Foundations of Ethics in Society submissions are open to essays completed for UF 200. Students are encouraged to submit an essay exploring civic, ethical, and/or diversity on a local, regional, national or international topic. If the essay is the product of a team project, all names must be submitted and all team members will share the award. Essays should not exceed 20 pages. Jae Florendo wrote the 2nd place submission in the Foundations of Ethics and Diversity category for the 2026 President’s Writing Awards.
About Jae
I am a young aspiring artist and I want to create a graphic novel one day! I am passionate about the rights of others and using your voice to make a difference. I often spend my free time drawing or working on my writing, I am working on the script for a graphic novel right now about two women fighting the justice system for Sex Workers who are being murdered. I identify heavily with the punk movement with its ideals of freedom of expression and openness for all people, I want to one day bring a community together which embodies these ideals.
Winning Manuscript – Riot Grrrl and Misogyny In The Punk Movement
How does misogyny play a part in forming the punk movement and its submovement Riot Grrrl? In this essay I want to focus on the 90’s punk movement and music that happened during it. I also want to specifically focus on how the Riot Grrrl movement emerged from punk because of the misogyny within the movement. In this essay I will connect the ethics of gender bias of the punk movement, as well as the morals of the punk movement to our class and what I have learned about immigration and refugees.
Historically women weren’t encouraged or invited to participate in the punk movement a sub genre called ‘Riot Grrrl’, this movement encouraged women to be loud and sharp, defying the expectations of the stay at home docile mother. The problem with misogyny in the punk movement is one that goes mostly unnoticed, especially in modern times. However in the 90s it was very normal within the culture of punk. Oftentimes women were told they weren’t allowed to be angry, to find things unfair, or they were told they were too emotional and that they needed to hold in emotions, to ‘smile more’ to keep people from being uncomfortable. “Women are taught that their emotions shouldn’t be expressed… The media has… viewed women as objects embodying the simplistic emotions that men wish to see—pain, pleasure, fear,” (“Revolution Girl Style Now!: Punk, Feminism, and Intersectionality”). This can also be viewed as an issue of class, typically the Punk movement is filled with lower class people seeing the unfairness of the world and wanting to fight against it to make their voices be heard. The punk movement boils down to wanting to be heard.
The Riot Grrrl movement started in the early 90’s in Washington State, Riot Grrrl got its name from zines published by the punk bands Bratmobile and Bikini Kill in 1991 (Wayne, 3). “They were women who felt that whilst they identified with the larger punk scene, their voices were often overlooked,” (Wayne 3). Riot Grrrl got its name from taking the word “girl,”, a word that focuses on childhood and is often used as a derogatory term against women, and reclaims it. Replacing I and L with R’s to give it a growl as a show of empowerment. The punk movement has always been about fighting for your voice to be heard, and oftentimes punk women go unheard and unseen purely because they are women. This is the issue I want to address. The obstacle is the patriarchy as a whole, and how the system of our society has been geared towards men and how they move through the world.
On a macro level the Riot Grrrl movement affects Nations such as America, and the UK circa 197os, where the Punk movement originated. The movement deals with the ideals of freedom for all, and fights for less government control. On a meso level the Riot Grrl movement and punk movement should affect and leave an impact on every woman who calls herself a feminist, and even women who don’t. This is because every person is affected by the patriarchy, even men who don’t exactly fit into what the patriarchy says they should be. This connects on a micro level through the way an individual moves through the world. The Riot Grrrl movement affects me because of the way I was raised and how I move about the world now, with radical kindness and understanding. I know that people being mistreated and unheard is wrong. I have also been mistreated and unheard because of the patriarchy and the way our social system has been set up. This is why I am drawn to the punk movement. I don’t want anyone to be mistreated or hurt because of the words and actions of another. Overall the punk movement adopts the conservative belief that there should be less governmental control over people, but the more liberal ideals that people are equal and deserve respect. “One of its main tenets is a rejection of mainstream, corporate mass culture and its values,” (“Punk ideologies”).
