Just a Girl?

Rock Music, Feminism, and the Cultural Construction of Female Youth

Author(s): Gayle Wald
Source: Signs, Vol. 23, No. 3, Feminisms and Youth Cultures (Spring, 1998), pp. 585-610
Published by: The University of Chicago Press
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 Gayle Wald

Just a Girl? Rock Music, Feminism,

and the Cultural Construction of Female Youth

CauseI'mjusta girl,littleol' me
Don'tletmeoutofyoursight
andpetite
I'mjusta girl,allpretty
So don'tletmehaveanyrights.
Oh,I'vehaditup to here!
-No Doubt,"I'mJusta Girl,"fromTragic
Kingdom
(Trauma/Interscope,1996)
Gwenis someonethatgirlscanlookup to andfeelliketheyknow.
Sheis veryEverygirl.
-No DoubtbassistTonyKanal,on theappeal
ofleadsingerGwenStefanil

t would have been difficult to tunein to a U.S. Top 40 radiostationfor

verylong duringthe summer and fallof 1996 withouthearingat least
one iterationof "I'm Justa Girl,"the catchybreakthrough singlethat
propelled the neo-ska band No Doubt to a positionas one of the year's
top-sellingrockacts."I'm Justa Girl"notonlyearnedNo Doubt commer-
nearlya decade (and threealbums)intothegroup'scareer,it
cial visibility
also establishedtwenty-seven-year-old Gwen Stefani,the band's charis-
maticlead singer,as thelatestin a seriesof femalerockmusiciansto have
attractedwidespreadcommercialvisibilityas well as a loyalfollowingof
youngfemalefans.Sportinghertrademark baredmidriff, retro-platinum
hair,and conspicuouslymade-up face (which oftenincludesan Indian
bindiornamentingher forehead),Stefanihas establisheda reputationas
a skillfuland dynamiclive performer who puts on energetic,no-holds-
barredshows (she once dancedso hardduringa concertthatshe fractured

I would liketo thankRajeswariSunderRajan and You-meParkfortheirinvaluablecriti-

cisms of variousdraftsof this articleand for theirsupportin the processof writingand
revisingit. I would also liketo acknowledgethecommentsof thetwo anonymousreviewers
fromSigns.I am verygratefulto George WashingtonUniversity, whichprovidedresearch
support in the form of a University Fund
Facilitating Awardand a JuniorScholarIncentive
Award.
1Quoted in Wartofsky 1997, G1.
inCulture
Joual ofWomen
[Signs: andSociety
1998,vol.23,no. 3]
? 1998byTheUniversity
ofChicago.
Allrights
reserved.
0097-9740/98/2303-0001$02.00

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586 I Wald

a foot). Stefani'sperformance of "I'm Justa Girl" at a 1996 Seattlecon-

cert- one variationof an act she was stillperforming in the summerof
a
1997-provides memorableillustration. At firstprostrating herselfon
thestageand repeatingthephrase"I'm justa girl"in an infantile, whimper-
ing voice, she then abruptly shifted gears,jumpingup, railing "Fuck you,
I'm a girl!"at the delightedaudience(at leasthalfof whom wereyoung
women),and exuberantly launchingintotheremainder of thesong.2
Stefani'sdramaticstagingof disparatemodes of femininity exemplifies
heradeptmanipulationof rockspectaclein thetraditionof femalerockers
such as SiouxsieSioux, GraceJones,PolyStyrene(of X-RaySpex),Annie
Lennox, CourtneyLove, and Madonna. More significantly, her perfor-
mance of "I'm Justa Girl"exemplifies a trendthatsincethe early1990s
hasgainedincreasing prominence withinrockmusiccultures:femalemusi-
cians'strategic performances of "girlhood"and theirdeliberatecultivation
of various"girlish"identitiesin theirmusic,style,and stageacts.The per-
formanceofgirlhoodbycontemporary femalerockersencompassesa wide
range of musical and artisticpracticesby women within,outsideof, and
on themarginsof thecorporatemainstream: fromsinger-songwriter Lisa
Loeb's championingoffemalenerdinessand cultivation ofchildlikevocals,
to theindependentCanadianband Cub's repertoire of songsabout child-
hood, played in an offbeat,deliberately manner,to CourtneyLove's
lo-fi
infamous"kinderwhore" costumeof a tornand ill-fitting baby-dolldress
and smudged red lipstick,to the phenomenalglobal popularityof the
Spice Girls,the seeminglyomnipresentall-femaleBrit-popstudiogroup
thatupdatesthemanufactured glitzinessof the"girlgroups"of the 1960s
whilepromotinga playful,ifequivocallyfeminist, notionof "girlpower"
(Walters1997, 69).3 Such calculated and, in Love's sexu-
case,deliberately

2
This descriptionis based on an accountbyJonathanBernstein(1996, 52). In a perfor-
mancein Worcester, Massachusetts, Stefanigot the boysin the audienceto sing"I'm just a
girl"and theninstructed thegirlsto chant"Fuckyou! I'm a girl!"See Wartofsky 1997, G1.
3 I revised thisarticlein August1997, at thesimultaneous heightofSpiceGirls'popularity
(as signified, at leastin part,bytheirappearanceon thecoverofRollingStonemagazine)and
the incipientanti-SpiceGirls backlash,especiallyon the Interet and World Wide Web,
wherecuriousbrowserscan findpageswithtitlessuchas "Spice GirlsSuckClub" and "Spice
Shack of Blasphemy." I can add littleto what has alreadybeen said and writtenabout the
Spice Girls'decidedlycynicalappropriation of girlpower (the "girls"here
and recirculation
includingthelate Princessof Wales and evenMargaretThatcher)as a recordindustry com-
modity.Two aspectsof theSpice Girls'successstoryremaininteresting: first,theSpice Girls
phenomenon,fromthe start,has been accompaniedby the anti-SpiceGirlsbacklash;and
second,forall thatthe Spice Girlsrepresent an obviously"cosmetic"feminism evacuatedof
commitment to combatingpatriarchy, the anti-SpiceGirlsmovementseemsto have given
people licenceto use the group'scommercialsuccessto voice antifeminist, evenmisogynist,

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 S I G N S Spring 1998 I 587

allyprovocativeperformances of girlishfemininitydrawon themid-1980s

set
precedents by Madonna, especially around the time of her work in
Susan Seidelman's1985 filmDesperately SeekingSusan,and CindyLauper,
whose 1984 hit"GirlsJustWantto Have Fun" is revisedand updatedin
No Doubt's "I'm Justa Girl."These earlierpop-rockicons- significantly,
thefirstwomen in rockto attractthekindof devotedfollowingof young
femalefansusuallyassociatedwithmale rockstars(Lewis 1990, 10) -set
thestageforperformers likeStefani,who has attracted herown following
of fourteen-year-old "Gwennabes"who clamorbackstageat No Doubt
showshopingto get a glimpseof theiridol. Followingin thefootstepsof
theirprogenitorsLauper and Madonna, performers such as Stefaniand
AlanisMorissettehave discoveredin acting"likea girl"new waysof pro-
motingthe culturalvisibilityof women withinrockmusic.At the same
time,the music industryhas discoveredin thesefemalestars(each with
herown carefully cultivatedstarpersona)new waysto sellitsproductsto
young female consumers (i.e., "real"girls).
In this articleI examinecontemporary femalerock musicians'repre-
sentationsof girls,girlhood,and "girlculture"- popularculturalpractices
thathave a corollaryin the emergenceof whatI call "girlstudies"a sub-
genreof recentacademicfeminist scholarshipthatconstructs girlhoodas a
separate,exceptional, and/or pivotalphase in female identityformation.4
As evidencedby"I'm Justa Girl,"thesongthat,not incidentally, propelled
Stefanito her currentpositionas femalerock icon, the performance of
girlhood,althoughby no means a homogeneousor universalenterprise,
can now be said to constitutea new culturaldominantwithinthemusical

