Once punk began, the discourse of women's music making changed forever and inspired new generations of female music makers right up until the 1990s (Bayton 1998). The 1991 movement, riot grrrl, was infused with the 'ethos and spirit' of punk (Bayton 1998 p. 68). Although there is a lot of debate regarding the beginning of the movement, riot grrrl is thought to have been started by bands such as Bikini Kill and Bratmobile in Olympia, WA, USA in 1991 and rose to prominence in 1992 (Leonard 1997; Bayton 1998). Bikini Kill singer, Kathleen Hanna, is credited with starting the movement in response to the demise of the second wave of feminism (Gillis and Munford 2004). Bikini Kill are considered the 'subconscious leaders of riot grrrl' (Leonard 1997 p. 230) and Kathleen Hanna, the unofficial spokeswoman (Gillis and Munford 2004).
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| Bikini Kill's Kathleen Hanna - 1992 |
Riot grrrl is described as an underground movement with the US indie scene with a political, feminist, 'DIY' agenda (Bayton 1998) and is time when female musicians began to have an 'increased visibility' (Leonard 1997 p. 230). Riot grrrl music is considered to have the same 'DIY' ethic as punk (Whiteley 2000) which riot grrrls have reinvented and claimed for themselves. It is similar to punk in the sense that spirit and participation is more important than musical talent (Bayton 1998; Whiteley 2000). However, unlike punk riot grrrl was not musically 'radical' nor did it have a specific style (Bayton 1998 p. 76) although the music was 'evocative' of punk (Whiteley 2000 p. 209). With music being simple, requiring no expertise and having 'girl relevant' lyrics, riot grrrl encouraged women to get involved (Bayton 1998 p. 76). Due to the feminist undertones of the movement and the 'pro-female' attitude, riot grrrls are wrongly perceived as being anti-male (Kearney 1997 p. 211). However, some bands like the UK's Huggy Bear and Bikini Kill have male members and are influenced musically by male punk bands (Kearney 1997).
Bikini Kill's First EP released 1992
Challenging Feminity
Like punk, riot grrrl challenged existing images of femininity (Bayton 1998; Whiteley 2000). Riot grrrls dressed in a 'girlish style' which they contradicted by writing slogans such as 'slut' and 'whore' on their bodies (Leonard 1997 p. 355-6; Bayton 1998 p.75) challenging the subjectivity of the female body (Gottleib and Wald 2006) and creating a strong contradiction between the childish clothing and body slogans (Leonard 1997). Riot grrrl soon became conceptualised in terms of fashion by the glossy fashion magazines who advised on how to recreate the look (Leonard 1997).
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| Kathleen Hanna - 1990s |
Courtney Love and Riot Grrrl
Hole frontwoman, Courtney Love is one female musician whose early 1990s image is repeatably linked to riot grrrl (Bayton 1998). Whilst Love is a self-confessed and outspoken feminist, she categorically denies any link to riot grrrls stating that she felt excluded from the movement as the riot grrrls did not like her 'strange brand of feminism' (Love 2011). Hole song, 'Olympia' is written about Love's exclusion from the riot grrrl and her perception of the cliquishness of the movement (Suwak 2014). 'Olympia' refers to Evergreen College in Olympia which is known for offering subjects like punk and feminism and, is the meeting place of Bikini Kill's Kathleen Hanna and Kathi Wilcox (Suwak 2014).
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| Courtney Love - early 1990s |
'Olympia' features on Hole's seminal 1994 album, 'Live Through This' as 'Rock Star' (Hole 1994). The week prior to the release of 'Live Through This', Love's husband, Nirvana's Kurt Cobain committed suicide. 'Rock Star' was removed at the last minute due to references regarding Nirvana and replaced with 'Olympia' although, it was too late to change the album artwork therefore 'Olympia' appears as 'Rock Star' (Suwak 2014).
