ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates to what extent subcultural theories and approaches offer useful frameworks for understanding riot grrrl. It considers how from the beginning riot grrrls demonstrated a clear awareness of themselves as cultural curiosities, often attempting to thwart the efforts of journalists and critics to neatly summarise their activities and significance. Journalists employed a range of different terms to describe riot grrrl. Some writers chose to describe riot grrrl in terms of an identifiable collective: the New York Times referred to riot grrrl as a 'scene' while US Today detailed 'an underground group of punkettes'. The term 'riot' is also very significant. Magazine reports, in attempting to understand the origins of the 'phenomenon', stated that a friend of Allison Wolfe, of the band Bratinobile, coined the term 'riot grrrl'. Inspired by the Mount Pleasant riots in Washington, DC, in 1991, she reportedly wrote to Allison proclaiming a desire for a girl riot in the DC underground music scene.
