![]() That was I think the desire by everybody. Wilson: Everybody had a little different angles and stuff, but the same general desire towards fuckin’ up the white supremacist patriarchy. Team Dresch and Bikini Kill toured together. Queercore predates riot grrrl and, in some ways, the movements became intertwined. I’m Fabi Reyna, founder of She Shreds Media and this is Starting a Riot ![]() I realized I was surrounded by straight, white kids who actually came from rich or at least comfortable families who just wanted to have somewhere and something to scream about. And while going to punk shows in Portland felt that way to me in some ways, I actually found myself feeling more pissed off in other ways. From the outside, punk seems like a safe place to be different and to express that. When I moved to Portland in 2010, I felt this paradox in the punk scene. So, that created some complicated relationships. These were issues that Brown, Indigenous, People of Color and queer, trans, and gender nonconforming people had been living with on a heightened level long before they caught the attention of white women in riot grrrl. People who were active in the movement spoke out about reproductive rights, sexual assault and safety for women within the punk scene. Reyna: We’ve talked about the political activism of riot grrrl. The aesthetic was like maybe baby doll dresses and barrettes and stuff, which is wonderful, except that’s not my jam, and then it also, I think that like, the politics of it felt more, um, straight for a lack of better word. Wilson: And it’s not like riot grrrl was anti-queer, but it didn’t feel specifically queer in the way that I just, that’s what I needed at that time. But, Wilson says she never really felt at home at riot grrrl shows. Queercore and riot grrrl both grew out of punk. They were part of a movement known as Queercore, originally called Homocore. And eventually, they started a band together called Team Dresch. Reyna: While she was still in high school, Wilson became penpals with Donna Dresch. ![]() Wilson: I think she was the first dyke that I was like, “That’s like me! That’s a person that makes total sense to me in all the ways.” Reyna: Around the same time she met Allison and Molly, Kaia Wilson discovered the zine “Chainsaw.” It was made by a musician in Olympia named Donna Dresch. And then they said it was cool that I was in high school and gay and I was like, “Oh really? That’s cool, okay, I guess that’s cool.” Wilson: I remember that they thought it was really cool that I was in high school and that I was gay and it didn’t make any sense to me at the time because I just felt kind of embarrassed that I was in high school. Wilson remembers meeting them at a party. This was 1991 and Allison Wolfe and Molly Neuman of Bratmobile were at the University of Oregon in Eugene. Reyna: (It was a band of all women.) She also began venturing out to the closest city – Eugene, Oregon. Wilson: When I was 17, I was in a band called A Dick Did, That is A-D-I-C-K-D-I-D. Reyna: Through zines and the nearby college radio station, Wilson learned about riot grrrl bands and it wasn’t long before she started making music herself. I did not get physically assaulted but I got verbally assaulted and then I also got dead animals put on my windshield. Wilson: …and at some point once I did come out more publicly or whatever in my high school, I had definitely some targeted homophobia and weird things happen to me. Reyna: She says she didn’t really have any role models in her community… Wilson: At that age like 13, 14, I was just starting to come out to myself, kind of, and my dog. Kaia Wilson: I don’t know, punk just I guess resonated because I felt like I was so different and it was the thing that I could see around me that was like the freak, the freak music like because I felt like a freak.įabi Reyna: Kaia Wilson grew up in a small Oregon town called Jasper. Special thanks to JT Griffith and our riot grrrl manifesto readers: Deena Barnwell, Jenn Chávez and Prakruti Bhatt. Voices in this episode: Musicians Kaia Wilson, Corin Tucker and Tobi Vail, zine-maker and artist Ramdasha Bikceem, scholar and “Girls to the Front” author Sara Marcus, ethnomusicologist and author Laina Dawes, and writer, artist and musician Brontez Purnell
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