Jenny and I have had some massive email brainstorming sessions about how to play out this 200th post, and this is what we’ve come up with for your reading pleasure: remixing clothes from our pasts that we haven’t worn in ages (and should probably be donated somewhere, if not for Sentimental Value) and having STORYTIME about said clothes. Which is all the more fitting for FFW, because my very first post was about my clothes and their happy/sad stories.

Could I look any more scowly in this photo? I think it’s because I’m dissatisfied with the pseudo-phallic crotch-knot.

No crotch-knot this time. The dress in its full glory.

In high school, I wore this dress all the frickin’ time. I’d bought it at Crossroads Recycled Clothing — which is where I also went and bought some boots during a bomb threat at school — and it appealed to this pseudo-vintage-loving self buried deep inside my outward self, which was often more invested in dressing “punk/riot grrrl/zine kid,” etc. Often my memories are interpreted through the lens of memories of photographs, and the photograph that this dress reminds me of the most is a class portrait of my Calculus BC class. I had big, curly hair (I guess that much hasn’t changed about me, but my choice of stylists has improved a lot) and had that sort of stick-thin figure that rapidly disappeared in my first year of college, and we were all standing in front of a board that depicted some sort of equation or proof — maybe about Riemann sums or the proof of a derivative/function/integral? (I’m sorry, Mrs. Rachtman!) As soon as I tried to remix this dress, I realized all over again why I NEVER wear this dress anymore. It just feels dowdy to me in a bad way, and my sad attempt at showing the underslip only resulted in failure.

Kova & T t-shirt, nostalgia skirt, UO scarf

This particular skirt is from my mother’s wardrobe when she was a young woman. May I also add that she was a young woman with a tiny waist. The tiny waist has prevented me from wearing this pleated and spotted pastel skirt in public, but I’m nostalgic about it because my mom didn’t keep many of her old clothes, and she gave this one to me a long time ago. It’s been in my possession/closet for ages, and I keep thinking I’ll wear it, but there are a lot of things that aren’t so much in its favor — it’s pastel pink (not “my color”), it’s too small, it’s an awkward length. Still. I refuse to donate it.

xo, mw

.

I’m glad Meggy ended her post on a skirt that once belonged to her mother because all of my nostalgia outfits are completely entwined with memories of my mother. One of my first memories of vanity is standing outside of the bathroom and crying while my mother was applying make-up because I didn’t want her to be more beautiful than she already was. I also remember crying on an outdoor walk after my mom bent down to admire a flower, and like the brat that I was and still am today, I said, “You think the flower is pretty but not me?” I must have been four or five at the time. Anyway, after a lifetime of watching my mom getting ready and wearing beautiful clothes on her tall, swan-graceful frame, and her asking me to come into her bedroom while she tried on outfit after outfit (there was the all white silk pantsuit, the jewel toned ankle length floral skirt with lace-up boots, several 50’s polka dotted dresses with cinched waists, the red silk jumpsuit with matching neck scarf, the seafoam green silk qipao with slits so high she could only wear them to events where she didn’t have to sit down)–is it any wonder that my style has always been and is still greatly influenced by my mother? It’s my mom’s birthday tomorrow and my heart is full of love and gratitude to her as my fashion debt to her (not to mention all the other more spiritually taxing debts) keeps growing.

Scintillating blue skirt handmade by my mother, H & M black top, incredibly heavy vintage hammered belt (reminiscent of a belt my mom gave me 12 years that I lost 7 years ago)

Same shiny skirt but in silver, mom’s silver necklace, mom’s earrings

My mom used to work as a seamstress for a tiny fashion label run out of this lady Lisa’s apartment. Sometimes, she took me over there and Lisa’s mother, who we all called ‘mom,’ would make me sandwiches, which was amazing to me because my parents never bought sliced bread, had a toaster, or owned more than 2 forks until I was 15 (and actually we only had 2 forks in our home until I was 18 and a family friend donated their old IKEA silverware set to us.) I loved going to work with my mom because Lisa wore big jewelry and went to Italy in the summers for inspiration. Lisa was incredibly generous. She hired my mom even though my mom barely spoke English. In the mornings, she came down to help my mom parallel park our car because my mom was too scared to do it, gave us gifts all the time, and at one point, she hired my grandmother, who was newly arrived from China and living with us, to help with sewing and construction. The silver necklace I’m wearing in the second photo (which is having its last gasp before all the beads fall off) was a gift Lisa picked up for my mom in Italy. Up until a few years ago, she still sent us Christmas cards and sometimes little earrings in the mail. In the past few years, we’ve fallen out of touch. (Lisa, if you ever happen across this blog: my mom and I love you!)

Both of those skirts are Lisa’s designs. We used to own dozens of skirts and dresses and jackets in this fabric. I’ve never seen that fabric anywhere else–it’s so iridescent and shimmery, but not at all in a gaudy way. The silver skirt has a very wide cummerbund like waistband. My mom wore these two skirts all the time until I started begging her to let me wear them. I wore both skirts pretty much every week in high school after I got over my I’m a badass punker who only wears wide leg jeans phase. (I wasn’t as cool as Meggy to know about riot grrl yet.) I wore both skirts all year round. During the summer, with sandals, and during the winter, with clunky combat shoes and sometimes with a scarf tied around my neck (also inspired by my mom.) I wore them all the time in college too, often with a pinstriped blazer I got from H & M and Pepé Le Pew boots that I’ll show you guys another time. I can’t really wear these skirts anymore because they are ridiculously big on me (I must have worn them really low-waisted when I was younger,) and because they look so so so insanely 80s.

