Issue #2

Riot Grrl
by Rijn Collins

I’ve been turning this over and over in my mind. The very fact that I can’t decide whether or not I belong to this movement, shows me quite clearly that it’s a loaded issue, and not just for me.

Whenever I read the term Riot Grrrl, my ears immediately prick up. I will read a zine with this term on its cover, I will listen to a band so labelled, I will borrow a book from the library if it contains this phrase in its index - in short, it absolutely speaks to me. It has been a major influence in my life for many, many years; as a feminist, a punk, and a writer; it inspires me on many levels. It’s helped me build a beautifully sustaining network of friendships across the world, and a superb music library of female-based bands.

But it’s been leaving a sour taste in my mouth.

Each time I finish reading a rant, or inspecting a site, or studying a zine, I am rarely satisfied. More often than not, I feel disgruntled and exasperated: I want to step inside and shake the author, tell them to WAKE THE FUCK UP! To put it simply, although I am in absolute agreeance with the sentiment that women are entitled to do anyfuckingthing they want, I don’t agree with the manner in which this is often expressed within the movement. We, as women, do of course have every right to our outrage at being vilified and maligned, at having our gender used against us in so many vile and insidious ways; but it is often how we choose to deal with this that provides the difference between us going under, or surviving. Anger is immensely useful, and has fuelled many a choice I’ve made in the course of my life; but delineation has to be made between anger, and resentment. One inspires to action, but one fosters bitterness - and bitterness impedes our progress. In refusing men access to the movement, which some chapters of RG do, we’re exacerbating the problem by denying ourselves access to people able to help change attitudes within their own gender, and projecting exactly the kind of sexism and gender-bias we’re trying to eliminate. Whether you agree with that or not, I’ll take this line of argument back to its point: bitterness is deleterious to us as women. I’m going to quote from a great book called “Who Stole Feminism?: How women have betrayed women” by Christina Hoff Sommers, who says that “the presumption that men are collectively engaged in keeping women down invites feminist bonding in a resentful community……resentment is not a wholesome passion. Unlike indignation, it is not an ethical passion.” Ethical or not, to wallow in resentment is to be in danger of going under: it is with righteous indignation that we remind ourselves what we object to, and how the fuck we’re going to change it.

I don’t see Riot Grrrl affecting much change anymore. Sure, it did inspire so many girls to pick up instruments, which in itself is wonderful, but what’s it doing now? Are we too deeply mired in the reaction - whether you call it outrage, resentment, or anger - that we no longer have action? We need to go past merely responding. Going to quote again, this time from one of my favourite writers, the incomparable Erica Jong, who has inspired me more than any Riot Grrrl: “Anger is a strong propellant to creation, but it is hardly the only propellant. Curiosity is braver than rage. Exploration is a nobler calling than combat. ”

I feel that Riot Grrrl has in a sense issued a call to arms, gathering so many likeminded passionate women from around the world into a ’sisterhood’……….and we’re still kicking against the pricks, instead of using the fact we’re on our feet to actually go somewhere. Is there too much rhetoric and not enough movement, in the movement?

Why can’t we use our power as females - and it is fucking powerful - instead of insisting people respect our right to that power? Just DO IT. Don’t preach about it, or fulminate, or always shout our strategy from the rooftops so that they know we’re coming. Replace misandry with munificence, bitterness with indignation, and for Goddess’s sake, don’t forget the humour. Feed off the inner female flame: that’s what it’s there for.

I have one last point to make, and it’s perhaps the most important. I feel that the reason I cannot apply the term Riot Grrrl to myself, despite the fact that I am a kickarse brilliant punk queer Witch woman who has not just survived trauma but fucking bloomed after it, who lives with a pen in her hand and women on her stereo and LOVESLOVESLOVES being female and everything about it…….the reason I cannot call myself a Riot Grrrl, is because I am not a girl. I am a woman, through and through. Wow, I think that’s it, it’s the terminology that trips me up far too much to ignore. I’m a linguistics student - few things thrill me more than researching the etymology of words connected with female power - and I cannot get past the ‘girl’ half of the title. I am no girl. Throw a couple of ‘rrr’s in there and it makes no difference, it is not me, and it does not apply to half of those I know either. There comes a time when a cutesy grrrrrrrowl will just not suffice and only a suckerpunch to the head will do justice, you know? A great book called “The Sex Revolts” by Joy Press and Simon Reynolds quotes Courtney Love (not one of my favourites, but for once she cuts to the point) as saying “girl is not menstruating, girl is non-orgasmic, girl is naive, cute, bratty, unthreatening in her clumsiness”, and I agree. I bleed, I come, I am wise and not naive, certainly not cute and absolutely threatening when need be……..as befits a woman. I’m no grrrl.

Well, there you go. I feel very strongly about the movement, am so appreciative of the music and friends it’s given me, and yes, I’ll still pick up a book/zine/CD that addresses it. But I will be curious to see where it leads, and whether it grows up and changes its name. We need Riot Women.

One last quote, from one of the best books that I have ever read on revolting in glorious style: “CUNT: a declaration of independence” by Inga Muscio, a true Riot Woman.

“The multitude of acclaimed cuntlovin’ artists bustin’ fine round womanly asses getting honest reflections of us into the world thrills me beyond measure.”

Amen.
Rijn

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