Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution by Sara Marcus

Jun 26, 2013 Jason Koivu rated it it was amazing

Shelves: non-fiction, music

REVOLUTION!!!

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GIRL STYLE

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NOOOOWWWW!!!!!!

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So began the primal scream of a frustrated girl, an angry band, a feminist movement.

Girls to the Front is about the Riot Grrrl movement of the early '90s, and when you speak of Riot Grrrl, you speak of Kathleen Hanna and her band Bikini Kill. Hanna released her rage against the sexism that surrounded her through music, discovering a sort of cadre of like-minded girls in Olympia, WA, some of whom were already entrenched in grassroots feminist punk ideology. ...more

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Jun 01, 2015 El rated it really liked it

Shelves: cultural-studies-and-other, anarchism-revolutions, hear-me-roar-and-gender, library-borrow, radio-ga-ga

According to the library print-out left inside this book, in 2013 someone else checked this book out along with Excluded: Making Feminist and Queer Movements More Inclusive, The Riot Grrrl Collection, and How to Tell If Your Cat Is Plotting to Kill You.

I want to know that person.

I was a smidge too young when Riot Grrrl was a thing that was happening. In fact, by the time actually I heard of it, it was essentially over and one of the letter 'r's had been dropped from the second word - I always ...more

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Sep 05, 2010 jess rated it liked it

Shelves: ladyish, 2010

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.
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 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....

First of all, I'm was born too late & in the wrong location, but I was immersed in a post-riot grrl world in my developing years. 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." Feminist & queercore bands were regularly dialogged with or protested for feminist inclusion or racist missteps, and Le Tigre was a glaring trespasser numerous times. 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. Tobi Vail says that she feels that GTTF represents Olympia in an unfairly dismissive way. That was a really diplomatic way of addressing this issue. About 2/3 of the way through the book, I was ready to chuck it across the room if Sara Marcus mentioned the "blackberry-picking kids" of Olympia one more time.

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? I think this is a good jumping off point for someone interested in feminist history & riot grrl, but I hope that it's not the be-all-end-all narrative of this time.

I hope some girls read this book & go write a zine (wait, zines are dead, too, right? so, go write a blog?) or start a band or just start a fight with something unfair. 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 1990s. 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. ...more

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Jan 31, 2011 Alexis rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2011

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 ...more

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Apr 14, 2011 Ciara rated it really liked it

Shelves: feminist-y-books, read-in-2011

i was nervous but excited to read this book. i bought it six months ago & kept putting it off because i wanted to be able to really relish it, & i kept thinking i should read my library books first. & i always have a new library book. but i finally read this last week & it was awesome.

first of all, i'm not going to pretend that this is perfect book. all historical accounts are subjective, even when they were written by people who were actually there or extremely passionate & i was nervous but excited to read this book. i bought it six months ago & kept putting it off because i wanted to be able to really relish it, & i kept thinking i should read my library books first. & i always have a new library book. but i finally read this last week & it was awesome.

first of all, i'm not going to pretend that this is perfect book. all historical accounts are subjective, even when they were written by people who were actually there or extremely passionate & knowledgeable about their subject. sara marcus became interested in riot grrrl in 1993 or so, as a teenager. so she was as involved with the scene as i was...which is to say, peripherally in a lot of ways. i was a young teenager living in small town ohio in the early 90s. i wrote zines, contributed to zines, traded zines, had tons of pen pals, traded mix tapes, was introduced to & introduced other people to riot grrrl bands through said mix tapes, etc. but i never made it to a riot grrrl convention (i was too young & my parents wouldn't let me go--they thought riot grrrls were "man haters" & "lesbians"), i never saw a lot of those classic riot grrrl bands play live, i was never in a local riot grrrl group (my best friends as a teenager were weirdo punk feminists, but they weren't interested in riot grrrl, even when i tried to get them pumped for it), i never even read some of the now-canonized riot grrrl zines, like "i'm so fucking beautiful" or "jigsaw" or "wrecking ball". so reading this book was really interesting, because i actually learned a lot about this movement that i definitely considered myself a part of at the time, & that was pretty awesome.

sara opens the book with her own personal history of learning about riot grrrl & trying to become involved. she then goes on to profile some halfways well-known riot grrrls who influenced the movement in a lot of ways, using a chronological framework. she starts with the formation of bikini kill & writes about the different places that kathleen hanna & tobi vail were coming from in terms of their feminist analysis. i found that really interesting, especially now that i am in a feminist book club populated by all kinds of people coming to feminism from so many different perspectives, with so many different ideas about what feminism is. sara writes about kathleen's history doing domestic violence outreach, & tobi's background in understanding gender as a social construct & feminism as one prong of a revolutionary movement encompassing all kinds of different liberation struggles. tobi has written a few posts about this book (including critiques, errors, & clarifications) on her blog, including taking sara to task for suggesting that women in domestic violence shelters don't care if gender is a social construct. i have to say, i agree with tobi about that: to say that reinforces the idea that domestic violence only happens among the undereducated. the way sara wrote about tobi & kathleen's differences also seemed to suggest that tobi was all about book-learnin' while kathleen was in the trenches, doing real work. i think that's a total judment call that says more about sara's own value system than anything else.

she writes about the formation of bratmobile, & allison wolfe wrote a piece in response, questioning why sara felt the need to constantly refer to her as "strange" or "dorky" every single chance she got. i have to say, i was way into both bikini kill & bratmobile back in the day. i probably liked them equally. & i never thought of allison as especially "strange" or "dorky". i have no idea where sara is getting that...but it informs most of her writing about bratmobile, which is kind of unfortunate. she seems to see bratmobile as more of a novelty or joke band, especially in comparison to bikini kill. she writes at one point that "bratmobile was always just something fun to do on school vacations," which allison refutes in her piece. who knows where sara got that idea, or more to the point, why she felt the need to write it down in a history. tobi wrote something about how the problem with histories like this is that things get written down & people perceive of them as the truth, even when they're not completely (or even a little bit) accurate.