Here I’m wearing a green wool skirt my mom passed down to me in high school, around the time when I became obsessed with clothes again. (In elementary school, I used to come home and take out all of my mom’s dresses and wear them in front of her full-length mirror when she wasn’t home and then by 5:30, half an hour before she came home, I would put them all back. I never told my mom about it until one day I checked her closet and all of her dresses were gone. It turned out she had thrown her old clothes into a dumpster to make room in her closet, and only years later did I confess that I had been secretly coveting them for years! After that, I went through a phase when I dressed really badly and was bitter about everything.)

I used to wear this exact outfit (but with flat red mary janes or knock-off blue Converses with a cherry print) about once a week when I was a sophomore in college. I’m holding a copy of Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying because I came up with this outfit after I had a meltdown during my Faulkner seminar. We were discussing Absalom, Absalom! a book I hated at the time (I bet I’d like it now) in a class that I loathed with all of my heart and soul, and in the middle of a laborious close-reading of a single sentence in Absalom, Absalom! I realized that I hated being an English major, and I detested the English curriculum, and I detested the methodology of English literature studies, and that taking English classes was swallowing my love for reading and writing into a black vomit hole of hatred, and I got out of my seat in the middle of my professor’s lecture, ran all the way home, searched on the internet for ‘how to tie a tie,’ and started wearing ties four days out of the week. (I also switched my major to Ethnic Studies.) My favorite outfit to wear with a tie was this one. My mom’s wool skirt with pocket flaps in the front with this thrift store skinny green tie (now riddled with moth holes,) and this plain white button-down that my friend Diana bought in China but gave to me because the shoulders didn’t fit her well. I don’t wear ties anymore, mostly because I’m sick of people, friends and complete strangers alike, coming up to me and asking, “Hey are you trying to be like Avril Lavigne?” UM, NO YOU TWIT is what I want to say but never do.

Innocently clutching Absalom, Absalom! (Actually this is As I Lay Dying, which I fucking love, but I’m pretending it’s Absalom, Absalom! for the purposes of this post.)

Dear Absalom, Abasalom! I’m only smiling because I’m going to destroy you.

Now that you’ve been destroyed, I’m going after the English canon.

So now that we’ve shared our ghosts of fashion past and incorporated them into our present, do any of you have old clothes that you can’t bear to part with for nostalgic reasons?

Love, Jenny

Nona Willis Aronowitz and Emma Bee Bernstein criss-crossed the country for Girldrive

“Let’s go on a road trip! You’re a writer. I’m a photographer. Let’s write a book. Let’s [f-ing] do something!”

This slice of a 2006 conversation between then-22-year-old writer Nona Willis Aronowitz and 21-year-old Emma Bee Bernstein launched the start of a life-changing journey.

The two born-and-bred New Yorkers were fresh college graduates curious about American women’s feelings about feminism. Armed with questions about women’s hopes, fears, and ambitions—and how feminism plays a role in women’s lives today—they decided to do whatever it would take to drive across the U.S. in a Chevy Cavalier to find the answers.

The late Emma Bee Bernstein, and Nona Willis Aronowitz (photo by Lucy Radtke)

What started as a rapid-fire idea actualized itself into a full-color, 221-page book of profiles and photography: Girldrive: Criss-Crossing America, Redefining Feminism, released in late October. The duo started by blogging about their trip, which quickly caught the attention of Seal Press, the publisher that offered Aronowitz and Bernstein a publishing contract.

Inspired by their Second Wave feminist mothers, the childhood camp pals hit up major and mid-size cities including Chicago, Las Vegas, New Orleans, and Provincetown, and interviewed nearly 200 women of varying ages and walks of life. Aronowitz and Bernstein connected with well-known feminists such as Martha Cotera and Andi Zeisler in addition to twentysomething artists, middle-aged moms, punk bartenders, an anarchist midwife, and a burlesque-dancing seamstress.

With a focus on diversity and discussing the connections of race and class in everyday life, there’s not a central overarching theme that answers how American women feel about their lives in terms of feminism. But perhaps that’s the point of Girldrive.

“Some second-wavers think of feminism as a movement; whereas, young women tend to think about feminism as separate issues,” Willis says during her jam-packed book-release party at Brooklyn’s A.I.R. Gallery on October 30.

Though some of the young women featured in Girldrive don’t claim the word “feminist,” you get the sense that their everyday actions are in fact a payoff of feminism’s achievements. As Aronowitz writes, “This half-forgotten history learned from our mothers and mentors does not discourage us; it instead pushes us forward to talk to our generation.”

Kathleen Hanna photo by Emma Bee Bernstein

Girldrive culminates with a profile of Kathleen Hanna, often considered the leader of modern feminism. One of the founders of the riot grrl movement and the bands Bikini Kill and Le Tigre, Hanna is famous for her lyric-turned-battle cry “Revolution grrl-style now.” In 1990, when Newsweek declared feminism dead, she helped to prove to the world that feminism was alive and kicking hard. In the Girldrive interview, Hanna says that despite the triumphant ups and discouraging downs of her radical past, she recommends the learning experiences that come out of standing up for your beliefs.

