Riot Grrrl

To be a Grrrl is a Riot.

To be a grrl is a riot.

Riot Grrl communal blog - Readers share stories on living vs. social constraints

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Feminism & Riot Grrrl

Annie Oakley

Feminist icon: Annie Oakley was a famous teenage Victorian sharpshooter who saved her family farm, was respected by Native Americans and (weirdly) didn't believe women should have the vote. Annie Oakley, we salute you. Except for the last bit.

Feminism & Riot Grrrl

Sarah Bernhardt - feminist icon

Feminist icons: Rarely have we encountered a woman as sumptuous as the divine Sarah Bernhardt. A mysterious actress who said, "I have often been asked why I am so fond of playing male parts. It is not male parts, but male brains that I prefer."

Feminism & Riot Grrrl

Kat von D - Icon of the week

Female icons: Kat von D is recognised globally as a major ink artist in the once predominantly man's world of tattoos. She's also flying the flag for female empowerment and marginalised subcultures, a bit like Frida Kahlo. And she plays piano like Ludwig van Beethoven...

Feminism & Riot Grrrl

Hello Kitty - Icon of the week

Icon of the week: We all recognise that lovable face, the white mouthless girl-cat who has rather puzzingly owned our hearts since we first saw that amazing back-pack in Chinatown at the age of twelve. It's time to greet our latest icon of the week... Hello Kitty!

Feminism & Riot Grrrl

Kat Bjelland - Grunge Grrrl of the week

Icon of the week: Kat Bjelland is the amazing vocalist and lead guitarist behind grunge/punk rock bands from the 1980s to 2000s including Pagan Babies, Katastrophy Wife and the awesome Babes in Toyland. Well-known for both bringing the kinderwhore look to fame and her incredible scream, Kat's punk-rock attitude showed that women really could rock, making her an inspirational figure for the riot grrrl movement. We love Kat!

Feminism & Riot Grrrl

Emma Thompson - Icon of the week!

Icon of the week: Actress Emma Thompson said of Sharon Stone shagging in Basic Instinct: "If that had been me, there would have been things flying around hitting me in the eye." Our icon!

Feminism & Riot Grrrl

Dita Von Teese - Icon of the week!

Icon of the week: "I've been called anti-feminist before and it makes me really mad. I don't do my job for men; I do it because I love the make-up, the costumes and the history of showgirls." God bless you, style purist icon Dita Von Teese xxx

Feminism & Riot Grrrl

Clara Bow - Icon of the week!

Icon of the week: Born of a non-charmingly mad prostitute mother who dressed her in rags and kept trying to murder her, Clara Bow survived to become the world's first It Girl. Clara Bow, we salute you.

Feminism & Riot Grrrl

Bettie Page - Icon of the week!

Icon of the week: Bettie Page was the naughty but nice fetish model with a cheerful, sweet smile who captured the hearts of millions. We salute the Christian convert and beloved glamour girl who believed God was 'as naked as a jaybird'.

Feminism & Riot Grrrl

The Amazons - Icon of the week!

Icon of the week: Amazons were a matriarchy who managed to defeat many of the Greek mythic heroes. Were they a symbol of the fearsome Other? Were they, as evidence is beginning to suggest, actually real? Amazons of yore, we salute you!

Feminism & Riot Grrrl

Ada Lovelace: Female Icon

Icon of the week: Ada Lovelace was a Victorian countess, a bluestocking, the first foxy grrl geek, the first computer programmer AND the only legitimate child of rascally poet Byron. What's not to love? Ada Lovelace, we salute you!

Feminism & Riot Grrrl

Elvira: Mistress of the Dark

Icon of the week: Elvira... you may be known as the Mistress of the Dark but you have brought a little sunshine into our lives. Whether it be the years spent bringing us horror flicks so bad they're good, your spooky records or the unique and special variety of dolls, Halloween costumes and other merchandise you have sold us, you've always given us glorious kitsch. We salute you!