so i definitely tried to keep my critical thinking lenses on while i read this book, reminding myself that this is one version of the riot grrrl story. i think it is the best version i have yet heard. there are only a smattering of other books about riot grrrl, & most of them frame it as a musical genre or a fashion statement. sara takes great pains to contextualize the rise of riot grrrl activities within the geopolitical moment. even though i was obviously alive in 1992, i never realized how close roe vs. wade came to being overturned that year--what a real & present danger it posed to american women. she writes about the clarence thomas hearings, the prevalence of sexual assault & sexual harassment, the crystallization of the beauty myth, all these things going on that informed riot grrrl's political militancy. & in response to critiques that riot grrrl was TOO militant, which scared away more timid girls that may have otherwise enjoyed the consciousness raising dynamics at meetings or the zine culture, she argues that militancy was less a tool of elitism within riot grrrl than it was the definition of riot grrrl. i would agree with that, & i do feel it's a piece that has largely been written out of the history of riot grrrl & is part of the reason i have a hard time with modern-day riot grrrl nostalgia. it's not just about listening to bands & dancing in the front at shows & having a goofy haircut. riot grrrls were angry, justifiably so. i think in the last twenty years, the anger element within feminism has been played down a lot in order to make feminism seem more appealing to larger masses of people, & i think that's unfortunate, because it robs feminist projects of some of their concrete politics sometimes.

anyway, moving on. sara doesn't just write about bands. she also writes about the formation of riot grrrl groups in washington DC, olympia, vancouver (canada), humboldt county, minneapolis, & elsewhere. she writes rather a lot about the riot grrrl conventions that happened in washington DC & omaha, nebraska. she writes about media coverage of riot grrrl at the time, & the differences of opinion about how riot grrrls should handle requests from the media. she writes about the different decisions that different riot grrrls made & the fallout that they experienced (both positive & negative). she writes about the formation riot grrrl press (the first zine distro i'd ever heard of back when i was like 15 or whatever), the prevalence of bisexuality among riot grrrls (& how it was alienating to queer girls who were otherwise interested in riot grrrl), the dearth of race & class diversity within the movement (& within punk as a whole), questions about whether riot grrrl was a punk spin-off or a political movement, the role of mail order culture...tons of stuff.

one of my favorite elements of the book was its dishiness. she writes extensively about jessica hopper's involvement in riot grrrl minneapolis, & how she agreed to give an interview to "newsweek" even after a lot of other riot grrrls had decided not to talk to the media anymore. but she didn't just give an interview. she also gave the reporter photos, letters, & zines she'd received from other girls involved with riot grrrl. the reporter used these items & people felt very betrayed. jessica immediately disassociated herself from riot grrrl & started hanging out with rock stars (like courtney love) instead, but the damage was done & a lot of people who felt betrayed by her actions had to try to make their peace with the fact that you can't always trust someone just because they say they're on your side. the stuff about jessica also illustrates the way that calls for a media black-out happened in a somewhat autocratic manner, & how a lot of difficult issues of elitism & self-promotion has to be addressed.

she also touches on erika reinstein, who wrote "fantastic fanzine," among other zines, & is kind of infamous in certain circles for writing a zine in which she uses the racist anetbellum "one-drop rule" as a justification for speaking on behalf of people of color everywhere & positioning herself as an anti-racist authority...even though she doesn't know for sure that she has any ancestors of color, & benefits from white skin privilege. a lot of zinesters of color at the time went to great lengths to call her out on that, & she responded by dropping out of the zine scene & re-emerging a few years later with a new name, writing zines on a different topic (but still engaged in the act of using oppression as currency & positioning herself as the most oppressed person of all time). sara writes about how this transformation, from outspoken, tough high school feminist to major star of the oppression olympics, started to happen. she doesn't go into the details that i did here, but she does write about other things i didn't really know anything about, & these stories illustrated the problems of a lack of diversity within riot grrrl, as well as the issues that plague all political movements & subcultures, in terms of in-fighting, sanctimoniousness, hypocrisy, etc.

i, for one, appreciated the hell out of these tales from the darker side of riot grrrl. ideas about riot grrrl have filtered down to the next generation of young punk feminists, who seem to have this idea that it's just all about girls going to shows together & being best friends. i think sara's book did a great job of illustrating the fact that riot grrrl really did aspire to be a real political movement in a lot of ways, & that it was hindered by authoritarianism, real & imagined hierarchies, betrayal, self-aggrandizement, etc--all things that we should be staying cognizant of & trying to avoid still.

obviously this book is just kind of the tip of the iceberg in terms of what could be written about riot grrrl, & i hope that as the girls that were involved in the 90s continue to grow up, more & more books & other histories emerge. ...more

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Jun 30, 2011 Madeline rated it it was ok

Recommended to Madeline by: Sound Opinions

Shelves: non-fiction, history, women, race, library-books, class, queer, we-used-to-be-friends, music, 2011

1. 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? Ugh. Probably not. Sorry, everyone.) OKAY, to be fair: maybe it is less "GttF has a lot of problems" and more "I have a lot of problems with GttF."

2. Whenever there's a, like, a feminism contest - you know what I mean, 1. 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? Ugh. Probably not. Sorry, everyone.) OKAY, to be fair: maybe it is less "GttF has a lot of problems" and more "I have a lot of problems with GttF."

2. 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??!!" Like "they cannot represent themselves; they must be spoken for" is even slightly acceptable any more. (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. As a chronicle of that tragedy/thing that happens, I guess GttF is all right. 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. I mean the structural and abstract components. (To be fair, at the end, Marcus talks about how RG lacked administrators.) The final chapter - "The Cruel Revolution" - is particularly problematic and sort of enraging.