For all the questions that Girldrive answers, sadly, Bernstein never got to see the final fruits of her labor. In December 2008, she took her own life in Venice, Italy. Aronowitz dedicates the book to her co-author, calling Bernstein her “intellectual soulmate, whose biggest strength and weakness was feeling everything like a stab in the heart.” 

Aronowitz also dedicated the book to another “kick-ass feminist who left the world too early”: her mother, Ellen Willis, a well-known music journalist, whom Aronowitz is writing her next book about.

Watch the Girldrive trailer.

—

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For almost two years BLOCKSHOT has shaken up riot grrl territory with gigs between London and Berlin, Amsterdam and Vienna and everywhere else they’ve been invited to. Punk magazines can’t decide whether they sound too much or too little like pioneers TEAM DRESCH, SLEATER-KINNEY or BIKINI KILL but agree that they like what they hear. The fun this powerful foursome has on stage is not to be missed — whether they play Ladyfest or open for grindcore bands, as long as they can jump up and down, they are happy! With two releases on F-Spin they want to take their DIY ethic on the road again, by touring Southeast Asia in January 2010!

Keep watching this space for more information.

Meanwhile:

www.blockshot.de
www.myspace.com/blockshotrock

I finally watched Itty Bitty Titty Committee this weekend, and it put me in a total riot grrl mood!

1. Bikini Kill – Rebel Girl
2. Sleater-Kinney – I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone
3. Le Tigre – Eau D’Bedroom Dancing
4. Sleater-Kinney – Step Aside

]]> http://meandthebee.wordpress.com/2009/09/21/sickness-leads-to-stains/ Mon, 21 Sep 2009 15:25:39 +0000 meandthebee http://meandthebee.wordpress.com/2009/09/21/sickness-leads-to-stains/

I spent the majority of last week as a walking petri dish of sickness. If it’s airborne then I WILL get it. No amount of vitamin C or hard liquor could kill what was lurking in my chest and sinuses. Wouldn’t it figure that the first day I start to feel better is the same day that The Bee comes down with it? I’m so sorry! My apologies to whomever else I may have infected unintentionally. I’m bad news, baby.

In non-bad news, the sickness gave me the chance to finally watch “Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains” which The Bee bought me last year for my birthday. I’ll just say that the movie was OK, not a full-on flop but nothing super stellar either. Saying that, I am a sucker for most any music film especially one that memorialized the late 70’s/early 80’s punk era so I already liked it based on the release date and a brief synopsis on the back of the DVD. The film focuses on a girl trio, a band of misfit runaways who seek fame and acceptance on the stage. A young Diane Lane is seriously fierce as the leader, Corinne “Third Degree” Burns, who pushes the group, and subsequently their fans, in the direction of social freedom through fashion. The Stains “skunk” look is cultivated by barely there red and black garments and hair dyed black w/ “white stripes”. Now, I couldn’t help but wonder if the film’s couture provided any inspiration for a young Detroit duo who implemented their own Red/White/Black color scheme? There is also the highly clichéd love/hate relationship between Corinne and punk frontman Billy which leads to a literally steamy (and what I’m pretty sure is illegal) lover’s tryst in a shower.

What I found most impressive was the fact that 1/2 of the original Sex Pistols line-up including Steve Jones and Paul Cook PLUS (and most awesomely) The Clash’s own Paul Simonon rounded out the headlining band on The Stain’s breakout/down tour. The movie is worth the watch alone for the star-studded cameo’s (pretty sure I saw an unbilled Mary-Louise Parker in one scene or at the very least a dead-ringer) not to mention Christine Lahti as Corinne’s aunt and a pre-Blue Velvet Laura Dern. Despite its fair share of poorly crafted scenes and more dead eyed looks from actors then you can throw a stick at, “The Fabulous Stains” is worth the watch for all the wicked tongue lashings and fashion bad-assery.

If I hadn’t already picked out my costume for Halloween this year, I’d be all about the “Third Degree”.

Clicky clicky folks.

(But seriously, dammit Le Tigre. Why don’t you have a video of people dancing around on Youtube that I could easily embed in my blog.)

Some of us don’t have fancypants paid accounts that let us upload our own mp3 files here, you know. 

 This jam is for everyone who’s raging against the machine.

Sorry for the delay, work got so busy toward the end of the week that I couldn’t focus on anything else! But hey, it’s awesome to be busy.

GRABBY:

• GOING TO AUSTIN THIS WEEK. My sister is planning all kinds of awesome adventures for us and I CAN’T WAIT.
• Current issue of Nylon magazine with Karen O on the cover. There’s an article on riot grrl style that makes me want to listen to Bikini Kill, put on red lipstick and dance…like, totally.
• Indian buffet with K! And afternoon iced coffee breaks!
• Buying plane tickets to Toronto for work! I’ve never been to Canada. Won’t have a lot of time outside of working, but I am interested and excited just to see what I can!
• The Gossip’s new album. It’s great beginning to end, and I have a feeling there are going to be some wicked awesome remixes.
• iPhone!!!!!!!!! It’s as good as everyone says.
• When Issac Mizrahi’s face goes all Mommy Dearest on The Fashion Show. That man’s facial expressions seem to have no connection to his thoughts.

STABBY:

• NYC Prep. It actually manages to make NYC look boring. I can’t wait for Gossip Girl to come back for Fall! And…I can’t believe I just said that.

