~This paper will investigate how the third wave feminism is represented through a girl punk band, Bratmobile. An interview with Bratmobile’s vocal, Allison Wolfe, from online magazine becomes a supportive material.

Understanding 3rd Wave Feminism

According to my understanding the third wave feminism have not established a single definition as it has been being formulated and negotiated. In one way, the third wave is understood in academic area but in another case the third wave is considered as a  political movement in which young activism has started to question and further to bring about change to the patriarchal system. Leslie Heywood and Jennifer Drake provide characteristic of the third wave feminism and how it differs from the previous feminism movements.
“We define feminism’s Third Wave as a movement that contains elements of Second Wave critique of beauty culture, sexual abuse, and power structures while it also acknowledges and makes use of the pleasure, danger, and defining power of those structures” (Conrad: 2001)

In this circumstance we may understand that the third wave feminism considers some values of second wave like criticism of how beauty is defined, understanding phenomenon of sexual abuse that still happen to many women and the system power of patriarchal system. But in contrast the third wave feminism also point out that women especially young lady can seek their pleasure for individual expression and thus creating a new power for them. Conrad (2001: 123) evaluates Bust Magazines which describes what third wave looks like. Conrad defines that the third wave feminism movement has theoritical patterns: 1) reaction to, or adoption of, Second Wave feminist theory; 2) multiculturalism; 3) alternative and diverse sexualities; 4) anti-essentialism; 5) individualism; 6) contradiction or contrast; and 7) pastiche  and camp.
 

In relation to second wave, the third wave feminism does both reject and accepts the values of second wave theories as I explain in previous paragraph. Multiculturalism denotes the rejection of the second wave which focuses only in white middle-class woman.  Woman of color, especially black has been taken into consideration in the third wave. Diverse sexualities pattern means that the third wave tries to fight for right for lesbianism which was considered as embarrassment during second wave. Individualism here contributes to understanding that woman has a right for self-expression because as explained before that woman may have a pleasure. Women as sexual object now turns into women as subject who are freely sexualize themselves. This reflects a new power of self-control for them.
 

Punk Feminism

Punk music based on my understanding is genre music that typically contains a protest of current system that many people believe has been corrupted. The band personnel usually come from youth generation—a period of age of questioning rules. They create their own identity in form of subculture.

One event that has marked the third wave feminism is the rise of Riot Grrrl movement or Punk Feminism. Conrad (2001: 14) suggests Riot grrrl as an angry growl woman—seen from the word grrrl, that challenges the system which at that time still hold the belief of how woman should behave. They try to put aside an image of woman as nice, sweet, and unassertive stereotypes of “girls.” This punk feminism begins to form as a “loose network of women from Olympia and Washington D.C. in 1990s,” The riot grrrl movement encouraged third wave artist and musician to define punk and feminism into their own version under male dominated punk movement. Besides, the big project in here is that it empowers many women to fight against misogyny and inequality through positive activities.  In promoting the ideas of woman empowerment, social or political criticism, many activists, artists, or musicians disseminate ‘zines’ with a specific esoteric theme.

So, the values of the third wave in terms of punk feminism here say that every woman has their freedom to define their identity and to express their ideas towards their surroundings. Well, in practice these (young) women have entered the punk music area which is typically dominated by man—to both fight for equality and show their protest of daily life oppression toward woman. Regarding identity these women have consciously possessed their own body. They can make their appearance in so ‘punk’ way as if challenge the traditional beauty ideal. One thing we can notice, sharing ideas by creating music and disseminating zines indicates that these women do want to show their identity in a political way.

“Bratmobile” as a Representation of 3rd Wave Feminism

Bands associated with the movement are Bikini Kill, Jack Off Jill, Bratmobile, Adickdid, Bangs, The Butchies, Calamity Jane, Emily Sassy Line, Fifth Column, etc. From many bands, Bikini Kill has always been mentioned the most. Nevertheless, I want to take one band that is equally popular, Bratmobile, as focus of this paper. One of reasons choosing the band is the vocal, Allison Wolfe. In my opinion an influential personnel can make the band noticeable. Allison Wolfe is a main activist of Riot Grrrl movement, contributor of feminist punk rockers together with Kathleen Hana and Tobi Vail from Bikini Kill, and a zines writer of Girl Germs and Riot Grrrl assisted by the same group personnel, Molly Neuman. Zines, or fanzines, were magazines for fans of a particular performer, group, or form of entertainment that were produced by amateurs. Like Kathleen Hana and Toby Vail, Wolfe and Neuman bring the theme of their zines to music and form Bratmobile in 1991 (Butler, 2010)

Walker (2015) on her artices Bikini Kills and Bratmobile has even interpreted Bratmobile as Brat being what society perceives about feminist and mobile is about getting around. These girls with these bands with stereotypes that society attach to them as being annoying, brat, angry have shown to people how they can be what they wanted to be and make change. This is how punk band is connected to the third wave, as many (young) not only wants to be acknowledged culturally but also politically.

In order to find out the representation of the third wave through Bratmobile I also consider an interview conducted by Sally McCallister to Allison Wolfe from an online magazine, The Nerdy Virginias Magazine, posted on August 7th 2013, entitled An interview with former Bratmobile singer Allison Wolfe, Precious Thoughts shared about Riot Grrrls, Feminism, and Art.

The first thing came out was how Wolfe defined Riot Grrrl (punk feminism). She thought that riot grrrl as part of the third wave feminism had made punk rock scenes more feminist and made feminism more punk rock. She saw riot grrrl as feminist cultural activism pertaining the era of early 90’s American independent music scene.

In answering her band and the meaning of feminism, Wolfe explained that Bratmobile was the most popular band for her. She saw her music, performance, and persona had been engaged in feminist cultural activism, with focus on self-esteem issues and how the personal is political. Feminism, in her opinion, was about struggling women values against patriarchal society. When asked about her contribution in the third wave feminism, Wolve expressed her gratitude of being a part of third wave feminism in which she could have spoken out her idea of feminism through music, music about devaluation of women in daily life, self-esteem, and political personal.

Catching idea of Allison Wolfe from the interview we can see the connection of the topic in this discussion, about Bratmobile, punk feminism and the third wave feminism. Wolfe and Bratmobile have represented the values of the third way feminism. Wolfe has decided herself to be a punk girl challenging culture of male-dominated punk. She protests the patriarchal society and devaluation of woman by writing zines and creating songs. Bratmobile as a band formed 1991 in the era of riot grrrl or punk feminism functions as not only a mere ‘entertainment’ but also a political media containing feminism ideas.


Reference
Conrad, Lettie. (2001). Third Wave Feminism A Case Study of BUST Magazine. In California State University. [Online]. Available: grrrlzines.net/writing/Conrad_thesis.pdf [2015, February 15]

Fields, Allison. (2002). Bratmobile Girls Get Busy Lookout!; 2002. http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/919-girls-get-busy/ (Accessed on April, 21 2015]
Kloster, Mel. (2014). The Riot Grrrl Manifesto” and “Revolution Girl Style Now.
http://sites.psu.edu/wmnst106behrend/tag/third-wave-of-feminism/feed/ (Accessed on April, 21 2015)

Walker, Marche. (2015). Bikini Kill and Bratmobile. http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/919-girls-get-busy/ (Accessed on April, 21 2015)