3. Well, okay, and also I don't really listen to any of the Riot Grrrl music. I mean, I have a free anniversary sampler from Kill Rock Stars, but I got it for the Thao Nguyen songs. I do like the two Le Tigre songs I've heard (1, 2) but I haven't tried to hear others. So I lack the very personal connection Marcus stresses as so important to the movement. In fact, she opens with her own passionate, tentative involvement - and that's, sadly, the best part of the book. It's the most authentic and the most sincere and the most vivid section. Despite this passionate connection, the movement itself doesn't emerge as particularly vivid or, even, specific. The characters - which, in this kind of non-fiction, you need (Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found) - weren't established clearly enough for me, so there was very little sense of knowing who these women were, or why I should care about them, or keep track of them. There are a couple of women who were just easier to keep track of because you hear their names more often, but the teenage girls, who are obviously such an important part of how Marcus conceives of the RG movement don't come through very strongly, in most cases.

4. There are a lot of tortured metaphors. And these passages . . . I don't know, was she trying to do In Cold Blood, but intermittently? They were So Awkward. I don't get second-hand embarrassment that often reading books. But it's not just in those weird interludes - I don't know what else to call them! - but sprinkled throughout, particularly in the introductory descriptions. You know, those three adjective descriptions that introduce people to you.

5. I assume she's talking about Chris Brown when she says in the epilogue "A pop star beat up his girlfriend and his career barely missed a step" because of the timing (2009). But that's obviously ridiculous, I mean, have you heard any Chris Brown songs lately? Anyone? Anyone? No. (Although he was in that one movie, right?) Rihanna's doing pretty well, though! Her songs get played - her new ones, I mean. She shows up places and people care. She sings hooks on Kanye songs. She has an annoying perfume commercial I see in movie theaters. (Why are movie theater commercials the most annoying commercials? Never mind, I know why. Yet another way the state of modern advertising would disappoint Don Draper. I mean, damn, Roger Sterling would be disappointed. And you know how far you've fallen when Roger's disappointed, okay? You've fallen really, really far.) I know this is tangential, and a stupid thing to get hung up on. Yet I cannot stop myself. There were plenty of stupid, tangential things I got hung up on while reading this - when there are that many it has stopped being a problem with me.

6. Okay, but the episode of Sound Opinions where Sara Marcus is interviewed is actually really interesting and engaging. It was what made me check out the book!

7. Seriously, is this a non-fiction/history book for young adults? Not that this means I'd give it a pass, but then I could at least excuse it as a (misguided) attempt to connect with a younger generation without many of the reference points for the period? (As I am between the current YA-reader crop and the RG crop, I also lack a lot of first-hand context and history classes stop at detente. Musically, I came of age with boy bands and the Spice Girls.)

8. And I so wanted this to be a fun, cool, enlightening book. Instead it like . . . I don't even know. Somehow it hit me as too-earnest (hallmark of the 90s!) and disingenuous. Yeah, you figure that one out. I am throwing this review up not because I think negative reviews are particularly useful to potential readers, but because I think other people might finish the book and have some problems with it too, and they might need another dissenting voice. Judging by the reviews already on here, GttF resonated with a bunch of people, which is totally fine and good and I'm glad - that's what books are supposed to do. I'm sorry that didn't happen with me. If it didn't happen with you either, step right up. ...more

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May 02, 2013 いんたねっと rated it really liked it

1. I decided to read this book because I am very interested in Riot Grrrl culture and the feminist revolution in the 1990's. It interested me because it was written by a woman who was a part of the revolution and gave first hand recounts of what happened, as well as interviewed some of the girls who were at the front lines of the revolution.

2. This book completes the "Books that teach you about a different time in history" category because it is about events that happened in the 1980s and 90s. I 1. I decided to read this book because I am very interested in Riot Grrrl culture and the feminist revolution in the 1990's. It interested me because it was written by a woman who was a part of the revolution and gave first hand recounts of what happened, as well as interviewed some of the girls who were at the front lines of the revolution.

2. This book completes the "Books that teach you about a different time in history" category because it is about events that happened in the 1980s and 90s. I like reading books in this category because it teaches you about real life things that happened and historical events.

3. The ideas in this book widened my knowledge and made me think about a lot of issues in the world I had previously ignored. This book explores and documents the "Riot Grrrl" wave of radical feminism in the 1990s and it's affects on todays society. An idea I found most interesting was girls taking power and fighting against male oppression and patriachy. Marcus writes a concise account of the struggles girls such as Kathleen Hanna and Allison Wolfe, both prominent figures in the revolution, and how they attempted to overthrow patriachy and end male-dominated culture. Both women started out small, but with big ideas. Both were the lead singers of revolutionary all-girl bands, and showed that girls can do everything boys can do and we don't deserve to be oppressed by men for and be told to "get back in the kitchen" or "go make a sandwich". Women don't have to fit into the stereotyped "housewife" or "full time mum" roles. Women can do anything and everything, from fighting wars to managing large corporations. Women must unite against the undeserved oppression shown to us by men.

4. A quote I found particularily important was "We are tired of begging for our rights from men in power. We are going to take power". I find this quote very important because it represents the anger women feel towards patriachy and the force that is needed to end it. I think that women DO need to take power for themselves because many women are being harrassed and abused on a daily basis by men, which is terrible, and needs to stop NOW.

5. I learned from this book that women's revolutions and feminism is an important part of our history and present. Although there have been some laws put in place to benefit women since the Riot Grrrl revolution in the 90s, there is still a lot of work to be done to ensure equality among women and men. ...more

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Feb 20, 2015 Julie Ehlers rated it really liked it

Shelves: the-1990s, feminism-and-gender, books-about-creativity, music, famous-people

Reading Girls to the Front made me realize how little I really know about riot grrrl. In my defense, during the years portrayed in this book, I was attending a suburban Catholic university with a conservative administration and a mostly conservative student body. The fact that I read Gloria Steinem and listened to Tori Amos made me more radical than about 97 percent of the people there. So really, most of what I know about riot grrrl I learned from Sassy magazine.