sentiments. Manyoftheanti-SpiceGirlsWeb sitesexemplify thistendencyto conflatedisdain

forthe group'smusicalproduction(i.e., disdainformusicalcommodities)withdisdainfor
women, generallyspeaking.This latteraspectof the backlashseems particularly insidious,
giventhetendencyto elidefemalesubjectivity notonlywithconsumptionbutwiththecom-
modityformitself.
4
"Girl studies"emergesnot onlyfromfieldssuch as psychology, withits long-standing
interest
in humansocialand psychicdevelopment, but also fromnewerfieldssuchas cultural
studies,whichhas itsown traditions(by wayofBirmingham and theCentreforContempo-
raryCulturalStudies) of analyzingyouthand the politicsof youthsubcultures(particularly
working-class,predominantly male youthsubcultures).The popularityand visibility of the
"girl"withinpopularyouth/music cultures,combinedwithrenewedinterest in formsofvio-
lence/trauma thatprimarily affect
girls(e.g., incest,eatingdisorders,self-mutilation
or "cut-
ting"),mayhave had theeffect of spurringacademicinterestin studyingthespecificcultural
formationsand culturalpracticesof girls.At the timewhen Signswas solicitingarticlesfor
thisvolume,e.g., a numberof othercallsforpapersand/orbook chapterson thistopicwere
circulating.This articlemightbe said to constitutemyown ambivalentand criticalventure
intogirlstudies,a subjectI returnto laterin thearticle.

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588 I Wald

practiceof women in rock. This is particularly the case among white

women"alternative" rockers,who drawon practicespioneeredin theearly
1990s in independentmusic.In thisrealm,femaleartistshaveventuredto
celebrategirlhoodas a meansof fostering femaleyouthsubcultureand of
constructing narratives thatdisruptpatriarchal discoursewithintradition-
ally male rock subcultures.5 The "girlishness" conspicuouslyon display
so
among these contemporary women rockersdemandsattention,not only
becauseit signalstheemergenceof new,"alternative" femalerocksubjec-
tivities(revisingearliergenre-specific models such as the rockchick,the
singer-songwriter, or thediva),but becausein so doing,itconveysvarious
assumptions about (white)women'svisibility withinpopularyouth/music
culture,signpostingthe incorporation-indeed,the commercialpreemi-
nence- of ironic,postmodernmodes of genderperformance.
My interest in thisarticleis neitherto celebratenorto denigratethegirl
as a new modalityof femalerockperformance but to arguethattheemer-
gence of the an
girlsignals important moment of contradiction withincon-
temporaryyouth/music cultures. In the example offered by Stefani, the
of
strategy appropriating girlhood, likethe wordgirl itself,
signifiesambig-
uously:as a mode of culturally voicedresistance to patriarchal femininity;
as a tokenof a sortof"gesturalfeminism" thatis complicitwiththetrivial-
ization,marginalization, and eroticizationof women withinrockmusic
cultures;and as an expressionofpostmodern"gendertrouble"thatpoten-
tiallyrecuperates girlhoodin universalizing, ethnocentric terms.More spe-
cifically, and notwithstanding Stefani'sexplicitand flippantmimicryof
normativefemininity, theinstability ofherappropriation of girlhoodas an
oppositional or feministcultural strategy belies too optimistic a readingof
"I'm Justa Girl."For example,even as the song'slyricsredefine girl in a
rhetorical or sarcastic manner, Stefani's girlishlyfeminine persona-and
herverycommercialpopularity, tiedas itis to herperformance ofgender-
potentiallyfurthers the notionthatwithinpatriarchal societywomen ac-
quire attention, approval, and authority to the degree thattheyarewilling
to actlikechildren.
Justas "I'm Justa Girl"playscleverlywiththe codes of good girl/bad
girlfemininity, so Stefani'sperformance is carefillycalibratedto display
elementsof "transgressive" femininity (withoutabandoningtheprinciple
5 "Alternative"rockis oftendefinedin termsof an aestheticthatdisavows,or evinces
as wellas themusicindustry
of,earlierrocksubjectivities
criticalmistrust itself(see Weisbard
and Marks1995, vii).And yet"alternative"is also,formypurposes,a corporatedemographic
and a new set of industrypracticesspurredby the discoverythatindependentlabels could
serveas major-labelartists-and-repertoire
effectively accordingto the logic of
departments,
outsourcing.

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 S I G N S Spring 1998 I 589

thata femalerock musician's"prettyface"is the ultimatesource of her

commercialpopularity and,therefore, culturalauthority).Indeed,Stefani's
performance evincesthe that
possibility the recuperation of girlhoodmay
not, in and of itself,be incompatiblewiththe relentlesseroticizationof
women'sbodies withincorporaterock (a contradiction embodiedin Ste-
fani'slook as a kindof punkMarilynMonroe)- in otherwords,thatfe-
male rockerscan play at being girls,and even mock the conventionsof
patriarchal girlhood,whileremainingsexyand/orretaining"thecharmof
passivity"(Beauvoir1989, 337). The pointhereis not merelythatgirlish
innocencesellsrecordsbut thatStefani'ssarcasticdiscourseof helpless,in-
nocentgirlhoodsimultaneously functionsas a strategyof feminismand a
strategy of commerce (where feminism and commerce existin a complex
and shifting, ratherthan a simpleand binary,relationto one another).
Staged, in otherwords, withinthe verycorporateinstitutions that are
agents of dominant discourses that divestwomen of cultural power,Ste-
fani'sperformance of infantile, girlishfemininity be
may symbolically, if
not actually,redundant.
As an analysisof"I'm Justa Girl"elucidates,so-calledtransgressive gen-
derplaywithincontemporary rockmusicculturesoftenfrontsforfarless
transgressive codingsand recodingsof racializedand nationalizedidenti-
ties.At itsworst,thatis, suchrecuperation of girlhoodhas been stagedin
termsthatequate girlnesswithwhiteness.6 For Stefani,in particular,
play-
ing withthe signifiers of girlhoodis tacitlya strategyof bolsteringwhite
racialauthority-indeed,of bracingpreciselythatculturalpowerthatau-
thorizesher to engage in the parodicmimicryof gendernormswithout
socialpenalty.In sucha way,"I'm Justa Girl"accentuatesStefani'sgender
transgression--her positionas a girllead singer--whileminimizingthe
of another,moresalientaspectof herperformance
visibility - hernegotia-
tionofska,Jamaica'sfirst urbanpop styleand No Doubt's primary musical

6
The conclusionsof thisarticlewerebroughthome bythecommercially successful1997
LilithFairconcerttour,which,althoughtoutedbyorganizerSarahMcLachlanas a "celebra-
tion of women in music,"was in fact primarilya celebrationof white femalesinger-
songwriters, notwithstandingtheoccasionalinclusionof performers such as TracyChapman
(e.g., at theNew YorkCityconcert).The corporateand independentpressmade muchof the
LilithFair'sdemonstration thata musicfestivalorganizedaround"women'svoices" could
drawticketsalesand supporta rosterof appearancesat medium-sizedarenasthroughoutthe
United States,althoughveryfewwritersevernoticedthatthis"Galapalooza,"as Time (see
Farley1997, 60-61) put it,was also a universalizingrecuperationof whitewomen'smusic/
peformance as women's
music/performance. One has onlyto look at Spinmagazine'snotable
"GirlIssue" of November1997 (whichcame out whenthisarticlewas alreadyin press)fora
demonstrationof how feminism--notonly femininity--may be similarlyrecuperatedas
white.

