Week Nine: Women’s Voices

There were several things about the Riot Grrrl movement and subsequent generations of girl music that interested me. First, it struck me that the Riot Grrrls received a significant amount of criticism surrounding their age. I believe one of the quotes in the film on Wednesday addressed that “they were such young girls, what could they know about feminism theory and rape, abuse, etc.” While this may be a valid argument, I think it also says something about dominant culture valorizing adults and neglecting the opinions of young people, which is nothing new -- that’s why we have rock n roll. Beyond this, though, I think it’s important to recognize the voices of young people, since we’re always told that they are the future. By creating these musical forums to generate discourse about feminism in general, the Riot Grrrls were creating a revolution beyond their music and to the true ideologies of our society. Because of their music, feminism became a fad in the eyes of the media. This seems really dangerous to me. By using music as a vehicle to reach more people and focusing the importance of their music on the message rather than the actual music, the Riot Grrrls fizzled out due to media sensationalism following their message.

Following the Riot Grrrls we saw the emergence of girl groups who promoted similar messages with far different appearances and goals, such as the Spice Girls. Whiteley explains that “Sex appeal equated with commercial viability, and commercial viability revolved increasingly around a girl-pop ideal of slimness, youth and glamour” (p. 171). I think the expectation to be both sexy and independent definitely played into this new line a female artists around the time I was a kid. Although they gained their influences from the Riot Grrrls, they assimilated the concepts into easily digestible songs for a mainstream audience. Babes in Toyland, another girl band regarded as part of the Riot Grrrl movement was possibly one of the first to see a shift in the don’t-give-a-fuck ideology to concerns about appearance, the production of music videos, and the shift from girls in punk to girls in pop. Their video is below. It’s probably fair to say that all of those girls don’t casually wear makeup, for one thing. And secondly even in a video made by a feminist band, the girls are still subjected to being reduced to only body parts as shots of their legs and chests are shown very briefly. Therefore, it could be interpreted that some of the more willing Riot Grrrl bands were the mere stepping stones to the introduction of the Spice Girls and the like.