Feminism & Riot Grrrl

Pamela Des Barres: Queen of the supergroupies

Icon of the week: There are groupies - and then there are supergroupies. Women like Pamela Des Barres were not just backstage girls getting trashed. They were so transformed by music that they didn't care who or what they did, and Pamela des Barres was one of the smartest of them all. Pamela? We salute you.

Feminism & Riot Grrrl

The weird world of Frida Kahlo

Icon of the week: Mexican Frida Kahlo was one of the most hypnotically entrancing surrealist painters of our time. She contracted polio, got crippled by a tram, became a revolutionary, wore traditional mexican dress with a surreal twist, conducted affairs with women and slept with Trotsky. In life and oils, she was a true artist. Frida Kahlo, we salute you.

Feminism & Riot Grrrl

Hanging out with Halo Jones

Icon of the week: Tank Girl gets all the lip service (and she's a great gal) but for those in the know, Halo Jones gets the true-blue kudos. One of the most powerful female icons in comic history ever, she escaped the Hoop ghetto to become queen of the stars. Sort of. She was just an ordinary person, really. You may now fall in love with Halo Jones.

Feminism & Riot Grrrl

Icon of the week: The Fabulous Moolah

In the world of women's wrestling, there will always be one irrefutable legend that stands head and shoulders above the rest: The Fabulous Moolah. She was the longest reigning champion in the history of wrestling, or any sport for that matter. And she did it fighting dirty...

Feminism & Riot Grrrl

Icon of the week: Kim Deal

An identical twin, an anti-system cheerleader... Kim Deal started her life fast and went faster. By the time she became the world-famous bassist of The Pixies and The Breeders, she was rocking out just about as far as the SUN...

Feminism & Riot Grrrl

Icon of the week: Queen Christina of Sweden

Queen Christina of Sweden is an underrated queen. She ceased a 30-year war, studied astronomy and alchemy, was a feared swordswoman, killed a lover in a bout of political intrigue, fell in love with women as well as men and killed a famous French philosopher by accident. And she did a whole lot more besides...

Feminism & Riot Grrrl

Icon of the week: Tracey Emin

More legends have arisen around Tracey Emin than any other Young British Artist from the 1990s. Stories about her dropping out of school, doind dodgy jobs and having a wild sex life with its attendant traumas appeared everywhere, not just the art journals. Find out why we love her so.

Feminism & Riot Grrrl

Icon of the week: Missy Elliott

Missy Elliott puts out the best booty wiggling, bass-thundering dance tracks of our time and blows most male rappers out of the water. She proves you can shake a whole lotta ass without showing a whole lotta ass, and she is our flyest icon of the week. Get her freak on!

Feminism & Riot Grrrl

Icon of the week: Marie Laveau, Witch-Queen of New Orleans

Marie Laveau was a powerful, strong, beautiful and magickal woman, and the star of New Orleans society in an era where free women of colour commanded little to no respect. Her job resume included herbalist, popular hairdresser, and ultimate voodoo queen of voodoo of all time.

Feminism & Riot Grrrl

Icon of the week: the Guerrilla Girls

To protest that only 10% of the artists featured in galleries around the world were female, the Guerrilla Girls (a secret anonymous collective of female artists) donned fishnets, heels and gorilla masks to address the issue. Guerrilla Girls, we salute you!

Feminism & Riot Grrrl

Icon of the week: Princess Leia

"Some day you're gonna be wrong, I just hope I'm there to see it.". Born of a powerful queen and a jedi who ended up wheezing in a kinky suit, Princess Leia was destined for stardom. And she and Han Solo were so nasty to each other, of course they were destined to get it on...

Feminism & Riot Grrrl

Icon of the week: Josephine Baker

Josephine Baker danced topless in 1920s Paris, had a rainbow tribe of children she adopted in every country she visited, and was a spy. You just don't get better than that...

Feminism & Riot Grrrl

Icon of the week: La Maupin

La Maupin was a 17th century swordswoman who fought duels to draw blood, dressed like a man, burned down a nunnery, seduced women and became a famous opera star... and got away with it! You may not have heard of her yet, but she'll soon become your hero.

