Hi, you wrote me a message into my shoutbox... the group doesn't sound bad though, but must the name be "Riot _boy_"? I think there's a anti sexist background in the name "riot girl" (or grrrl)... so I don't understand the background of riot boy, or is any gender welcome? I don't understand this group ;) (bad english, sorry.)
Nein, the purpose of this group is for the male riot grrrls to unite. You see, riot boi is a male version of a riot grrrl, kind off. Someone who supports DIY principles, think that men and women have the same rights and so forth. So, there is no discrimination in this group, only it is intended for males to join because there is already a group of riot grrrls. As a matter of fact, it says: This is a group that welcomes individuals from any race, sexual orientation and age. I hope your questions were answered correctly.
I think grungehead's point was just that "riot grrrl" works subversively in a way that "riot boi/boy" doesn't. Especially if taking in consideration that riot values are central to punk (politically, aesthetically, whatever), and punk works historically as a male-dominated genre.
If riot grrrl is constructed in opposition to that, then "riot boi/boy" is constructed against what, exactly?
The obvious answer is that it's not constructed against anything, but *along* with "riot grrrl", a brother force through shared principles. But it's still understandable that some people might not be entirely convinced by the designation.
I think first it sounds a bit like some back to the roots approach like "Let`s be macho again and put everyone down with their own radical things".To me,the original punk served the base for what would become the riot grrl movement.But maybe this term was created to reclaim the openess of the scene and to back up the girls and to support them with the agenda. But everyone should rather be just a riot human instead of calling themself riot this or riot that. I also would rather just stick with the original term and call myself a riot grrl even if i`m a male but that doesnt mean that i can`t support it and this might be a little exaggerated but i can support something without having to create a term for it and dedicate it to them while it looks like some ego boost to pretend something and to show off,how cool i am as a boy to be into feminism.How can we unite if everyone with a certain point of view just creates his own niche for it while already being in a certain niche.
But this is mainly supposed to be riot grrl from a male point of view to discuss feminism from the other side?
Why get stuck on semantics? the themes, ideologies or whatever you want to call them, of the riot grrl movement are only feminist issues if you choose to see them that way. In reality, they're minority issues or anybody-who's-not-male-middle-class-heterosexual-and-white issues. Change a few pronouns in any song of the genre and it could be as easily called riot fggg or riot blcck music. A spade's not a shovel-if your a boy your a boy, one shouldn't have cut one's own penis off metaphorically and call himself a girl or grrl to show empathy or solidarity to a so called "feminist" cause. if you still to see the world in a girls vs. boys mentality it's only because you haven't really questioned why you have that view point or what the terms boy/girl and the associated baggage,e.i. gender assigned rolls ect., that goes with said terms "mean" to you actually to begin with.
Riot Boys
Should I?