Riot Grrrl: Revolution Girl Style Now!

by Nadine Monem (Editor)

Beginning in 1980s Washington State with the rallying cry of "revolution girl style now!" riot girl spread like wildfire through the American underground and across Europe, inspiring women to make a cultural space for themselves where there wasn't one before. Riot Grrrl; Revolution Girl Style Now! is a vivid account of the third wave told in the voices of those who propended the movement, including the experiences of the women and girls who refused to remain on the sidelines of cultural production, and through that refusal forever changed the face of feminist resistance.

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

189 pages, Paperback

First published November 20, 2007

Reviews

[Ciara · Rating 1 out of 5]

wow wow wow. this book was SO BAD! nadine monem, if you ever google yourself to see what people are saying about your editorial abilities, i advise you to turn away NOW! poor nadine was responsible for editing this book, but it looks like it never even had a rendezvous with spellcheck, let alone any kind of competent fact-checking & editorial content-shaping. this book was HORRIFIC. like a car crash. i wanted to turn away, but all i could do was keep reading, mouth agape, whilst my youthful feminism was stripmined & presented back to me full of inaccuracies & repetitive bullshit.

where to begin? well, how about with the $30 price tag? this is an import book, published by an arty british press on incredibly thick paper, & it's kind of a coffee table book in some ways, with full-color photos & reproductions aplenty, but still. if i'm going to drop $30 on a book, i expect a basic level of writing competence. in one chapter, a contributer writes about the fan newsletter kathleen hanna produced in 1996 when her fame was such that it out-stripped her ability to respond to all the letters she was receiving. she posed for the photograph made-up like an ironic movie star, complete with feather boa. the author refers to this as a "feather bower". seriously, what? they couldn't just give that a once-over to see if it made sense? what the hell?

the book is full of these kinds of errors. band names are spelled wrong (ie, the "spinnanes"). artist names are spelled wrong. zine names are wrong (ie, "might as well live" substitutes in the text for "you might as well live"--perhaps a petty quibble, but when a book purports to be any kind of definitive history of a movement, it behooves that book to get THE MOST BASIC FACTS STRAIGHT, & the zine name was correct in the footnotes, so this is just an example of text being approved with little oversight). one author claims that bikini kill broke up in 1996, another claims 1997. this is all sloppy & unprofessional! it was embarrassing, to be honest.

the first chapter purports (in its title) to examine the modern-day legacy of d.i.y. cultural feminism through the lens of the riot grrrl legacy...which didn't happen at all. instead, the chapter was a history of the origins of riot grrrl & its more famous cultural output, including the band bikini kill. i can appreicate a good origin story as much as the next guy, & i think a history of riot grrrl needs these stories for context, so i wouldn't have minded HAD THE CHAPTER BEEN NAMED APPROPRIATELY! as a modern-day feminist in 2009 who was tremendously influenced as a young teenager by the riot grrrl movement in the 90s, i would have been very curious & excited to see an essay on the modern influence of riot grrrl on contemporary feminism (even if i think there is a tremendous divide beteen "cultural" activism & actual political activism--allison wolfe is quoted at one point as saying, "i'm a cultural activist, not a political activist," which kind of made me puke), but that's not what this was at all. & let's be honest, the bikini kill origin story can be found in a lot of other places. plenty of books on the history of women & rock re-hash it, plenty of magazine artcles from 1992 go over it, it's not exactly new information.

the second chapter is pretty much exactly the same as the first, even quoting the same sources word for word, but it doesn't pretend to be about anything except music. that would be fine if it concentrated more on lesser known actual riot grrrl bands of the time (remember all the tiny little d.i.y. tape labels that popped up back then, like pass the buck & stuff? it would have been cool to see some stuff about them, or at least some acknowledgement of their significance), but instead, the author spills fifty pages of ink on bands that were maybe possibly remotely influenced by riot grrrl in some distant, insignificant way. what a waste!

i was excited for the third chapter, which was all about zines, because i myself am all about zines! i think the zine network that developed out of riot grrrl was of tremendous importance & is often overlooked by historians who just want to talk about kathleen hanna's history as a stripper or whatever. but i was bummed when the author a) admitted that she didn't get into zines or riot grrrl until 2001 (!!!--most people agree that riot grrrl kicked the bucket in 1996 or so, so this is kind of a big deal) & b) quoted her own zines as source material. i'm sorry, but i expect more from an actual published book. this was seriously unprofessional. i did feel that this author got deeper into the material than the others, & drew out interesting tidbits of information. i liked that she talked about very early mail order zine distros & girl conventions. i did not like that she quoted erika reinstein so exhaustively. o hai, racist/classist appropriater who is somewhat responsible for killing riot grrrl! let me quote you as an important historical source! (& warning: erika changed her name & now goes as billie (st)rain, but refuses to acknowledge or apologize for the fucked up transgressions of the past, so...be aware.)