For this reason, I found this ...more

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Dec 03, 2012 Ananda rated it it was ok

You would think that the author of any "true" story would not cherry-pick the truth, but that is exactly what Sara Marcus did. As a contributor to her research and analysis for the book, and as a character in the story, I was surprised later (despite rounds of corrections) to see the extent to which she went on to simply ignore my first-person accounts and instead, filter them through what she apparently believed was true or was easier for her to write. Painful, sometimes traumatic, personal ...more

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Nov 29, 2010 Kate rated it liked it

Shelves: nonfiction, music

"Every Girl is a Riot Grrrl."

Was the message of this book that I could relate to. I graduated from high school in 1999 in a very small town in upstate New York. My cousin Jeff, who was 3 years older than me, introduced me to hardcore punk rock and skating music, and I gobbled it up. I loved the energy of the mosh pit, the political rants, plus, I could throw elbows and slam dance with the best of them. However, after one particularly rough show, I ended up with some broken toes and that's when I ...more

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May 11, 2016 Amy rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2016

I wanted to like this because it sounded interesting – feminism, the 90s, awesome girl bands, youths! – but the book dragged on and on as if to fully capture the painful experience of the riot grrrl's inexorable decline.

Still, because I love reading about strong, independent females creating art, speaking up, and taking action, I was going to give it three stars, even though the writing was subpar:

"Sure, she wouldn't mind getting somewhere with her art. The guys she hung out with in Seattle, ...more

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May 05, 2017 Milli rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2017

I admit, I'm a millennial (born in '88), and I tend to look back on the 90s with nostalgia... especially events or trends in the early '90s that I don't quite remember. Riot grrrl and the wave of grunge-punk rock that came out of the PNW is one of those things. Especially being a girl who enjoys going to rock shows, has had more than one 'bow to the face or gotten mowed over standing next to increasingly violent pits, I appreciated the riot grrrl movement and what they stood for all those years I admit, I'm a millennial (born in '88), and I tend to look back on the 90s with nostalgia... especially events or trends in the early '90s that I don't quite remember. Riot grrrl and the wave of grunge-punk rock that came out of the PNW is one of those things. Especially being a girl who enjoys going to rock shows, has had more than one 'bow to the face or gotten mowed over standing next to increasingly violent pits, I appreciated the riot grrrl movement and what they stood for all those years ago.

But sometimes we need to take off those rose-colored glasses. When I first started this book, I was worried it would just be a nostaglia-laden memoir of the movement that elevated these grrrls to goddess-like status. But as the book went on, I realized I was wrong.

First off, I never realized that the riot grrrl movement was 'over' almost as quickly as it had begun. The movement never gained that much traction, with only a few chapters and members dispersed among the coasts, with were continually disrupted by people moving or going away to school. Sara Marcus describes how quickly the movement seemed to fracture, just by the logistics of communication.

Secondly, I never really understood 'zine culture. I'm fascinated by it. I wish there was an insert of images within the book to show some of these 'zines because the DIY aspect of pre-Internet printing and distribution is just amazing.

Thirdly, I am impressed and grateful that Marcus did not shy away from the fact that riot grrrl was not a perfect movement - it wasn't always inclusive or supportive and in many ways was gentrified. It kept people out and tried to internally (and greedily) retain this image and aura of riot grrrl rather than spreading the message beyond their underground circle. Girls would write on their naked bodies "EVERY GIRL IS A RIOT GRRRL" but then get angry at girls who granted interviews to magazines, claiming "SHES NOT A REAL RIOT GRRRL." It was hypocrisy and paranoia of appropriation that drove riot grrrl out of the spotlight.

But Marcus leaves us with the question: even though riot grrrl was a short-lived movement, is it really dead? Did it ever really die? Some of the powerful messages of the RIOT GRRRL movement are still being fought for today (i.e. women's right choose, support of women's healthcare, stronger voices against sexual assault) so it has continued to some extent.

Overall, I am impressed with this book. It had a good balance of sympathy and critique. If you're interested in feminist movement or underground subcultures of the '90s, I would recommend it.

...more

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Mar 07, 2011 Krista Danis rated it it was amazing

Love. Sarah Marcus illuminates the Riot Girl movement as an undefinable subculture of young women that were unsatisfied with cultural and subcultural power hierarchies that cultivate and accomodate violence against women. Picking what they wanted from second wave feminist theory and leaving the rest, Riot Girls insisted that the personal is the political. "If you're angry or confused or depressed about things that are totally unfair, is it really your reaction that's the problem?" queries ...more

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Jul 27, 2011 Marie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: history-love, feminism, bios-memoirs

This is a good introductory book to use if you are teaching Intro to Women's Studies or a class focusing on the Third Wave of Feminism. Overall, this book was very detailed and thankfully didn't put the emphasis that the Riot Grrl movement was created/maintained by one person. The author makes SURE that we realize and understand that it took a combination of women's efforts that made Riot Grrl what it was. The history of Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, the writings on skin, the popularity of the zines, ...more

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Jan 13, 2011 nicole rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2011

It was much harder for me to connect with this book than I thought it would be. I always thought I had something in connection with this group of women who were into music and political change. I grew up reading Sassy, even though I was much younger than the intended demographic, and listened to Tori Amos and wrote a journal cataloging my motions and injustices suffered. But my definition of being a feminist is so far removed from their experience that it sort of took my breath away. It actually It was much harder for me to connect with this book than I thought it would be. I always thought I had something in connection with this group of women who were into music and political change. I grew up reading Sassy, even though I was much younger than the intended demographic, and listened to Tori Amos and wrote a journal cataloging my motions and injustices suffered. But my definition of being a feminist is so far removed from their experience that it sort of took my breath away. It actually made me question whether I had ever been one at all.

