Multimedia Review

“Vernacular Third Wave Discourse”: New Works on , Girl Zines, and Girl Rock

by Virginia Corvid

DON’T NEED YOU: THE HERSTORY OF RIOT GRRRL. 40 mins. Directed by Kerri Koch. Produced by Urban Cowgirl Productions, 2006. DVD available for purchase: $14.99 plus shipping, http://urbancowgirlproductions.com/ uc/?page_id=3/.

Sarah Marcus, GIRLS TO THE FRONT: THE TRUE STORY OF THE RIOT GRRRL REVOLUTION. New York: Harper, 2010. 281p. $14.99, ISBN 978-006180636.

Marisa Meltzer, GIRL POWER: THE NINETIES REVOLUTION IN MUSIC. New York: Faber & Faber, 2010. $14.00, ISBN 978-0865479791.

Alison Piepmeier, GIRL ZINES: MAKING MEDIA, DOING FEMINISM. New York: New York University Press, 2009. 272p. $22.00, ISBN 978-0814767528.

GIRLS ROCK! THE MOVIE. 89 mins. Directed by Shane King & Arne Johnson. Produced by (Your Name Here) Productions and Ro*co Films International, 2008. DVD available for purchase for home use: $25.00 plus shipping, http:// www.girlsrockmovie.com/order. Licensing for educational and public showings also available.

Marisa Anderson, ROCK ’N’ ROLL CAMP FOR GIRLS: HOW TO START A BAND, WRITE SONGS, RECORD AN ALBUM AND ROCK OUT! San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books, 2008. 191p. $14.95, ISBN 978-0811852227.

In the early 1990s, the punk the empowerment of a new genera- , of Bikini feminist movement called Riot Grrrl tion of girls. Like Riot Grrrl, these new Kill, of Chalk Circle, emerged in the United States, with offerings confront ongoing struggles Ramdasha Bikceem of Gunk, and Ma- hubs of significant activity in Olympia, with intersectionality in feminism and digan Shive of Tattle Tale.1 Koch uses Washington, and Washington, D.C. misrepresentation of feminism in the interview footage and archival materi- Combining musical performance, zine mainstream media. Throughout these als interspersed with excerpts from production, irreverent style, and the tensions, however, the transformative the Riot Grrrl manifesto originally DIY ethos of punk, Riot Grrrl forged power of women and girls creating cul- published in 2 to weave the a feminist praxis premised upon social ture and critiquing patriarchy remains fabric of the narrative.2 This approach and personal transformation through the touchstone in these vibrant works. tracks individual experiences of Riot cultural production and girl com- Grrrl, as well as a historical timeline munity — or, as Riot Grrrl put it, girl For those new to the history of of Riot Grrrl’s rise to prominence and love and girl power. Recent scholarship Riot Grrrl as a feminist musical move- subsequent participant disillusionment has begun to examine this movement ment, Don’t Need You, a documentary relating to the movement’s primarily and the larger Third Wave of feminism film by Kerri Koch, offers an excellent white, middle-class participant base in which it was located. Simultane- introduction. The film features inter- and trivialization in the media. ously and with significant overlap, views with the prominent zinesters The film closes with reflections on Riot Grrrl participants have begun to and musicians, such as the meaning and significance of Riot document their activities and to foster of , of Grrrl that recuperatively position it as