the last chapter seemed to be the only one written by someone who was actually involved with riot grrrl during its heyday, & as such, i didn't have too many historical quibbles with what she wrote. i did have quibbles with the way she liberally sprinkled her chapter with full-on condemnations of the sex industry where such condemnations didn't add anything to the body of information & just seemed like pet issue axe-grinding. but whatever.

i have noticed that this book is getting rave reviews from girls who are just finding out about riot grrrl for the first time now. i am conflicted about this. on the one hand, i'm glad that this movement that was so important & influential to my own political development is not being forgotten, & that maybe younger folks can learn some of the same important lessons i learned. but on the other hand, this book just rehashes a lot of the same tired ground & creates a niche for further mischaracterizations & deifying to take place. this book did not represent riot grrrl as i lived it, & a lot of what i think is important about riot grrrl was not in the book. the authors seemed unreasonably defensive about the idea that riot grrrl wasn't the greatest movement for women of color & working-class women, making lots of excuses for why that may have been, blaming everyone but the women who seemed to be operating on the premise that "Other" kinds of women just didn't matter to riot grrrl. the authors build up a cult of personality around the usual suspects (kathleen hanna chief among them) & refrain from any critiques (such as acknowledging the fact that kathleen's current band, le tigre, unapologetically played the michigan womny's music festival for several years in a row, despite the fest's transphobic admissions policy, while le tigre was signed to trans-appropriating label mr. lady, fraternizing with trans appropriater/trans-hater tammy raye carland). UNCOOL! riot grrrl has an ugly side, & it's important to understand the complexities of that ugly side so we don't keep replicating those same mistakes. this book does not contribute ANYTHING to that understanding. it's riot grrrl tourism, at best, & a worthless piece of shit, at worst.

[Eleanor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like the contributors to this book remind their readers, there is no official historian of Riot Grrrl and no one way to tell the story. While I appreciated the authors' interest in personal voice, I felt that like so many other books that have tried to document an underground phenomenon (I'm thinking of "A Girl's Guide to Taking Over the World" here), this book did not live up to its potential. I appreciated the British perspective, as I learned a lot about British bands and Grrrl culture I only had heard a little about. However, sometimes the essays were too personal. For example, one author repeatedly quoted her own writing as a source. Other chapters tended towards the long-winded sentences of an undergraduate essay. Throughout the book there were large historical gaps: writers tended to skip the years from 1995 to 2000. The story seemed to read,"There was Bikini Kill and Huggy Bear, then they broke up, Sleater-Kinney didn't really matter, then there was Lady Fest and the Gossip, who are the ultimate Riot Grrrl band." For me (and this is MY personal experience), the mid-to-late 1990's and early 2000's were a hive of Riot-Grrrl activity in the United States, including zines, Yo-Yo-A-Go-Go, the Bay Area Girl Convention, and the explosion of zine related gatherings, Rock Camp for Girls, and yes, Ladyfest. These things are barely, if at all, mentioned in the book.
Overall, the book suffered from sloppy copy editing and lack of fact checking. Zine and film names were misspelled, and typos such as "on" for "of" seemed like a rash throughout the text. It seemed like the authors of different chapters did not consult with each other or read each other's work. As a result, the same story of Kathleen Hanna and the beginnings of Riot Grrrl were repeated throughout.
It's true that no one book will do Riot Grrrl justice, but I had hopes that when there was an opportunity for part of the story to be told it would be done so with greater accuracy, clarity, and thus pack a greater historical and literary punch.

[Jim Jones · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible overview of the Riot Girl movement by an English writer who knows little about the Olympia scene. One example of a laughable error here is stating that the gallery Kathleen Hanna and Tami Rae Carland helped start was called Neko Case! Really a feeble effort.

