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

[Tobi Vail <tobivail AT gmail.com>]

it really depends on what you mean by feminist...the name itself
wasn't embraced by women in punk/post-punk either in the u.s. or
europe as I understand it...but was seeing The Patti Smith Group in
1975 a feminist experience? does that depend on the viewer or the
performer? audience reception to cultural work by women is often a
reason why female musicians hesitate to categorize themselves. we are
already "types" of less than human broken down by dichotomy of
virgin/whore/slut/dyke/bitch etc rock journalism in the 70's was
pretty misogynist (with notable exceptions) and this hadn't changed
much by the 90's...if it's changed now I haven't noticed...so all
these factors play into how a band chooses to label or not label
themselves...political could mean "uptight" or "taking yourself too
seriously" or  playful and fun and aeshetic like huggy bear ...of
course when women in punk tried to re-define punk and feminism to be
more inclusive, suddenly every woman in a band was a "riot grrl" and
had no sense of humor, was naive, judged by their appearance,
belittled, shamed and dismissed...of course girls in the audience
largely didn't care, but when those girls took the stage, they weren't
always eager to fly the feminist flag...I think that makes sense.
while your at it, read this anti-nostalgia rant by marissa magic:
http://punkymagic.blogspot.com/2010/09/recent-column-i-wrote-for-mrr.html
 ...2011 is the 20 year anniversary of riot grrl...
oh yeah and on that note, this came out today:
http://vimeo.com/14584280
a fantastic new video by grass widow

On Thu, Sep 23, 2010 at 4:23 PM, Chuck Warner <chuck AT hyped2death.com> wrote:
> 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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