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A review by girlglitch
Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution by Sara Marcus
4.0
Girls To The Front is an introspective and personal take on riot grrrl history - or at least, it's as introspective a take as you can get from someone who wasn't actually a part of it. As social history, it's something of a jigsaw: different grrrls' perspectives pieced together to make one cohesive narrative.
This approach is at once the book's greatest asset and greatest weakness. We hear directly from those at the forefront of the movement (and not just those with more 'mainstream fame' like Kathleen Hanna), which allows for some incredible insight and brutal honesty. There's no attempt to mythologise a riot grrrl ideology: instead, we hear what riot grrrl (and feminism) meant to these girls as individuals. In that respect, GTTF gets to the heart of what riot grrrl was all about.
But this approach falls short as Marcus starts to track the spread of riot grrrl. There's simply not the space to explore the diversification of the movement, and when it comes to conflicts (which Marcus does not shy away from reporting), I sometimes got the sense I was only hearing one side of the story. There's a thin line between intimacy and over-exposure, and sometimes that line is crossed. At times, I was desperate for Marcus to step back and take in the wider-picture.
That said, GTTF does capture the spirit of the movement, which was, in many respects, centred around the dichotomy of privacy and making the personal political. GTTF makes a refreshingly read, and its honesty made these grrrls' voices all the more powerful.
This approach is at once the book's greatest asset and greatest weakness. We hear directly from those at the forefront of the movement (and not just those with more 'mainstream fame' like Kathleen Hanna), which allows for some incredible insight and brutal honesty. There's no attempt to mythologise a riot grrrl ideology: instead, we hear what riot grrrl (and feminism) meant to these girls as individuals. In that respect, GTTF gets to the heart of what riot grrrl was all about.
But this approach falls short as Marcus starts to track the spread of riot grrrl. There's simply not the space to explore the diversification of the movement, and when it comes to conflicts (which Marcus does not shy away from reporting), I sometimes got the sense I was only hearing one side of the story. There's a thin line between intimacy and over-exposure, and sometimes that line is crossed. At times, I was desperate for Marcus to step back and take in the wider-picture.
That said, GTTF does capture the spirit of the movement, which was, in many respects, centred around the dichotomy of privacy and making the personal political. GTTF makes a refreshingly read, and its honesty made these grrrls' voices all the more powerful.