Feminist Collections (v. 31, no. 4, Fall 2010) Page 11 Multimedia Review a feminist movement of young female timeline unfolds, it transitions from spective emerges from Marcus’s inno- artists. With this narrative arc and the early centrality of punk to the later vative narrative style, which grounds material, Koch’s composition not only centrality of zines. The trivializing and her presentation of Riot Grrrl activity provides a compelling introduction to sensationalized media fascination with in the perspectives of the actors. Con- Riot Grrrl, but also strikes the sensitive Riot Grrrl and the controversial media tradictory perspectives, analyses, and and informed tone necessary for con- blackout also receive indepth coverage. interpretations receive side-by-side veying the story of a movement that Although other writers have addressed sympathetic telling, yet the overall was ideologically opposed to definition these aspects of Riot Grrrl history coherence of the work remains intact and experienced outside definition as before, Marcus brings a new level of and is strengthened by the contradic- such a negative force. Alongside the detail and temporal development. tions. The book would have benefited, documentary, Koch provides however, from more attention to extended interview and archival the perspectives of grrrls of color. material footage in the bonus Although Marcus attends to the features, making the film an predominantly white participant even greater resource for further base of the movement and the Riot Grrrl scholarship. resistant reaction elicited by an “unlearning racism” workshop at For a more indepth ex- the first Riot Grrrl convention, amination of the history of Riot interviews with prominent grrrls Grrrl, Girls to the Front: The True of color like Mimi Nguyen and Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution, Ramdasha Bikceem are notably by Sara Marcus, delivers on its absent. Despite this failing, Girls subtitle and offers a singularly to the Front has much to offer comprehensive, multi-faceted and deepens the extant scholar- account. Marcus brings a unique ship on Riot Grrrl. insider/outsider perspective to Riot Grrrl history. As she reveals In another approach, at the beginning of the book, Marisa Meltzer examines Riot Marcus missed the early years Grrrl as an antecedent to the of Riot Grrrl development but music and marketing phenom- later connected to Riot Grrrl at ena of girl power. She states her a center of activity in Washing- intentions in the preface to Girl ton, D.C. Therefore, she has an Power: The Nineties Revolution intimate familiarity with Riot in Music: “In this book I have Grrrl feminist analyses, but also traced the roots, evolution, and a distance from the stormiest eventual co-option of girl power events in Riot Grrrl’s history. in an attempt to figure out what From this position, she relays many of Girls to the Front also offers sus- it all means and where music and femi- the complicated and dispersed strands tained attention to the focus, in Riot nism are headed” (p. ix). Meltzer also of Riot Grrrl history based on her Grrrl, on sexual harassment, physical makes it clear that she intends to focus familiarity and five years of research. abuse, and sexual violence, which most on privileged perspectives on this his- Her account covers the bands Bikini previous coverage has either glossed, tory, commenting, “The good feminist Kill, Bratmobile, and Huggy Bear, as ignored, or actively suppressed. As in me wants to make sure that I’m well as Riot Grrrl activity in Olympia, Marcus demonstrates, the personal not overlooking any outsider groups, D.C., New York, the Twin Cities, and experience of these issues motivated but they are not part of the story I am Omaha. Throughout, the account many young women and girls to con- looking to tell” (p. x) — a shortsighted incorporates interviews, lyrics, and nect to Riot Grrrl in an era when the approach, since constructions of white zine excerpts and positions Riot Grrrl media was declaring feminism dead. femininity, consumerism, and hetero- in the context of the 1990s backlash, This previously under-addressed per- sexuality have been at the heart of co- especially anti-abortion politics. As the opted definitions of girl power. With

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taste: Spice Girls and contributions — the vocabulary, con- Brittany Spears: thumbs ceptual apparatus, and explanatory nar- up. April Lavigne and ratives — of the third wave have not Pussy Cat Dolls: thumbs been recognized by scholars because down. Both Meltzer and they’re being developed in unexpected, this topic have more to nonacademic sites, like zines” (p. 10). offer than the blog-post- The text helps bridge this gap with like fare presented in Girl well-researched examinations of ex- Power. change in zine culture, the Third Wave, While Meltzer exam- and the range of constructions of femi- ines Riot Grrrl as part of ninity in zines, as well as the handling a larger musical history, of intersectionality and revolutionary Alison Piepmeier, in Girl hopefulness in zines. Comfortable with Zines: Making Media, Do- complexity, Piepmeier critiques binary ing Feminism, addresses divisions of victimization/agency and the movement as part complicity/resistance to develop a nu- of a larger development anced perspective of the feminist work of feminist zines. The and discourse in girl zines. Overall, the first monograph-length book admirably engages the compli- academic examination of cated nature and context of girl zines, feminist zines, Piepmeier’s including girl culture, Third Wave fem- work is an insightful and inism, and girl zines themselves whose long-overdue engage- creators contradict and explicitly resist ment with the feminist work in zines, which this broad, vague research question played a pivotal role not and self-authorization to downplay or only in Riot Grrrl but ignore issues like race, class, and sexu- also in the development ality, the slim volume unsurprisingly of the Third Wave in gen- comes across as hollow. It reads like eral. Piepmeier aptly de- a series of long expository magazine fines zines as “vernacular articles covering, in succession, Riot third wave” discourse (p. Grrrl, “Angry Womyn” in rock, 1990s 9), and she combines “the girl groups, 1990s female pop stars existing scholarly work on (aka “Pop Tarts”), and femi- zines with a much-needed nist musical and art festivals. broad range of interdis- Girl Power comes across as a thin ciplinary perspectives layer of journalistic coverage stretched on book culture, activist over Meltzer’s personal grappling with art, and participatory the contradictions between enjoying media in order to map the consumption of pop culture and out as fully as possible her feminist analyses. Girl Power taunts the personal, political and the reader. Underneath the pop-culture theoretical work that grrrl details, music history summaries, and zines perform” (p. 7). personal anecdotes lies an enduring Observing that “the third feminist debate: female pleasure versus wave has been widely resisting oppression. Without an ex- described but undertheo- plicit or coherent take on the debate, rized,” Piepmeier suggests though, much of the book’s discussion that “the theoretical seems arbitrary and based on personal

