Women to the front

Molly Tie’s Rebel Grrrls has three principal merits. First, it focuses not only on women but more narrowly on female fans, to explore “what punk was like on the ground – on the dancefloor – rather than the stage” – a facet neglected in most rock histories. Prompted by her own personal debt to punk, she has invited dozens of other women to share their experiences, reflect on the sense of connection and identity they have gained through punk culture, and discuss the political awakening it has inspired.

Second, while Rebel Grrrls’ publication may be timed to coincide with the 50^th anniversary of the “golden summer” of 1976, Tie gives tedious parochial purists a poke in the eye by not only acknowledging that punk began with the Velvet Underground in 1960s New York but also insisting that the genre did not then die with the dissolution of the Sex Pistols and is instead a living, breathing force to this day.

Third, Tie admirably refuses to let the fact that she is a devout, card-carrying (well, badge-wearing) punk cloud her judgement, offering a clear-sighted and often critical appraisal of its various incarnations past and present. With its inherently oppositional politics and focus on solidarity, community and grassroots organising, you would think that punk would be naturally aligned with feminism, providing women with a safe space within a patriarchal society. As Rebel Grrrls makes abundantly clear, though, that has not always been the case. Tie’s instinct to flag up the many blots on punk’s copybook comes from a place of love, but also a determination not to give it a free pass; given its typically idealistic and progressive aspirations and rhetoric, punk should rightly be held to its own high standards.

First-wave punk in the UK may have heralded moral panic for some, but for many young women its explosion was enormously liberating, offering an escape route from social and gender conformity and throwing up unconventional role models like Siouxsie Sioux and Poly Styrene. Furthermore, despite nihilistic strains, there was an emphasis on action that was constructive rather than merely destructive, inspiring belief in the possibility of bringing about positive change. Yet, as Tie notes, very few artists addressed issues that predominantly affect women, and it remained a male-dominated subculture.

Across the pond in the early 1980s, hardcore dispensed with any frivolity, getting leaner, faster and more furious. Most significantly, Tie observes, “[h]ardcore artists weren’t trying to reform existing structures or frameworks; rather, they were attempting to create spaces outside of them”.  However, sexism, misogyny and patriarchy were conspicuously absent from the long list of injustices that hardcore bands railed against – partly, no doubt, because women were once again poorly represented on stage. Hardcore’s aggressive and confrontational style gave birth to slam pits, which made gigs unwelcoming spaces for female fans. Perhaps most interestingly, Tie points out that to those outside the wider punk community, the abstinent straight-edge lifestyle associated with hardcore looked indistinguishable from puritanical conformity, regardless of its adherents’ motivations.

Riot grrrl – which emerged largely in the Pacific Northwest in the late 1980s and early 1990s – was the riposte, both to hardcore’s masculinity and grunge’s passive introspection. It took hardcore’s build-your-own-world ethos and put women front and centre, with issues such as abortion, sexual harassment, violence against women and safety at gigs now firmly on the agenda. Bands like Bikini Kill were, for countless girls, “the gateway drug for radical, feminist punk” – and for a wealth of feminist literature. Yet, as Tie concedes, even this apparently utopian feminist subculture of gigs, zines and activism can be criticised for a lack of diversity, with the community composed almost exclusively of white, middle-class women. Plus, I would suggest, it became something of an echo chamber – a classic case of preaching to the converted.

Nevertheless, the next historical phase, pop-punk, was a significant step backwards – a depoliticised, almost parodic form that saw boys barging their way back to the front, ushering in casual sexism and frat boy machismo. This was also the era in which every aspect of fandom became monetised, making bands’ relationship with fans more exploitative. Even worse was second-wave emo, with its focus on men who felt they had been “wronged” by women and lyrical content that some of Tie’s contributors retrospectively acknowledge contained harmful messages that led to internalised misogyny. Songs that encourage conformity with behavioural expectations are the antithesis of punk, and while Tie does not use the word “incel” herself, it is very much the elephant in the room.

The global turmoil of the last two decades – the political lurch to the right, financial crises and austerity, division and conflict, climate catastrophes – has of course been hugely damaging, but it has at least proven “fertile ground” for punk, which is now resurgent, repoliticised and raging. The likes of Dream Wife and Lambrini Girls have returned to the preoccupations of riot grrrl while performing for a broader audience. Encouragingly, there is now greater awareness of intersecting oppressions, with trans rights and decolonisation key causes. Challenges and concerns remain, though – about allyship and men’s reluctance to speak out, for instance, and about the distressingly frequent dissonance between what is preached from the stage and what is practised in dressing rooms and venue moshpits.

Rebel Grrrls is not a perfect book. Given its ambitious scope and modest length, it is at times inevitably a superficial survey, sacrificing deeper insight for sweeping generalisation; the visceral appeal of the music itself - raw, thrilling - is often buried beneath sustained consideration of its messaging; and the text would have benefited from more assiduous editing. But it is a necessary book - one that may hopefully pave the way for more forensic analyses of specific scenes and subcultures, and deeper explorations of topics such as the connection between punk fandom and activism and the paradox of seeking and finding individual identity within punk tribalism. And it ends by striking the right note: celebrating punk's current revival as a feminist force while warning against hypocrisy and complacency.

(An edited version of this review appeared on the Buzz website.)