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590 I Wald

influence(bywayofEnglish"Rude Boys"and 2-Toners).Indeed,Stefani's

pogo-inspireddance styleand her displayof raw, raucous energyare
themselveshallmarksof ska performance reframed withinthe contextof
outrageous,uninhibited, and confident whitefemalealternative rockper-
formance.In this scenario,Stefani'sself-conscious"innocence,""help-
lessness,"and "charm"arenot onlycrucialto hercriticaldisarticulation of
girlhood from its meaning within patriarchaldiscourse,they also enable
herto naturalizenationaland racialidentity. In focusingattentionon gen-
derperformance as a privilegedsiteand sourceof politicaloppositionality,
criticalquestionsof national,cultural,and racial appropriationcan be
made to disappearunderthesignof transgressive genderperformance.
This instanceof how a contemporary femalerockicon'sappropriation
of girlhoodcan maskother,relatedkindsof appropriation recallsMadon-
na's appropriation of stylesassociatedwithblackgaydragperformance in
her hit song and video "Vogue,"a song calculatedto displayMadonna's
own transgressive gender/sexual More recently,
identity. theemergenceof
the"girl"as a newlyprivileged mode ofwhitefemininity withinalternative
rockcoincideswiththe appearanceof thewhitemale "loser" (e.g., Beck,
BillyCorganof SmashingPumpkins,and KurtCobain ofNirvana),whose
performances of abjector disempoweredmasculinity workto recuperate
whiteracialauthority evenas theycirculatewithinan ostensibly self-critical
performative economy of"whiteness."7 Such observations necessitatea re-
thinkingof what Coco Fusco calls"the postmoderistcelebrationof ap-
-
propriation"(1995, 70) at theveryleast,thatis, an acknowledgment of
theneed to drawcriticaldistinctions betweenthefeminist refusalof patri-
archaldiscourseand performances thatcirculatethesignsof refusalwhile
actuallyexpressing complicity with discourse.As Fusco writes,
patriarchal
it is imperativethatwe "cease fetishizing thegestureof crossingas inher-
entlytransgressive, so that we can develop a languagethataccountsfor
who is crossing,and thatcan analyzethesignificance of each act" (76).8
Fusco's insightis crucialforspecifying and localizingthe politicaleffi-

7 Of latetherehas been a
greatdeal writtenaboutthe"loser."For two good accounts,see
Pfeil1995 and Fuchs 1996.
8
Thereis, of course,an impressivebodyof scholarshipthatprobesthenotionof"appro-
priation"specificallywithinthe contextof U.S. popularmusiccultures.See, in additionto
Fusco,Jones1963; George 1988; Rogin 1992; Lipsitz1994. For morerecentdiscussionsin
thecontextof specificgenres/performers, see Melnick1997. As I arguein "One of theBoys?
Whiteness,Gender,and PopularMusic Studies"(Wald 1997), to date mostof theworkon
appropriationwithinpopularmusicculturesfocuseson relationsbetweenmen,a factthat
callsfora genderedcritiqueof thenotionof appropriation itself.

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 S I G N S Spring 1998 I 591

cacyof what Eresto Laclau terms"disarticulation-rearticulation, or the

of
process symbolicstrugglethrough which social groups reformulate
dominantcodes as a meansofnegotiating political-cultural agency(Laclau
1977). Such a practiceof criticalreappropriation is frequently invokedin
discussionsof how varioussubalternpopulationsdiscovera meansof ac-
tivelyconfronting and resisting marginalizationin theironicrepossession
of signs otherwisemeantto enforcemarginality. Feminist-Marxist critic
Laura Kipnis,followingLaclau, explainsthisprocessas one in which"raw
materialscan be appropriatedand transformed by oppositionalforcesin
order to expressantagonismsand resistanceto dominantdiscourses"
(1993, 16). And yetit is cear in the case of Stefani'ssarcasticsend-upof
"girl, a word thatin thecontextof rockmusicculturesoftensignifies not
femaleyouthfulness but femaledisempowerment (i.e., patriarchalconde-
scensiontowardand trivialization of women), thatsuch disarticulation-
rearticulation does littleto underminehegemonicgirlhood--toapproxi-
matesomethingmoreakinto Stefani'sown brashand insubordinate "Fuck
you, I'm a girl!"
Fusco's argumentadditionallyinsistson an interrogation of the links
betweentheculturalpracticesof contemporary femalerockersand various
raciallyand culturally specificassumptionsabout girlhood.Acquiringits
meaning, likethe signifierwoman,withinthecontextof specificdiscursive
regimes, girlhood is not a universalcomponentoffemaleexperience;rather,
thetermimpliesveryspecificpracticesand discoursesabout femalesexual-
ity,women'scultural-political agency,and women'ssocial location.Like-
wise, the variouscontemporary narrativesof girlhoodproducedand dis-
seminatedwithinU.S. rock music culturesare formedwithinthe terms
of veryparticularstrugglesforsocial and culturalagency.Moreover,and
as revealedbythecontrastbetweentheactualmaturity and/ormusicalex-
pertiseof theperformers in questionand theyouthfulness of theirprimary
audiences, these strugglesto specifyand potentiallyeven radicalize
girlhoodare inseparablefromlate capitalism'sdesirefor new, youthful
markets.
What,then,is the relationbetweenfeminismand currentstrategies of
representing girlhoodwithinU.S. rockmusic cultures?Especiallyat the
currenthistoricaljuncture,notable forthe adventof an artistically self-
assuredand cannilyenterprising of
generation highly visible women rock
artists,can the"reversion"to girlhoodworkas a strategy forfeminism, or
forproducingfeministgirls?Given the contradictions embodiedin Ste-
fani's"I'm Justa Girl,"to whatdegreeis theappropriation of girlhood,as
a strategyparticularly associatedwithwhitewomen'srockperformance,

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592 I Wald

also a strategyof performing race--of racializinggirlhooditself?How

might female rock performers who occupy a different relationto hege-
monicgirlhoodconstruct differentnarratives of girlhood?
In whatfollows,I investigate thesequestionsin moredetailand as they
pertainto two specificgroupsof performers: first,the youngwomen in
independent rock known as Riot Grrrls, who in theearly1990s initiated
theirown ongoing"girl-style revolution," and thenlaterShonenKnifeand
Cibo Matto, two Japaneseall-femalebands thathave attractedsmallbut
significantU.S. followings,particularly among "indie"rockaficionados.9
In so doing,I relyprimarily on a criticalanalysisoftheacts,images,music,
and lyricsthatthesewomen produce,as well as on the public,mediated
narratives thatcirculate(in the printmedia,on the Internetand World
Wide Web,in fanzines,on MTV, or in hearsay)aroundthemusicand the
performers. As my openingstoryabout Stefanisuggests,the contradic-
tionsthatcharacterize the use of the girlas a mode of culturalresistance
withinfemalerock performance are not necessarily experiencedas such
by the consumers of this music, who may be more or less receptive,de-
pendingon thecontextand theparticularities oftheirown sociallocations,
to thelimitations(political,ideological,and evenaesthetic)thatsuchcon-
tradictionimposes on a straightforwardly celebratory narrativeof such
performance. From the standpoint of a certain girl consumer forbidden
fromusingthef-wordat schoolor at home,forexample,Stefani'sprofane
mockeryof/revelry in girlnessmayhavean airof transgression, danger,or
defiance(againstparentaland school authority, againstgenderedbour-
geois standardsand expectations) thatis farlesssalientto anothergirlcon-
sumer(potentiallyof the same class,national,regional,and ethnic/racial
background)moreinclinedto see Stefani'sperformance as merelyplayful,
withoutsubstancethatwould markit as authentically transgressive.The
instabilityof thestrategicreappropriation of girlhoodis mirroredand re-
produced,in otherwords,in theveryinstability ofthemeaningsthatcon-
sumersconstruefromperformers who play the girlor who attemptto
signify girlnessin an ironicor parodicfashion.
However,as thefollowingdiscussionis meantto illustrate, the ethno-