Her-nia.

It’s been a while since I did a blog links round-up! Here are the latest interesting articles I’ve stumbled across…

(c) Dina Goldstein, Part IV of Fallen Princess Series

–> This has to be the most awesome-badass-edgy-fucking-rad series of photographs I’ve come across in a long time. The photographer, Dina Goldstein, depicts the Disney Princesses in their potential “modern” situations — Snow White is taking care of multiple children with a dead-beat Prince Charming sleeping on the couch…Jasmine is fighting in a war (against the U.S. perhaps?), and so on. Check it out here! Social commentary + Pretty Pictures = Badass.

–> Political activist for the GOP in South Carolina, Rusty DePass, says the gorilla is Michelle Obama’s ancestor. What a racist asshat.

–> Riot Grrrl is making a comeback! Read Greta’s article & check out her site.

–> There might be a new sexual orientation…and it involves the Eiffel Tower…

Cheers,
Dollface

Thanks to Heartless Doll for some of these links!

If you read this blog or if you liked this blog, when it was alive, then I think you’ll like my new blog.
Check out my new blog: Forwrrrd
Forwrrrd is an activism, DIY, equal rights, feminism, human rights, riot grrrl, and women’s rights blog. If anybody wants to contribute something to the blog, email me: grrrlsvomitcandy@hotmail.com with the subject “blog” or “contribute”. Contributions must be activism, diy, equal rights, feminism, human rights, riot grrrl, and/or women’s rights focused. Any and all contributions will be appreciated and credited. Thanks!

Here are some websites I can be found on:
Riot Grrrl Online Website (RGO) link #1 or RGO link #2 or RGO link #3
Riot Grrrl Online News/Updates Page
Riot Grrrl Online Forum
Riot Grrrl Online Social Network
Free @riotgrrrl.co.uk Email Address
Riot Grrrl Chat
Riot Grrrl Online Updates and Other Riot Grrrl/Feminism Stuff
Riot Grrrl Online LiveJournal Community
Riot Grrrl Online Last.fm Group
Riot Grrrl Online on Myspace
Riot Grrrl Online Group on Myspace
Riot Grrrl Online Mailing List
Riot Grrrl Online on MyBlogLog

Here are some social networks I can be found on:
Care2
Delicious
DeviantArt
Digg
Last.fm
LiveJournal
Myspace
TakingItGlobal
Technorati
Twitter
Wikipedia
Windows Live Spaces

You can also email me, but just remove the NOSPAM part of the email address.

Feel free to email me: links, riot grrrl chapters, information, articles, submissions, contributions, etc. for the Riot Grrrl Online website or for the Forwrrrd Blog. Thanks!

Finger on the Trigger #1

Thursday 11 June, 8 ’til late

At Club Ivy, Dixon Street, Wellington

Free Entry

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A night for and by womyn, wimmin, women, wahine, ladies, shelias, chicks, females, grrls, gals, trans, queers, takataapui, dykes, whakawahine, fa’afafine, bisexuals, lesbians, intersex folks, and friends!

Beats to move your feets ~ provided by our resident DJs:

Hubahabanero

Cut Loose

Puss in Boots

- and special guests

Spinning such greats as:

Cindy Lauper, Santigold, Portishead, Babes in Toyland, 5,6,7,8s, Kimya Dawson, Coco Solid, Spitboy, L7, Amy Winehouse, M.I.A., Le Tigre, Suzanne Vega, Bikini Kill, B-52s, Edith Piaff, Screamclub, Joan Jett, Blondie, Sleater-Kinney, The Pixies, The Herbaliser, B-52s, Massive Attack, Edith Piaff, Vive la Fete, Grace Jones, Dusty Springfield, Cat Power, Lauryn Hill, Chicks on Speed, Chaka Khan, Missy Elliot, Ladi6, Lady Sovereign, Ladytron, The Knife, Dandylion Junk Queens, Cansei de Ser Sexy, Peaches, Lily Allen, Hot Chip, La Fraction, Nina Simone, The Go! Team, Thievery Corporation, Gudrun Gut, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Xray Specs, The Gossip, Bananarama, The Bangles, Madonna, Nina Hagen, Coco Rosie, Dirt, Asian Dub Foundation, Tromatism, Donna Summer, The Feminazis, Bratmobile, Crystal Castles, Heartsrevolution, Watcha Clan, Deee-Lite, Nouvelle Vague, The Slits, Hansa Plast, Ms Dynamite, Malaria, Jill Scott, Erykah Badu, La Vendetta, Non Band, Amparanoia, Naked Aggression, Poison Girls, Electric Deads, Kumbia Queers, La Lupe, Leslie and the Lys, Queer Junglists, Cherry and the Gemstones, The Hairdos, Keny Arkana, Ditzy Squall, Thee Head Coatees, Holly Golightly, Delta 5, Wanda Jackson, The Carnys, Pink Turds in Space, Mind of Asian, Rockshop, Edith Nylon, Submission Hold, Nightmares on Wax, Balkan Beat Box, Violent Femmes, The Cure, Bauhaus, Kocani Orkestar, Leslie Gore, Yo Majesty!, Althea & Donna, Lykke Li, New Young Pony Club, Joy Division, Guts Pie Earshot, The Germs, Nuyorican Soul, Open Souls, Crass, Queer Junglists, Yellow Rage, Sandra Melody, Tanya Stevens, Sheba Williams, Sisters Underground, Mischief Brew, The Breeders, Sonic Youth, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, New Age Steppers, Link Wray, The Cramps, Verse Two, Ezma Redsepova, The Raincoats…

See ya on the dancefloor!

