Pretty in Punk: Girl's Gender Resistance in a Boy's Subculture

by Lauraine Leblanc

Pretty in Punk combines autobiography, interviews, and sophisticated analysis to create the first insider’s examination of the ways punk girls resist gender roles and create strong identities. Why would an articulate, intelligent, thoughtful young women shave off most of her hair, dye the remainder green, shape it into a mohawk, and glue it onto her head? What attracts girls to male-dominated youth subcultures like the punk movement? What role does the subculture play in their perceptions of themselves, and in their self-esteem? How do girls reconcile a subcultural identity that is deliberately coded “masculine” with the demands of femininity? Research has focused on the ways media and cultural messages victimize young women, but little attention has been paid to the ways they resist these messages. In Pretty in Punk, Lauraine Leblanc examines what happens when girls ignore these cultural messages, parody ideas of beauty, and refuse to play the games of teenage femininity. She explores the origins and development of the punk subculture, the processes by which girls decide to “go punk,” patterns of resistance to gender norms, and tactics girls use to deal with violence and harassment. Pretty in Punk takes readers into the lives of girls living on the margins of contemporary culture. Drawing on interviews with 40 girls and women between the ages of 14-37, Leblanc examines the lives of her subjects, illuminating their forms of rebellion and survival. Pretty in Punk lets readers hear the voices of these women as they describe the ways their  constructions of femininity—from black lipstick to slamdancing—allow them to reject damaging cultural messages and build strong identities. The price they pay for resisting femininity can be steep—girls tell of parental rejection, school expulsion, institutionalization,  and harassment. Leblanc illuminates punk girls’ resistance to adversity, their triumphs over tough challenges, and their work to create individual identities in a masculine world.

Genres: Music, Feminism, Nonfiction, Punk, Gender, Sociology, History

304 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1999

Reviews

[Ari · Rating 2 out of 5]

coming from a anarcha-punk perspective:
this book did nothing for me. it basically highlighted the most nihilistic people in punk that yell at you when you dont give them change, beat their dogs, come to your benefit shows and refuse to pay, get really wasted and wreck your house, then overextend their stay.

this book was really disheartening and i felt like silences the women who do shit in punk outside of college acedemia upper middle class riot grrls or skumfuck gutter punks. these other women do amazing shit like cook food not bombs, set up and help run show spaces, book bands, play in bands, set up childcare co-ops, run community gardens/food not lawns, start health collectives, make zines, run zine distros, fix up squats, set up rock camps or zine workshops for younger girls, organize punk fests, set up greywater systems, start collectives dealing with situations of abuse and rape in the scene, etc.

i feel like people who have a basic knowledge of punk or no nothing about it will pick up this book and get this stereotype of all women in punk being a coathanger, girlfriend, or skeezy heron addict. it completely discredits all the women who are actively trying to dismantle patriarchy/capitalism in the punk scene. you are much better off reading any feminist zine than this book.

[Gaelyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think i had high expectations for this book, and so i was let down. I dont feel that Leblanc came to any conclusions or made any summaries of her own. Everything i read in this book I already knew from my own involvement in the punk scene. I think i could have written a much more interesting book had i just interviewed my girlfriends, and they would have been much more well spoken, and portrayed punks in a better light...

[Anna Graizbord · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dissappointing. Not enough theory or analysis.

[Alyx · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the few sociological texts that considers girls' involvement with punk, and how it effects their social lives, interactions with authority, peer and familial relationships, and professional ambitions. Most importantly, it challenges the supposedly egalitarian gender and sex politics of punk, delving into how boys and men in this scene could be just as exclusionary, sexist, misogynistic, and regressive as any other music scene, yet makes you really root for these tough, smart, courageous girls.

[Scampi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Except for trying to make herself seem uber cool, tyhis is a really good book. I realized very quickly, however, that the point of the book seemed more to revolve around the author, rather than the actual points of the subculture.

[Stay Fetters · Rating 4 out of 5]

Badass punk girls are taking over the world.
While reading this, I realized I share the same ideas and views of these girls. Now, I want a Mohawk.

[Gabrielle (Reading Rampage) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many mixed feelings.

I am glad the subject gathered enough interest for an actual book to be published. Yeah!
The research done is really superficial and it’s not really analysed: what we get is mostly the author’s point of view. Booh!
The testimonies were very interesting and illustrated the many issues with being the female minority in a generally male-dominated subculture. Yeah!
The sampling of testimonies was really localized and not diverse enough to feel representative. Booh!
It’s interesting to think of the stylistic elements favored by girl punks as subversive of traditional beauty standards and as an act of resistance towards traditional femininity. I had never thought of it before reading this and yet it makes so much sense. Yeah!
It makes the punk scene seem super apathetic and nihilistic, completely ignoring the parts of the scene that are very active socially and politically. Booh!

The book feels dated: 1999 is a long time ago now, and the scene has changed, women’s role in the scene have changed, the conversation about gender has changed… I wish an updated, better researched version of this was available because the subject matter is really interesting, and looking at it from a sociology perspective is fascinating. The first time I read it, I was thrilled, and felt I could relate to some of the women interviewed. If I flip through it now, I mostly frown and think “wow, this is not the world we live in anymore”. Punk and grunge and their awesome female players such as Poison Ivy and Shirley Manson have been replaced by over sexualized pop stars. A studded collar and combat boots on a girl doesn’t really have the same impact now it used to have then.

“Pretty in Punk” is an interesting read that I regret to say is now mostly historical.

[Reñay · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book assumes that punk rock is male. Repeatedly, starting with the title, the words boys' subculture are teamed up with boy-words like masculine, man, boy, macho etc. etc. There is the possiblity that punk rock is not rooted in the male gender, but that the author made this assumption because of her own personal punk rock experiences--obviously she is extremely aware of being a female.

