Riot grrrl is an underground
feminist punk movement that began during the early 1990s within the
United States and has expanded to at least 26 other countries.
Riot grrrl is a subcultural movement that combines
feminism,
punk music, and politics. It is often associated with third-wave
feminism, which is sometimes seen as having grown out of the
riot grrrl movement and has recently been seen in fourth-wave
feminist punk music that rose in the 2010s. The genre has also been described as coming out of indie rock, with the
punk scene serving as an inspiration for a movement in which women could express themselves the same way men have been doing all along.
Riot grrrl songs often addressed
… Read more issues such as rape, domestic abuse, sexuality,
racism,
patriarchy, classism,
anarchism and female
empowerment. Primary
bands most associated with the movement by media include Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, Heavens to Betsy, and Huggy Bear. Also included were queercore groups such as Team Dresch and the Third Sex.
In addition to a unique
music scene and genre,
riot grrrl became a subculture involving a
DIY ethic, zines, art, political action, and activism. The movement quickly spread well beyond its musical roots to influence the vibrant zine and Internet-based
nature of fourth-wave
feminism, complete with local meetings and grassroots organizing to end intersectional forms of prejudice and
oppression, especially physical and emotional violence against all genders.
Riot grrrls are known to hold meetings, start chapters, and support and
organize women in
music as well as art created by
transgender people, gays and lesbians, and other communities.
Radical feminism is a perspective within
feminism that calls for a
radical reordering of
society in which male supremacy is eliminated in all social and economic contexts, while recognizing that women's experiences are also affected by other social divisions such as in race, class, and sexual orientation. The
ideology and movement emerged in the 1960s.
Radical feminists view
society as fundamentally a
patriarchy in which men dominate and oppress women.
Radical feminists seek to abolish the
patriarchy as one front in a struggle to liberate everyone from an unjust
society by challenging existing social norms and institutions. This struggle includes opposing the sexual objectification
… Read more of women, raising public awareness about such issues as rape and violence against women, challenging the concept of
gender roles, and challenging what
radical feminists see as a racialized and gendered capitalism that characterizes the
United States and many other countries.
Radical feminists locate the root cause of women's
oppression in patriarchal gender relations, as opposed to legal systems (as in liberal
feminism) or class
conflict (as in anarchist
feminism, socialist
feminism, and Marxist
feminism).
Anarcha-
feminism combines
anarchism with
feminism. Anarcha-
feminism generally posits that
patriarchy and traditional
gender roles as manifestations of involuntary coercive
hierarchy should be replaced by decentralized free association. Anarcha-feminists believe that the struggle against
patriarchy is an essential part of class
conflict and the anarchist struggle against the state and capitalism. In essence, the philosophy sees anarchist struggle as a necessary component of
feminist struggle and vice versa. L. Susan Brown claims that "as
anarchism is a political philosophy that opposes all relationships of power, it is inherently
feminist". Anarcha-
feminism is an anti-authoritarian,
… Read more anti-capitalist, anti-oppressive philosophy, with the goal of creating an "equal ground" between the genders. Anarcha-
feminism suggests the social
freedom and liberty of women without needed dependence upon other groups or parties. Anarcha-
feminism began with late 19th and early 20th century authors and theorists such as anarchist feminists
Emma Goldman,
Voltairine de Cleyre, Milly Witkop,
Lucía Sánchez Saornil, and Lucy Parsons. In the Spanish Civil
War, an anarcha-
feminist group,
Mujeres Libres ("Free Women"), linked to the Federación Anarquista Ibérica, organized to defend both anarchist and
feminist ideas.
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