guest post: riot grrrl.

 One of the things I’ve been really obsessed with, and am still obsessed with, is the Riot Grrrl feminist music movement of the 90s. During this movement, some of my favorite bands to ever walk the face of earth were started, such as Bikini Kill, Hole, Bratmobile, and Huggy Bear. Bands like these weren’t singing about parties or broken hearts, they were singing about feminism, girl (or should I say, grrrl) power, and strength. They wanted their songs to inspire women and girls to be strong and brave and independent. They wanted their music to empower girls to be themselves and live for themselves, rather than dressing to please their peers and conforming to the standards they didn’t agree with. This was the start of a new wave of feminism, a wave that, in my opinion, is still being ridden even in this generation.

I think Riot Grrrl is really important. I feel like a lot of people thought it was just a fad in the 90s, but because of the Internet, cool people and zines, it has really stuck around. I'm really thankful for blogging, because without it I probably wouldn't have developed a sense of personal style or as much confidence as I have today, or any understanding of feminism or what Riot Grrrl is or who Courtney and Kathleen are. I get really frustrated with those people who are like, "You can't mix feminism and fashion!" because it just shows they know NOTHING ABOUT FEMINISM. 

I definitely acknowledge that people can have different opinions when it comes to defining stuff, but sometimes I feel like people just try to form opinions about topics they aren't familiar with, which just gets annoying. Isn't feminism supposed to encourage girls/women to be comfortable with who they are, and do what makes THEM happy? Hasn't feminism always kind of been like that? Even when the first wave feminists just tried to avoid conforming in all aspects of life, I feel like the underlying foundation of it all was not just to obviously obtain more rights and respect for women, but to also eventually get to this point where women could do what they wanted and what made them happy, without being objectified or judged or labeled or criticized. So these annoying people are all like, "Boo you! Being a feminist and liking fashion and caring about clothes! You fake feminist, go away!" Um, Jake, you butt hole (if you get the reference, I love you) you are stupid. You are clearly the one who isn't a feminist.

I'm a feminist because I'm awesome, and I am who I am and I don't try to change who I am. I think anyone can be a feminist as long as they are unapologetically themselves. I definitely sometimes obsess over embarrassing myself in public and scold myself for being so socially inept, but at the same time, at the end of the day I'm just like "screw it, this is me and I like it" and I think that's important. Being insecure is fine; you can be insecure. I'm insecure. Humans are insecure. But you/girls/people just need to also understand that being you is okay, and I think if a person/women/girl can understand that, even if they are still struggling to be themselves instead of conforming for the approval of others, than they are a feminist.

~

PS: ALL GENDERS (and all those who don't specify their gender, I forget what it's called) are feminists! Boyz can be feminists! What ho, it's awesome! I think if everyone in the world were a feminist, we wouldn't need feminism in the first place.

Thanks to Eva from Style Wandering for this post - check out her blog here!

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