femininity? (BECAUSE us girls...)

wow. this is pretty much verbatim what i was thinking about today on the bus to work:

...I do think it’s a bad thing when women are the “beauty class” — that is, the group in society who are valued primarily for their physical appearance, and grow up with the idea that the quest for beauty should be a primary goal in their lives. I have a problem with the system that punishes women who opt out of this quest, or who, despite their efforts, aren’t perceived as conventionally attractive because of their age, race, body type, or some other reason.

While boys’ clothes are certainly also marketed, they seem to be more targeted at wealthy parents (or, to be more specific, wealthy mothers) who want to dress their sons up like preppy little Ken dolls. Girls’ clothes, on the other hand, seem to be marketed to mothers and daughters alike, reinstating the girl-as-consumer mold, and further tying girls’ identities to how they present themselves physically, and what they have verses what they do.

Juliet B. Schor, the author of “Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture” (Scribner), ascribes children’s heightened acquisitiveness partly to increasingly aggressive marketing. “The very insidious thing about this,” she said, “is that kids get the message that they need this product — whether it’s a sugared cereal or the latest fashion trend — to be O.K., to be cool. That is potentially interfering with their intrinsic sense of self. Kids from the very beginning are learning that your self-worth depends on what you have and how the market evaluates you.”

I think this is key, and I would further argue that this consumerism is aimed far more at girls than at boys (although boys certainly get their fair share too). I’d like to see kids outside running around, playing sports, creating artwork, dancing, or doing about 100 other things before shopping for kiddie couture. I’d like to see kids develop their identities based on their interests and passions, not on what brand of jeans they’re wearing. I’d just like to see four-year-olds be allowed to be four.

the whole article on feministe is here. i absolutely hate how more and more little girls are getting these messages about their bodies being in need of sexualization and commodification: the best part of being a pre-pubescent girl is (or used to be) that you didn't yet have to worry about this, and you were "free" - a kid as opposed to a girl, entirely defined by your sex/gender. and, yes, though boys are being pressured into looking a certain way and buying certain products more and more as well, for them the sexual aspect doesn't come in, and the pressure is nowhere near as serious! [another good post at feministe makes some further important points on this topic]

speaking of bodies and having freedom outside of the rigid sex and gender roles assigned by the mainstream, i was reading through the awesome "Results of a Misspent Youth: Joan Jett’s performance of female masculinity" again, and i ran into this bit of little known history:

Throughout her career, punk has influenced Jett’s performance of masculinity, and this influence is critical to how Jett constructs an image of female masculinity that operates in between conventional definitions of masculinity and femininity. For a brief period, punk created opportunities for women that had previously not existed in rock music. As punk resisted traditional musical forms, it opened the door to musicians who did not have access to classical training and experience. North American punk began with the Detroit underground bands of the late 1960s, art house rock and crossdressing bands like the New York Dolls and Jayne/Wayne Country. Dissatisfied with stadium rock, the early punk bands developed a ‘Do It for Yourself’ ethics that encouraged women like Debbie Harry, Mo Tucker, and Patti Smith to join bands. Punks rejected traditional musical traditions, including those that dictated that women could not play instruments and were wedded to sentimental, gentle and confidential lyrics.[8] In Chrissie Hynde’s words:

The best thing about [punk] for me was that I didn’t have to rely on being a female guitarist as a gimmick. Punk was very liberating like that. For the first time I could do what I wanted to do and being a girl wasn’t an issue. It would have been uncool for that to be a problem. Punk allowed anyone in – you could be a dwarf, short whatever – but that was only true for about six months.[9]

Whereas rock depended on more traditional gender images, the punk ascetic [sic*] encouraged men and women to play with gender conventions and gave women the freedom to be ‘ugly’ as well as to parody sexual conventions. Jett was a fan of punk and quickly integrated its sensibility into her music and performances. Specifically, punk provided Jett with the symbols from which she could explore gender and sexual inversion. These symbols were available to Jett because at least in its beginning, punk enabled women to reimagine their roles in rock music; they could portray themselves as sexualized, desexualized or anti-sexual subjects. This variety led to a number of different punk images for women that ranged from Debbie Harry’s ironic parodying of the pin-up, to Siouxsie Sioux’s theatrical gothic to Jett’s performance of masculinity.[10]