Bellenden Ker

I’m terrible at keeping up with the themes of my blog. But I have some things I want to say.

So i’m writing this review of Muslims of Metropolis by Kavitha Rajagopalan, and I keep thinking about these two quotes, which may or may not have anything to do with the book, but certainly speak to a certain political mood-crisis  i find myself in:

“A lot of the times because of the media and stuff people get forced to be reactionary, like i find myself trying to be the opposite of the media’s perception or something like that. And it’s really fucked up because it fucks with your creativity because you end up always having to answer questions that are based on lies.” — Kathleen Hanna

“I’m doomed to fight on the side of people that have no space for me in their social imagination, and I would probably be the first person that was strung up if they won. But the point is that they are the ones that are resisting on the ground, and they have to be supported, because what is happening is unbelievable.” – Ahrundhati Roy

I also re-read Jigsaw Youth for the first time in forever and i was like dang, this is still relevant to my life.

Also, last week I totally developed emotional problems based on people posting this story to their Facebook profiles. It’s like totally awful and i get that, but I’m also like “Yeah, no fucking shit.” and then i’m all, “The blood of gay Iraqis, much like the blood of all Iraqis is on your hands. talk to you later.”

Qu'est que tu pense Mrs. Horovitz?

My second favorite Kathleen.

This recent Jezebel post on a Riot Grrrl Retrospective

made me remember how much I luvs her.

I also stole my haircut from her, circa 2004. 

Random thought of the day: Praise Allah that youtube did not exist when my friends and I made really embarrassing entertaining videos when we were little. We were dumb enough to have probably put them online.

When I first heard of the Riot Grrrl a few years ago, I was annoyed. She seemed reckless and unself-conscious, and her artistic trademarks (the wild outfits, big boots and angry excited passion) were horrifyingly easy for the mainstream to mimic and then quickly discard at the arrival of Britney. Britney later had that riotous moment in which she shaved her head and walked around L.A. in slapped-on parodies of dresses,  all of which was explained medically by her handlers – but she was at the time, of course, meant as a bracing bit of “traditional” pop-stardom, to be consumed at the slightest sign of mock-fearing these new angry chicks. Could the Riot Grrrl not have done something to protect her image from theft and ritual disposal? Could she not have made herself such an easy target?

But I’ve changed my mind about her now, and for the same reasons that she initially bothered me.

In 1976, the Clash wrote “White Riot:” “Black people gotta lotta problems/but they don’t mind throwing a brick/white people go to school/where they learn how to be thick.” The song calls for a “white riot, a riot of our own;” while it attributes a “lotta problems” to “black people,” it basically equates the two races in powerlessness (“all the power’s in the hands of people rich enough to buy it/while we walk the streets too chicken to even try it”) and pleads with listeners to rebel – “are you taking over or are you taking orders?”

“White Riot” actually has a sharp point: you shouldn’t be satisfied with your spot on the class ladder just because you’re doing a little better than your neighbor. It expresses that point, however, in a muddled and misinterpretation-prone way, and with vast generalizations, and vague lyrics, and lots and lots of shouting.

This is fine; it is correct. The Clash had a right to be muddled and shouty and vague. That’s what art and politicization are all about; they incite emotion – they don’t write policy. The punk movement named itself for an old word for prostitute, which had come to connote small-time criminality -even though a lot of prominent punks were middle-class- and that was catchy, and things were fine. Some early British punks wore swastikas, a gesture whose anti-symbolism symbolism I’ve heard explained in at least five unsatisfying ways, and that was fine. Nobody got it, but that doesn’t matter.

You have a right to make a fool of yourself. Joe Strummer called himself “Joe Strummer,” an entry-level rockabilly sort of pseudonym. Before that he called himself Woody Mellor. But he is a hero. He made art and believed he could change the world, and looking bad was not his concern; he stenciled REBEL TRUCE and FACE OF THE ASSASSIN on button-downs, and knew he looked great, and people believed him and then he was right.

And if that’s okay, then women should have the right to put three “r”s in “girl.” They should be allowed to make demands, and not to be put-together; all the more since women have still not been socially awarded these rights. Most movements ask women to be patient. Writing SLUT on your skin, and embracing feminism on the street level, and making your clothes a parody of sexiness are legitimate and beautiful gestures which many will misinterpret, and that is their miserable goddamn problem. You cannot be a hero if you’re always checking behind your back for potential misinterpretation. This is why I am glad that the Riot Grrrl did not care what the media thought. It wasn’t her fault that the world wasn’t as hungry for her as it was for Joe Strummer, nor that methods were immediately devised to sell them both.

.

.

(Political disclaimer! There are some problems with this post. My male punk has a name, whereas my “Riot Grrrl” character does not; this exposes a lack of  knowledge of the scene, rather than a desire to dehumanize and lump. I only just realized -while idly reading the Guardian article linked above- that I’ve changed my whole mind since I last thought seriously about the movement back in college, and since I am not much of a punk, I’ll probably always be more familiar with Riot Grrrl as a popular image and as a feminist movement than as a collection of rock bands.)

