03.06.01

Okay. so i'd be the first to admit that i'm not your typical punk rockin' grrl- i don't have the required punk style sensibility, nor the tough "fuck you all" attitude (though i like to pretend...) but grrrl punk rocks my world.

and here's why:

it's so raw.

i love it for precisely the same reasons i love classical music, but aesthetically punk and classical are realms apart.

musically, punk often leaves much to be desired, but what comes across loud and clear is the angst- the pain, the sorrow, the anger-- and it needs no translation.

grrrl punk is so often filled with the truth of personal experience, the no frills narration of a world that is difficult to negotiate while retaining sanity.

when you hear carrie brownstein singing

"don't think you can start again/you've got my insides all over your hands/don't think you can ever hide/you stain everything you touch with your hands/don't think i'll let you forget/cuz i will never be able to forget/i know who you are/don't think you can pretend with me i still remember everything"

you can *hear* the experience in your head,feel it in your gut. punk is at once cerebral and instinctual. the ways in which it tackles 'cerebral' subjects and hammers the point home with lyrics cut straight from the heart is something not often found outside the genre.

gender dynamics,a la heavens to betsy:

"you follow me on the fuckin street/you make me feel like a piece of meat/you think i don't know what war means/now i'm the terrorist see how it feels...on my mouth there is a gag/everything i say is wrong/you laugh at me and knock me down/well now your turn is coming around"

and on race and punk:

"...it's thinking you're the hero of this pretty white song/it's thinking you're the hero of this pretty white world/white girl/you wanna change the world/but you can't change anything until you change your racist self/"

grrl punk is music without pretention, and part of it is such a revolutionary act-- women voicing their anger, their hurt, their passion, and not *trying* to make it pretty-- in fact, the point is, it's not pretty. being a woman in this society is not pretty, and many of the women in punk are screaming about this on their own terms. If making a presentation on gender inequality in a sexy, yet conservative tastefully pinstriped business suit to a room full of bored white men who are more concerned with the shape of your legs than what you have to say isn't working, what about getting up on stage in vinyl pants and a halter top with "slut" written across your stomach in lipstick (yes, kathleen hanna actually did this-- rawk on!) and screaming about it? women aren't allowed to be angry? women aren't allowed to make a scene? women need to be produced to be good musicians?

i don't fucking think so. and neither does bikini kill:

"if you work hard/you'll succeed/a starring role/on Nothing incorporated/he gets good grades/plays guitar/he's all the rage on/Nothing incorporated/gets good grades and plays guitar/thinks he's cool but really is not/reject sportscar/reject mausaleum/reject all american/reject all american"

fuck yeah.

this concludes your survey course of grrrl punk for today.

xoxo,

moonbird

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