GIRLS TO THE FRONT: THE TRUE STORY OF THE RIOT GRRRL REVOLUTION PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Sara Marcus | 384 pages | 01 Oct 2010 | HarperCollins Publishers Inc | 9780061806360 | English | New York, United States Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution by Sara Marcus Nassau Weekly. Retrieved Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 26 July The Oberlin Review. The A. Bitch Media. Namespaces Article Talk. Views Read Edit View history. Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file. Marcus was there too, a teenage refugee from suburban Maryland drawn to a punk-rock communal house in Arlington, Va. I felt powerless not because I was weak but because I lived in a society that drained teenage girls of power For the first time in years, I knew that I was going to be OK. She was amazed by the power of the words and images and wondered what had happened to all these young feminist pioneers. Years later, the residue of that wonder led to this book. Dozens of these moments, scores of them, are lodged here. Inscribing their bodies with slogans in black Magic Marker, they were utterly compelling in their creative, media-savvy outrageousness. The media ate them alive. Spoilers, like the Minneapolis girl who talked to Newsweek, became pariahs. It was as if some Cointelpro conspiracy had planted double agents: A couple of over-the-top partisans could knock over the whole apple cart, as one grrrl did at an infamous New York show that spelled the end of Bratmobile. Marcus undoubtedly knew what she was getting into when she stepped into this quagmire. Sara Marcus - Wikipedia Kathleen Hanna, a college student from Olympia, Wash. Hanna, along with Tobi Vail, a fanzine writer Jigsaw and former punk rocker who was dating Nirvana's Kurt Cobain, were on a mission to spread female rebellion via their band, Bikini Kill. Thus, writes Marcus in this compelling account, the Grrrl Revolution was sparked. Marcus enthusiastically tracks the "scattered cartographies of rebellion" and captures the combustible excitement of this significant if short-lived moment. Shop By Artist. Search Store. Just Added. Polyvinyl Classics. Double Double Whammy. Non- Polyvinyl Shop. New Releases. Anamanaguchi Vinyl Reissues. Anthology of Emo. Hum - Inlet. Laura Jane Grace - Stay Alive. Polyvinyl - Exquisite Corpse. Shy Boys - Talk Loud. All Music. All Clothing. All Merch. All Bundles. Browse the NPV Shop. There are still hundreds of young bands inspired by old Bikini Kill records. Hot Property. About Us. Brand Publishing. Times Events. Times News Platforms. Times Store. Anyway, if anyone wants to continue the conversation that was started in the early 90s, I'll be over here in the corner with my glue stick. View 1 comment. Sep 05, jess rated it liked it Shelves: , ladyish. Tobi Vail has discussed this book here and here. Johanna Fateman has discussed it here. Allison Wolfe discussed it here. I found all of their reviews and insights to be a great supplement to the actual book, since Sara Marcus worked on this book for five years, researched the hell out of it, but didn't cover everything or get it all right. You could say that no one could cover everything or get it all right, and ok, that's true. I have really been soul searching over the last two weeks, trying to Tobi Vail has discussed this book here and here. I have really been soul searching over the last two weeks, trying to find just the right words to describe the three thousand ways I feel about this book. Riot grrl is all about personal history, and mine greatly affected my reading of the book, so I wrote zines, booked shows, did some activism, traveled to see bands, went to feminist conferences with shitty food and sleeping bags for my formative east coast college years. I was witness to a sort of post-riot grrl backlash. I mean, it was kind of "what comes next. The author of Girls to the Front has a reverence and appreciation for Kathleen Hanna that, frankly, seems cloying and naive from my perspective. KH is like She-ra in this book, seriously, and that's an unfair portrayal. Second of all, I live in Olympia, WA. I moved here for the greatest love of my life, and I have found it to be an entirely charming place to raise a family, be a gay mom, grow a garden, see some art happen. It's slow-paced and there are a lot of hippies, but there are plenty of radical people and happenings to keep things awesome. That was a really diplomatic way of addressing this issue. This is a difficult, largely undocumented time in feminist history considering how many zines