S. always has an interesting look. She is mixes patterns without overwhelming. Perhaps, because she is sticking to red, black, white.
The jacket is terribly interesting. I would wear everything here except the skirt. I like skirts on curvy hips, not straight hips like mine.

Punk gives an interesting palette of ideas to play with. I would label this look Straight Queer Riot Grrl. I have been taking more shots in ’straight queer’ settings. To become postgendered we must transcend gender in all its facets, including the homo/hetero. Post gender leads me to post-maculinism, but it also implies post-fags, post-dykes and post-straights.

riot grrl is definitely an understated genre. like philosophers or skateboarders, genealogy and influence in music usually measure the worth of a band rather than popularity. but i think the riot grrls of yesteryear must feel about girly indie pop today what marx would have felt towards mao zedong or louis althusser. riot grrl was fuckin loud, angry, and smashed the confinement of women in rock and roll to gendered novelty roles like “chick bassist” (sorry kim gordon), “sultry female singer in front of all-male band” (sorry patti smith), or some other disempowering sex symbol. heavens to betsy, bikini kill, bratmobile, etc made some of the best punk music ever by simply taking the machismo out of their music while leaving the anger and politics of the form in tact. but seriously, what the fuck happened to that genre? it devolved in two separate directions: one was the mid-90s corporate co-optation of feminist rock with people like alanis morrisette and paula cole and the other was seen in the evolution of k records and killrockstars. after being a badass bitch in bikini kill, kathleen hanna created the fucking terrible band le tigre, which traded in punk rock and radical feminism for indie rock and bourgeois third-wave feminism. k records put out tons of records by girl bands that were no longer loud and radical but who were instead meek and sexy. tiger trap’s sonically enormous reappropriation of traditional femininity has evolved into a reactionary rehash in bands like the all-girl summer fun band, who remind me of a teenage girl who is too old to be using girly precociousness for sexual manoeuvres. third-wave feminism is nothing but that: the idea that sexuality can be responsibly harnessed by individual women as an instrument for personal advancement, as if the general social reproduction of gender is something every woman can overcome herself. go ahead! get paid $500 bucks to be on suicidegirls.com! you’re so empowered when you are objectified into a general woman! anything with nice tits and a pussy will do! go ahead! you too can be the next vice-president of the united states. discover your inner goddess.

okay, enough digression. if the indie-pop shit that came out today was actually intended to be empowering, why do all the bands feature some super-skinny model wearing the latest european corporate fashion with perfect hair and perfect makeup? the direct descendants of musicians who genuinely tried to destroy image and posturing are nothing but the glorified spokeswomen of modern bourgeois womanhood.

which one won spin magazine’s “sex goddess award” two years in a row?

WIN: A copy of Marion Leonard’s book ‘Gender In The Music Industry: Rock, Discourse & Girl Power’, worth £55

From the publisher’s website: Why, despite the number of high profile female rock musicians, does rock continue to be understood as masculine? Why is rock generally assumed to be created and performed by men? Marion Leonard explores different representations of masculinity offered by, and performed through, rock music, and examines how female rock performers negotiate this gendering of rock as masculine. A major concern of the book is not specifically with men or with women performing rock, but with how notions of gender affect the everyday experiences of all rock musicians within the context of the music industry.

Leonard addresses core issues relating to gender, rock and the music industry through a case study of ‘female-centred’ bands from the UK and US performing so called ‘indie rock’ from the 1990s to the present day. Using original interview material with both amateur and internationally renowned musicians, the book further addresses the fact that the voices of musicians have often been absent from music industry studies.

Leonard’s central aim is to progress from feminist scholarship that has documented and explored the experience of female musicians, to presenting an analytic discussion of gender and the music industry. In this way, the book engages directly with a number of under-researched areas: the impact of gender on the everyday life of performing musicians; gendered attitudes in music journalism, promotion and production; the responses and strategies developed by female performers; the feminist network riot grrrl and the succession of international festivals it inspired under the name of Ladyfest.

Features interviews with Kim Deal, Kim Gordon, Kathleen Hanna, Corin Tucker, Justine Frischmann, John Peel plus members of Babes In Toyland, Lush, Le Tigre, Kenickie, Salad, Pooka, Girlfrendo, We Start Fires and many others.

To win, all you have to do is answer this question. How many Ladyfest events were documented on the central Ladyfest website before it stopped being updated in 2005? The answer lies here. Once you’ve found it, ping us an email. Closing date: November 30th 2008.

WIN: A copy of the Fortuna POP! retrospective Be True To Your School featuring Amelia Fletcher in Tender Trap, worth £5

From the label’s Myspace: The small dictatorship of Fortuna POP! has existed since winning its independence in the Britpop wars of the late 1990s. Its major export is the 7″ single and the CD album, the sole produce of the country’s various tribes, from the unfeasibly tall Butterflies Of Love people of the East coast to the small pygmies of the Midlands known as The Chemistry Experiment. Often unfairly grouped in the league of twee nations, the peoples of this small country are actually an incredibly diverse bunch, manufacturing everything from ’60s pop psychedelia (The Loves) to stop-start riot grrl shouty pop (Bearsuit), love songs for punk rockers (Milky Wimpshake) to sassy hip-hop sampling girl group pop (Cannonball Jane), mini-pop symphonies (Fanfarlo) to orchestral country (Airport Girl), sophisticated and elegant European art-pop (The Would-Be-Goods) to warm and literate indie (The Lucksmiths), lo-fi American rock (Finlay) to folk-prog-disco (The Chemistry Experiment), punk-soul (Comet Gain) to classic Americana (The Butterflies Of Love), perfect pop (Tender Trap) to C86 Spector-ish indie (The Aislers Set) and modern folk (Sodastream).

