The Nineties: Riot Grrrl

The Riot Grrrl community first surfaced in Washington D.C. in 1991. Its cause was to maintain a female positive environment in the punk scene when misogyny ran rampant. Kathleen Hanna, the poster child for riot grrrl and front woman of numerous bands, did not know what she was creating when she came up with the motto "Revolution Girl-Style Now!"

Firstly, Riot Grrrl is misspelled on purpose. It includes the passive-by-society "girl" and combines it with a growl of aggressiveness. It embraces the motivation and rulebook that the riot grrrl's live by-we can be feminine but we can still fight and scream for our rights that society has never given us.

A lot of musicians, fans and reporters have said that while riot grrrl got its fame in the nineties it was around a lot longer than that. Janis Joplin, Yoko Ono, and Grace Slick are among hundreds of famous female rock stars in the sixties. The eighties also had a huge resurgence of female singers which probably made it a pathway for the nineties riot grrrl.

The third wave of feminism really took off in the nineties thanks to riot grrrl. Women started expressing by spoken word, playing in a band, and making zines (homemade magazines). Charters were set-up across the world and the internet helped make feminists organized and friendly (compared to present day feminism which has lost its organization despite the internet).

Once organization was done they started having Ladyfests, zine fairs, and carnivals against racism, sexism and fascist beauty standards. They also funded workshops for and about zine production, rape, racism, self-defense, and eating disorders (which dramatically increased in the nineties among young female adults). Riot grrrl's were very community orientated and they had a positive message to send to the young women of society-even though some did not take it to well. Parents thought that the riot grrrls were far too radical to be telling their daughters to become equal but they never considered that maybe being radical is what it takes in a patriarchal society.

Even though the riot grrrl community is greatly against racism and follows the thought that everyone is equal there has been a problem. Riot grrrl seems to cater to middle-to-upper class white women and there is a lack of both minorities and men involved. There is a theory that white women are the most involved because it started out of the punk community which is also mostly white. Plus, riot grrrl spread by word of mouth at first and racial segregation made it difficult for minorities to get involved or even be informed of the movement.

However, by the mid-nineties, the mainstream media had latched onto riot grrrl and turned it into a cliché teenage stereotype. This discouraged a lot of women already involved in the community because they now had an image and was often put in a negative limelight. Also, minority women when the media portrayed it as a white woman group probably would distance themselves away from the movement. The males seem to just ignore the movement completely since it was not advertised in their magazines and was seen as a movement somewhat "kill off the men."

Around the same time clothing stores started selling T-shirts with the words "Riot GRRRLIE" and "Riot Grrrl" written across the bust and Cosmo and Seventeen had spreads dedicated to the fashion and music that they considered to be riot grrrl. Yet, there was another problem, while riot grrrl has its own genre of music all their own there was no set fashion. However, when the media made a fashion for them it became mass produced and women missing the point of feminism started saying they were riot grrrls. Plus, they started labeling less political female fronted bands like The Breeders and Hole as Riot Grrrl.

Kathleen Hanna called for a "press block" where no one would give interviews and the riot grrrls constantly hung up on reporters. Many reporters from huge newspapers like The Seattle Times, The Washington Post and The Houston Chronicle started writing articles about exactly how the girl's hung up on them to meet their article's deadline. It led to a lot more misconceptions and rumors but the riot grrrls were very pleased with themselves. The press block is attributed by many to the riot grrrl community dying out in the late nineties.

It should be obvious that the riot grrrl community was against mainstream advertising and journalism. They believed in self-revolutionizing with their own advertising and zines that they would give out for free or a small fee that would go towards publishing costs. Either way, having the mainstream media pick them up in the nineties was a major riot grrrl mistake.

Riot Grrrl also lived side by side with grunge and the two was often intertwined. Nirvana's "Smells like Teen Spirit" was inspired by a date with Tobi Vale, Bikini Kill's drummer. It was later said that Cobain regretted writing Teen Spirit after their breakup despite the fact that it shot him to stardom. Courtney Love, who was always considered more grunge than riot grrrl, had a vendetta against the movement because Cobain had dated so many riot grrrl members. A drugged up Courtney Love has even punched Kathleen Hanna after a show for many rumored different reasons which all seem to lead back to jealousy.

It's still alive today, surprisingly, even though its life is limited to few people. Bands such as Sleater-Kinney and Le Tigre are still around making music with a pro-woman stance and are very vocal with their opinions. Zine production has increased in the past few years thanks to the internet and people who set up mini-zine stores like Stranger Danger and Microcosm. Message boards have also been a huge help in connecting people worldwide who believe in the same ideas as the music they listen too. However, it probably will never shine like it did for that short time in the nineties.