rock- or,morecolloquially, - is a commontermthatrefers

indierock not to
9
Independent
a musicalaestheticbut to the meansof productionof themusicunderdiscussion.Indepen-
dent rock is music thatis producedand marketedthroughindependentinstitutions, i.e.,
institutions concertvenues)thatareindependentfromthemega-
(recordlabels,distributors,
corporationsthatdominatethe global rock music industry. Recentyearshave seen many
"indie-major"mergersreflecting of corporatearrangements;
a variety in mostcases,formerly
independentlabelsexchangesome partof ownershipof thelabel forthe financing, promo-
tion,and distributionresourcesof a majorlabel.

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 S I G N S Spring 1998 1 593

centrismthatcharacterizes certainappropriations ofgirlhoodis playedout

at the level of production,where femalemusiciansoperatewithinvery
differently racializedspheresof girlhood.Whiletheexampleof Riot Grrrl
raisesspecificquestionsabout therelationbetweenideologyand indepen-
dent modes of culturalproduction,as well as about the potentialinstru-
mentality ofgirlhoodto a feminist critiqueofthecorporatemusicindustry,
thecase ofJapanesewomenbandsillustrates how womenwho aremargin-
alizedby dominantnarratives of raceand gender(understoodas mutually
constitutive discourses)negotiatetheirown parodicor complicitcounter-
narratives. Insofaras mediarepresentations ofJapanesewomenrockersre-
capitulate familiar stereotypes of Asian femininity, givingriseto imagesof
Japanese female artists as ideallygirlish and innocent (a portrayalthatis
not necessarily at odds withrepresentations of "exotic"Asianfemalesexu-
alities),theseartistsproducedistinctnarratives thatdenygirlhoodthesta-
tusofuniversality and thatinsteadengagetheculturaland racialspecificity
of hegemonicgirlhood.These observationshave relevance,moreover,to
thewaysthatgirlhoodis recuperated - or not- withinthevariedmusical
and performance practicesof AfricanAmericanwomen, includingcur-
rentlypopularyoungfemaleperformers such as Da Brat,Lil' Kim, Foxy
Brown, and Brandy (as well an
as, perhaps, earlierincarnation ofthegroup
TLC), some of whom (e.g., Brandy) have worked to project airof girl-
an
ish "innocence"in theirmusic,videos,lyrics,and performance, othersof
whom (e.g.,FoxyBrown)haveaggressively marketedtheir"youthful" sex-
uality,sometimes bypretending to be younger than theyreally are.10
My argumentabout the ambiguouspoliticaleffectsof "actinglike a
girl"- eitheras a strategy forprogressive, antiracistfeminismor a means
of fostering the careersand the creativity of youngfemalepopularmusi-
cians-is informedby my own fan/consumer practices,as well as by
my status as a relatively young white female academic. The issuesI discuss
hereare particularly germane myto own discovery, around 1992, of the
loud, fast, and unapologetically"angry" music associated with the pre-
dominantlywhite, middle-classwomen in and around the Riot Grrrl
movement.This musicalsubculturenot onlyprovidedme new auraland
kinesthetic pleasures,it also encouragedme to beginwritingabout con-
temporary music cultureas partof myprofessional practice.It is therefore
with an investmentsimultaneously political,professional,and personal

10These women'sperformances underscorethewaythatgirlhoodis both deniedto, and

reinterpretedwithinthecontextof,AfricanAmericanwomen,whose use of the termgirlas
a mode of addresssuggestsa vernaculartraditionof such reinterpretation/reappropriation
as well.

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594 I Wald

thatI approachthequestionof how girlhoodhas been appropriatedand

coded-not, thatis, to trashsome of theverymusicand musicalpractices
thathave affordedme pleasurebut to strikea cautiousand criticaltone
about them.Althoughtheyoftenare constructed as mutuallyexclusivein
culturalstudies analysis,aestheticpleasuresare indissolublylinked to
ethicopoliticalcritiqueand hence to the practicesinspiredand mediated
through such critique.This articleis thusnotan exercisein critiquingplea-
sure, but is rathera critiqueof the productionof pleasurethroughgen-
deredand racializednarratives thatsignify as new,transgressive, or other-
wise exemplary.

Six yearsbeforeGwen Stefaniand No Doubt burstonto Top 40 radio

and MTV, a smallgroupofyoungwomenmusiciansactivein and around
the punkmusicscenesin Washington,D.C., and Olympia,Washington,
produced a two-pagemanifestocallingfora feministrevolutionwithin
independentrock- whattheytoutedundertheslogan"RevolutionGirl-
StyleNow."At thetime,membersofthebandsBratmobileand BikiniKill,
theindependentwomenrockersat theforefront ofthismovement, coined
the termRiot Grrrlas a means of signpostingtheirsnarlingdefianceof
punk'slong-standing (althoughhardlymonolithic)traditions ofmisogyny
and homophobia,as well as racismand sexismwithinthecorporatemusic
industry."l Togetherwithotherwomenactivein variouspunkscenes(such
as therelated,albeitseparate,movementof lesbiansin "homocore"music,
includingthe all-femaleband Tribe8), Riot Grrrlshave not onlyconsis-
tentlyadvocatedthecreationof all-female or predominantly femalebands,
but theyhave also emphasizedwomen'sownershipof recordlabels and
theircontroloverculturalrepresentation. This lastgoal has been fostered
bymyriad Riot or
Grrrl-affiliated fanzines(suchas GirlGerms
girl-positive
andRiotGrrrl),inexpensively producedpublications thatcirculatethrough
feminist bookstores,independent music networks
retailers, of friends,and
word-of-mouth subscriptionsand that envision
explicitly women's fan ac-
tivityas a legitimateand authenticformof culturalproduction.
For the young,predominantly middle-classwhitewomen who have
participated in Riot Grrrl subculture,revelingin "girliness"constitutes
an
aestheticand politicalresponseto dominantrepresentations of femalesex-
ualityproducedby the corporatemusicindustryas well as a strategy of

11For an accountoftheemergenceof Riot Grrrlas a movementofyoungwomenwithin

U.S. independentrockmusic,and fora more detaileddescriptionof the musicalpractices
associatedwithRiot Grrrl,see Gottlieband Wald 1994.

