)ORULGD6WDWH8QLYHUVLW\/LEUDULHV 2020 Punk Women Post-79: Gender, Race, and Sexuality in the Punk Scenes of Los Angeles, California, and Leeds, England Mallory Gwynne McGovern Follow this and additional works at DigiNole: FSU's Digital Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected] THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES PUNK WOMEN POST-’79: GENDER, RACE, AND SEXUALITY IN THE PUNK SCENES OF LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, AND LEEDS, ENGLAND By MALLORY MCGOVERN A Thesis submitted to the Department of History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for graduation with Honors in the Major Degree Awarded: Spring, 2020 The members of the Defense Committee approve the thesis of Mallory McGovern defended on March 26, 2020. Signatures are on file with the Honors in the Major Office. Dr. Paul Renfro, Assistant Professor of History Thesis Director Dr. Charles Upchurch, Associate Professor of History Committee Member Dr. Barry Faulk, Professor of English Outside Committee Member Creating a Subculture Punk has been defined in myriad different ways: as a working-class revolt, a response to the 1960s and 1970s counterculture failing to truly revolt, and a “white riot.” But overwhelmingly, punk narratives emphasized generational alienation and lamented punks’ inability to express their disappointment through mainstream cultural channels. A major point of contention for punks was the patriarchal structure of popular music. Popular music, and more specifically rock music, was criticized as inherently sexist, with some feminist scholars arguing that to create nonsexist music, women would have to completely separate themselves from rock.1 Punk answered these criticisms of the dominant music industry.