5 Titles: Punk Rock Grrrls!

The 5 Titles series highlights books, music, and films in the library’s collection, featuring topics related to diversity, equity, and inclusion and/or highlighting authors’ work from diverse backgrounds. Each post is intended to briefly sample titles rather than provide a comprehensive topic overview. Liz Milewicz, Ph.D., Head of Digital Scholarship & Publishing Services and co-Director of Scholar Works: A Center for Scholarly Publishing, has selected the five titles this month to celebrate International Women’s Day.

Please note: The content linked in this post is punk-typically offensive and may also challenge notions of conventional femininity.

So, you may be thinking that “Five Titles” is supposed to be a blog series about books. Think again! Just as you may be thinking, punk rock is just about angry young white dudes. Again, think! If punk is anti-authoritarian, anti-establishment, and anti-corporate, who better to speak truth to power than women? And, true to that punk ethos, this list of five songs includes women of color, queer women, and women who push back on punk. A global movement that forms itself around and against powers that attempt to contain it, punk can’t really be contained in this list of five or even fully expressed in a blog post. If you think an important voice is missing, suggest your punk rock girl in the comments! Completely lost at this point in the paragraph and have no idea what girl-powered punk is all about? Then listen on and let the lesson begin…

Bikini Kill, “Rebel Girl”

With so many bands, songs, and scenes from the Riot Grrrl movement of the 1990s, it’s hard to choose just one that captures the audacity and exuberance of third-wave feminism expressed through music. So why not start with Bikini Kill, whose lead singer Kathleen Hanna embodied the band’s confrontational style, at times wearing pigtails and panties on stage while singing songs of female empowerment. “Rebel Girl” celebrates confident women, an anthem to walking with your head up and a sense of your own power: “That girl thinks she’s the queen of the neighborhood… She IS!” Bikini Kill pushed for women to connect and express themselves by starting bands and creating zines, and it influenced culture and politics as well as the music scene.

Get the backstory

The Punk Singer (2014 documentary), https://find.library.duke.edu/catalog/DUKE006052348

Hear more

Pussy Whipped (1993? album), https://find.library.duke.edu/catalog/DUKE004323145

Reject All American (1996 album), https://find.library.duke.edu/catalog/DUKE008700620

Revolution Girl Style Now (2015 album), https://find.library.duke.edu/catalog/DUKE008700619

Pussy Riot, “Punk Prayer”

These Russian punks are not a band but a queer-feminist art collective that uses punk as a political protest. Unlike the Western punk scene formed around musicians and shows, Pussy Riot emerged in 2011 in response to political corruption by Vladimir Putin and complicit support by the Russian Orthodox Church. Their “punk prayer” asked Mother Mary to become a feminist, join their protest, and “banish Putin!” The band was imprisoned for hooliganism, but that didn’t quiet the group, which continues to release videos and songs online and whose support has only grown through the Russian government’s attempts to silence them.

Get the backstory

Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer (2014 documentary), https://find.library.duke.edu/catalog/DUKE006030925

Read more

Pussy Riot: Speaking Punk to Power (2021), https://find.library.duke.edu/catalog/DUKE009852716

Émeutières. Pussy Riot Grrrls (2015), https://find.library.duke.edu/catalog/DUKE008047819

Pussy Riot: chto eto bylo? (2012), https://find.library.duke.edu/catalog/DUKE005741705

Do more!

Read & Riot: A Pussy Riot Guide to Activism (2018), https://find.library.duke.edu/catalog/DUKE008696566

Fea, “Feminazi”

If we’re going to talk about punk-rock women in the US today, then we have to talk about Fea. Based in San Antonio, this Chicana feminist punk band pushes hard (and humorously) against perceptions that the feminist movement is irrelevant. “Feminazi” pays playful homage to that torch song of punk, “Anarchy in the UK” (Sex Pistols), while bringing it home to the modern-day USA. This song in particular highlights the political activism of punk rock women as well as their inclusivity, as they speak for women’s rights throughout the world: “Yo soy, yo soy feminista!” – “私はフェミニストです!” – “I am, I am a feminist!”

Read more

A Kiss Across the Ocean: Transatlantic Intimacies of British Post-Punk and US Latinidad (2022 e-book), https://find.library.duke.edu/catalog/DUKE010553775

The Spitboy Rule: Tales of a Xicana in a Female Punk Band (2016), https://find.library.duke.edu/catalog/DUKE008288551

Violence Girl: East L.A. Rage to Hollywood Stage, a Chicana Punk Story (2011), https://find.library.duke.edu/catalog/DUKE008611739

G.L.O.S.S., “G.L.O.S.S. (We’re From The Future)”

G.L.O.S.S. (or Girls Living Outside Society’s Shit), a trans-feminist hardcore punk band, challenged conceptions of punk and gender. Fast tempos and aggressive lyrics define hardcore, not its audience or its artists. Yet, the predominance of heterosexual male bands and violent mosh pits tended to marginalize women, trans-women, queers, people of color, and people with disabilities. G.L.O.S.S. gave voice to people living on the edges of mainstream society, creating a hardcore scene where they were centered and raising awareness of a number of social issues, including transphobia and women’s rights. They also generated controversy, highlighting the complexities of intersectional identity when their violent lyrics attacked mainstream gender and sexuality norms.

Read more

Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution: An Oral History (2021), https://find.library.duke.edu/catalog/DUKE010252416

Queer-Feminist Punk: An Anti-Social History (2015), https://find.library.duke.edu/catalog/DUKE009815084

Big Joanie, “In My Arms”

This Black feminist punk band pushes against stereotypical punk with melodic, easy-going songs and lyrics that shift the boundaries between male and female, black and white, familiar and other. Their music sets a new stage for punk, creating space for Black women to inhabit and centering punk rock’s utopian values: fierce insistence on a better world and determination to live fully in the present. True to the ethos of 3rd Wave feminism and the Riot Grrrl movement, Big Joanie embraces DIY and the power to reshape culture — including making the punk music scene more inclusive and diverse through organization of the Decolonise Fest.

Hear and see more

Decolonise Fest 2022 – Revolution Now (short documentary), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jLOncl2H2I

Learn more

Why Solange Matters (2021), https://find.library.duke.edu/catalog/DUKE010018231

Punk Identities, Punk Utopias: Global Punk and Media (2021), https://find.library.duke.edu/catalog/DUKE010352768