used zines, mailing lists, and tours to connect with punks in other cities, states/provinces, and even other countries. In doing so, they 151 formed a worldwide network of punk rockers who slept on each others' floors, shared stories of what it was like in their part of the world, traded DIY compilation albums, debated politics, and played music that was faster and louder than most people had ever heard. Punks literally create spaces for themselves by operating underground clubs, promoting their own shows, and organizing inexpensive, "all ages" events so that even underage punks are able to attend.

There is an outcast narrative that emerges from the way that many punks, queer and straight, talk about the subculture and their reasons for becoming and staying involved. While this is not something that is necessarily unique to punk, it nonetheless is something that seems to bind the subculture together. Cristy Road explains, "We didn't choose to be wayward, the outlandishness chose us. We said okay to it because it provided a space to bind, unwind, and seek sanctuary from everything else" (2004-2007). Many of the punks and songs referenced in this project express a sense of alienation from mainstream society, as well as a sense of relief or homecoming upon discovering punk.

In addition to a shared sense of alienation, music is probably one of the most significant cohesive elements within the punk subculture. It is a medium for politics and activism, but it is also so much more. As I have discussed throughout this project, many punks, myself included, credit punk music with helping them to get through very difficult times in their lives. While I recognize that the same argument could be made for any other genre of music, I do not think this should necessarily detract from further analyzing the experience of listening to punk music or going to shows; rather, I argue that incorporating an affective approach into analyses of punk 152 produces a more nuanced understanding of why punk is so important to those who are a part of it.

Most punk music is best when it is played loud, and it's usually even better when experienced live. Punk shows are basically a combination of so many of punk's individual elements—the music, the anger, the DIY spirit, the fashion, the politics, and especially the community. They are a chance for a group of misfits to feel like they belong somewhere. For queer punk bands like Tribe 8, their shows were an opportunity to not only reach out to queer youth, but also to challenge normative understandings of gender and sexuality, as well as social conventions about sex and decency. Shows are also an opportunity to let out your aggression, to dance and skank and mosh until you have nothing left. Punks walk away from shows counting their bruises; they wear them like badges of honour that say "I'm here, I survived!"

Because song lyrics played such a prominent role throughout this project, I am going to use them to finish it as well. In addition to being a favourite of mine, the

Distillers' song "Sick of it AH" (2002) epitomizes many of the arguments that I have made about why punk rock is important to punks, queer and straight:

We are different fucking kids with the same heart beat We got one pulse running through the streets I am a part of this

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