Anna Natenzon

he's a rocker dressed like a killer, she's got lips like wine not sugar,” sing the Butchies in “She's So Lovely.” This image of a caustic, no-nonsense woman permeates the public image of the Riot Grrrl scene. A child of the early- to mid-1990s, the Riot Grrrl scene bridged feminist ideas with the sound, style, and ethics of punk and grunge rock. Consisting of bands, record labels, conventions, and 'zines, this movement shared with punk and grunge a democratic lack of central organization and suspicion of mainstream record labels and pop culture. The movement was a precursor to contemporary feminist bands, such as Le Tigre, and was influential in creating a separate space for feminist personal expression.

Riot Grrrl first came about in response to two seemingly opposite problems in punk rock: punk machismo, and the discounting of gender differences in the name of equality. The term “riot grrrl” appeared after a slew of race riots in Washington, DC in 1992, in response to which Bratmobile's Jen Smith proclaimed, “This summer's going to be a riot girl.” Soon after, Bratmobile and Bikini Kill began publishing a 'zine called Riot Grrrl.

The newly-dubbed movement rejected punk “toughness” in favor of women's liberationist lyrics. In 1994, while Rancid were singing, “If I'm goin' down I'm gonna take somebody out! I wanna riot,” Babes in Toyland were singing, “My own mind is mine to drive ... I breathe, I dream, I lead.” While political lyrics were generally common for 1990s punk bands, such as Pennywise and NOFX, Riot Grrrl bands, such as The Butchies and L7, filtered their politics through the lens of feminism and an overriding drive to eliminate sexism.

While providing an alternative to macho male punk rock, Riot Grrrl filled a gap in punk and in the feminist movement. Members of both movements value equality between men and women; however, some believe that addressing female-specific issues undermines equality and thus choose to ignore them. In his 1996 essay, “A Punk Synopsis,” Greg Graffin, of punk band Bad Religion, writes, “I just assumed that girls were equals on every level ... Their suffering was our suffering ... Both sexes were too busy being stalwart, and tough. It was wonderfully equal, and I was proud of my egalitarian view of the sexes. Unfortunately, it was also an excuse not to address differences between the sexes.”

To remedy this without undermining equality, the Riot Grrrl movement provided a separate space for women to express themselves without the pressure to find men's approval. To them, male-dominated culture, both in punk rock and in society, stifled women's expression. Thus, Riot Grrrl bands adhered to the same general ethics as punk rock — individuality, independent thought, inclusivity, and social activism — but they also extended them to discussing specific women's issues such as abortion, rape, unequal pay, sexuality, and double standards.

A punk-influenced do-it-yourself ethic pervaded, despite a great deal of media attention. Magazines such as Newsweek and Seventeen featured articles about the Riot Grrrl scene. Since the Riot Grrrl movement, like much of punk rock, preferred small independent labels and shows to commercialization, many Riot Grrrl bands decided to stop talking to mainstream reporters. As Bikini Kill front woman Kathleen Hanna told BetterPropaganda.com, an independent music discovery website, “Several of the different Riot Grrrl groups just decided that they would rather deal with the issues that they were grappling with as feminists and not have to deal with the outside pressure of defining themselves and defining other women.”

Like the feminist movement at large, Riot Grrrl sought to change societal attitudes toward gender roles. A conflict occurred, however, between creating a separate space for women and reaching out to a wider audience to effect social change. Riot Grrrls' blatant sexual expression, while liberating to some women, sometimes alienated a more general audience. When L7 performed at the Reading Festival in 1992, front woman Donita Sparks removed her tampon and threw it into the audience. Sensationalist presentation like this often turned audiences off to intelligent and thought-provoking content. While the Riot Grrrl bands aimed to change society's views, they did so not by attracting listeners of both genders, but by encouraging a feminist mindset. Riot Grrrls weren't just preaching to the choir, however; they helped solidify feminist ideas in many young girls.

While most of the original Riot Grrrl bands have broken up, many of their members still influence the current music scene. In an interview with BetterPropaganda, Hanna characterizes her new band, Le Tigre, as “punk feminist electronic.” As a member of the New York-based Le Tigre, Hanna interacts with the mainstream press more readily than during her Bikini Kill days, during which time she felt frustrated by the way that the press represented Bikini Kill. Now, however, she tells BetterPropaganda that she “would be totally fine with being misrepresented” as long as the press gave publicity to Le Tigre and its feminist views, allowing it to influence the current generation of young women.

Le Tigre has inherited the Riot Grrrl feminism, but it mixes its ideas with an indie-pop sound, using synthesizers and layered beats. The lyrics deliver feminist messages in a quirky, ironic style, with more nuanced vocals than in the 1990s Riot Grrrl bands. In “Fake French” Hanna sings, “I've got post-binary gender chores,” to a catchy dance beat. Rather than a sound to rage to, Le Tigre's Feminist Sweepstakes is mostly an album to dance to in front of the mirror, but in a female-empowering way, as opposed to the objectification of women found in contemporary pop music. Despite the difference between Le Tigre's synth-heavy irony and Bikini Kill's drums-bass-and-guitar directness, both bands succeed in combining an overtly feminist agenda with the popular music style of their time. A band of the millennium, as opposed to a 1990s band, it's only natural that Le Tigre sounds more like Bloc Party than Nirvana. The punk feminist social movement can thus deliver its message to contemporary audiences with as much musical relevance as the Riot Grrrls did in the 1990s.