A review by heykstan
Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution by Sara Marcus

5.0

When I was in high school, riot grrrl very literally changed my life. I was very angry and sad and every fucking day was a struggle. And then one day a super badass girl told me to go buy 3 albums: Bikini Kill "the cd version of the first 2 records", Babes in Toyland "Nemesisters" and Sleater-Kinney "Dig Me Out". I was blown away by all 3 albums for different reasons, but Bikini Kill taught me that it was ok to be pissed, it was ok to think the dudes in my class were shitheads, it was ok to be mad about the standards that teenage girls are forced to live with. That and a pretty serious Ani Difranco obsession cemented my feminist identity. I no longer hated being a girl, I hated society for painting girls into a shitty little corner. I hated the things that I was supposed to do/say/wear as a "good girl". It sort of formed my rage into a direction, and it helped me to become educated and seek out other women who felt the same way.

So I loved this book. I loved learning about the beginnings of the movement that I was too young to be apart of, but 10 year later effected me so deeply. It sucks that it went awry in so many ways, and as a journalist, it sucked to see that the media had such a big part in its destruction. I wish I had had this book when I was 16. It explained, so much more coherently than I could have at that time, why it's so shitty and hard to be a teenage girl.

If you're into this book, you should watch The Punk Singer. I've watched it twice in the last couple months. It rules.