Riot Grrls - a 2021 Perspective
It’s March 8th - 2021, I’m working at a cafe in the East end of Toronto - it’s realistically around 8:45AM in the morning.
After getting things in order and opening up the shop my first move was to set up an absolute bad-ass-all-day-long-international-womens-day-playlist, Of course.
Track one, the vocals of Cherel Curry accompanied by the guitar of Joan Jett came roaring out of the speakers. Cherry Bomb, The runaways. Just as the famous rhythm bumps through once, a woman walked into the cafe wearing a home knit pussy hat. She stops, points up to the speakers and gives the bull horns. That was it, that was all I needed to feel instant gratification.
Every year on International Women's day I attempt my due diligence in researching history, understanding the origins and struggles of this amazing group I’m privileged to be a part of. It’s an opportunity to educate myself on all the different ways women have re-defined so many boxes, and the different women who smashed their way out of those boxes.
That moment, that morning with the Runaways and that customer with the amazingly home assembled hat got me on a tangent. That tangent revolved around a specific group of ladies residing in the Washington area between 1991-1996. That’s right, I’m talkin’ about the freekin RIOT GRRLS. Those girls that smashed all the boxes!
The Runnaways, Siouxsie (of Banshee’s fame), Patti Smith, and Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth;
Yes, none of these richeous ladies are Riot Grrls, but their unabashed and strong presnece in the music community laid the groundwork for the Zine lovin’ Feminist era of music that has been racking my brain all day long. I’ll always see them as a precursor. A strongly influential precursor.
So what am I trying to bring to light? A couple things… Mostly, defining what the Riot Grrls are, who they are and their importance to modern music. During the early 90’s there was a wave of feminism that was quite unsettling to many, shook up a lot of tail feathers. This wave brought with it passion, fire, hardcore music and ZINES ! Butt loads of them. So many members of notorious Riot Grrl bands got their start and got to know eachother by writing anti-government anti-sexist poetry and letters and self publishing them within the hardcore DIY scene in Seattle. These women would be ranting and raving about the imbalances of the world and the incredible injustices to women. They did all this so unapologetic it offended everyone! Even a lot of other female musicians.
Out of these zines (like Girl Germs or obviously Bikini Kill) came the desire to take those same grievances but put them to music! These girls took musical elements of the male hardcore scene, added a splash of surf rock and jammed packed female views on the political climate in each and every lyric.
What does it take to write a Riot Grrl song? Roughly 2 mins (or less) of aggressive and often satirical lyrics, usually involving the reclamation of negative words like Slut or Bitch. In these songs, poems and essays the speaker would be bold, be strong and would flip the convection of what it meant to inherently be feminine, on it’s freekin’ head.
So who were the Riot Grrls… Well, there were a lot ! And not a lot of them withstood the test of time. But, however, I have found several groups who have survived the problematic system of music streaming and plan to detail them here, just in case you’re in the mood to throw on some really tough feminist music (and I mean who isn’t in the mood to smash the patriarchy at least once a day) ;
Bratmobile
1st Wave
University of Oregon
Allison Wolfe , Molly Newman, Erin Smith
Bikini Kill
1st Wave
Olympia Washington
Kathleen Hanna
Kathi Wilcox
Tobi Vali
Erica Dawn Lyle
Billy Karen
Heavens to Betsy
1st Wave
Olympia Washington
Corin Tucker
Tracey Sawyer
Tiger Trap
2nd Wave
Sacramento California
Agela Loy
Rose Melberg
Heather Dunn
Jen Braun
7 Year Bitch
2nd Wave
Seattle Washington
Seina Vigil
Elizabeth Davis
Valerie Agnew
Rosin Dunne
Emily’s Sassy Lime
2nd Wave
Passadena California
Wendy Yao
Amy Yao
Emily Ryan
Now, what about relevancy?
There are lots of people who criticise the Riot Grrls for not being inclusive enough. Seems like the stance they took was to be so disturbed by the world that they believed their pain and perspective was all that mattered. This seems contradictory since the thing they rioted about was the world being so single minded.
What we have here is a classic example wherein we take an element from history and we learn from it, without disregarding it’s incredible influence. Without girls like these musicians and writers those hardcore doors might never have opened up to alternate genders!
In their groundbreaking stances they not only brought to light and normalized really big issues but they also made it kinda cool to stand up for yourself. I see a sliver of these girls in so many musicians these days, musicians refusing to adhere to a single expectation. Much of the time the influence is subtle, but it’s there nonetheless.
And that’s Not mentioning the modern bands who are so obviously directly influenced, Like Chastity Belts 2013 album No Regerts or Mommy Long Legs 2018 album Try Your Best. Both of which truly capture that ironic, sarcastic and blunt hardcore vibe.
Now here we are at the end, we’ve all learned something (hopefully) and had a better understanding of the variances and nuances of what it really means to be a woman. It’s not complicated, it's just not any particular thing. It just is... and it friggin rocks.