Feminism & Riot Grrrl

Icon of the week: Bjork

Bjork is a nutsy future-pop new age punk princess with an incredible voice that got her an album deal (of Icelandic folk music, which is pretty extreme!) at the age of 11. Find out why we love her.

Feminism & Riot Grrrl

Icon of the week: Rose Tyler

Rose Tyler is the real star of the Doctor Who tv series, dumping her boring boyfriend to travel in a box with an alien. Rose Tyler, we salute you.

Feminism & Riot Grrrl

Icon of the week: Cookie Mueller

Best-known for sleeping with Hendrix and making love to a chicken for the sake of art, Cookie Mueller is actually more loved for her incredible writing of her extreme life and her advice column for the freaks of Greenwich Village and Haight-Asbbury in America's wildest years...

Feminism & Riot Grrrl

Icon of the week: Rita Borsellino

The mafia is eating Sicily alive. 60 year old Rita Borsellino is a revolutionary who is going to take on the whole of the mafia and grind it into the ground. We've made her this week's Mooky Icon because we love her but fear for her life...

Feminism & Riot Grrrl

Icon of the week: Cleopatra

This week's icon married her brother, snuck into Caesar's palace rolled up in a carpet, served her lovers pearls dissolved in vinegar, bathed in asses' milk, was an influential queen and Egypt's very last Pharoah and had a weird nose.

Feminism & Riot Grrrl

Kelly Osbourne

Ballsy, gutsy, too cool for school... love her or hate her, you know in your darkest heart that when God created Kelly Osbourne he popped valium, retired to a safe distance and watched the world explode through his fingers...

Feminism & Riot Grrrl

Lenore

Lenore, the creation of dashing writer Roman Dirge, is a cute little dead girl who does terrible things to kittens but reminds us of the gambolling child inside us all...

Feminism & Riot Grrrl

Linda Smith, Comedian. RIP.

Not that many people have a clue who she was, but before dying of cancer on the wrong side of 50, Linda Smith grumbled her way through all sorts of highbrow-ish BBC radio shows and was made the wittiest person alive in a fairly recent poll. Except that now, sadly, she isn't.

Feminism & Riot Grrrl

Florence from the Magic Roundabout

Remember Magic Roundabout? The most surreal childrens' show of all time? Although you can argue her look is more Spice Girls than Mookychick, Florence from the Roundabout was a proto-riot grrrl who held all her insane friends on the straight and narrow and never forgot to feed Dougal his sugar lumps. Florence, we salute you!

Feminism & Riot Grrrl

ICON SPECIAL: AMANDA LEAR

She may have been born with a little tiddly thing between her legs but transsexual Amanda Lear is a full-blooded mookychick. She shagged Bowie, inspired Salvador Dali, posed for Roxy Music, had a pop princess career and wrote a tragic book about a woman who lives forever...

Feminism & Riot Grrrl

JANE GOLDMAN

Jane Goldman is most well-known for her famous husband, tremendous bosoms, beautiful clothes and glorious red hair. But she writes, produces, stars in a ghosthunting series on television and owns ferrets as well!

Feminism & Riot Grrrl

ANNE BONNY

Anne Bonny was one of the best pirate queens that ever was. She helped Mary Read become a female pirate (good sisterhood style), faught harder than any man and got away with it. Pirate queen, we salute you!

Feminism & Riot Grrrl

TANK GIRL

Until Tank Girl came along, no-one realised how important it was to drink cheap beer, snog kangaroos and drive a tank. Tank Girl basically changed the world. Of comics, anyway...

Feminism & Riot Grrrl

LADY SOVEREIGN

There have been many mookychicks throughout history who have changed our world and made it a fantastic, powerful and yet somehow pink place to be. Our very first Mookychick icon is Lady Sovereign. Check out her mook factor and the letter we wrote her. And download her mp3.

Feminism & Riot Grrrl

KATE BUSH

That crazy fairy Tori Amos wishes she was Kate Bush so hard it hurts. Find out why the lovely and strangesome Kate Bush is our mooky icon of the week!