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 S I G N S Spring 1998 I 595

realizingwomen'sagencyas culturalproducerswithinindependentrock.
Byhighlighting girlthemesin theirmusic,lyrics,dress,iconography, zines,
and the like,performers such as Cub, TigerTrap,Heavens to Betsy,and
BikiniKill have attemptedto producea representational space forfemale
rock performers thatis, in effect, off-limits to patriarchalauthority, in a
mannerakin to the way thatgirls'clubs are off-limits to boys. Such an
emphasison girlinesshas enabledthesewomenperformers to preemptthe
sexuallyobjectifying of
gaze corporate rockculture, which tends to market
women's sexual desirability at the expenseof promotingtheirmusic or
theirlegitimacy as artists.Riot Grrrls'emphasison formsof girlsolidarity
has important practicalimplications as well.For example,Riot Grrrladvo-
cacy of all-women or predominantly women bandsoriginatesnot in a be-
liefin theaestheticsuperiority or in the"authentic"oppositionality ofsuch
groupsbut in thepracticalrecognitionthatrockideology(e.g., the equa-
tionofrockguitarplayingwithphallicmastery)has dissuadedmanyyoung
women fromlearningto play "male" instruments. Similarly, althoughit
was widelyderidedbymalepunkrockaficionadosas "separatist,theRiot
Grrrlpracticeof reservingthe mosh pit (the area directlyin frontof the
stage)forgirlsstemmedfroma desireto rethink thesocialorganizationof
space within rock clubs and other music venues.
A look at one aspectof Riot Grrrlartisticpractice-the carefully de-
signed sleevesof seven-inch records - reveals that forthesewomen in indie
rock,resistanceto patriarchal discoursetakesthe formof a rearticulation
of girlhoodthatemphasizesplay,fun,innocence,and girlsolidarity. The
silk-screened sleeveof a 1993 Bratmobile/Tiger Trapsplit seven-inch (i.e.,
a seven-inchrecordthatincludesone trackfromone band on each side)
on theSan Francisco-basedlabel Four-Letter Wordsfeaturestheimageof
a smilinggirldoing a handstand(takenfroma Kotex tamponadvertise-
mentca. 1968; fig.1), while a Bratmobile/Heavens to Betsyseven-inch
releasedat about thesame timefeaturesa photographof thebaredtorsos
of two youngwomenwearinghip-hugger jeans and tanktops,each sport-
ing the name of a band on her stomach. Many oftheimageson Riot Grrrl
fanzinesand recordsleevesuse childhoodphotographsof band members
to similareffect,as on thesleeveof the 1994 BabiesandBunniesseven-inch
recordby the Frumpies(fig.2), a Riot Grrrlgroup combiningmembers
of BikiniKill and Bratmobilerecordingon the Olympia-basedKill Rock
Starslabel. The coverof a 1993 Cub seven-inchtitledHotDog Day (Mint
Records) intimatesthemesof girlsolidarityand buddingqueer sexuality
by picturinga silvernecklacedanglinga charmthatdepictstwo smiling
girlfiguresholdinghands (fig.3).
The relentless cutenessof theserepresentations, whichmightbe merely

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596 I Wald

BRATMOBILE
"throwaway"
TIGERTRAP
"wordsand
twodollar
do not
paymore
Trap,"'Wordsand Smiles,"Four-Letter
Figure1 Sleeve,Bratmobile,"Throwaway"/Tiger
Words,1993.

sentimentalizing or idealizingunderothercircumstances, signifiesironi-

callywithinthe contextof punkyouthmusicsubcultures, where "youth"
is more likelyto be associatedwith aggression,violence,and crisis,and
where youth and youthfulness are frequently conflatedwith boyhood.
Similarly,while nostalgiaforan imaginedpastmightbe merelyreactionary
in anothercontext(e.g., in debatesovermulticulturalism and in themuch-
a
toutedclaimthatAmericanshaveforsaken previous commitment to civic
virtue),in the contextof Riot Grrrlperformance theseimagesof playful
and happygirlhoodare attemptsat self-consciously idealizingrepresenta-
tion. Such a recuperative of
iconography girlhoodcontrasts--markedly,
in some cases--withthe musicitself,whichregularly exploresthemesof
incest,theviolence of heteronormative beautyculture,and thepatriarchal
and sexualizationof girls:in short,themesthatconjurenot
infantilization
a lostinnocence,a fallfromchildhoodgrace,butan innocencethatwas not

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 S I G N S Spring 1998 I 597

Figure 2 Sleeve,Frumpies,BabiesandBunnies,Kill Rock Stars,1994

owned or enjoyed,a gracethatwas denied.l2The performance ofnostalgia

complicates and extends the Riot Grrrl of
performance righteousoutrage
at patriarchalabuse,in otherwords,invokinga yearned-for innocenceand
lightheartedness thatretroactivelyrewritethescriptof childhood.
Yet such idealizedrepresentations of girlhood,while undeniablyplea-
surableand therapeutic, are of uncertainpracticalor strategicvalue as a
feminist realpolitik,
particularlyoutsidethecontextof popularyouth/mu-
sic culture.At theveryleast,thenostalgiathatcharacterizes manyof these
representations lendsitselfto theproductionofproblematically dystopian,
or postlapsarian, narrativesof adultfemalesexualities.Indeed, one of the
paradoxesof thisnostalgicappropriation of (imagined)girlhoodis thatit
primarily responds to the music industry'sinfantilizing
representation of

12
For specificexamples,see Gottlieband Wald 1994.

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598 I Wald

Figure3 Sleeve,Cub, HotDog Day, Hot Dog Day, 1993

adultfemalesexuality, as wellas to rockmusic'sparticular

legacyofimagin-
ingwomen'scontributions in sexualterms(e.g.,womenas groupies,sexual
sideshows,rockchicks,or boy toys;McRobbie 1991, 25). It is telling,for
example,thatmediacoverageof Riot Grrrl-whichreacheditspeakvirtu-
allysimultaneously withthe music,around 1992 or 1993-focused pri-
marily on the displayofanger,"fallenness," ratherthancute-
or aggressivity
ness,innocence,or girlishpassivity, not onlybecausetheRiot Grrrlname
itselfemphasizedgirlhood"withan angry'grrrowl,'"as theNewYorkTimes
put it, but also becausethesewerealreadyfamiliartropesfroman earlier
incarnationof punkmusicin the 1970s.13 The strategicreversionto girl-
hood notonlyrestson an abilityto imaginegirlhoodoutsideofpatriarchal
representation,it also presumes cultural entitlementto "womanly"
subjectivity.
13See
Japenga1992, 30.

