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typicalgirls - Re: [TypicalGirls] American vs. European feminist punk

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Subject: Typical Girls: Women in Punk/Post-Punk/Underground Music (Circa 1975-1980s)

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  • From: Chuck Warner <chuck AT hyped2death.com>
  • To: "Typical Girls: Women in Punk/Post-Punk/Underground Music (Circa 1975-1980s)" <typicalgirls AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [TypicalGirls] American vs. European feminist punk
  • Date: Thu, 23 Sep 2010 19:23:50 -0400

I'd go farther and point out that the strongest feminist voices of the punk and postpunk era were heavily non-Anglos, even inside the UK. Ironically, I think this may have resulted from the relative success of the mid-70s women's music scene in the U.S. and (to a slightly lesser extent) in the U.K. This preceding generation's lyrics were highly political (doctrinaire, even) but at the same time the music was almost universally unambitious - and far too often was focused simply on demonstrating that XX could play "as well as the guys". So, while on the one hand the older generation attacked punk's lyrical lack of cohesion, Punk's musical rebellion brought it into head-on conflict with "women's music" as the latter existed in 1976. And since seventies women's music lacked the intergenerational grey areas of pub-rock, NWOBHM, or art-school bands... there was almost no opportunity for, uh, peaceful coexistence. By contrast, because Continental women's music in the 1970s had been more anarchic to begin with - and was much less distinct from a multitude of leftist and "radical" causes - the transition to punk (and community support for women who did chose to express their feminism as punks) came much easier.

There's also the question of conventional women's singing styles. Anglo folk and pop traditions rarely embraced the idea of women just making as much noise as they possibly could - unlike Central and Eastern European traditions - or many Asian and African traditions, either.

I suspect, however, that some part of this phenomenon goes back even farther - consider the huge proportion of female pop-stars on the charts of the 1960s who were Jewish and/or from the East.

Thoughts?

C

music (deservingly) fell victim to Punk's musical rebellion, I suspect my suspicion, anyway, is that a lot of punk-age women who wanted to Hi everyone,

I'm new to the list, just joined today, but I had a question I've been thinking about and I'd like to get some other opinions.

Is it fair to say that the strongest feminist punk voices of the 1980s came from European bands? If so, why do you think that is?

I've been thinking that it's a combination of the American backlash against feminism of the 1980s and the proliferation of hyper-masculinized hardcore within the punk communities but I feel like I'm missing something (or perhaps totally off base!).

Thanks,
- K




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Chuck Warner
Hyped to Death / Messthetics CDs
P.O. Box 351
Westminster, MA 01473
http://hyped2death.com




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