As some punk bands attained mainstream success, however, they played down punk’s critique of class and gender. Even punk bands like Blondie that attempted to maintain punk’s parody of middle-class gender roles discovered that it was difficult to translate punk ideals to a broader audience. Mainstream marketing techniques often converted irony and parody into conventional statements that offered women as sexual objects for male consumption.[11] As significantly, internal changes within punk began to re-emphasize masculinity and its central place within rock music. By the late 1970s and early 1980s, all-male bands such as the Dead Kennedys, Black Flag, and Fear were experimenting with ‘hard core’ punk which stressed accelerated rhythms and angry lyrics. At the same time, thrashing, a form of punk ‘dance’ that involved flailing one’s arms and lifting one’s knees, took over the mosh pits of many punk shows. The mosh pit, that area directly in front of the performer where fans would ‘mosh’ or dance, would later become an important arena for negotiating sexual politics as women’s punk bands reclaimed it for women and girls. Both physically and musically, hard core rejected the gender ambiguity of the early punk era, replacing it with a unisex masculine musical style and emphasis. In the words of critic Lorraine Leblanc, hard core ‘edged women out of the scene.’[12] While some women, like Lydia Lunch and Wendy O. Williams, briefly thrived in punk during the early 1980s, other women’s bands like the Go Go’s turned to more conventional musical styles like pop and new wave. In part, Jett’s significance lies in her ability to use and invert rock and punk’s masculinity to create a space for herself at the precise moment in which that space closed for most women.

so, while i have many good things to say about hardcore and some of what i appreciate most in this world is steeped in the hc scene and viceversa, it's certainly the case that it marked the beginning of this hyper-masculinization of punk. it's unbelievable how sexist punk scenes remain to this day - how little we've progressed (we've regressed, really) since the early '70s in terms of the variety and diversity of sexual expression allowed. hearing punks talk about how stupid "cunts" are the reason why someone who wants to be different is discriminated against by the powers that be (as i have recently), you just want to go: but you're just finding someone to step on yourself! you're supposed to be against anything that reeks of mainstream and patriarchal order, why not talk about how the majority of women and men subscribe to it, how it really is a patriarchal order? why would you stress that it's "cunts" and "whores" (and what woman isn't that to a certain extent, right?) who are the major dupes? think about it: if you do that, what's in it for you, what are you aiming for? because all you will get is a pat on the back from the patriarchy, and all you're doing is to fulfill your role as oppressor or simple follower of the rules. besides, it would be good not to forget where the term "punk" came from and what it really meant, originally:

punk = a young man used as a homosexual partner especially in a prison
[much like "cunt", a sexually pejorative term which is used to infer/confer a "feminine" and therefore inferior/negative status for somebody]!

it was based on this negative conotation that "punk" then became a young inexperienced person: beginner, novice; especially : a young man, or a usually petty gangster, hoodlum, or ruffian (websters), or basically rotten, worthless, or snotty; also meaning a street hustler or juvenile delinquent, and got applied to "punks" (also see some hardcore basics and one of my favorite punk rock descriptions, "fear of a punk planet," with some excellent quotes by the excellent dan sinker). anyway, a punk should be the last person to talk pejoratively about "cunts," to reinforce masculine standards or try to impose patriarchal rules on people. learn your history, guys (and girls)!

here, i want to quote some more from the joan jett article, as i think it's all super important and relevant to some recent discussions i've had:

‘Go Home’ (1992-98)

Women can watch other women, and it doesn’t even have to be in any sexual way. You can get off on watching women on stage taking the music and using it to their advantage – instead of being used by the music, which has always been the case. Now women can get out those feelings that they have had for so long. And I think that’s a real good shift in mental attitude. (Joan Jett, 1993)[53]