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 S I G N S Spring 1998 I 599

I I I

Riot Grrrls'self-conscious
performance ofnostalgiaunderscores thecul-
turallyconstructed natureofwomen'sand girls'accessto thepublicsphere.
Such an observation,as I have alreadysuggested,has importantimplica-
tionsforthetransportability, acrosssociallydetermined linesof difference,
of the Riot Grrrlstrategyof reappropriating girlhoodto constructalter-
native(i.e., nonpatriarchal)modes of visibilityforwomen in independent
rock.In short,such a deliberateperformance assumesa subjectforwhom
girlishness precludes,or is in conflictwith,culturalagency.But what of
women whose modes of accessto, and mobilitywithin,thepublicsphere
dependon theirsupposedembodimentof a girlishideal?
The examplesof the Osaka-based trio Shonen Knife and the New
York-basedduo Cibo Matto, Japanesefemalebands thathave attracted
smallbut significant followingsamongU.S. indierockaudiences,provide
tellingillustrationsof themannerin whichAsianwomen,whose visibility
withinU.S. cultureis oftenpredicatedon theiracquiescenceto orientalist
stereotypes, havehad to negotiatetheterrainofU.S. youthand musiccul-
turesdifferently thanhavetheir(primarily white)Riot Grrrlcounterparts.
In the United States,whereJapaneserock musicians(whose music has
becomeincreasingly visiblesincethemid-1980s) are oftenregardedwith
a mixtureof "sincere"musicalinterestand objectifying, ethnocentric curi-
osity,therecurring portrayalof Japanesewomen bandsas interesting nov-
eltyacts,cartoonishamateurs,and/orembodimentsofWesternpatriarchal
fantasiesof "cute"Asian femininity presentsparticularchallengesforun-
derstanding how evocationsof girlhoodoverlapwithdiscoursesof race,
gender,and nationin U.S. popularmusicculture.In contrastto Riot Grrrl
bands,whose reappropriations of girlhoodare partof a broadereffort to
harnessrock'soppositionalenergyforfeminist critique,Japanesewomen
rockershave had to negotiatea feminist culturalpoliticsfromwithinthe
contextof Westernpatriarchal discoursesthatinsiston positioningthem
as theexoticrepresentatives of an idealizedgirlishfemininity.
A look at theportrayal of ShonenKnifein theindependentand corpo-
ratemusicmediaillustrates thispoint.Formedbytwo sisters,Naoko and
Atsuko Yamano, and their friendand schoolmate Michie Nakatani,
Shonen Knifewas unknownin the United Statesuntil 1985, when the
Olympia-basedK Records (also knownforpromotingRiot Grrrlwork)
releasedBurningFarm,previously a Japaneserecording,on cassette.14Two

14
Accordingto indierocklore,theband was first
"discovered"by CalvinJohnson,mem-
berof thelo-fi,punkminimalist band Beat Happening,cofounderof theK recordlabel,and
promoterof theidea of an "International
Pop Underground.

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600 I Wald

independentreleases,Pretty LittleBaka Guy/LiveinJapan(Gasatanka/Rock-

ville1990) and ShonenKnife(Gasatanka/Giant 1990) followed,butit was
not untiltheband's1992 major-labeldebut,Let'sKnife(Virgin),featuring
the remakesof earliersongs,some recordedforthefirsttimein English,
thatShonen Knifewon significant airplayon collegeradio and a coveted
opportunity to accompanyNirvanaon tour.The immediate,enthusiastic
embraceof Shonen Knifein themid-1980sbyindierockluminariessuch
as Kim Gordon and ThurstonMoore of Sonic Youthis oftenexplained
in termsof the band'skitschy punk-popsound and itstrademark parodic
"twisting"of iconsofAmericanand Japanesecommodityculture.Named
fora brandof pocketknives(perhapsas a wayof encapsulating a succinct
of
critique patriarchal masculinity?), Shonen Knife readilyappealedto U.S.
indie rockers,who admiredthe band'spomo way of blurringthe bound-
ariesbetweenadvertising jinglesand "serious"punk-pop(a practiceevi-
dentin songssuchas "TortoiseBrandPot Cleaner'sTheme").
Despite such affinities, the women in Shonen Knifehave repeatedly
been portrayedin exoticizingand infantilizing terms,as demonstrated by
the linernotesto a late-1980sindie rocktributealbumof Shonen Knife
covers,titledEveryBand Has a ShonenKnifeWhoLovesThem(in ironicref-
erenceto an albumofYoko Ono covers,despitethefactthatShonenKnife
had no apparentconnectionto the most famousof all Japanesewomen
rock artistsin the United States).Here, band membersare describedin
franklypatronizinglanguage:"Theyarehappypeople and love whatthey
are doing.... Theyare humble,kindpeople who do not realizethatthey
are the most importantband of our time" (Weisbardand Marks 1995,
355). Variationson thisbasicthemeaboundin laterrepresentations, where
theband is oftencitedforsporting"cute"accents- a "lite"versionof the
moreovertand aggressiveracismof an infamousEsquiremagazinearticle
about Ono titled"JohnRennon'sExcrusiveGroupie" (Gaar 1992, 231).
"Mostly[Shonen Knife]singin theirnativetongue,"writesRollingStone,
"but whatneedsno translation is how theirawkwardhumility mixeswith
theirirrepressible vivacity"(Eddy 1990, 91). The band faresno betterin
MelodyMaker,where theyare describedas the "orient's answer to the
Shangri-las"-a phrasethattellinglyconjuresnostalgiaforthe manufac-
tured sexual innocenceof Phil Spector-managed1960-era girl groups
(True 1991, 38-39). One musicjournalist,in a descriptionthatconflates
infantilizingimagesofAsianwomen'ssexuality withstereotypes of female
musicalincompetence, has asserted that the band'sfanslike Shonen Knife
because"they're little,lotsoffunand can'treallyplay"(StudBrother1992,
6). Most tellingly,perhaps,inpublicity materialsfortheir1993 albumRock
Animals,VirginRecords(whichin 1996 released,withverylittlefanfare,

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 S I G N S Spring 1998 I 601

an album of "rarities,curiositiesand live tracks"titledTheBirdsand the

B-Sides)explicitlydistinguishesShonen Knife's"simplicity," "charismatic
innocence,"and musicalcharmfromtherestive,confrontational feminin-
ity of their U.S. indie rock counterparts.These "Ronettes-meet-the-
Ramones,"gushesthe pressrelease,"are definitely not cut fromthe same
batteredclothas theirRiot Grrrland flannelshirtedcolleagues."
Such a binaryoppositionpittingShonen Knife,a charmingand ador-
able Japanesenoveltyact with musical roots in the classic 1960s girl
groups,againstunfeminine, unkemptRiot Grrrlsprovidesinsightintothe
workperformed byracializedrepresentations ofAsianfemininity, as wellas
thespecificityof theRiot Grrrlreappropriation of girlhood.For example,
becauseshewas widelyperceivedas having"stolen"JohnLennonfromhis
firstwife,CynthiaLennon,and perhapsbecauseof heraffiliation withthe
highlycerebralNew York-basedavant-garde and noise-rockscenes,Yoko
Ono was subjectedto a verydifferent set of images:masculinizedand de-
sexualized,cast (along with her music) as impenetrableand inscrutable,
intimidating and unpredictable, she was portrayed in a mannerthatrecalls
earlier,WorldWarII-era stereotypes. By contrast, themajor-labelmarket-
ing of Japanesewomen bands such as Shonen Knifeand Cibo Matto em-
phasizesgirlishness as a way of establishingthattheseperformers will be
"fun"- thatis, amusing,clever,and entertaining - forU.S. consumers.15

WhileRiot Grrrlshave been able to reappropriate girlhoodas a partof

theirpoliticaland musicalpractice,Japanesewomen bands have had to
negotiatean unreconstructed, unironicversionof thetermgirlthatcircu-
lates withinU.S. discoursesof Asian femininity. As the above examples
make plain, the media representations of Shonen Knife (and, more re-
cently,of Cibo Matto) have tended to reinscribetheirlack of cultural
agencyratherthanexploretheirartisticpracticesas a potentialsourceof
such agency.In fact,however,both Shonen Knifeand Cibo Matto have
producedfeminist workthatcountersdominantnotionsof a priorigirlish
Asian femininity, revealinghow thesenotionsare shot throughwith ra-
cializedsexism.For example,ShonenKnife's"TwistBarbie"(Shonen Knife,

15Such infantilizing
imagesof Japanesewomen rockersare,of course,merelythebenign
complementto a moreovertlyand aggressively racistneocolonialportraiture
of Asian femi-
ninity.The most flagrant exampleof thissortof representation comes froman "All-Japan"
issue of thepunkzineMaximumrocknroll-an issue ostensiblydevotedto defininga shared
among U.S. and Japaneseindie rockers.In thispiece, a regular
sensibility
political-cultural
contributor musesabout "nubileNipponeselovelies"and "all thesehot-lookingJapanesegirl
bands" (Shonen Knifegetsspecificmention),whilespeculatingthatas a "species,""Oriental
girls"(and herehe includesAsianAmericanwomen) have"Mongolianeyelids"thatresemble
vulva,and thatthisexplains"thesourceof theirattractiveness."
See Maximumrocknroll 1994.