By the time the author wrote this book in 1999, the punk culture had solidified itself as a genre with sub-genres somewhere within the mainsteam of acceptable lifestyle/fashion/music choices available to youth. By 1999, punk was very safe. By 1989, punk was starting to be safe. But in 1979, being punk would get your ass kicked. Obviously, there were and are boys' clubs in punk. So what?

Girls/women crash into punk boys' clubs the same way they have always crashed into any so-called "boys' club"--by being punk.

[Shant · Rating 3 out of 5]

More of a 3.5 but I spent too long on this book nnn. It's pretty good for sociology but there were too many times I read this where I was like 'Some people have war in their countries'. I side eyed how people were too casual with skinhead affiliations but I'm glad that the author pointed out the inner subculture sexism.

[D'arcy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting topic that deserves many writings on the subject, and this is perhaps one of the most well-known outside of avid zine readers. It comes across as more the author's point of view, and then finding data and theory to back this up, this is what I call bad research (though it is what most academics [heck, even I've done it] do). The better understanding to your study is to first collect data, use one or more theoretical frameworks to interpret the data, and then state a conclusion. There are many interesting bits in here, but again, her personal opinion of how gender operates in punk is quite one-sided and she does little to showcase all of the amazing gals who do more than just participate or feel alienated from the punk scene, but those who have helped shape its musical and political diversity. Worth checking out as a spring-board to the subject, but there are better (though, maybe not as academic) works out there.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

this book ended up being very useful to me in college as i wrote a lot of papers about subjects where it could be referenced. at the time there wasn't a lot of material on the subject and people were only begining to use the internet as a research tool (yes 10 years ago the academic search engines we use every day were still being developed).

that being said, it's not that great of a book. It's pretty boring even considering how interested i was in the subject at the time but I did get a lot of use out of it. there is so much more that you can read now. i don't even think that this is in print anymore. on a side note, I always got a kick out of the fact that it was published by the school I graduated from haha

[Petty Lisbon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was decent. I thought it would include more about pop culture but I'm glad it didn't. It talked about why people are drawn to counterculture and how for women, the punk scene can just imitate the real world for gender roles with scummy men. It reminded me a lot of Teenage Wasteland: Suburbia's Dead End Kids for the working class teens who are interested in rock music bits. It's not really groundbreaking and Leblanc kind of relied too much on just pasting interviews, but she was completely upfront about the format of the book.

[Bill · Rating 2 out of 5]

Given that the subject matter is right up my alley, I didn't enjoy this as much as I anticipated. The writing style does not draw the reader in: it's both overly academic and lacks flow. However, I found the second half significantly more engaging than the first. My favorite chapter was "'I'll Slap on My Lipstick and Then Kick Their Ass': Constructing Femininity." It was definitely interesting research but not necessarily an enjoyable read.

[Jaz · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read if only for the fascinating, insightful interviews with the punk girls themselves; some of the conclusions reached by the author aren't actually supported by her research. If you do read this, skip over the potted history of punk in one of the early chapters because it's riddled with factual inaccuracies, e.g. Jordan danced on stage in the early days of the Sex Pistols, not Siouxsie Sioux as stated here.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first picked up this book just to read, and ended up doing a paper on it in college. The author looks at the female punk from the view of an ex-punk who was a sociologist. I enjoyed it at the time and found several parallels to my own life. I still own it and think that I should read it now that I'm a little older and to relive my youth.

[Allison Thurman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally! Someone talks to punk girls about what it's like to be female in that subculture. Take away points: punk women often use humor more successfully than aggression to deal with harassment (sexual and in general), and instead of fretting over teenage girls we should LISTEN to them!

8/26/2010 - loaned to D.

[catechism · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dated by now, and dry academic reading that can be rough without some background in sociology and feminist theory (I have the latter, but not the former), but there were flashes in there of... me, I guess. Can I say that without sounding like a douchebag? Bald women in combat boots, traipsing through life with foul language and an ironic grin. I can get behind that.

[Lani · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book, like the investigation into the gutter punk culture. Fairly dry reading, but enjoyable nonetheless. Worth reading for a girl who has run in the punk culture at some point or another.

[Lady · Rating 4 out of 5]

grrrl power.

[Jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book while looking for sources and ended up reading the thing cover-to-cover, couldn't put it down. Wish there was more on the topic.

[caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting, but not particularly informative, as i recall. though she made some solid arguments.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

So far this is an enjoyable read inspecting women's interaction with the patriarchal forces within punk, and outside of the subculture.

[Aubrie Layton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A part of Punk that is underlooked and under appreciated.

[Ainsley Thrasher · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book when I was 15 before I ran away from home. I really don't remember anything about it other than that. I do remember enjoying it though

[REO Bookwagon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read this a long time ago. Dry, but an interesting academic book.

[Aliza]

Great book exploring girls' resistance to gender roles. I recommend to others who love reading about subcultures structures

[Bridget Kennedy · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 (caveat, I'm reading this book 23 years after its publication)
It took me forever to read and often put me to sleep. It's a textbook for sure.
I did see how it's likely the basis for some pretty cool work that came after it. It's very of it's time and I think I missed the window in my life for it to be transformative or interesting.

[Miguel Fernandez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very white, a specific area of punk in that respect, remember this was published 2008. With that in mind, a great book when considering constructions of femininity within a male-dominated subculture. A stepping stone into more radical ethnographic works that we see today

[Shandi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did enjoy the subject matter and conclusions but honestly it was pretty boring for such a vibrant topic. The interview segments were the best part to me.

[Birdie · Rating 4 out of 5]

So far this is an enjoyable read inspecting women's interaction with the patriarchal forces within punk, and outside of the subculture.