I grew up in a time of Title IX, playing soccer with equal field time, funding and town support as the boys' team had. I attended workshop after workshop dedicated to promoting women in the maths and sciences as a Girl Scout. With musical education properly funded in public education, it never occurred to me that I might not be able to one day be in a band because of my genetic makeup. I took co-ed karate classes, on days when I wasn't taking dance lessons. I attended an all-women's college within a larger co-ed university. I have only had women bosses. I have always had strong female role models from all walks of life.

I was never, ever told that I couldn't do something because of my gender. I could wear a dress or pants, cut my hair long or short, get weekly pedicures or not -- none of that changed who I am on the inside. I did well in school, always spoke my mind, had places where I felt that I belonged and pursued any opportunity I could to get myself to the points I wanted to be in my life. I was raised to believe I could have it all, not because of what gender I was, but because making the best of your time here on this world was what mattered most of all.

Am I a feminist? Yes. I believe in equal opportunities for women, be it political, economic or social. I believe in a woman's right to choose, whether that is in relation to her biological, sexual, educational, or occupational parts of life. But I don't let this world anger me the way the Riot Grrls did. At heart, I'm not just a feminist - I'm a humanist. I believe in the power of the human experience, that focusing on service and action can bring positive change to an environment. I believe in the power of people, for good or for bad, regardless of the arrangement of their race, class, creed and gender.

I couldn't believe the petty inclusiveness of this scene. Granted, I'd read enough books on the rise and fall of other scenes and participated in enough basement band shows to know the score. I was surprised by the preoccupation with totalitarian control of image -- taking it back the control from corporations and media, only to keep it locked up in regional meetings due to an aversion to the inevitable media spotlight. As a teenager, I'd alway sort of yearned for having had the opportunity to participate in this larger cultural phenomenon, but after reading this, I'm glad I grew up in the time that I did.

And if there were to be a second coming of girl revolution, I know the woman I'd want to lead it.

Leslie Knope.

Why? Let me break it down for you. A revolution is not dying your hair, standing with linked arms in the front of shows, creating different rules of conduct for different genders, writing your personal thoughts and feelings on paper for a public forum and then getting angry when major news outlets reprint it. It's not dancing at strip clubs when you say you're deconstructing the system or wearing girly barrettes in your late teens or starting a DIY band.

The real revolution is this -- earnestness.

Anger can get you so far, but the ability to wake up every morning and do the best you can to fight for what you believe in, as a calm, cool, collected professional who gets results, is never given the credit it deserves. ...more

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Jul 11, 2012 Christopher rated it really liked it

Cool Schmool.

Sara Marcus lavishes as much attention on the zine writers as much as Kathleen Hanna or the members of Bratmobile (whose on-stage demise feels utterly heartbreaking), as well she should. I happened to read this the same week Daniel Tosh suggested that it would be hilarious if a female heckler in his audience would get gang raped by his very male, very macho audience, and so I got to read women explain, AGAIN, to men how real a threat rape is to their lives, how constricting that Cool Schmool.

Sara Marcus lavishes as much attention on the zine writers as much as Kathleen Hanna or the members of Bratmobile (whose on-stage demise feels utterly heartbreaking), as well she should. I happened to read this the same week Daniel Tosh suggested that it would be hilarious if a female heckler in his audience would get gang raped by his very male, very macho audience, and so I got to read women explain, AGAIN, to men how real a threat rape is to their lives, how constricting that could be. Surely things have "come a long way" in punk or indie rock, I guess, in the sense that women are being featured more often on stage and in print. But during a war to defund Planed Parenthood and trans-"V" ultrasounds, the Komen for the Cure fiasco, and eighteen years of ultra-conservative, misogynist national politics, it feels like the everyday realities these grrrls faced - the very fact of their femininity making targets of them in the larger world - is much more pressing than the Excuse 17 - Wild Flag lineage.

Marcus walks a severe tightrope in the books final pages, where infighting, pointless arguments and exhaustion join male leering and abuse in dissolving the grrrls hard-won unity, but it struck a nerve in this cis dude for a variety of reasons, most of them having to do with Olympia. At every turn I was reminded by all the things I loved about the place (THE SHOWS HAPPENING IN BASEMENTS! THE SERIOUS CONVERSATIONS! PEOPLE MAKING THINGS HAPPEN ON THEIR OWN AND LIVING LIKE THEY HAD CONTROL OVER THEIR LIVES!) and all the things I didn't (THE CLIQUEYNESS! THE I'M-MORE-RADICAL-THAN-YOU PURITY TESTS! THE HUMORLESSNESS!). There were so many times I wanted to shout at the principal arguers "OH MY GOD IT WAS BECAUSE YOU WERE TWENTY THREE! I KNOW, I'VE BEEN TWENTY THREE, NOTHING MADE ANY SENSE! YOU'RE BOTH ON THE SAME SIDE! QUIT ARGUING ABOUT HOW SOMETHING IS SPELLED!"

That been said, there's a larger conversation to be had nibbling at the heels of this book, which is what, exactly, were the results of the media attention and subsequent blackout? Does Riot Grrrl have a hold on the national conscious because it was such a great idea, the way to fuse punk with feminist concerns into something that made more sense to the kids of the nineties (a lot of the Riot Grrrl meetings reminded this author of the "rap sessions" read about in other books, zinemaking be damned) and because Bikini Kill were so good? Or was it just because they had an arresting look and played loud rock n' roll and Kurt Cobain dated one of them and so Spin covered them? A lot of the satellite groups formed as a result of the dreaded Spin and Newsweek articles, after all, and it was the old guard, themselves not more than five or six years older, that couldn't be bothered. I certainly don't have an answer for that.