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602 I Wald

Gasatanka/Giant, 1990), an upbeat pop-rocksong thatis probablytheir

best-known workamongU.S. audiences,articulates an ambiguousrelation
to Europeanidealsoffemininity through imageofa Barbiedoll: "Blue
the
eyes,blond hair/Tightbody,long legs/ She'sverysmart/ She can dance
well.... 0, sexygirl!"Thisinitially humorousparodyofBarbieas a minia-
tureand synthetic "embodiment"of ideal Europeanwomanhood(a par-
ody thatimputesstereotypes of girlishfemininity to U.S. whitewomen)
is punctuated, laterin thesong,bythephrase"I wannabe TwistBarbie"-
words that potentiallyexpressa more ambiguous relationto Western
beautycultureand thatcleverly playoffof thenotionof the"wannabe,"a
means by whichyoungwomen articulatetheirsubjectivity throughtheir
of
consumption popular culture."Twist Barbie" is noteworthy, too, insofar
as it expressesU.S.-Japanesetraderelationsthroughthe figureof a doll
marketedto girls.The trope of a toy is perhapsnot incidental,since
Shonen Knife themselvesare imaginatively "toying"with Barbie as a
twistedand impossibleideal of (Western)femininity- thewordtwisthere
referring both to a popular dance and to the band's own culturalpractice,
whichtwiststhe signsof Westerncommodityculture."TwistBarbie"--
perhapsa reference to theTwistN Turnseriesof Barbiedolls- conjuresa
specificmode of girls'leisurewithinU.S. commodityculture(the activity
of playingwithBarbiedolls) to critiquea culturally specificexpressionof
patriarchal The
femininity. song suggests thatwomen can toywithideals
of femininity themselvesas artificial (i.e., as unnaturalor nonessential)as
theBarbiedoll.
This is not to say thata song such as "TwistBarbie"cannotalso abet
U.S. stereotypesof "cute" or "innocent"Asian femininity: indeed, the
deadpan enthusiasm with which Shonen Knife play and sing"TwistBar-
bie,"on recordand in liveperformance, suggeststhattheyareless critical
of a European,Barbie-type ideal thanan analysisof theirlyricsmightim-
ply.The balanceof ShonenKnife(the 1990 U.S. releasethatfeaturesthe
firstof severalEnglish-language versionsof "TwistBarbie") is takenup
in
withsongsthat, English translation atleast,seemto toe thelinebetween
parody and complicity. The album's cover art contributesphotographs
thatsupportthisreadingof a fundamental ambivalencein ShonenKnife's
self-representation: one featureswhat looks like a snapshotof the band
memberstakenwhentheywereschoolgirls,and a seconddepictsthetrio
primpingfor the camera,wearingwhite dressesfestoonedwith small
multicoloredbows (figs.4 and 5). (The onlyelementthatdistinguishes
thissecond photographis its backdrop:a graffiti-filled wall hintsthatthe
photographmayhavebeen takenbackstageat a show.)
The titleand the coverartof Viva!La Woman,Cibo Matto'scritically

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Figure4 Cover (insert),ShonenKnife,ShonenKnife,Gasatanka/Giant,
1990

Figure5 Cover (back),Shonen Knife,Shonen 1990

Knife,Gasatanka/Giant,

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 _:
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Figure 6 Cover,Cibo Matto,Viva!La Woman,WarnerBrothers,

1996

acclaimed1996 debutalbumon theWarnerBrotherslabel,illustrate how

musiciansYuka Honda and Miho Hatori (who firstmet in Manhattan)
frametheircultural-political agencyquite differently (fig.6). Musically,
thereis littlethatconnectsShonen Knife'sstraightforward pop-rockwith
Cibo Matto'sintricatesound, which reliesheavily samplingtechnolo-
on
gies to producewhatone criticdescribesas "an enticingcross-cultural fu-
sionthatmixesbossa nova,hip-hop,jazz, Africandrumming and disco ...
over which Hatori gleefullychants,screams,wails and raps in English,
Frenchand Japanese"(Silberger1996, 61). As theirname (Italian for
"crazyfood") suggests,hybridity is a centralthemeofCibo Matto'sartistic
-
practice not onlythehybridity thatoriginatesin theglobalcirculation of
popularyouth/music culture,but the hybridity thatmarksHonda's and
Hatori'sown "hybrid"locationsas Japanese-born New Yorkerswhosemu-
sic drawsinspiration fromwhiteartists'interpretations of AfricanAmeri-
can hip-hop.The duo fostersan imageof cosmopolitansophistication that
of
is distinctfromShonen Knife's(calculated?)image playful,good-girl
simplicity.Such a notion is reinforced by the Dada qualityof the duo's
lyricsand the cool, technologically hip image theyprojectin live perfor-

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 S I G N S Spring 1998 I 605

Figure7 Cover (insidephotograph),Cibo Matto,Viva!La Woman,Warner

Brothers,1996.

mance,duringwhichHonda nonchalantly insertsfloppydisksintoa com-

putersynthesizer whileHatori sings.
A band photographfromViva!La Woman(fig.7) depictsthemusicians
as denizensof a high-techplayground:dressedin sequins,Honda (posed
on a bicycle)and Hatori appearsurroundedbyturntables, tape recorders,
synthesizers, musicalinstruments, and, most conspicuously, skateboards,
whilevariousotherfigures(producers?engineers?)busythemselves in the
background.As such an imageimplies,samplingand dubbingtechnolog-
ies, as well as synthesizers
thatfilterand/ordistortHatori's"natural"vo-
cals, affordCibo Matto a variegatedand intricatemusical"voice."Cultural
agency,forthesewomen performers, is not stagedprimarily withinthe
termsof theparadigmofferedbyU.S. Riot Grrrls,or evenwithintheam-
biguouslycomplicit/parodic economyof signification modeledbyShonen
Knife.Rather,theydemonstratehow the appropriationof girlhoodmay
at timesconflictwithwomen'sculturalagency.

