NOFX – kill rock stars

Kill the rock stars
How ironic,Kathleen
Youve been crowned the newest queen
Kinda like the punk rock gloria steinham
You cant change the world by blaming men
Cant change the world by hating man
Just cause I dont know the reason youre so pissed
Dont dare tag me mysoginist
I thought the goal here was mutual respect
Not constructing a separate sect
I wish I could have seen courtney
Demonstrate some real mysoginy
Cant change the world by hating men

ps - I copied the lyrics from the internet...the poor spelling is not my fawlt...

The song irritated me for a number of reasons. Normally, I don't mind a little bit of NOFX, but I thought this song seemed a little ignorant. The main reason I was agitated was: 'Just cause I dont know the reason youre so pissed' - I thought it was quite obvious why they were all 'pissed'.

It's that particular line that sparks me off ... If you don't understand why women are so angry about there place in society...perhaps there is some misogynistic thinking going on.

Also, as far as I can attain, riot grrrl wasn't supposed to about hating men.

HOWEVER. The song does point out some of the faults that did occur in the riot grrrl movement.

RIOT GRRRL MANIFESTO

BECAUSE us girls crave records and books and fanzines that speak to US that WE feel included in and can understand in our own ways.

BECAUSE we wanna make it easier for girls to see/hear each other's work so that we can share strategies and criticize-applaud each other.

BECAUSE we must take over the means of production in order to create our own moanings.

BECAUSE viewing our work as being connected to our girlfriends-politics-real lives is essential if we are gonna figure out how we are doing impacts, reflects, perpetuates, or DISRUPTS the status quo.

BECAUSE we recognize fantasies of Instant Macho Gun Revolution as impractical lies meant to keep us simply dreaming instead of becoming our dreams AND THUS seek to create revolution in our own lives every single day by envisioning and creating alternatives to the bullshit christian capitalist way of doing things.

BECAUSE we want and need to encourage and be encouraged in the face of all our own insecurities, in the face of beergutboyrock that tells us we can't play our instruments, in the face of "authorities" who say our bands/zines/etc are the worst in the US and

BECAUSE we don't wanna assimilate to someone else's (boy) standards of what is or isn't.

BECAUSE we are unwilling to falter under claims that we are reactionary "reverse sexists" AND NOT THE TRUEPUNKROCKSOULCRUSADERS THAT WE KNOW we really are.

BECAUSE we know that life is much more than physical survival and are patently aware that the punk rock "you can do anything" idea is crucial to the coming angry grrrl rock revolution which seeks to save the psychic and cultural lives of girls and women everywhere, according to their own terms, not ours.

BECAUSE we are interested in creating non-heirarchical ways of being AND making music, friends, and scenes based on communication + understanding, instead of competition + good/bad categorizations.

BECAUSE doing/reading/seeing/hearing cool things that validate and challenge us can help us gain the strength and sense of community that we need in order to figure out how bullshit like racism, able-bodieism, ageism, speciesism, classism, thinism, sexism, anti-semitism and heterosexism figures in our own lives.

BECAUSE we see fostering and supporting girl scenes and girl artists of all kinds as integral to this process.

BECAUSE we hate capitalism in all its forms and see our main goal as sharing information and staying alive, instead of making profits of being cool according to traditional standards.

BECAUSE we are angry at a society that tells us Girl = Dumb, Girl = Bad, Girl = Weak.

BECAUSE we are unwilling to let our real and valid anger be diffused and/or turned against us via the internalization of sexism as witnessed in girl/girl jealousism and self defeating girltype behaviors.

BECAUSE I believe with my wholeheartmindbody that girls constitute a revolutionary soul force that can, and will change the world for real.

As a teenage girl (19!), I found it interesting to note how easy some of these ideals / notions were to relate to. However, I'm not sure whether it was because it's an emotive and inspiration piece of writing, or because the state of the world is such that I am oppressed...? Did the first riot grrrls of the 90s take to the movement because they're young and impressionable? Were they sucked into a genius (but clandestine and undiscussed) marketing tool by older, wiser women who were making teenage girl vulnerability into a much bigger problem that it was. Is the riot grrrl manifesto still relevant. I think it is when ... (anecdotal yes...) I remember reading Rolling Stone features called 'women in rock.' In the riot grrrls assimilatory? style policy, articles like that would be moot.

I also thought it was interesting that the manifesto itself says that riot grrrl is more than just feminism - as opposed to what most definitions of it suggest.

forums

This is just one example of a Riot Grrrl internet forum (picture to the left) The Riot Grrrl Online Message Board Forum. At this point in my research, it seems that the internet is taking the place that zines had earlier in the riot grrrl movement.

The internet communities are more prevalent than I expected.

The Riot Grrrl International Message Board in particular seems to be a place where there is nothing that should be considered taboo. The discussion topics range from feminism to sex and from politics to spirituality. The discussion of sex in particular is interesting because it's far more 'graphic' than anything in traditional girl media: 'Dolly' or 'Girlfriend' for instance. It's also interesting because instead of being a top down communicative structure, it's more horizontal. What I'm trying to suggest is that, instead of 'Dolly' telling you what to do, the message board (and the members thereon) are promoting discussion. One could argue that the latter is far healthier.

The members on the forums give themselves names like 'RawRawRosie,' 'strychnine_slut,' 'Cherry Bomb,' 'FuckingTrashBitch' etc, etc - with names under their display pictures, presumably to denote their status on the site like "we need a revolution' to "so you can make me cum that doesn't make you jesus." Again, like zines moved to the internet, reappropriating derrogatory names / taunts seemed to have evolved in the internet age also.

"I WANNA GO TO THE CARNIVAL"

This is a song about the seedy underbelly of the carnival
The part that only the kids know about
This is a song about 16 year old girls giving carnies head
for free rides and hits of pot

I wanna go, I wanna go
I wanna go to the carnival
But it cots $16 yeah
I wanna go to the carnival
But I know it costs $16 now

Round, round, round...
Gonna lose $20 while I'm there
See the girls with the feathered hair
They're wearing plastic, not real leather
Boots that go way up to there

Round, round, round...
It's by the Lacey mall,
That's where you'll find me, yeah.

"Carnival" by BIKINI KILL - The CD Version Of The First Two Records (1994)
lyrics from: http://www.plyrics.com/lyrics/bikinikill/carnival.html

ACHTUNG nerd alert

test post.

ch-ch-ch-ch-check it out*

*obligatory pop culture reference