Also, it was relieving to learn that Jessica Hopper was an insufferable shithead in high school, too. ...more

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Dec 26, 2010 Meg rated it really liked it

Shelves: history, social-justice, feminism-gender

3.5 stars. I really enjoyed this book and it made me reflect a lot on my own adolescence (just a tiny bit too late to be part of the Riot Grrl movement) as well as on youth and social movements in general. The author did really exhaustive research through interviews, video footage, zines, letters, and mainstream media coverage. She does a great job connecting the Riot Grrl movement with what was happening on the larger political and social scenes, which really puts the story in context. She also 3.5 stars. I really enjoyed this book and it made me reflect a lot on my own adolescence (just a tiny bit too late to be part of the Riot Grrl movement) as well as on youth and social movements in general. The author did really exhaustive research through interviews, video footage, zines, letters, and mainstream media coverage. She does a great job connecting the Riot Grrl movement with what was happening on the larger political and social scenes, which really puts the story in context. She also describes her personal investment in the topic (her own participation in the scene), which I appreciated. And I liked her emphasis (throughout the book) on what the movement was really supposed to be about: empowering women and girls to resist the limited options offered to them. Reading this re-connected me with some parts of my feminism that I haven't paid as much attention to lately. Thanks!

My main problem with the book was that I dislike the narrative voice she used (a kind of omniscient narrator) when it comes to describing people's inner experiences. It's a journalistic pet peeve of mine. It seems to me that the individual voices get lost in this style of narrative, since we're never sure how much was directly said by the person and how much is the author's interpretation. I really would have preferred more lengthy direct quotations, even if they included a lot of "um"s and "you know"s. At times the author went over the top in trying to give amazing descriptions of people's internal experience, where it would have been more powerful spoken directly in the person's voice. Example: "A layer of Molly's self-hatred burned off, and its charred remains drifted out the car window." (p. 181). Did Molly actually say that? Cause if she did, you should just quote her.

Occasionally the book got too bogged down in the day-to-day lives and petty in-fighting that happened. It's a fine line to walk, for sure - a lot of the details are important from a writing perspective to give us the flavor of the story, and important from a political/historical perspective to help us understand the movement. Still, sometimes there was just a little too much information about what the weather was like or who ate whose tofu without permission.

As a side note, what's up with the several random snarky digs at L7? They were a totally awesome and feminist band! ...more

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Jul 15, 2010 Jessica Silk rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: punks, feminists

I would say that my experience of reading the book made me love it the most. It felt like reading one of those books about seminal punk and/or hardcore bands--except that I could actually identify with the key players! I had that "introduction to zines" feeling where I felt giddy reading about the similar experiences and processes of strangers.

While the beginning of the book seemed like mostly cheerleading Kathleen Hanna and the Riot Grrrl movement, Marcus covers many of the negative aspects of ...more

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Aug 28, 2011 Meagan rated it it was amazing

I was pretty much the right age for this when it was happening, but I was a weirdo in a small Southern town and my favorite bands in the early 90s were REM, the Indigo Girls, and Sly and the Family Stone. Never really got closer to riot grrl than my Sassy Magazine subscription, my Doc Martens, and my Hole tape playing on the white plastic boombox in the bathroom while I straightened my hair every morning before going to school until I finally got fed up and decided that if people didn't like my ...more

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Jun 28, 2010 Erica added it

Very much recommended to anyone who wants to know more about riot grrl or anyone who likes reading about grassroots movements or anyone who enjoys books like Our Band Could Be Your Life. OBCBYL is the obvious comp here, but whereas that was about individual bands, in Girls to the Front Marcus examines the riot grrl movement as a whole, concentrating on individual girls participating as well as those in well-known bands like Bikini Kill and Bratmobile, so there's a lot of non-music stuff in here ...more

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Sep 06, 2011 Deborah rated it liked it

I was born a few years too late and hundreds of miles too far away to have been involved in Riot Grrrl, but I do remember reading about Bikini Kill and Bratmobile and zines in Sassy magazine. I didn't really understand Riot Grrrl when it was happening, or even years later, although I do have a few Sleater-Kinney tunes in rotation on my iPod. This book confirms that Riot Grrrl was a pretty messy, convoluted movement, but with sincere intentions. I liked reading about the start of it all. Part of ...more

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Nov 30, 2014 Jessica T. rated it liked it

Shelves: nonfiction, mytragic-strongladdies

I'm extremely conflicted. This is a great book if you're looking for information about the riot grrrl phenomenon that happened in the early 90s... It's very informative (blah blah blah). I had issues with the dogma. I understand what most of us have gone through and/or are dealing with (rape, molestation, sexual harassment, body image) but by alienating males that are sympathetic to the cause you end up acting just like your abusers. Also, why wouldn't you try to use the media to get a broader ...more

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Apr 30, 2016 Sónia rated it really liked it

Even though this took me too much time, I'm so glad I've read this.

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Jul 27, 2011 Jayne Lamb rated it it was amazing

Shelves: feminism, gen-x, autobiography-sex-drugs-music, female-musicians

Perfect moment in time.

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Jan 20, 2016 Ryan rated it liked it

Shelves: 2016, borrowed

Some inspiring moments, some disparaging moments, not enough music talk for my tastes. All at once a look at how much has changed in 25 years, and how very much still needs to be done.

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Jan 15, 2011 Kristina rated it really liked it

It’s pretty rare for me to read an entire nonfiction history from front to back, but I had to read this book. The topic is close to my heart, and there has not been much written to document the Riot Grrl movement, which continues (in my opinion) to be under-rated and dismissed.

Reading this took me back. I never considered myself a riot grrl (frankly, I never considered myself cool enough), but the music and zines were absolutely vital to my development as feminist. Marcus’s book really captures It’s pretty rare for me to read an entire nonfiction history from front to back, but I had to read this book. The topic is close to my heart, and there has not been much written to document the Riot Grrl movement, which continues (in my opinion) to be under-rated and dismissed.

