Please.
I mean, I’m sick of all the white cisgender bullshit. What’s the fucking point of reviving a movement if your gunna revive its flaws while you’re at it?
And don’t start with arguing for positive insular-ism, because that will NOT fly. So fucking WHAT if you’re doing good for SOME women, you need to be doing good for ALL women. And in this day and age, and on THIS platform with so much education at your fingertips, you have no excuse. That’s the reason I kind of stopped posting riot grrrl stuff, it’s beyond problematic.
If we continue to propagate all the problematic, offensive crap that the 90s did, then there’s no point. Kathleen Hanna is openly cissexist and transmisogynist and the original riot grrrl movement was ridiculously white and middle class, but there is NO reason for us to be that way now. We have the benefit of internet education and communication; we don’t need to rely on these figureheads, we can take it in to our own hands and create something beautiful and important.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that EVERYONE who is reviving Riot Grrl is doing this, or that Riot Grrrl as a concept is inherently like this. I’m saying the opposite. A lot of its fundamental principles are fantastic; I think a lot of the media would flourish tenfold now we have advanced technologically, and without losing any of its DIY aspects. I mean, just look at all the great zines that have been circulating here on tumblr. The art and self-expression of the movement is something that should be cherished and explored. I think it would really appeal to a new generation of potential feminists.
I want to start an INTERSECTIONAL RIOT GRRRL movement. Be it in zine, tumblr, whatever form. Because the revivals I’m seeing at the moment are guilty of all the same faults that the original movement was.
If anyone would be interested in starting such a thing with me, starting afresh, taking the good parts - the DIY, the loud anger, the separation of academia and focus on lived experience, the focus on creativity and outreach, etc - and abandoning the whiteness, the cissexism and the classism in the trashcan of history where they belong, then send me a message and let’s do it.
We need to stand up against those who are reviving these oppressive aspects of Riot Grrrl.
Because if your feminism can only succeed by subjugating or ignoring others, then it is bullshit.
ETA: Like, even the NAME “riot grrl” in itself is problematic and offensive. I just have been thinking a lot about how the DIY and all that stuff is relevant and helpful, and we should be able to cherry pick the good elements of something and leave the rotten bits behind, adapting it into positive change.