Released last month, this budget-priced sampler lifts 25 of the finest songs the Fortuna POP! label has fitfully and funnily spewed forth in its 15 years of existence. Includes the Tender Trap song ‘Oh Katrina’ from their debut album Film Molecules.

Be True To Your School
01 Discordia – Y Sun Over Discordia
02 Finlay – Home
03 Tender Trap – Oh Katrina
04 Sodastream – Blinky
05 Bearsuit – Itsuko Got Married
06 Mark 700 – Catchy Monkey
07 Cannonball Jane – Take It To Fantastic
08 The Chemistry Experiment – You’re The Prettiest Thing
09 The Loves – Xs & Os
10 Micktravis – Yvonne
11 The Butterflies Of Love – Rob A Bank
12 Spraydog – Dialling Mitt
13 International Strike Force – I’m A Tiger
14 Twinkie – TK1
15 Fanfarlo – Talking Backwards
16 The Lucksmiths – T-Shirt Weather
17 MJ Hibbett – Work’s All Right (If It’s A Proper Job)
18 Taking Pictures – Fallen Angels
19 Airport Girl – Between Delta & Delaware
20 Mogul – Starving Hungry In Tescos
21 Milky Wimpshake – Dialling Tone
22 The Aislers Set – The Walk
23 Would-Be-Goods – Too Old
24 Comet Gain – You Can Hide Your Love Forever
25 Homescience – Small Music

To win, all you have to do is name four of Amelia Fletcher’s bands to date. The answer lies here. Once you’ve found it, ping us an email. Closing date: November 30th 2008.

* * *

Alan Pedder 

words in edgeways with amelia fletcher

Brilliantly named music journalist Kitty Empire once wrote of Amelia Fletcher, “In a nicer parallel universe, [she] is the most influential artist of her day,” and anyone who knows of Amelia’s chameleonic career in indie music would have no inclination to disagree with such a flattering statement. From her very early days as a member of Talulah Gosh, Oxford’s finest exponent of the legendary Sarah Records-era twee pop, to her most recent incarnation in Tender Trap with partner Rob Pursey, the original bassist for Talulah Gosh and mainstay through her intervening bands Heavenly and Marine Research, Amelia remains a poignant lyrical observer of the world we live in and the relationships we prosper in or endure. As songs like ‘Applecore’ and ‘Ampersand’ from the most recent Tender Trap album 6 Billion People prove, she also remains a fantastic songwriter if, to use her own words, “spectacularly unfamous”.

We first interviewed Amelia back in 2006, when 6 Billion People was fresh out of the factory, and found her completely charming in every way. A hard working mum of two, she’s since been appointed Chief Economist at the Office of Fair Trading – a lofty post by anyone’s reckoning – but still finds time to spend with her first love, music. When Wears The Trousers found out that she was putting in an appearance at Ladyfest Manchester as a commentator on feminism and counterculture (read her speech here), we had to seize the opportunity to find out whether she was making a new album. She is! Great! Read on.

* * *

So, you briefly touched on your visit to the first ever Ladyfest back in 2000 during the debate earlier. I was wondering if you could tell us some more about your experiences there. What was the atmosphere like? What kind of people did you meet? That sort of thing.

It was really great. It was in Olympia, Washington, and actually they had a history of having festivals in this place, that was not unlike this, called the Capitol Theater and other venues around the town because they used to have this thing called Yo-Yo A Go-Go quite regularly, and in fact my band had played Yo-Yo a couple of times before. So in a funny sort of way it didn’t seem that different because Olympia always had so many females involved in everything so it was just sort of a little bit along the spectrum. Nevertheless, because it was so linked with riot grrl, and I was so excited generally about riot grrl, it felt like a very exciting occasion. There were women-only gigs and there were just lots and lots of things going on that weren’t music, like workshops and things where they were teaching people how to play songs and play guitar and things like that. I think that was unique to Ladyfest – I think! – and that was really really good although I did walk into one of them…I probably shouldn’t really say this…but I walked into one which was in an arts space that my friend of mine had art showing at. So I walked upstairs into this arts space to see the art and there were all these women sitting around in a circle and when I got there they said, “Come, come on over, don’t be shy,” so I thought, okay, and I went and sat in this circle and they said, “Okay, we’ll carry on,” and they were going around the circle talking about their experiences of being abused as a child.

Oh no…

Yeah! And I thought, I don’t have anything to say but if I leave now it’ll look like I do have something to say and am just too embarrassed to say it. What do I do? So that was really a kind of excruciating moment [laughs], but apart from that it was really great. There were great bands, really nice bands, and I knew a lot of people in Olympia so I felt really at home. We weren’t actually playing, I just went over as a holiday because I was just so excited about it and wanted to see it. I remember one of the performers saying, “We’ve got to forget all this stuff about women and men, we’ve got to talk about all of the genders” – someone asked a similar question today – and I remember thinking, being really British, there are only two! Obviously since then I’ve understood a bit more what they were talking about [laughs].