they wrote , and it is evident that the author put a lot of work into this book. I don't envy her for this task. I enjoyed reading it, and seeing how events unfolded at various points in different locations. It was sometimes hard for me to keep track of the timeline - wait, this was happening in NYC while this was happening in DC while this was happening in Oly, etc? That infectious, rowdy, disobedient anger was the most powerful thing about riot grrl, and it would be great to see another generation find ways to articulate their rage. Grown-up riot grrls have done a considerable job of creating their own feminist canon. Some of them are still doing radical and inspiration work out in the world. Maybe I am delusional too, but maybe older grrls now: ladies still have a chance at revolution too, if we find room for resistance to be a possibility not only for the youngest. Also, reading this was a reminder of so many ways that the lived experiences of women are better and worse than they were in the s. Some things are better, but other things are worse. We have more women in government, I think, but one of them is Sarah Palin so Then everyone starts talking about whether riot grrl is dead, and I'm pretty sure as long as there is a girl somewhere out there who identifies as a riot grrl, it can't be dead. It's like a unicorn. Jan 31, Alexis rated it it was ok Shelves: I felt profoundly disappointed by this. I feel almost as if I had another expectation of what Riot Grrrl was, and this book sort of killed it. Sadly, I felt like there was a structural problem to this book. The author was either too in love with the subject, or she wasn't removed enough from the activities. There was a tonal problem to what was written here. I also felt that the book had way too much of a focus on Kathleen Hanna, but again, I think that's because I expected her to be chronicling s I felt profoundly disappointed by this. I also felt that the book had way too much of a focus on Kathleen Hanna, but again, I think that's because I expected her to be chronicling something different than what she actually did. I did appreciate how she gave a chronology of some of the history and did show the problems and conflict in the movement. There were things about this book that made me highly nostalgic. I was a hard core reader of Sassy magazine and I have fond memories of listening to music, going to shows, writing penpals, and reading zines that I got in the mail. Apr 14, Ciara rated it really liked it Shelves: read-in , feminist-y-books. Shelves: library-books , non-fiction , race , history , , women , class , we- used-to-be-friends , queer , music. Girls to the Front has a lot of issues. That's fine. Or it could be fine. I mean, in theory. But Girls to the Front also has a lot of problems, and ends up being totally disappointing and weirdly tone deaf. Oh God, is that even acceptable in a discussion about a music book? Probably not. Sorry, everyone. Whenever there's a, like, a feminism contest - you know what I mean, "t 1. Whenever there's a, like, a feminism contest - you know what I mean, "these people are good feminists, these people are bad feminists" - it gets fucked up pretty quickly. So I wasn't surprised about that. I read feminist blogs, I am familiar with girl on girl crime of the "you are holding your sisters back, you stupid slutty tool of the patriarchy" variety. And that stuff has been endemic in feminism since the beginning, right Victoria Woodhull, The Sealed Letter , the Sarah Grand or Mary Jeune, and on and on ; and that's only when we're talking about a bunch of straight cis white women with fairly similar class backgrounds. When you try to encompass the experiences of women of color and women from different class backgrounds and with different sexualities not that heterosexuality isn't itself on a spectrum, buuuut then the comparatively-privileged start to feel threatened and it turns into "look at how un-racist I am" or "why can't you be quiet and appreciate how hard I am working for you??!! Especially when "they" are right there. Anti-oppression turns into a game of one-up-personship pretty quickly, which is why it is difficult and discouraging and why you need to approach it thoughtfully and with open ears, among other things. But, perhaps because Marcus wants a broad audience, she doesn't give a really thorough investigation of ideas. You know, phenomenology is a vital part of feminist awakening and consciousness, but so is a good understanding of the reasons behind your experiences - and I don't mean, like "Timothy, my exboyfriend" or something.