Table Of Content

M Maria Katharina Wiedlack a r "Not gay as in happy, ia K Queer Feminist Punk a but queer as in fuck you." t h a (Agatha, album Panic Attack, 2009) rin An Anti-Social History a W This history makes use of anti-social theory to ie take a broad and multifaceted look at queer- d feminist punk—from its origins in the 1980s la to its contemporary influences on the Occupy c k movement and Pussy Riot activism. Maria Katharina Wiedlack studied German, English and Gender Studies at the University of Vienna, where she works at the Gender Re- search Office. She teaches Gender, Queer and Q Disability Studies and is involved in various u queer-feminist and dis/ability projects and e activist collectives. e r F e m i n i s t ISIBSNBN 9 7987-83--930-29900229-0022--237-6 P ISBN 978-3-902902-27-6 u www.zaglossus.eu n zaglossus 9999999999999999999999999999 777777777777777777777777777788888888888888888888888888883333333333333333333333333333999999999999999999999999999900000000000000000000000000002222222222222222222222222222 999999999999999999999999999900000000000000000000000000002222222222222222222222222222000000000011111111112222222201234567890123456789012345679630741852852963074174185296 k zaglossus Maria Katharina Wiedlack Queer-Feminist Punk An Anti-Social History zaglossus 1 2 Maria Katharina Wiedlack Queer Feminist Punk An Anti-Social History zaglossus 3 Veröffentlicht mit Unterstützung des Austrian Science Fund (FWF): PUB 241-V21 Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche National- bibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http:// dnb.dnb.de. © Zaglossus e. U., Vienna, 2015 All rights reserved Copy editors: C. Joanna Sheldon, PhD; Michelle Mallasch, BA Cover illustration: Cristy C. Road Print: Prime Rate Kft., Budapest Printed in Hungary ISBN 978-3-902902-27-6 Zaglossus e. U. Vereinsgasse 33/12+25, 1020 Vienna, Austria E-Mail: [email protected] www.zaglossus.eu 4 Contents 1. Introduction 9 1.1. Radically Queer 13 1.2. Anti-Social Queer Theory 18 1.3. The Culture(s) of Queer-Feminist Punk 20 1.4. The Meaning(s) of Queer-Feminist Punk 23 1.5. A Queer-Feminist Punk Reader’s Companion 27 2. “To Sir with Hate”: A Liminal History of Queer-Feminist Punk Rock 30 2.1. “Gay Punk Comes Out with a Vengeance”: The Provisional Location of an Origin 34 2.2. “Feminists We’re Calling You, Please Report to the Front Desk”: The New Wave of Queer Punk Feminism during the 1990s 57 2.3. “For Once, We Will Have the Final Say, [...] Cause They Know We’re Here to Stay”: The Queer-Feminist Punk Explosion 63 2.4. “After This in the USA They Say You’re Dead Anyway”: Queer-Feminist Punk Recurrences after 2000 67 2.5. “Punk May Not Be Dead, but It Is Queer ...”: Intersectional Approaches in Contemporary Queer-Feminist Punk Rock 71 2.6. “Don’t Put Me in a Box. I’ll Only Crush It”: Writing and Archiving a Movement 76 2.7. To Be Continued ...: A Preliminary Conclusion 85 3. “We’re Punk as Fuck and Fuck like Punks”: Punk Rock, Queerness, and the Death Drive 89 3.1. “Pseudo Intellectual Slut, You Went to School, Did You Learn How to Fuck?”: A Bricolage of Psychoanalytic Theories 91 3.2. Queer-Feminist Punk and Negativity 97 3.3. “Fantasies of Utopia Are What Get You Hooked on Punk in the First Place, Right?”: Queer-Feminist Punk Rock, Sociality and the Possibility of a Future 120 3.4. “So Fuck That Shit / We’re Sick of It”: Conclusion 143 5 4. “Challenge the System and Challenge Yourself”: Queer-Feminist Punk Rock’s Intersectional Politics and Anarchism 146 4.1. “Anarchy Is Freedom—People before Profit”: Queer-Feminist Punk Approaches to Capitalism 149 4.2. “Fuck the System / We Can Bring It Down”: Gay Assimilation, Capitalism and Institutions 180 4.3. “Rebels of Privilege”? Queer-Feminist Punk