Riot Grrrl 2

This is the second part of the initial interview I did with Julia Downes for her PhD thesis on DIY Queer Feminist (Sub)cultural Resistance in the UK (University of Leeds, September 2009).

I've always shied away from trying to directly define Riot Grrrl - and will continue to do so. It's counter-productive, as any student of feminist theory could tell you.

2.  What, in your opinion, was riot grrrl about (feel free to talk about any aspect you like e.g. fanzines, music, gigs, audiences)?
Riot Grrrl was Nikki McLure going for walks through the forest, able to name every flower, and attending Swap Meets and Pot Lucks; Riot Grrrl was Stella Marrs and her incredible array of homemade postcards; Riot Grrrl was never supposed to be static, definable, but ever-changing, fluid – a movement in every respect of the word. My take on what got called Riot Grrrl was very straightforward: I was reared on the female underground cartoonists of the Seventies and the post-punk Rough Trade music of the last Seventies (wherein it seemed entirely natural women should be treated as the equal of men in every respect). I never understood the need for differentiation but certainly I believe(d) in positive discrimination – to those who decried the need for women-only shows, for actively encouraging and favouring female musicians and critics over male (but obviously only if each were worth encouraging and favouring) I would say, “Just fucking look around. Look at this patriarchal society which for years, decade... fucking centuries... has been structured in such a way it favours male over female every fucking time.” Every fucking time. And they’d begrudge the scales tipped fractionally in the opposite way for a brief period of time? Jesus.
In 2006, NME placed a series of stories across the national media stating how cool it was Beth Ditto had made their Top 10 ‘Cool’ List – that, finally, women were ‘cool’. Which fucking century are they living in?!! UK magazine Word runs articles proclaiming “The Rise of The Indie Hottie” in 2007 and no one seems to bat an eyelid. And people still think Riot Grrrl was needless…!
Riot Grrrl was basically about female empowerment – females doing stuff on their own terms, separate from men, making up their own rules and systems and cultures. Sure, men were welcome, but they had to understand that for once they weren’t going to be automatically given first place. (One of the reasons my own role in the gestation of Riot Grrrl as a popular cultural movement became so confused was that after a certain period of time I began to listen to those around me – female musicians, activists, artists, human beings – who felt that having such a high-profile male associated with a fledgling female movement was absolutely counter-productive. This is almost the first time I’ve spoken to anyone since then.)
The music of Riot Grrrl was actually quite a distraction: its purpose was never to give the music press another handy catchphrase to pigeonhole and thus dismiss a certain type of music. I always perceived it went far deeper than that: penetrating every aspects of lifestyle. I never once trusted or particularly liked the hippies of the Sixties – despite having much sympathy for some of their beliefs – because they were so clearly male-dominated. I cannot place my faith in any movement that just dismissed half the world’s population without a second thought.

(tbc)

You can find Part 1 of this series here.
You can find Part 3 of this series here.
You can find Part 4 of this series here.
You can find Part 5 of this series here.
You can find Part 6 of this series here.
You can find Part 7 of this series here.
You can find the follow-up interview in this series here.
You can find the entire series collected together here.