PRETTY IN PUNK . GIRLS' GENDER RESISTANCE IN A BOYS' SUBCULTURE
LAURAINE LEBLANC
The first insider's examination of the ways punk girls resist gender roles and create strong identities.
"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." -Kathleen Blee, professor of sociology and director of women's studies, University of Pittsburgh, and author of Women of the Klan
"Pretty in Punk is cutting-edge feminist and cultural studies research. . . . .The stories [Leblanc] relates offer inspirational evidence of rebellion against stereotypical gender arrangements-of girls empowering themselves in unique ways."-Wendy Simonds, author of Abortion at Work: Ideology and Practice in a Feminist Clinic and Women and Self-Help Culture
"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."-Carol Brooks Gardner, professor of sociology and women's studies, Indiana University -Indianapolis
Why would an articulate, intelligent, thoughtful young woman 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 also 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. Finally, Leblanc illuminates punk girls' resistance to adversity, their triumphs over tough challenges, and their work to create individual identities in a masculinist world.
Lauraine Leblanc is coordinator of the Quebec Public Interest Research Group at McGill University.