Reading this took me back. I never considered myself a riot grrl (frankly, I never considered myself cool enough), but the music and zines were absolutely vital to my development as feminist. Marcus’s book really captures the spirit of that moment in time – both in terms of capturing the early 90s as a time (perhaps the last time) of exciting, palpable feminist potential, and in terms of capturing (sometimes to the point of hilarity) what it’s like to be a 16-23 year-old girl. In fact, oddly enough, at first it’s the latter trait that was the only thing I didn’t like about the book; Marcus writes in this kind of breathless, youthful voice that is appropriate for the topic but which I worry might contribute to the idea that this is not something to take seriously. Eventually, though, I became accustomed to the voice she was using, and it certainly made for a quick but still very thought-provoking read.

One thing I really appreciate about the book is that it focused on the feminism of the movement. I went into it eager to read about my favorite bands and instead became much more interested in the consciousness-raising aspect. I actually had no idea there were riot grrl meetings and conventions! Despite the disastrous nature of much of that (especially the conventions), I am really impressed with the energy and passion and commitment of these young women to organize themselves and others to that extent.

Another thing I liked a lot about the book was how it chronicled the disintegration of the movement, which raised many provocative questions. If you hadn’t noticed, the book is very specific historically – it only covers the time period of 1989 through 1994, with the bulk of the book focused on 1992-1993. Marcus does not really talk about the way feminist music changed after that specific moment in time (for instance, she writes about Bikini Kill but not Kathleen Hanna’s later band Le Tigre, and Heavens to Betsy but not Corin Tucker’s later band (my all time favorite), Sleater-Kinney). While it might have been nice to have some mention of what happened post-riot grrl, I liked the specificity because it allowed for a focus on the major ideals and problems of the movement. Other goodreads reviews have mentioned they would have liked to hear more about the racism and classicism within the movement (which, of course, have been and continue to be major issues for feminism); in particular, I think that while it’s admirable that Marcus discussed immature reactions many of the girls had to confrontations about their own privilege (the descriptions of the convention sessions in particular will probably be painfully familiar to anyone who’s tried to have a conversation about privilege with high school or college age kids, particularly white ones), I still think she could have spent more time with some of the actual young women who were really critiquing the lack of attention paid to race by the movement. But what I found really compelling was a conflict at the heart of what Marcus paints as the death of the movement: do we make this an insular, private, and ostensibly “safe” group in which the members understand and support each other (and discuss very personal experiences), or do we risk potential misunderstanding by trying to explain ourselves to others and publicize our ideas? The former position intends to maintain the integrity of the group, but it does not allow for inclusion and diversity, or even of reaching out to others whose lives could be transformed by the ideas (interestingly, Marcus herself found out about the movement as a teen by reading a Newsweek article that is presented in the book as being disastrously inaccurate). The latter position allows for that potential transformation, but obviously opens this very personal movement up to misinterpretation and dismissal and disrespect. I found this conflict, and the ideas behind it, deeply compelling.
...more

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Mar 19, 2013 Than rated it really liked it

I hadn't thought about Riot Grrl much in years, but reading this book I was reminded how much I loved the whole subculture that sprang up around Riot Grrl in the early 90's and how much impact that scene has on my politics for many years. I moved to DC in late 1992, drawn by the energy and potential of the DC punk scene. Soon enough it became apparent that what defined the scene in a lot of ways was the Riot Grrl movement and the reactions to it - even people who had a long and interesting I hadn't thought about Riot Grrl much in years, but reading this book I was reminded how much I loved the whole subculture that sprang up around Riot Grrl in the early 90's and how much impact that scene has on my politics for many years. I moved to DC in late 1992, drawn by the energy and potential of the DC punk scene. Soon enough it became apparent that what defined the scene in a lot of ways was the Riot Grrl movement and the reactions to it - even people who had a long and interesting history of their own already got a clear chance to prove themselves all over again by responding well, or disgrace themselves by not responding well, to this new energy.

Like most intense movements, Riot Grrl burnt out the people around it nearly as much as it burnt out its participants, and for years afterwards, I found myself consciously defining myself against what I felt were Riot Grrl's shortcomings as a movement, as much as I knew I was influenced by it.

I spent years afterward looking for some kind of political work that felt more empowering to be a part of, and more effective, than the endless cycle of calling people out on their privilege and getting called out on your own privilege that characterized what remained of the Riot Grrl energy by the time I found it.

But at the same time, I spent years looking to recapture the feeling of hope I got out of it - that feeling that your subculture actually mattered in the world. That if you put enough thought into making every aspect of your appearance and music and writing and presentation articulate your outrage and your critique, a community of like-minded people would crystallize to back you up.

That's what Bikini Kill did, and its the most instructive I can think to draw from Riot Grrl. How a real movement that had a huge influence on American cultural politics was born from a few bands and zines, a style and an attitude, and a few people who weren't afraid to be a lightning rod for all the women-hating, youth-fearing attacks of everyone from the mainstream press to the music industry bigshots to the boys in the scene. Its almost not an exaggeration that Bikini Kill were the reality of the hip kids revolution that Nation of Ulysses promised in their preaching, and I think exploring that reality is one of the most interesting parts of this book.

When I first picked up this book, I flipped to the end to read the painful and embarrassing denouement, much of which described meetings I was at or conflicts I lived upstairs from. Some of those recriminations were even more painful and embarassing to read about 20 years on than they were to live through in the heat of the moment.

Then I flipped to the beginning to cheer myself up. I still wasn't impressed. "How it began" stories are a dime a dozen - everyone has stories of when they were young and ready to change the world - and I wasn't especially impressed with the writing style. There were so many amazingly intense writers involved with the Riot Grrl scene that anyone writing about it in retrospect is doomed to fall short of the reality.

