QUEERING PUNK: QUEER YOUTH AND THE IMPORTANCE OF PUNK ROCK DENISE SCOTT A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS GRADUATE PROGRAM IN INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES YORK UNIVERSITY TORONTO, ONTARIO DECEMBER 2011 Library and Archives Bibliotheque et Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-90087-1 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-90087-1 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distrbute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. Canada iv Abstract 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.