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  • Essay / Riot Grrrl Culture and Third Wave Feminism

    The media we consulted and read this week all talked about history and the creation of queer and activist spaces. In the arts and social justice class I took last term, we talked a lot about how the creation of a place can shape the actions and decisions that are made there. In the context of the last term, we discussed how creating arts activism spaces open to the public created more of a sense of community and that each space could be tailored to the needs of each community. In this course, I think space has a similar idea, but can be expanded from a physical location to include the internet or media like zines. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay First, I want to talk about documentary and Riot Grrl culture. I've been interested in the Riot Grrl movement for a while now and I actually read Girls to the Front, the book written by one of the women interviewed in the documentary. I think this “third wave feminist” culture is absolutely fantastic and incredibly strange in that it seeks to disrupt the status quo and change the accepted norm. Although Riot Grrl culture has faded a bit from the popular scenes, I can still see its influences. I found that this culture fits my definition of feminism quite well. Because I'm from Portland, I still see a lot of punk culture, which often pops up in activist spaces, because at its core, punk has always been about resistance. I've heard that the Riot Grrl movement encourages girls to take back their power and create things to share with other girls that reflect their own experiences. This definitely ties into pop culture, because that's what we're all ultimately working toward: creating media for ourselves and sharing with other people like us. This ties in with the idea of ​​world building. I've never heard this term used in anything other than fiction and fantasy media, but I think it's a great idea and term. As one of the articles says, the Internet is a great place for worldbuilding, especially now since it is now so easily accessible. I really like the websites and projects they talked about, especially projects that encouraged community input, which I think is very important. I found it interesting how the articles talked about history, because I never really thought of history as something we create. I agree that the story has been told and changed to suit the needs of those in power. But with the advent of the Internet and the rise of cyberculture, the idea of ​​what history is and what matters in history is really changing a lot. One of the articles said: “The queer world is a space of entrances, exits, unsystematized lines of knowledge, projected horizons, typical examples, alternative routes, blockages and immeasurable geographies. » I like this definition of homosexuality because it says once again that being queer is rebelling against norms. This same article defines heteronormativity very well, saying that "heteronormative forms of intimacy are supported, as we have argued, not only by overt referential discourses such as romantic plots and sentimentality, but materially, in marriage and family law, in the architecture of the home, in the zoning of work and politics.”