"Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution" by Sara Marcus
This book deeply affected me. Here are some of the parts that were particularly pertinent.
I experienced female adolescence as a constant affront with calamity always loitering nearby, licking its lips, waiting for an opening. I spent the beginning of my teens miserable, alienated, and isolated. And I was sure I was the only one who felt this way. -p.3
I remembered that for a while in elementary school and intermittently since then, I had been assertive and loud. I missed being that girl.-p.4
The more I tried to sublimate my fury into a palatable, diplomatic rhetoric of "choices," the angrier I became.-p.5
They would have socked that fitting-room attendant in the face. They would have redone the NOW club's bulletin board to read MAYBE I WOULDN'T HAVE TO BE A FEMINIST IF YOU WEREN'T SUCH AN ASSHOLE.-p.8
. . . people didn't know how to treat the lives of teenage girls as if they mattered.-p.9
(from Kathleen Hanna's zine) . . . I want to scream something, something powerful and strong to make up for the helplessness that I feel now.-p.16
(from Kathleen Hanna's zine) Commit to the revolution as a method of psychological and physical survival.-p.85
Allison spoke about the word girl and how academic women's studies rhetoric "alienate[s] teenage and younger and prepubescent girls. And it alienates punkers, I think."-p.90
The girls couldn't block these things out and they didn't want to; they wanted to stay acutely aware of the war against them so they could fight back.-p.92
They were mustering for battle against the idea that to be a girl was to be in grave danger that you could never fully escape, only manage by narrowing your life, your range, your wardrobe, your gaze. The end of the summer was near, but the girl revolution was just beginning.-p.93
. . . you can jump off a cliff and your community will catch you.-p.93
. . . you could do your growing in public and people would appreciate you anyway, that they might even appreciate you for being so honest.-p.96
The point is that the pain of all girls is not alike.-p.109
"In her kiss, I taste the revolution!" (Kathleen Hanna)-p.109
They would have another childhood for as long as they wanted, and they would be the ones to art-direct it this time.-p.118
That old insidious spectacle again, changing real life to image, experience to commodity.-p.167
. . . to be a girl in public is always to be watched. . . A girl with any hope of being sane needs to develop the ability to question and take apart everything she sees.-p.169
. . . a troupe whose act, ongoing and unquittable, was to live as girls in a culture that seemed to set impossible terms for their existence.-p.173
It was all part of the crucial task that faced the girls as they approached adulthood: figuring out how not to be anything like the adults they'd known. Cutting out items that symbolized negative values . . . worked as a kind of purification spell.-p.177
When did you notice you were a woman . . . When has she ever been allowed to forget?-p.180
. . . her nightmarish family was part of something bigger, and she didn't have to accept or internalize any of it. She could grow past it.-p.183
. . . how mass media turned real life into spectacle in order to sell it back to people as a meaningless, glammed-up, depoliticized version of their own lives.-p.221
Riot Grrrl is a hand to hold & a fist in his face.-p.223
. . . she figured that if you're scared to death of something, it was best just to do it, and see that you didn't die.-p.242
"If being honest means being mean . . . it's gonna be a cruel revolution."-p.304
Always ask, Is there something wrong not with me but with the world at large?-p.329
This very moment contains all you need. Everything you're hearing right now, where you are . . . this is the sound of a revolution.-p.330
I experienced female adolescence as a constant affront with calamity always loitering nearby, licking its lips, waiting for an opening. I spent the beginning of my teens miserable, alienated, and isolated. And I was sure I was the only one who felt this way. -p.3
I remembered that for a while in elementary school and intermittently since then, I had been assertive and loud. I missed being that girl.-p.4
The more I tried to sublimate my fury into a palatable, diplomatic rhetoric of "choices," the angrier I became.-p.5
They would have socked that fitting-room attendant in the face. They would have redone the NOW club's bulletin board to read MAYBE I WOULDN'T HAVE TO BE A FEMINIST IF YOU WEREN'T SUCH AN ASSHOLE.-p.8
. . . people didn't know how to treat the lives of teenage girls as if they mattered.-p.9
(from Kathleen Hanna's zine) . . . I want to scream something, something powerful and strong to make up for the helplessness that I feel now.-p.16
(from Kathleen Hanna's zine) Commit to the revolution as a method of psychological and physical survival.-p.85
Allison spoke about the word girl and how academic women's studies rhetoric "alienate[s] teenage and younger and prepubescent girls. And it alienates punkers, I think."-p.90
The girls couldn't block these things out and they didn't want to; they wanted to stay acutely aware of the war against them so they could fight back.-p.92
They were mustering for battle against the idea that to be a girl was to be in grave danger that you could never fully escape, only manage by narrowing your life, your range, your wardrobe, your gaze. The end of the summer was near, but the girl revolution was just beginning.-p.93
. . . you can jump off a cliff and your community will catch you.-p.93
. . . you could do your growing in public and people would appreciate you anyway, that they might even appreciate you for being so honest.-p.96
The point is that the pain of all girls is not alike.-p.109
"In her kiss, I taste the revolution!" (Kathleen Hanna)-p.109
They would have another childhood for as long as they wanted, and they would be the ones to art-direct it this time.-p.118
That old insidious spectacle again, changing real life to image, experience to commodity.-p.167
. . . to be a girl in public is always to be watched. . . A girl with any hope of being sane needs to develop the ability to question and take apart everything she sees.-p.169
. . . a troupe whose act, ongoing and unquittable, was to live as girls in a culture that seemed to set impossible terms for their existence.-p.173
It was all part of the crucial task that faced the girls as they approached adulthood: figuring out how not to be anything like the adults they'd known. Cutting out items that symbolized negative values . . . worked as a kind of purification spell.-p.177
When did you notice you were a woman . . . When has she ever been allowed to forget?-p.180
. . . her nightmarish family was part of something bigger, and she didn't have to accept or internalize any of it. She could grow past it.-p.183
. . . how mass media turned real life into spectacle in order to sell it back to people as a meaningless, glammed-up, depoliticized version of their own lives.-p.221
Riot Grrrl is a hand to hold & a fist in his face.-p.223
. . . she figured that if you're scared to death of something, it was best just to do it, and see that you didn't die.-p.242
"If being honest means being mean . . . it's gonna be a cruel revolution."-p.304
Always ask, Is there something wrong not with me but with the world at large?-p.329
This very moment contains all you need. Everything you're hearing right now, where you are . . . this is the sound of a revolution.-p.330