The coming (and going) girl rock revolution!
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the importance of music (and girl bands specifically) in making me the feminist that I am today. This has been spurred by two recent events — the break-up of Sleater-Kinney and the Team Dresch show I recently attended in Seattle. But I should back up a little first and give you some context.
See, as a girl who was a bit of an outcast, coming of age in the early 90s in a medium-sized conservative city in Alberta, expressing myself and my values and opinions was not always easy. And like many of my friends, music was the most accessible and most meaningful way I found of doing just that. I was already a proud feminist (thanks in large part to the teachings of my mother), and so all-girl or female-fronted bands appealed to me from the get-go. I remember being in high school when I first heard about Riot Grrrl, which was a punk rock feminist movement/community made up of numerous young women from across the country, a lot of whom were in such bands. It only took one mix tape made for me by a friend and I was hooked.
I was just so excited to hear girls screaming and yelling and playing loud electric guitars and talking about important issues. They were angry about the same things I was angry about — violence and abuse, discrimination, body image, sexuality, and all the myriad of other vile ways that sexism (and other forms of oppression) manifests itself. And not only were they angry, they were vocal and unapologetic about it, and some of them weren’t even that much older than me. This was the most amazing thing ever! Anyway, after that I wasn’t just any old feminist, I was a bad-ass feminist Riot Grrrl extraordinaire and I was pushing for the girl revolution!! Ok, but I’m getting ahead of myself now…
Sleater-Kinney and Team Dresch were two such bands who were instrumental in changing my life, giving me a deeper analysis of feminist (and other political) issues and making me more outspoken about these things. The former was made up of 3 women based in Portland, Oregon; they have lasted for over 10 years and in many ways, mirrored my own development as a feminist. Their analysis also deepened and became more complex as they grew from just-out-of-high-school to having families, but they never stopped placing feminist critiques at the center to their music and identity. They were smart and political and sassy and the recent news that they broke up brought me great sadness. I have no doubt however that these women will go on to great things, whether in the music world or not.
The latter band was also super important to me for a variety of reasons. Sure, they were also feminists, but being made up of 4 out queer women added another important element to the mix, and I have no doubt that this group was a part of my own coming out process. While they broke up quite some time ago, I was pleasantly surprised to see that they had reunited for a short tour. I took a brief road trip to go see them in Seattle in May, and it was truly an amazing experience. The tour was actually a fundraiser for a friend of theirs who was undergoing breast cancer surgery, which I also found was an incredibly caring and committed thing to do. (And see, this is what they mean by ‘walking the walk, not just talking the talk’.)
The show was amazing (unsurprisingly), but what was surprising however, was how into it I got. While I was looking forward to the show in a nostalgic sort of way, I wasn’t really as excited as I thought I’d be. But as soon as those gals stepped on the stage, it was like something clicked in me. I think I squealed and grabbed the arm of a friend, and from the first chord, I was sold. All the lyrics came rushing back to me and I belted them out along with the rest of the ladies in the crowd. I don’t think I ever stopped grinning for a single minute; it was like stepping right back into my youth. I just felt lucky to be right at the front at the stage with a bunch of amazing friends behind me, surrounded by a huge crowd of people, mostly queer, mostly women, all of whom were on some level committed to the same values and ideals as me. And I was further excited to find out that the tour was the beginning of a new era of Team Dresch, which I can only imagine will usher in a new era of young women whose lives can and will be altered by these fabulous women.
I left feeling inspired and excited and hopeful, which can be a rare thing in the current state of the world. And it really hammered home the importance of music in my life as a tool for furthering and inspiring feminist activism. So keep rocking out ladies, I know I will!!