Emerging from Olympia and Seattle, Washington and Washington, DC in the early 1990s, ‘the riot grrrls’ blended a punk rock ascetic [sic*] with a political commitment to feminism.[54] Forming a number of all-women or mixedgender rock groups and producing fanzines – inexpensively produced newsletters that offered political commentary – the riot grrrls gave musical expression to previously ignored topics like violence against women. The riot grrrls sought first and foremost to directly challenge the misogyny in the traditional rock formula, consciously seeking to make women subjects rather than objects in punk and rock music. Some groups, such as L7, formed specifically political organizations like Rock for Choice and gained marketability through summer tours like Lallapalooza.[55] The ideal of the riot grrrls was to voice the experiences of girls and to develop a less competitive and more supportive atmosphere for musical experimentation. The explosion of women rock bands provided a space for girls to experiment musically and receive some support from major record labels.[56]

For many riot grrrls, Jett was an important role model who developed into a strong advocate. While Jett acknowledged some differences between herself and the riot grrrls, she defended them against their critics, a defense which reflected both old and new themes in her outlook. On the one hand, Jett expressed appreciation for the way the riot grrrls expressed themselves. On the other hand, she also credited the riot grrrls for giving voice to girls’ varied experiences. The riot grrrls ‘are trying to voice their own feelings,’ Jett explained to a reporter, ‘and people shouldn’t immediately throw up a wall and say “oh my God, they want to cut my dick off, so I can’t listen!” A lot of people have had experiences in life that maybe you and I haven’t had and it can’t hurt to listen. You don’t have to agree but you could say, “I hear what she’s saying and I understand how she could feel that way.” I think Riot Grrrl is really healthy. Too many women are afraid to express their opinions in a strong way.’[57]

While Jett influenced the riot grrrls to sing and play rock music, they, in turn, helped jolt Jett out of a politics of indifference. After attending a Bikini Kill concert, Jett wrote ‘Activity Grrrl’ to reflect on how the riot grrrls changed her approach to music and politics. ‘She works real hard to try to make things right / To see if she can find a reason for what’s wrong / In life – she puts her thought into magazine form / An’ passes them all around her dorm / Showin’ me another way, another way to fight.’[58] In particular, Jett developed a desire, in her words, to ‘mend my ways to feminism,’ and to use her music to ‘empower women.’[59] Consequently, she became more involved with women’s issues, publicly advocating for the prochoice movement and joining the National Organization for Women, performing at their march on Washington where she apparently led its participants in a chorus of ‘fuck you’ to the anti-abortion members of Congress.[60] It was the death of Mia Zapata, the lead singer of the Seattlebased group the Gits, however, that integrated Jett into the Seattle music scene and led her to make her strongest feminist statements.

In July 1993, Zapata was raped and murdered after leaving the Comet, a bar at which she frequently performed. Her death had a strong effect on the female-led bands of the Seattle area, leading Valerie Agnew of the group Seven-Year Bitch and other members of the Seattle music and art community to found the collective, Home Alive. Its purpose was to provide affordable self-defense training for women. In its first year, about seventy-five per cent of its clients had incomes below $10,000 and/or were living on the streets. Home Alive offered them courses ranging from anger management to the use of weapons. According to the collective members, Zapata’s death awakened them to the fact that ‘we just weren’t taking care of each other,’ or in Agnew’s words, ‘If Mia had known how to really throw a punch, would she be alive? Could she have survived?’[61]