But reading on, the stories that were teased out of diverse histories drew me in more and more, and I found myself tearing up several times. Sara Marcus might not be as visceral a writer as most of the zines that came out of the scene around Riot Grrl, but she has this ability for drawing subtle insights out of descriptions that struck me several times. And the story is inspiring enough to get hooked on for more than nostalgic reasons.

I have no idea if the author is related to Greil Marcus or not, but the only book I could think of to compare this to was Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the Twentieth Century. That's saying something good.
...more

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Jan 10, 2011 Ami rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2011

It's basically completely unfair for me to pretend that my five star rating of Girls to the Front would translate to reading pleasure for anyone--it's completely rooted in my obsession with the riot grrrl movement and my complete and total disappointment for having missed the whole thing in my dumb suburban town. So please take this with a grain of salt.

A main takeaway for me is this dichotomy between the desire for privacy and the desire to connect with and create for a specific audience. It's basically completely unfair for me to pretend that my five star rating of Girls to the Front would translate to reading pleasure for anyone--it's completely rooted in my obsession with the riot grrrl movement and my complete and total disappointment for having missed the whole thing in my dumb suburban town. So please take this with a grain of salt.

A main takeaway for me is this dichotomy between the desire for privacy and the desire to connect with and create for a specific audience. Kathleen Hanna obviously gets a big chunk of the book, and one interesting theory from the book is that as the movement she created began to expand, Hanna had to take a smaller and smaller role. Part of this is self-inflicted: Hanna didn't want to speak for everyone in the movement and also wanted riot grrrl to be adaptable, accepting the idea that what a women in NYC needed might be different from one in Kentucky. Part of it is just the nature of fame and celebrity--haters gonna hate, and the more members participating in the movement, unfortunately the more negative comments there were. If a main tenant of riot grrrl is to share your experiences as openly as possible, what does it mean when the movement's creator doesn't have a safe space to share it?

It may seem ridiculous to some people, but there was an expectation of privacy on the part of the creators of these zines. Not all--I'm sure some people felt comfortable reaching as wide an audience as possible--but for many ladies these writings were confessional, stream of consciousness kinda stuff, intended for friends and pen pals and maybe some strangers met at riot grrrl events. But the truth is, these zines were printed and most anyone could figure out a way to read them. The difference between writing something in a zine and getting it excerpted in Newsday magazine is huge.

Of course, my brain goes immediately to blogs and Twitter streams. There's less/no expectation of privacy with these online outlets, or at least I hope not, but I can understand again the desire to have a space where you're speaking solely to your friends.

Is there a way to create this in the digital age, a digital zine with a limited distribution? Does that defeat the purpose of online? What is the value of privacy in your writings? What would you say if you knew that your writings were intended to be viewed just by your friends? In writing that and thinking about the limitations I impose on myself in my own online writing, I can feel what has been lost, and by extension, how powerful the writing of these early zines must have felt.

...more

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Sep 16, 2010 Amy rated it really liked it

I missed out on Riot Grrrl by *thismuch* -- though I was a junior in college in 1991 and would have been ripe for the picking, zines and girl-punk didn't make it to Kalamazoo right away, apparently. I found my way to it a couple years after most of the cool stuff happened, when I moved to Chicago in 1994 and started going to Quimby's and Women & Children First, where I bought the very first issue of Bitch and a 7" of "There's a Dyke in the Pit."

I joined Women's Action Coalition, performed I missed out on Riot Grrrl by *thismuch* -- though I was a junior in college in 1991 and would have been ripe for the picking, zines and girl-punk didn't make it to Kalamazoo right away, apparently. I found my way to it a couple years after most of the cool stuff happened, when I moved to Chicago in 1994 and started going to Quimby's and Women & Children First, where I bought the very first issue of Bitch and a 7" of "There's a Dyke in the Pit."

I joined Women's Action Coalition, performed with the WAC Drum Core, participated in street-theater-style protests (like a queer kiss-in outside a Promise Keepers rally at Soldier Field and an anti-sweatshop sew-in on the Mag Mile), danced in the pit at a Team Dresch show, and tried to live my feminist life with integrity and all that jazz.

But it wears you down, man. And the implosion of Riot Grrrl as described in this book -- the revolution spreading quickly before breaking down in a heap of hidden agendas, purity tests, media misrepresentation, and bitter tears -- mirrored my experience with WAC, my college women's group, my high school peace activist group, and basically every organization or cause I've been involved with. It's why I don't "join" anymore. Really, why do we do this to ourselves and each other?

The book doesn't actually answer that question. But it does give a mostly complete, you-are-there experience of the evolution of Riot Grrrl from the murky musical swamps of Olympia and DC. Sara Marcus provides a detailed and affectionate account of who started which zine and who played in which band and even gets a crusty DC punk to go all misty-eyed about his missing the first Bikini Kill show there almost two decades earlier.

She also puts the movement into its proper historical context in a way I haven't seen in other books about the era. Riot Grrrl rose up at the tail end of the Bush I era and reached its peak during the 1992 election season, when girls' bodies and behavior were the focus of a "culture war" waged by crappy old men, but girls' voices were almost entirely absent from the debate. It wasn't just about wearing baby barrettes and writing "SLUT" on your belly!

So, yeah. Good book. ...more

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Sep 28, 2010 Rachel Kramer Bussel rated it it was amazing

Girls to the Front is an excellent history of a very specific time period that gets covers punk rock, feminism, media, politics and teenage girls and where they intersected to form Riot Grrrl. I only heard about Riot Grrrl and the associated bands long after they were over, and so often in the context of how it fell apart. Sara Marcus takes readers into the story from both a very personal perspective, letting us get to know not only the band members but the girls who got involved on a very ...more

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