Pretty in Punk: Girl's Gender Resistance in a Boy's Subculture

I picked this book up a few days ago and knew immedietly I had to buy it. I myself am what the author would probably call a "Poseur", but I feel some of the discriminations she mentions in my daily life. The book is intresting and informative, with personal experience combined with historical stats combined with interviews with real people. I love it!

I use LeBlanc's book in a class on youth subculture and ethnographic research. I love it, my students love, it rocks. So much stuff on youth and punk is written from a male perspective. Punk was supposed to offer girls and young women a subculture based on gender equality. So what happened? LeBlanc details how the 80s hardcore scene pushed punk backwards and how girls used punk to carve out their own resistance to patriarchy and their punk peers. Her writing style is incredibly engaging and entertaining. She covers all the important literature (Hebdige, Brake, Hall, Gilligan) and takes the reader through her own personal journey through field research. A must read for qualitative researchers, lovers of punk culture and fans of feminist resistance. Lauriane, email me! [email protected]

Ever felt that being a punk rocker and a girl was tougher than it ought to be? L. Leblanc thinks so too, and with interviews from 40 punk rockers and gutterpunks who also happen to be female, combined with research, personal experiance, and some pretty impressive credentials, she explains why this might be. I was really excited to read a book filled with so many stories strikingly similar to mine. I'm a long time punk rocker, and I don't know many other girls in the scene (especially besides the "weekend punk" types that this book mentions sconfully). Hearing motavations and psychological reasons for girls to "go punk" that are all too earily familiar for me was really interesting. The book managed to be very thorough by limiting its scope to traditional punks and gutterpunks, instead of trying to tackle the whole subculture (Riot Grrls are mentioned, but not devulged on, asare many other factions of the subculture). I guess the one drawback would have to be the readability factor. Most of the interview exerpts are put in verbatum, without being edited for clarity. Some of the responses just don't make much sense. Plus, it should be noted that this was written as a study for Leblanc's doctorate, not casual reading by us punk chicks. If you're looking for a light, friendly, "novel" kind of reading, you won't find it here.

Many of the other reviews tend to give Leblanc a difficult time, but I found it quite refreshing over the punk movement oral history stuff and the like (which are half lies, half legend and half truth - yes...3 halves!). This book did exactly what it set out to do: develop and explicate local understandings of girl's resistance in the punk subculture. (I hate that word subculture...). An ethnographer attempts to find visceral understandings of people's lived experiences. Her research, both as an ethnographer, a full participant in the scene, and via her interviews and guided conversations, is thorough. Leblanc does an exemplary job, by examining the scene with a critial and feminist eye. Although all ethnographic research is situated in a localized place and time, it does present the essence of being a female punk in the late 90's. As a member of the punk scene since the early 1980's, and as a member of academia since the late 1990's this work rings true from both standpoints. Is it perfect? No, but no ethnographic research is perfect. This is pretty close...

In this work, Leblanc has looked at women's involvement in a subculture that most people have never seen girls actively participating in. In response to another review, it is very important that Leblanc picked up on the fact that girls have *always* been rebelling through punk, and they haven't needed a female-oriented movement like riot grrrl to act. She doesn't marginalize riot grrrl; instead, she focuses on an often ignored population of women who have a confused position in their subculture. Leblanc's personal relationship with the contradictions in the lives of women in punk rock creates a very powerful, ground-breaking, feminist work.