Zapata’s murder forced Jett to consider her own vulnerability to the omnipresent threat of violence against women. ‘I didn’t know Mia at all,’ Jett explained, ‘but I felt a strong connection. Too many women are ending up dead, and too many people aren’t caring about it.’[62] While discussing Zapata’s death, Jett and Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill decided to write ‘Go Home,’ a song about men stalking women and the psychological effects that violence has on women. Like much of the riot grrrls’ music, the song uses anger and screaming as a catharsis both to make women aware of the violence done to their bodies and souls and to purge patriarchal thinking from their psyche. The song begins with the lines, ‘Walking down the street at night / I am so aware of you / Give me a reason to fight / when there’s no one to protect you.’ The ‘you’ in the song represents both the possible male stalker and the voice inside the woman’s head, both sending her the same message – to ‘go home.’ Like Home Alive, the song encourages every woman to resist the voice inside her head that tells her to go home by learning how to protect herself from violence and its accompanying patriarchal ideology which instructs women to hide from the violence by either staying home or covering-up their sexuality. Surviving male violence against women, the song suggests, requires women to get angry so that they can destroy this ideology as well as their attackers – ‘Now take that voice outside a’ my head / I hear that voice insid’ a my head / Get that voice outta my head / I will choke it dead, dead / I will stab it dead, dead / I will kill it dead, dead.’[63] Taking its cue from feminist self-defense programs, ‘Go Home’ encouraged women to turn the violence and anger outward against the attacker rather than inward against themselves.[64]

Jett dedicated the video for ‘Go Home’ to Mia Zapata. ... In making the video, Jett claimed that she wanted to highlight the indecision that women being stalked felt because she wanted to emphasize that women’s fear of being embarrassed or of being impolite prevents them from taking the necessary actions to protect themselves.[66] The song and video ‘Go Home,’ advocated taking control of and possession of violence rather than rejecting violence out of hand. But even more significantly, ‘Go Home,’ like Home Alive, encouraged women to reject their status as victims and their expectations that men could protect them from sexual violence. In the words of Agnew, ‘But in reality, women need to learn self-defense tactics ... The concept of selfdefense comes down to believing that your life is worth defending. It’s amazing how many people won’t take that stance: “Fuck you – I will kill you before you kill me, because my life is worth more than yours.”’[67]

-> the "go home" video and on mia zapata. also, about the riot grrrl legacy.

and finally, i wanted to give this link to photos of shows by sarah kramer (of "how it all vegan" fame). those couple of shows look so so great, and fun! this is what punk rock should be about, in my opinion: it should be open to, and equally fun for, everyone. NOT just for guys or those who worship at the altar of masculinity, and not in traditional macho ways! [maybe i'll write down some of my own experiences with FUN, not macho, shows, someday.]

and here's where i insert the linkage for relevant further reading:

• RIOT GRRRL MANIFESTO
• "Not Just Boy's Fun": Women in the Contemporary North American Punk Music Scene"
• "A little too ironic": the appropriation and packaging of Riot Grrrl politics by mainstream female musicians
• worse than queer: riot grrrl journal entries, riot grrrl column, punk rock and race/opting out of punk rock colum ('Thumbing through my cache of punk rock propaganda reminds me why I became an expatriate in the first place, why I continue to hold it at arm's length. Nor is this simply a comment on race, as if I could even imagine race as a discrete category apart from others, like cans in a cupboard (my usual analogy). There is an unmistakable continuum I could trace, like a spiderweb or a breadcrumb trail, winding (or blanketing, maybe) across the landscape of punk rock cultural and political production. "Disco is for blacks and homosexuals," a 1979 fanzine sneers; maybe it's no accident that it was called Final Solution. "The United Negro College Fund is a sublime absurdity," lambastes a Hitlist magazine columnist in this new year, and I remember that the same writer once argued feminists were too. There are the presumptuous disavowals of both racism ("punk is anti-racist") and race ("there is no race but the human race"), familiar reformulations repeated when gender or class or sexuality or borders are invoked. And once swastikas were worn as accessories, could the iconic manipulation of Third World suffering for record sleeves and gatefolds be far behind? (In this sense, punk rock follows in the tradition of the white European avant-garde and its foundational myth of originality and refusal of accountability, but that's a whole other story.) Indie rock girls ask why gays and lesbians want "special rights," punk boys rape or beat girlfriends and acquaintances, and in between there are the innumerable insults, the slips of tongues, and the violent gestures.') and it's (not) a white world, hey. by one of my favorite writers, mimi nguyen

* should be "aesthetic" (?)