ABSTRACT
This essay traces the trajectory of feminist Cultural Studies in Brazil by examining the academic critical fortunes of a specific form of cultural expression and attendant youth subculture: Brazilian grrrl zines and riot grrrl (sometimes referred to in Portuguese as minas do rock or rock grrrls). These text-objects reached the zenith of their popularity in the late 1990s and early aughts, a period during which there were surprisingly few publications devoted to analyzing them. I propose that juxtaposing the histories of Cultural Studies and Women's/Gender Studies and their respective processes of academic institutionalization in Brazil goes a long way toward explaining this paradox, as well as the more recent boom of scholarship on Brazilian grrrl zines since 2015. A comparative analysis of two zines – Bahlutz's Preta&Riot and Camilia (Puni) Olivia de Melo's Grrrito Mouco – reveals some of the defining characteristics of the country's feminist fanzines as well as helps explain why such texts have attracted the interest of a new generation of feminist Cultural Studies scholars in Brazil.
