Rebel Girls

Have no fear, the perfect stocking stuffer for that little riot grrrl is here. New York University's Bobst Library is the home of the Riot Grrrl Collection, an archive of zines, journals, artwork and other documents from the movement spanning from 1989-1996.

The collection is housed by the Fales Library and has been edited by Fales' senior archivist Lisa Darms into a handy book that will be published by the Feminist Press, also located at NYU.

Material primarily found in the Riot Grrrl Collection are the personal papers of those who were involved in the development of the zines, music and activism of the movement.

The collection also features contributions from the riot grrrl movement's biggets influcences, like Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill and Le Tigre, Molly Neuman of Bratmobile and an original feaure essay by Le Tigre's Johanna Fateman.

The original collection was created by Darms after her experience of living in Olympia from 1989 to 2001. She spend several years contacting musicians, activists and anyone who would be willing to contribute to her growing collection.

Darms said, "I think the unique way this collection will function is — obviously there are a lot of zine collections around the country — but this collection is archives and manuscripts. It's the creative process that goes into zines; all of the other context surrounding the zine creation, and what informed it."
The book can be purchased from Amazon.com or the Feminist Press' website.

Suggestion

Can men be feminists?

It is a question that comes up often because the definition of feminism has been played with for so long, but it is real and yes, of course, men can be feminists. Women's issues need all the support they can get and why should that be limited to just women when there are indeed men out there who make an effort to educate themselves on the issues.

Though the final decision should come down to women, male feminists should be welcomed. Recently, there have been groups popping up that include men who identify themselves as feminists and, in some cases, are often forced to defend themselves and their intentions.

John Brougher, founder of malefeminists.com and the vice president of marketing and nonprofit communities at NGP VAN, a technology company, said in an article for CNN.com that, "My feminism is a simple belief in equality. I'm a feminist because I believe that men and women are and should be equal, but we're not treated equally right now...sexism doesn't just hurt women, it breaks our very humanity."

Another form of support from male feminists comes from a group called MA'AM (which stands for  'Men Against Assholes and Misogyny' and 'Men Aligned Against Misogyny') created by Jen Kirkmen.On this site, Kirkman publishes submissions from men who identify themselves as male feminists. The letters are often of men who have had an incident change their perspective or enhanced and open their minds to the idea.

Lastly, the soundtrack to the feminist movement has always had an important role and that has been dominated by the women who write the songs that talk about the experience first hand, but there have been male musicians and bands like Atmosphere, Lucero and Fugazi who have managed to write songs and have been able to pull off similar sentiments.

In Fugazi's tune "Suggestion," they call out misogynistic actions by singing, "You spent yourself watching me suffer. Suffer your eyes, suffer your words, suffer your hands. Suffer your interpretation of what it is to be a man."