[Petty Lisbon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't really like this book. The organization was terrible. There weren't really clear chapters and it kind of just went from topic to topic. Was a header on a page a new chapter entirely or a new subsection? It doesn't matter, choose your own adventure with this book! This especially mattered because the author devoted around 30 pages to non riot girl bands that were "inspired" by it to various levels but went from band to band with no transition or point. She talked about some interesting bands that I learned about, like Voodoo Queen (trip hop singer Anjali's old band) but she generally just talked about how the band was formed (wow! Can you believe indie musicians met each other at another gig? I am shocked at this revelation!) and gave a vague sound for a single or 2 and some random verses of the chorus before going into the next one. I have no clue if any of these bands released more than just a single, had real success, or any other impact because she would just go into the next band. It wasn't even worth trying to jot down any interesting people that she mentioned, because if the author didn't care about them, why should I?
No shade, but the author talked about how The Spice Girls were terrible but Shampoo and even Daphne and Celeste were doing girl power in their own way. I realize The Spice Girls were completely bubblegum pop/R&B and sexualized and commercialized but as others mentioned, the "real" riot girl groups such as Bratmobile, Bikini Kill, L7, Babes in Toyland, Sleater Kinney (and their respective side projects) etc all were given mangled histories but judging by this book, you would think those bands and Gossip were the queens of the scene. I thought I was being too harsh because I expected my favorites to get more attention and praise, but the author talked more extensively about bands with men in it (probably) because they were British. Cornershop, a band with 2 men, and Bis, a band with more guy members, were given extensive focus.
The rest of the content was eh. A lot of direct scans from zines and pictures of the time and the book tried to have an edgy font/format. She tried going back and forth between the zines and the music but it just didn't work at all.

[Shant · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes it was too much of a scavenger hunt for new content, where quantity mattered more than quality, while other times, the different authors covered the same material again and again. It wasn't a book that I regret reading, but it has more to do with feminism in counterculture as a whole more than just riot grrrl. And yeah, the Neko Case typo was cringy.

[Agatha Rhinestone · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative for research on riot grrrl, esp as a collection of primary source material, but as a history you’re much better off with Girls to the Front.

[Hannah]

Okay, why is it that the books on the most interesting scholarly topics are the ones that are the most shoddily edited? And why does it bother me so much? The first section in this book, which is for all intents and purposes a really great overview of what riot grrrl was and meant and did, except that the writer doesn't know the first thing about commas, is somehow an excellent scholar and yet is incapable of incorporating quotations correctly (read: grammatically), and she also thinks that "orientated" is a word. (The fact that my computer thinks it's a word just makes me so sad about the state of writing in English.) Also, she can't use spell check. But other than the fact that this book seriously needed a copyeditor and makes me wonder why it is that indie publishers don't make at least a little effort to look as well produced as big ones (then again, the big ones aren't looking so good; I saw the NYTimes today used an apostrophe to denote a plural), this is actually a good collection of essays on a topic I thought I knew but actually was a little confused about, and it's the perfect resource for a class project I'm working on. But it's probably sad that there isn't a better one, because I don't understand why it's so focused on Brits but keeps asserting itself as being about how the movement started in America.

[Erica · Rating 4 out of 5]

writing about riot grrrl is a daunting task. most books on the subject tend to overgeneralize the movement and simplify the concepts. while this book is certainly not perfect, it must be recognized that no book on a subculture will ever be viewed as such. the things that makes this book stand apart from others on the subject are the depth of historical context, research in all aspects of the movement (not just focused on a few punk bands), as well as a decent amount of photos/excerpts from zines. all in all, a good place to start research on riot grrrl from an academic and sociocultural perspective (and certainly a million times better than that 'girl power' book that was just released.)

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

i've been wanting to get my hands on this for a while. bought it in San Fran, at the Virgin Megastore going out of business sale.

well slightly disappointing. Most of the "interviews" were taken from two riot girl documentaries I had already seen, so nothing too much new here.

Worth it for the pictures though.

[Dawn Mackey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really informative and interesting. I have a whole new list of awesome riot grrrl bands to listen to now. I admittedly didn't read the whole thing cover-to-cover; it's pretty dense, but I might return to it again.

[Jessica · Rating 1 out of 5]

For a movement that arguably started in Oly, you'd think she'd actually fact-check and spend more time on Oly bands and artists. For a movement that meant so much to me as a teenager, this is a terrible overview and disappointing.

[lola · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite their best intentions, a scattered read. Couple of really embarrassing typo/content errors. But fun pictures!!!!!!!!!

[Sara_G · Rating 5 out of 5]

By far, the best and most comprehensive book I've found on Riot Grrrl. This is basically the book that I wanted my thesis to be.

[Pandora · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first, but definetly not the last word on the subject.

[Stef · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book. It's a great detailed history of riot grrrl that can be re-read over and over again.

[Alexia · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great exploration of an interesting movement.

[rutebega · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun, with a great foreward, but apparently poorly researched. Sara Marcus' "Girls To The Front' is far better.

[Birdie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want this book..badly.

[Katelyn Kerr · Rating 3 out of 5]

read for thesis

[Amanda]

really, really want to read. not in noblenet system as far as I can see. bleah.

[Cherie · Rating 2 out of 5]

You know, I was so excited to read it. But it was not written so well.

[Juliana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved the section on art and politics