That must have been a bit of an eye opener.

It was. But there were some great things…I’m pretty sure it was at Ladyfest that Rose Melberg from Tiger Trap actually decided to perform with her mum and they did these fantastic country songs, her and her mum singing together. It was the kind of event where people just tried new things that they’d never done before, and that was really lovely and amazing. I think it was at Ladyfest rather than Yo-Yo where Miranda July…do you know her?

Oh yes, I love her stuff.

Before she did films and wrote books she was a performance artist, through film, and at the Capitol Theater they had this amazing screen and she did a performance of her stuff. And at that point she was so young! Oh wait, the first Ladyfest was only 8 years ago, so maybe I’m telling you complete rubbish and it was at Yo-Yo, but she seemed really young. She must have been 19 or something and she’d done all these films and they were amazing. She just seemed amazing. At that point she was going out with Calvin Johnson [founder of K Records] but that didn’t last that long. So yeah, I think that’s about all I can remember. Actually, Har Mar Superstar was there. It was the first time I’d ever come across him, and he was playing in the car park because he wasn’t allowed to play in any of the venues because he was a man. He had quite a lot of people with him.

Did he get down to his underpants back then?

Hmm. Clothes did come off, but I can’t remember where it went from and to [laughs].

And have you been involved with any other Ladyfests since?

As an act? Yeah. We played in the London one, I think as Marine Research actually, and we played another one.

Was that the London Ladyfest in 2002?

Oh wait, I’m really confused. What I don’t understand is how I managed to play at Ladyfest as Marine Research in 2002 when we split up in 2000, so maybe I didn’t! [laughs] Maybe I’m lying! It must have been as Tender Trap then. Anyway, someone played. I played. If I’ve remembered it rightly, it was great! [laughs] It’s amazing how successful Ladyfest has been. I’m incredibly pleased about it. I mean these two big, obviously linked, things that came out of Olympia, riot grrl and Ladyfest, but actually riot grrl…people know what it means and it was really brilliant but it kind of had its sell-by date and people these days don’t say, hey, I’m riot grrl, but Ladyfest is just going from strength to strength. I should have said this earlier. I just had this vague thought emerging that institutional structures are more long living than any individual. If you kind of create a structure – well, it’s not exactly an institutional structure – a cultural structure, that can actually last.

I think of it a bit like a cultural franchise, that’s what I love about it.

It is a kind of franchise, a completely free franchise that no one’s controlling at all! Anyone can do a Ladyfest. They can make it about whatever they want. Maybe a Ladyfest at London Zoo, and they can make it all about female animals [laughs]. Not sure if that’s a good idea.

I like it. I’d go.

[laughs] I’m sure there are feminist issues in other animals.

So, I got this retrospective of Fortuna POP! in the mail in honour of their 15th anniversary and I wondered if you were doing anything to celebrate?

Ah, well. That’s interesting because I didn’t know that was why the retrospective came out. I know I too got a copy in the mail and thought, ooh, what’s this about? [laughs] But yeah, I think that Fortuna POP! are going to do something next Spring, like a big Fortuna POP! event. We were basically asked very early on, with not much hope, whether we would play, because we haven’t played for a few years, and we basically said yes. So we’ve now got to find a band again because we’ve decided not to use drum machines anymore. We’ve actually just found a drummer. We’ve never seen her drum and she hasn’t actually drummed for about 10 years [laughs], but we’ve told her we need a stand-up drummer because we’ve decided that stand-up drummers are it. She’s been in other bands and played other instruments. Her name’s Katrina Dixon, she was in Police Cat years and years ago when I first met her and she’s recently been in a band called Garden City Project who are a slightly indie folk band in London. In fact, when I emailed her I wrote “I know you’re a bit more into indie folk these days…” and she replied and said, “Actually, I’m still into female bands.” Our first quiet listen through to the songs, drink wine and play Scrabble type of thing is on Tuesday so we’ll see how it goes.

But you’re definitely working on a new Tender Trap album?

We’re not even sure if it’s going to be called Tender Trap. It might not be, but it probably should be because we keep changing our name and people get lost. But what we’ve said is going to be our inspiration this time, and so far it seems to be broadly in the right place, is…did you ever hear a song by The Shop Assistants called ‘Train From Kansas City’? It’s a cover of the [Jeffy Barry/Ellie Greenwich] pop song and it’s all fuzzy guitars.

I haven’t heard that version, no.

It’s just a great pop song and with a stand-up drummer. So that’s what we’ve taken our inspiration from this time. It’s been a big enough distance since the last album. I think the last album was [pauses briefly] not one of the best things we’ve ever done. I think there are some nice songs on there but I want to get back to the music we love. And actually what’s quite nice is that I think that because for a long time we thought we might get success – since Talulah Gosh we’ve kind of had an eye on it – and then the last album was actually a bit mainstream sounding, and okay, but I’ve been kind of thinking well, actually, we’re never going to get famous at this point [laughs]. So why don’t we just do exactly the music we like, exactly, to the letter. Then we can do whatever we want and we don’t actually care if the audience doesn’t come, so hopefully we’ll like it at least! [laughs]

Wouldn’t it be funny if it was your most successful album?

Yeah, probably! [laughs] It would be pretty absurd.

* * *

Alan Pedder and Chris Catchpole

Heavenly, ‘Trophy Girlfriend’