Hegemonies and Interventions 188 4.4. “Spit and Passion”: The Queer-Feminist Punk Version of Anarchism 190 5. “There’s a Dyke in the Pit”: The Feminist Politics of Queer-Feminist Punk Rock 193 5.1. “Not Gay as in Happy, but Queer as in Fuck You”: Dykecore and/as Feminism 195 5.2. “You’ll Find Your Place in the World, Girl, All You Gotta Do Is Stand Up and Fight Fire with Fire”: Queer Bonds and the Formation of a Movement 238 5.3. “Oh, I’m Just a Girl, All Pretty and Petite”: Queer-Feminist Punk Rock and Third-Wave Feminism 256 5.4. “Don’t You Stop, We Won’t Stop”: Conclusion 263 6. “A Race Riot Did Happen!”: Queer Punks of Color Raising Their Voices 266 6.1. “All We Have Now to Wait to See / Is Our Monochrome Reality”: Introduction 266 6.2. “Whitestraightboy Hegemony”: How Punk Became White 272 6.3. “Hey, Look Around, There’s So Much White”: Early Role Models 282 6.4. “This Fight Is Ours”: Queer Punks of Color Visibility within Queer-Feminist Punk Culture 292 6.5. “It Puts a Little Bit of Meaning into the Fun”: Punk, (B)orderlands, and Queer Decolonial Feminism 305 6.6. “Rise Up—No One Is Going to Save You”: Queer-Feminist Punks of Color and the Queer-Feminist Punk Revolution 322 6 7. “WE R LA FUCKEN RAZA SO DON’T EVEN FUCKEN DARE”: Anger and the Politics of Jouissance 326 7.1. “We Speak in a Language of Violence”: The Aesthetics of Anger 330 7.2. “Smile Bigger Until You Fucking Crack”: Anger, Jouissance and Screams 342 7.3. “Screaming Queens”: The Voice, the Body, and Meaning 348 7.4. “We’ll Start a Demonstration, or We’ll Create a Scene”: The Creativity in Negativity 355 7.5. Not Perfect, Passionate: Conclusion 361 8. “We’ve Got to Show Them We’re Worse than Queer”: Epilogue 364 8.1. “I Am Sickened by Your Money Lust / and All Your Fucked-Up Greed”: Queer-Feminist Punk Occupying the US 366 8.2. Queer-Feminist Punk Goes International 384 8.3. ”... A Cover By a Band That No Longer Supports the Message of Their Own Song”!?! 394 References 399 7 8 1. Introduction This book presents a map and analysis of queer-feminist punk histories that are located in the US and Canada. It offers a very detailed description of people, bands, events, and their politics. Although the collection and analysis are definitely a good read for punk knowledge showoffs or anyone looking for inspiration to update hir personal countercultural collection, they are by no means exhaustive. This work is limited by my “outsider” status as a white European academic, as well as by my education and personal interests, and therefore should not be understood as uni- versal or true for everyone. Hopefully, however, the book will ap- peal to queer-feminist punk “nerds,” academics and activists alike. It offers many insights into alternative strategies for queer-feminist political activism, and hints at alternative opportunities to regroup and bond, experience pleasure and fight against oppres- sive structures. In addition, chapter three in particular provides a good read for all academic dissidents who gain pleasure from losing themselves in hardcore psychoanalytic theory. Chapter three is not a must-read to understand the analysis of the queer- feminist punk material and of the social bonds created around and through queer-feminist punk. However, I encourage readers to follow me on my adventure through “the evil ways” of queer theory. There might not be a bright future awaiting the traveler at (death) the end of the journey, but there could be something unexpected or important in store. With this book I offer a historiography that starts in the mid- 1980s, highlighting Toronto’s queer-feminist punk dissidence as one origin. However, there might be different versions of queer- feminist punk’s emergence. It reflects my journey through tons 9