'Olympia', Hole - 1994
Kinderwhore
Courtney Love's striking early 90s image has been described as 'kinderwhore' (Leonard 1997; Bayton 1998; Whiteley 2000; Bernard 2002; McDonnell 2005; Chandler 2011). The kinderwhore look was defined by pairing baby doll dresses, which were often vintage and tattered, with mary jane shoes, children's hairslides and red lipstick (Bernard 2002). Like the style adopted by many riot grrrls, kinderwhore challenged stereotypes of conventional femininity by pairing the contrasting identities of the 'girl' and 'whore' which corrupts the 'little girl' image (Barnard 2002 p. 145-7). Rolling Stone magazine classed it as one of the most defining looks of the 1990s (Rolling Stone 2012). The look is most famously associated with Love and Babes in Toyland frontwoman, Kat Bjelland (Bernard 2002). It is difficult to establish where kinderwhore began or whether Love or Bjelland created it although it is generally accepted that Love popularised the look (McDonnell 2005).
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| Courtney Love - early 1990s |
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| Kat Bjelland - early 1990s |
Strange Love
In her controversial interview with Vanity Fair in the September 1992 issue, Love discusses her friendship with Bjelland and her kinderwhore style at length (Vanity Fair 1992). The interview, entitled 'Strange Love', led to Love and Cobain temporarily losing custody of daughter, Frances Bean, after her birth as it was alleged that Love took heroin in the early stages of her pregnancy, and caused a long term feud between the Cobains and Vanity Fair journalist, Lynn Hirschberg (Hochman 1992; Stanley 2010). Further controversy was created by the accompanying image to the article which showed Love heavily pregnant and smoking although the cigarette was later airbrushed out (Hochman 1992). In the aftermath of the interview, Cobain gained a huge distrust in what he called 'corporate magazines' (Allman 1993).
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| Image of Love from Vanity Fair's 'Strange Love' interview with her cigarette airbrushed out - 1992 |
Love states that she would define her look as 'kinderwhore' which, in her opinion, was a 'good' look as it was sexy yet intelligent (Love 1992). Love says that she created the kinderwhore look which was inspired by the way Divinyls singer, Christina Amphlett was dressed on the cover of their 1983 album 'Desperate' (Love 1992). Despite knowing Bjelland since 1984, Love had fallen out with her over a velvet dress and claimed that as well as stealing Love's look, Bjelland had stolen dresses, lyrics, riffs and guitars from Love (Love 1992). Bjelland retaliated by describing Love as 'delusional' (Hirschberg 1992). However, since then Bjelland and Love have put aside their differences.
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| Cover of The Divinyls 'Desperate' - 1983 |
The feminism of Kurt Cobain
The cover art for Hole's 1997 compilation album, 'My Body, The Hand Grenade' features one of Love's dresses from her kinderwhore period in a glass case, in a museum setting (Hole 1997). Love chose a peter pan collar dress as she felt that the vintage style slips she wore were more famous and the collar dress deserved recognition (Love 1997). Love's husband, Kurt Cobain, once wore one of her collar dresses on stage (see below image). Cobain was no stranger to wearing dresses on stage and in publicity shots for Nirvana. A self-proclaimed feminist (Warner 2014), Cobain stated that he liked to wear dresses as he could be as feminine as he wanted to be (Sanchez 2010). Cobain was an outspoken fan of many female artists such as riot grrrl predecessors, The Raincoats (Marcotte 2011) and, wrote in his journals that the 'future of rock belongs to women' (Slater 2012). Nirvana were based in Olympia for a period of time and friends with Bikini Kill. Kathleen Hanna provided the inspiration for the title of 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' and Cobain had a short relationship with Bikini Kill's drummer, Tobi Vail (Marcotte 2011). Despite being grouped together with the male fronted bands coming out of nearby Seattle in the early 1990s, Cobain's feminist ideology and pro-feminine lyrics defines him as much as riot grrrl as the girls themselves (Marcotte 2011).
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| Cover of Hole's 'My Body, The Hand Grenade' - 1997 |
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| Courtney Love - early 1990s |
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| Kurt Cobain wearing Love's collar dress - 1992 |
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