In their1995 book TheSexRevolts,

Simon Reynoldsand JoyPressclaim
thatU.S. alternative
rock,increasingly
focusedon "gendertourism"as a

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606 I Wald

sourceof itsrebellionand therefore itsidentity formation, has witnesseda

corresponding decline in the significance of race to itsmusical and cultural
practice.(Although I am appropriatingReynolds and Press'slanguage
here,I wantto distancemyself fromtheiruse of thephraserockrebellion, a
termthatis not onlypotentially condescendingbut also explicitly mascu-
linist.)Accordingto TheSexRevolts, the emergenceof "alternative" music
a
(actually fullycorporatized stylethat is,by and large, an object ofderision
forindierockers)in theearly1980s is pivotal,markingtheend of an era
duringwhichblacksourcesservedas theprimary inspiration forwhitecul-
turalinnovationand heraldinga new erain whichtheperformance ofgen-
der,not race,is paramount.If rockcultureswereonce conceivedas, alter-
natively,a meetingplace and a battlegroundbetweenblack and white
identities - a cultural
spherewherewhiteand blackyouthsviolatedsocial
taboos against"racemixing"and wherewhiteyouthsfashioneddissident
identitiesaccordingto the models offeredby blackmusiciansand black
musicalculture- these culturesare nowadaysmore concerned,as Rey-
nolds and Press argue, with the productionof new genderedsubjec-
tivitiesthat are less apparentlymarkedby dominantdiscoursesof race
(385-86).
My own analysisoftherepresentation ofShonenKnifeand Cibo Matto
beliesthisrelatively simplisticthesis,whichin turnrevealsthe inevitable
interarticulation of racismand sexism.Here, too, I want to registerthe
disturbingresonanceof thephrasegendertourism in Reynoldsand Press's
textwithsextourism, and to notethatwhileitimpliesthefluidity ofgender
identifications in rockperformance, thetermgender tourism in thiscontext
actuallyreinscribes the stability of genderin explicitly neocolonialterms,
where(white)men are theexplorers,(Japanese)womenthecolonyto be
explored.The analogyis not too far-fetched, giventhe argumentI have
been developingabout the culturalconstruction of girlhoodand girlcul-
turewithinrockmusic.Indeed,one ofthepointsofmyanalysisofcontem-
poraryrockcultureshas been to show that"girlhood,"farfromsignifying
a universal,biologicallygroundedconditionof femaleexperience, instead
implies a relationto and
agency,visibility, history that emerges withina
particulardiscursivecontext.The different countemarratives of girlhood
producedby a Riot Grrrlband such as BikiniKill and a Japaneseband
suchas ShonenKnifeoccupydifferent antagonistic relationsto hegemonic
girlhood, whose meaning is itselfunstable. The fact thatthesedifferent
narratives take root in verydifferent culturalcontextssuggeststhatone
cannotassumetheportability ofcontemporary whiteU.S. womenrockers'
criticaldiscourseof girlhoodand theiradvocacyof girlculture.
By way of concluding,then,I want to exploresome implicationsof
thesethemesoutsideof the specificcontextof rockmusic.An anecdote

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 S I G N S Spring 1998 I 607

about myown relationto workon girlcultureprovidesa startingpoint.

This articlewas inadvertently inspiredbya presentation about Riot Grrrls
thatI gave as partof an academicjob talkat New YorkUniversity several
yearsago. At theend of mytalk,one audiencememberaskedme whether
suchworkon femaleyouth/music culture- and perhapsherehe was also
implicitly referencing myadvocacyof Riot Grrrlas a noteworthy develop-
mentwithinpunk and postpunkmusics- tacitlyshiftedthe emphasisof,
or even supplanted,women'sstudies(and thevariouscritiquesintegralto
itspracticalinterventions withintheacademy)withsomethinghe provoca-
tivelytermed"girlstudies."My answerat the timewas somethinglike,
"What'swrongwithgirlstudies?"-a responsethatwas calculated(inas-
muchas I had timeto calculate)to legitimizegirlsand theirspecificcultural
formations (somethingintegralto theRiot Grrrlproject)as well as to au-
thorizemyown workon girls/grrrls. I admit,too, thatas a candidateper-
formingin frontofvarioustenuredfacultyand curiousgraduatestudents,
I feltat thatmomentlike somethingof a girl.I arguedthen,as I would
now,thatresearchinto the discoursesof girlhoodis crucialifwe wantto
understand how contemporary femaleperformers and theiraudienceshave
attempted to createavenuesof feminist agencywithintraditionally mascu-
linistpopularforms.
I could not thenanticipatehow resonantthisbriefand admittedly su-
perficialexchange about the statusof "girl studies"would later seem in
lightof the emergenceboth of a popularpsychologicalliterature of girl-
hood (whichdepictsgirlhoodas a periodof crisisin femalesubjectivity)
and of a burgeoningacademicsubfieldof the culturalstudiesof girls.My
own readingof Shonen Knife'splayfulmimicryof a Barbie-esqueideal of
femininity is in tacitdialoguewithrecentfeminist studiesthatuse Barbie
as an importantculturaltext.In suchwork,Barbiebearstheinscription of
variousoverlappingand sometimescontradictory ideologiesof race,gen-
der,class,and nation.16The "newBarbiestudies, particularly whenunder-
taken fromqueer feministperspectives, uses this most ubiquitous and
notorioussymbolof ideal femininity to exploreand critiquegirls'appro-
of
priations patriarchal commodityculture,suggestingthatsuchappropri-
ationsmaybe important to theiridentityformation. This articlerepresents
myown analogousreadingof youngwomen rockmusicians'feminist ap-
propriationsof hegemonicgirlhood,based on the relatednotion that
youthmusicprovidesan important culturalvenueforthearticulation and
rearticulation of youthfulsubjectivities.
And yetsome of thelimitations of thisintellectual
project,ifnot of the

16
See, e.g., Ebersoleand Peabody1993; Lord 1994; Rand 1995. New studiesof Barbie
are also forthcoming.

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608 I Wald

verynotionthatgirlhoodcan be unproblematically reclaimedforfeminism

or forfeministculturalpractices,are also implicitin thisreadingof the
culturalconstruction of girlhoodwithinrockmusic.It is noteworthy that
"I'm Justa Girl" peaked in popularityat about the same timethatMa-
donna and CourtneyLove, two ofthefemalerockperformers mostassoci-
atedwiththeculturalsubversionof girlhood,chose to "growup,"at least
in termsoftheirpublicperformance ofgender:Madonna throughhervery
publicstaging of motherhood and her role as Evitain thefilmversionof
thefamousAndrewLloydWebbermusical,Love througha starring rolein
themovieThePeoplevs.LarryFlynt(Forman1996) and a highlypublicized
beauty/fashion makeover.Thereis somethingpredictably depressing,too,
about theglobal popularityof theSpice Girls,who have appropriated the
spunky defiance associatedwith English Riot Grrrls in a patentlyoppor-
tunisticfashion.Particularlywithinthe contextof theglobal strugglefor
women'srights,itis clearthatgirlhoodcannotyetbe spokenofas a univer-
sal rightor propertyof women. Moreover,even workthateschewsgirl-
hood as theuniversalizing complementof veryparticular constructionsof
humanbiologicaldevelopmentcan end up essentializing girlhoodas a nec-
essaryphasewithinthelifecycleimaginedbyglobalcapitalism.Rock mu-
sic cultures,especiallythe culturesof independentrock,providecrucial
siteswithinwhichyoungwomen can negotiatetheirown representations
ofgirlhoodin varyingdegreesofoppositionto,or collaboration with,heg-
emonic narratives.As the foregoinganalysisof various contemporary
femalerockerssuggests,however,women- especiallythosewho benefit
fromtheirprivilegednational,racial,or economicstatus- willneedto stay
alertto thenecessityof interrogating,in an ongoingand self-critical fash-
ion, the conditionsthatgoverntheiraccessto social and culturalagency.
If I am soundinga note of particular urgency, it is becauseI believethat
youthmusic culturescontinueto offergirlsimportantsourcesof emo-
tionalsanctuaryand vitaloutletsforthe expressionof rage and pleasure,
frustrationand hope.

ofEnglish
Department
George University
Washington

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