As published in Five Cent Sound Fall 2020
In the early '90s, the punk scene was explosively popular, but few people were allowed to participate freely; white men dominated American culture and counterculture. Women were relegated to the sidelines of the scene. They had no place on the stage, nor space in the crowd without fear of harassment. They had no voice in the zines, no presence in the culture. Until they had Riot Grrrls. The Riot Grrrl movement emerged in Olympia, Washington, beginning with feminist zines and expanding to all-female bands and an all-female music convention known as Girls Night. Icons like Kathleen Hanna and Molly Neuman led the movement, directly confronting the sexist systems and behaviors they had witnessed in the community. Today, these original Riot Grrrls are inspiring a new generation of young and vocal feminists. The movement is evolving, finding a new home in hip-hop, and making space at last for women of color to indulge in their own unfiltered rage and femininity.
Riot Grrrls have always come in countless forms; the very nature of the movement insists that girls be whatever they want to be. They are unified not by structured aesthetics but by their purpose, which is outlined in The Riot Grrrl Manifesto. The reasons for the revolution were many: from combating self-destructive girl drama in the community, to rejecting male expectations, to dismantling capitalism. The Grrrls were not only taking on the punk community but the world at large, bringing feminist theory into daily language and hosting discussions about sexual assault. The primary function of the revolution was to normalize female anger and sexuality, encouraging girls to celebrate the emotions and struggles, complexities of self that they had been instructed to suppress. Riot Grrrls were rioting, as the final clause of the manifesto states, "BECAUSE I believe with my wholeheartmindbody that girls constitute a revolutionary soul force that can, and will change the world for real."
Now, with the nation irreparably divided, a civil rights movement in progress, and women's reproductive rights somehow still being debated as fervently as they were in 1991, a revolutionary soul force is exactly what we need.
Riot Grrrl is being reincarnated not only in new feminist punk bands, but in artists like Maria-Cecilia Simone Kelly, known professionally as Rico Nasty. Simone embodies a Riot Grrrl's sense of self by embracing her power and vulnerability equally, and channelling her many facets through different personas. She explained in an interview with AMPD that Rico Nasty epitomizes confidence, whereas Taco Bella, another one of her personas, portrays a more sensitive side. Rico's ability to nurture the conflicting identities that accompany her experience as a woman —to name them and give them life — is Riot Grrrl at its core. Though she creates rap music, it often features essential elements of punk tracks with aggressive vocals and screaming in the background. Her lyrics also reflect Riot Grrrl sentiments of empowerment, on her track "Rage," announcing "I love bad bitches who be ragin'." She encourages female anger and praises it on all occasions. Rico further contributes intersectionality to the traditional Riot Grrrl ideology, celebrating the power and beauty within women of color in particular, in her song "Bitch I'm Nasty," screaming "Black girls, stand up!" Rico's whole identity is a call to action for young Black women to embrace themselves in their entirety: their sexuality, their rage, their weirdness. Rico Nasty is the quintessential Riot Grrrl, creating space for young Black girls in the alternative scene while starting her own revolution of girl power and uniting punk and rap. And she isn't alone.
Princess Nokia, also a hip-hop artist, often credits Riot Grrrl as having a significant influence on her life and music. She deeply values her role as an inspiration to any person of color who has felt an affinity towards alternative culture but has never seen themselves in it. On her Beats 1 radio show "The Voices in My Head", Nokia said that "the majority of all the goth kids, punk kids, ravers, emo kids, scene kids, hardcore scene kids existed in the hood," explaining that this music and the subcultures attached to it can be a necessary escape for people who have only known oppression. Nokia has described herself as both a weirdo and a radicalist, and prides herself on the intersectionality displayed in her music. Like the original Riot Grrrls, her music marries the personal and political. In her song "Sugar Honey Iced Tea", she tells the story of the time she defended a group of young Black men on the train from a confrontational racist, stating "I love to throw hands on racists, bigots, and scum," and adding that "I don't be fightin' no women." Nokia has embraced and upheld all those pillars that the Riot Grrrls established surrounding girl power and the right to take up space, the right to feel safe, and extended the movement to explicitly include people from her community. Princess Nokia embodies the new age Riot Grrrl through her blend of punk and hip hop influences, and enthusiastic advocacy for those oppressed.
It is not at all surprising that female rappers are leading the modern Riot Grrrl movement. Hip-hop and punk music both have a history as the language of the oppressed, and have often been concerned with the same issues. And Riot Grrrl has always been fluid; Carrie Brownstein's accounts of the scene reveal that there were very few traditional band formations, that general rules and expectations of music itself went out the window. "Angst compensated for everything," she says in Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl. Today's Riot Grrrls may not produce traditional punk music, but they've got angst, and they've got the revolution underway.
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