There are many groups that are a part of the punk movement, but for the specific research question I have posed there are two groups that I will be focusing on. While they are not truly against each other, the male identified punks, and the female identified punks are the groups I will be discussing. The groups that typically go against the punk movement is the general public or people who directly oppose the punk movement (the normies, sheep, the silent or any other term used to describe people who don’t identify with the punk ideology). The people who don’t identify with the punk movement go against those who are tired of the way things are, or the punks. Viewing the Riot Grrls and the male identified punks through a social and political lens we can see the differences that developed between these two factions. Though the punk movement prides itself on being very open and accepting it wasn’t always this way. In the early years of the American punk movement there was a lot of misogyny and sexism. Socially, women were isolated and told not to show their anger in the way that was acceptable for men to. This pushed a group of women to hold a meeting to talk about the sexism in their local punk scenes. They began to DIY (do it yourself), which was highly utilized in the Pacific Northwest punk movement. They made zines, started bands, and pushed to be heard instead of being forced to wait for their turn. Because they knew they weren’t going to get a chance in their social and political positions. A lot of Riot Grrrl music addresses issues such as: rape, domestic abuse, sexuality, racism, patriarchy, classisim, anarchism and female empowerment (Bochkarev et al.). These social issues were often seen as taboo, however that’s how people tended to listen. “Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable,” (Cesar A. Cruz). These women were there to make a community for those who felt like they didn’t.
Though there is the Riot Grrrl movement that doesn’t deny that sexism and misogyny is still happening in the modern day punk movement. Obviously, bands such as Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, Sleater-Kinney, Heavens to Betsy, and Le Tigre are some bands that helped begin the Riot Grrrl movement, using their music to show women as loud and angry. They also used art like zines to push the movement forward and into the public’s eye. Many solutions have made it into the bigger punk movement, like being less sexist and allowing women into punk spaces.And while most of the time these solutions are accepted there is still micro aggressions and sexism and misogyny that goes unnoticed. In reading all of the articles in the The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, I found that the one that most aligns with the Riot Grrrl movement is Article 1: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”
I believe the riot girl movement has had an impact on the punk movement and the rest of the general population. Women using their voices, being loud, being disruptive, and being seen shows those who stay quiet and ignore misogyny that sexism does affect everyone. The solution of being loud is practical because the only way to fight invisibility is to be bright and visible. However, being seen can be dangerous. Women have faced death threats and targeted violence, like the rape and murder of Mia Zapata, the lead singer of the Gits (de Sola).
The punk and Riot Grrrl movement has impacted my own social identities – sex and gender identity – in several ways. Growing up as a girl helped me understand that this world is not built with me in mind, and especially not for people with disabilities. However the punk movement helped me understand that girls don’t have to be quiet.It’s okay for them to be loud and make noise. It’s okay to be angry about injustice. Growing up a girl I faced sexism and misogyny even if at the time I didn’t realize it. I was underestimating my own strength and intelligence. I was told that I couldn’t play sports at recess because I’d get hurt. When I reached puberty and started my menstrual cycle I was told my physical pain from it was normal and that I would need to just push through because the world doesn’t stop just because you have cramps. When I started my transition and came out as non-binary then later trans masculine, I became even more attached to the punk movement. Queer people are accepted and at the forefront of the punk movement because we understand what it’s like for someone to hate you for something you can’t change. Queer people have been erased from the world’s history, we’ve been forced to hide our queerness, and told to leave it behind closed doors. The punk movement takes that and flips it on its head. Riot Grrrl and the punk movement have shown me that even if I grew up feeling invisible, I don’t need to hide my feelings or beliefs to make others more comfortable because being seen is helping to make the change.
Bibliography
- Bochkarev, Denis, et al. “Riot grrrl.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riot_grrrl. Accessed 27 February 2026.
- Butler, Andrea. “Watching, Waiting, Commiserating: The Misogyny in Early-Aughts Pop-Punk.” Grandma Sophia’s Cookies, 2021, https://grandmasophiascookies.com/2021/02/23/watching-waiting-commiserating-the-misogyny-in-early-aughts-pop-punk/. Accessed 27 Febuary 2026.
- de Sola, David. “Mia Zapata: Man Convicted of Murdering Gits Singer Dies.” Rolling Stone, 23 May 2021, https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/mia-zapata-murderer-dead-1170206/. Accessed 27 February 2026. “Punk ideologies.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punk_ideologies. Accessed 27 February 2026.
- “Revolution Girl Style Now!: Punk, Feminism, and Intersectionality.” The Georgetown Independent, 25 March 2023, https://www.georgetownindy.com/post/revolution-girl-style-now-punk-feminism-and-intersectionality. Accessed 27 February 2026.
- Wayne, George. “”Punk Rock Feminism Rules Okay?”” University of York Feminist Society Journal, 2020, https://uoyfemsoc.wordpress.com/2020/01/27/punk-rock-feminism-rules-okay/. Accessed 27 February 2026.