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Writer's pictureKelsea Jones

Riot Grrrls!

Updated: Mar 19, 2020

This post originally appeared as a Sway presentation on Library Sustenance on 07 March 2018.

A woman with dark hair sings into a microphone
Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill

What the BLEEP is Riot Grrrl?

noun riot grrrl

\ -ˈgərl, -ˈgər‧əl, -ˈgə̄l \

plural riot grrrls

Definition of riot grrrl : a girl or woman who participates in a feminist punk subculture


Riot grrrl isn't code for "angry woman." It's the name of a movement, and the musicians and activists within the movement. Riot grrrl as a music genre is characterized by an aggressive punk sound, and riot grrrl bands are always female led, if not entirely female backed. Riot grrrl emerged as a response to the almost exclusively male punk movement: grrrls were done being back-up singers. They were going to be the stars (Schilt).


But the revolution was bigger than a place in a band.

"Because I believe with my whole heart mind body that girls constitute a revolutionary soul force that can, and will, change the world for real
-Riot Grrrl Manifesto

Riot grrrls were reclaiming what it meant to be a girl. If society "offered no validation of women’s experiences," then they would create a culture that would (Feliciano). That culture rejected the traditional beauty standards and etiquette taught by popular girls' magazines like Seventeen and created a new openness around previously taboo subjects like rape and incest in a bevy of zines (Schilt). Riot grrrls took aim at misogyny, sexism, double- standards, and racism (Feliciano). It was a movement of girls using their power to change their world.

A girl stands in a mirror with the word slut written on her stomach and the word bitch written on her back
Aimee Fleck \\ A Riot Grrrl Story 2 \\ CC BY-NC-SA

Riot Gear

Listen to essential tracks from Bikini Kill, Sleater Kinney, and Bratmobile.




Works Cited

Feliciano, Stevie. "The Riot Grrrl Movement." New York Public Library, 19 June 2013, https://www.nypl.org/ blog/2013/06/19/riot-grrrl- movement.

Schilt, Kristen. "The History of Riot Grrls." The Feminist eZine, http:// www.feministezine.com/ feminist/music/The-History-of- Riot-Grrls-in-Music.html.

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