Pretty In Punk- ebook

Girls in male ­dominated youth subcultures such as punk continually confront ideologies of gender that remain largely invisible, perhaps even tacitly accepted, in many young women's everyday lives. Punk girls struggle to construct their gender within the confines of a highly male­ dominated and therefore "masculinist" context.

The punk subculture highly valorizes the norms of adolescent masculinity, celebrating displays of toughness, coolness, rebelliousness, and aggressiveness. Girls are present in the subculture, but the masculinity of its norms problematizes their participation. Thus, gender is problematic for punk girls in a way that it is not for punk guys, because punk girls must accommodate female gender within subcultural identities that are deliberately coded as made. How do they negotiate between these seemingly conflicting sets of norms?

This section of the book seems to suggest that in participating in the punk movement, women were pretending to be something they were not: 'rebellious', aggressive' etc. as these are natural qualities found in men, not women. I don't agree with this statement at all is it suggests that women don't have the freedom or willpower to express themselves in the same way as men. I think one of the most positive aspects of 'punk' is that gender didn't seem to be an issue, everyone seemed to dress and behave in any way that they wanted to regardless of their gender. It was just the outsiders who seemed to find this behavior more shocking and outrageous in the young girls.