DS Book Club: Rebel Grrrls: The Real Story of Women and Punk by Molly Tie

As punk celebrates its fiftieth year, it has seen ups and downs. As with most movements with a decades-long history, aspects will get left in the dust and damn near forgotten. However, Molly Tie’s book, Rebel Grrrls: The Real Story of Women and Punk, is her attempt to fix these misappropriations within the history of punk and how it came to be that men mostly took credit for the genre’s big moments. Tie’s intro states that the purpose of this book is to focus on how the women of punk influenced other women in the scene. Yet, what we get is a concise but comprehensive picture of punk in general that works more than most broader books of punk rock history. 

Rebel Grrrls covers six major topics in punk rock and how it relates to feminism: British Punk, American 1980s Hardcore, Riot Grrrl, Emo, the radical punk resurgence in the 2010s, and the potential future of feminism in punk. For the older scenes that have been covered previously, Tie recounts what created the scene rather than recycling the histories we’ve heard a million times. It doesn’t mean the bands or figures aren’t mentioned, but it does put them in a different light. Each of the pioneering women of each era gets a good amount of space dedicated to their story.

Molly Tie writes with authority, taking the reins and course-correcting a genre that is supposedly more open-minded than most. While punk rock did some things right, it still fell into its own traps and eventually the same problems as other movements. She understands this by not only retelling the stories of punk rock performers but also interviewing people who were in the scene. These interviews give Rebel Grrrls a more grounded, human angle than most books about the scene or genre. Most of the interviewees are women located in the UK, where the author resides, but this gives perspective on how American punk and, in some cases, politics are interpreted across the pond. Despite being from England, her grasp of American politics is pretty spot on. Tie’s dissection of American politics feels more real than those found in American history books.

Rebel Grrrls gives the women who were present in these different eras of the genre the credit they deserved the whole time. I’m sure people will push back and say they have been, but as usual, things were left out or miscredited. This aspect also makes it one of the best Punk Rock History books. Not only does it highlight the minimized contributions that women have brought to punk, but it concisely gives a great history of punk rock’s roots to the many branches each era has given us. If making sure the proper people being credited wasn’t enough, Tie has plenty to say about women’s roles and how they were treated in punk rock and in general. Things like pop punk neutering punk rock politically, while allowing boys to developing a voice that inadvertently belittled the work women like Kathleen Hanna and others had put in during the era before it. Something like this may come off as a bold statement, however it’s things like this that have needed to be said for a while.

Molly Tie’s Rebel Grrrls: The Real Story of Women and Punk is one of the best books on punk history you will read. I suspect a lot of people (men) will be turned off by the title. While the book mostly focuses on the contribution women have provided to the genre, it doesn’t completely shut men out. If anything, it levels the playing field. I appreciate the way it is able to provide historical context of punk rock and what it says about punk rock and feminism through the evolution of both. For a book highlighting women’s contribution to the genre, it has a lot of balls. Rebel Grrrls: The Real Story of Women and Punk is available through Omnibus Press.