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teach classes, facilitate the although the camp had a diverse staff bands and perform music and participant group, the directors throughout. presented a whitewashed version of the The documentary history of , and used filmGirls Rock!, directed one-dimensional statistics about girls. by Shane King and Arne More subject expertise on the part of Johnson, provides an the directors would have enhanced the insider look at the expe- framing of the film, but the coverage rience of Rock ‘n’ Roll of the camp itself is outstanding and a Camp for Girls from the worthwhile watch. perspective of partici- While Girls Rock! provides a win- pants, their families, and dow into the experience of attending staff. Following the girls camp, Rock ’n’ Roll Camp for Girls, ed- through an intense and ited by Marisa Anderson, offers a DIY tension-filled week of version of the camp in book format, or, everything from learning as the subtitle puts it, “How to Start a instruments to perform- Band, Write Songs, Record an Album ing with a group of recent and ROCK OUT!!” Its tone is pitch strangers, the footage perfect, both accessible and smart, and rivets. Besides presenting it’s aimed at “anybody who has ever the compelling event that dreamed of playing music” (p. 12). Il- the camp is, the film also lustrations by Nicole Georges and pho- mirrors the focus of the tos from camp, rendered in lime-green camp and emphasizes the and black and white throughout and difficulties girls face definition or description (pp. 11–12). with self- This thoughtful and multi-disciplinary esteem and body image. examination of feminism in girl zines In-depth serial inter- should be in every collection on zines views with a selection or the Third Wave. of camp participants, Rock ’n’ Roll Camp for Girls their families, and staff combines Peipmeier’s observation that — including Carrie Third Wave theory is developed in Brownstein of Sleater “unexpected nonacademic sites” and Kinney, sts of the Hag- Riot Grrrl feminist musical practices. gard, and Beth Ditto Founded in 2000 in Portland, , of the Gossip — func- by Misty McElroy as a student project, tion as the strengths of the camp brings together girls aged the documentary. The 8-17 for a week to form bands, choose directors and camera instruments, write songs, and perform crew clearly established them in a showcase concert. Although a rapport. Yet, because music provides the structure for the the film directors were camp, girl empowerment is the focus. just learning about the Camp activities include a self-defense history of women in workshop from , atten- music and the effects of tion to conflict resolution, and discus- sexism on girls as they sions of the representation of women worked on the project, in the media and women’s exclusion the film has some weak- from musical production. Volunteers nesses. For instance,

Page 14 Feminist Collections (v. 31, no. 4, Fall 2010) Multimedia Review assembled with a cut-and-paste style, 2. Riot Grrrl sought to avoid hege- [Virginia Corvid is a graduate student create a zine-like feel for the book. Nu- monic doctrine and encouraged all par- at the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s merous contributors offer advice and ticipants to develop their own notion School of Library and Information Stud- directions based on personal experi- of Riot Grrrl. Many Riot Grrrl partici- ies, specializing in archival administra- ence, including notables Carrie Brown- pants therefore developed “Riot Grrrl tion. She was formerly the Riot Grrrl stein of Sleater-Kinney, is…” manifestos, so many, indeed, that collection manager at the Zine Archive of , Cynthia Nelson of Ruby the term manifesta has since found and Publishing Project in Seattle, Wash- Falls, of , widespread usage. By far the most ington. Her professional interests include Beth Ditto of The Gossip, sts of The widely published Riot Grrrl manifesta, women’s history as feminist activism and Haggard, and a host of other seasoned however, appeared in the zine Bikini digitization in archives.] musicians, organizers, and writers. As Kill 2, the compel- a whole, the compilation combines ling prose and vision inspiring essays on women in rock of which has engen- and the artistic process with practical dered its continued directions on songwriting, instruments, prominence. The electrified sound, and starting and pro- full text is available moting a band. Sections on self-defense at http://onewar- and aerobics, a glossary of art.org/riot_grrrl_ relevant music terms, chord charts, and manifesto.htm. contact information for rock camps Note: this site erro- round out the book as a resource for neously claims that girl musicians. Get it for the girl in Kathleen Hanna your life and support her art. founded Riot Grrrl, a claim that runs Notes counter to the spirit of Riot Grrrl and 1. Band and zine references refer pre- that Hanna herself dominantly to projects contemporane- has spent a consider- ous with the heyday of Riot Grrrl. All able amount of time artists referenced in this review have contesting. been involved with multiple projects, too many to list. Googling them yields rich returns and is highly recommend- ed by this reviewer.

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