Pretty in Punk
Girl's Gender Resistance in a Boy's Subculture
Pretty in Punk combines autobiography, interviews, and sophisticated analysis to create the first insider’s examination of the ways punk girls resist gender roles and create strong identities.
Why would an articulate, intelligent, thoughtful young women shave off most of her hair, dye the remainder green, shape it into a mohawk, and glue it onto her head? What attracts girls to male-dominated youth subcultures like the punk movement? What role does the subculture play in their perceptions of themselves, and in their self-esteem? How do girls reconcile a subcultural identity that is deliberately coded “masculine” with the demands of femininity?
Research has focused on the ways media and cultural messages victimize young women, but little attention has been paid to the ways they resist these messages. In Pretty in Punk, Lauraine Leblanc examines what happens when girls ignore these cultural messages, parody ideas of beauty, and refuse to play the games of teenage femininity. She explores the origins and development of the punk subculture, the processes by which girls decide to “go punk,” patterns of resistance to gender norms, and tactics girls use to deal with violence and harassment.
Pretty in Punk takes readers into the lives of girls living on the margins of contemporary culture. Drawing on interviews with 40 girls and women between the ages of 14-37, Leblanc examines the lives of her subjects, illuminating their forms of rebellion and survival. Pretty in Punk lets readers hear the voices of these women as they describe the ways their constructions of femininity—from black lipstick to slamdancing—allow them to reject damaging cultural messages and build strong identities. The price they pay for resisting femininity can be steep—girls tell of parental rejection, school expulsion, institutionalization, and harassment. Leblanc illuminates punk girls’ resistance to adversity, their triumphs over tough challenges, and their work to create individual identities in a masculine world.
In this original work, LeBlanc explores how punk girls negotiate and resist hegemonic notions of femininity in the predominantly masculine punk subculture. She asks: What influences some teenage girls to become involved in the punk subculture? How do punk girls negotiate female gender norms within a masculine subculture? . . . LeBlanc's work is engaging. By combining a critical feminist perspective, sound qualitative methodology, and delightfully non-academic prose, she has written a book that is both informative and a pleasure to read. Her work should be appreciated by those who study genders, subcultures, identities, and deviance.
[LeBlanc] draws on her insider experiences and insights and on the field research and interviews she carried out with 40 self-identified punk girls in her travels to New Orleans, Atlanta, MontrTal and San Francisco. . . . As an æethnography of gender resistanceÆ and inside look at punk subculture, this very impressive study is of theoretical interest to sociologists, cultural researchers and feminist theorists while also sufficiently fascinating and accessible to appeal to a more general audience.
The author's first-person accounts of her life as a punk girl are particularly effective at bringing her analysis of punk girls to life. . . . Original and very insightful.
Pretty in Punk is cutting-edge feminist and cultural studies research. . . . .The stories [Leblanc] relates offer inspirational evidence of rebellion against stereotypical gender arrangementsùof girls empowering themselves in unique ways.
The girls and women that Leblanc portrays in Pretty in Punk are very nearly as original, spirited, and delightful as Leblanc's prose itself. . . . A happy conjunction of author, topic, and methodology.
In this original work, LeBlanc explores how punk girls negotiate and resist hegemonic notions of femininity in the predominantly masculine punk subculture. She asks: What influences some teenage girls to become involved in the punk subculture? How do punk girls negotiate female gender norms within a masculine subculture? . . . LeBlanc's work is engaging. By combining a critical feminist perspective, sound qualitative methodology, and delightfully non-academic prose, she has written a book that is both informative and a pleasure to read. Her work should be appreciated by those who study genders, subcultures, identities, and deviance.
[LeBlanc] draws on her insider experiences and insights and on the field research and interviews she carried out with 40 self-identified punk girls in her travels to New Orleans, Atlanta, MontrTal and San Francisco. . . . As an æethnography of gender resistanceÆ and inside look at punk subculture, this very impressive study is of theoretical interest to sociologists, cultural researchers and feminist theorists while also sufficiently fascinating and accessible to appeal to a more general audience.
The author's first-person accounts of her life as a punk girl are particularly effective at bringing her analysis of punk girls to life. . . . Original and very insightful.
Pretty in Punk is cutting-edge feminist and cultural studies research. . . . .The stories [Leblanc] relates offer inspirational evidence of rebellion against stereotypical gender arrangementsùof girls empowering themselves in unique ways.
The girls and women that Leblanc portrays in Pretty in Punk are very nearly as original, spirited, and delightful as Leblanc's prose itself. . . . A happy conjunction of author, topic, and methodology.
Acknowledgments
"Not My Alma Mater": A Vitriolic Prologue
1. "The Punk Girl Thing": Introductions
2. "Punk's Not Dead--It Just Smells That Way": Punk to Hardcore, with Girls on the Side
3. "I Grew Up and I Was a Punk": Subcultural Stories
4. "The Punk Guys Will Really Overpower What the Punk Girls Have to Say": The Boys' Turf
5. "I'll Slap on My Lipstick and Then Kick Their Ass": Constructing Femininity
6. "Oh, I Hope I Don't Catch Anything": Punk Deviance and Public Harassment
7. "I Bet a Steel-Capped Boot Could Shut You Up": Resistance to Public Sexual Harassment
8. "Girls Kick Ass": Nonacademic Conclusions
Appendix A: Punk Glossary
Appendix B: Punk Girl Biographies
Appendix C: Interview Guide and Statement of Purpose
Notes
Works Cited
Index
