Product Description

What attracts girls to male-dominated youth subcultures like the punk movement? How do girls reconcile a subcultural identity that is deliberately coded masculine with the demands of femininity? This work is an insider's view of the ways punk girls resist gender roles and create strong identities.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #367750 in Books
• Published on: 1999-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780813526515
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
"[LeBlanc] draws on her insider experiences and insights and on the field research and interviews she carried out..." -- Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association

Pretty in Punk is cutting-edge feminist and cultural studies research....The stories [Leblanc] relates offer inspirational evidence of rebellion against stereotypical gender arrangements--of girls empowering themselves in unique ways. -- Wendy Simonds, author of Abortion at Work: Ideology and Practice in a Feminist Clinic and Women and Self-Help Culture

The author's first-person accounts of her life as a punk girl are particularly effective at bringing her analysis of punk girls to life... Original and very insightful. -- Kathleen Blee, professor of sociology and director of women's studies, University of Pittsburgh, and author of Women of the Klan

The girls and women that Leblanc portrays in Pretty in Punk are very nearly as original, spirited, and delightful as Leblanc's prose itself....A happy conjunction author, topic, and methodology. -- Carol Brooks Gardner, professor of sociology and women's studies, Indiana University-Indianapolis

Customer Reviews

Punk Meets Academia
"Pretty in Punk" has really interesting subject matter, but the fact that the book was written for an academic audience, apparently, makes reading it rather slow work. The tone is earnest and pedantic, and ideas tend to be repeated frequently. It's kind of like: this is my thesis, this is how I will support my thesis, here are the supporting facts and examples, now I will restate my thesis. The main thesis is that punk rock guys are pretty much as sexist as other guys, and that punk rock girls get double the negative response, first from society at large, then from punk guys. The individual experiences and comments of the girls she interviewed are the most interesting thing about the book. Not a fun read, but interesting if you can get through it.

a disappointment
Basically this book was the author's dissertation. And that's about it. The writing isn't that good, and the "study" as a whole is very limited. In particular she ignores the previous punk generation, and doesn't address the changes in the scene over 20 years. This ignores the fact that as punk became more common, the common problems of the general culture seeped back in - especially sexism. It could be used as a starting point for young people to enter the discussion, but certainly can't be seen as any kind of definitive text because there are too many holes. I was disappointed because I was so looking forward to someone finally opening up this topic, and had expected something better.

A Critical Punk Ethnography
Many of the other reviews tend to give Leblanc a difficult time, but I found it quite refreshing over the punk movement oral history stuff and the like (which are half lies, half legend and half truth - yes...3 halves!). This book did exactly what it set out to do: develop and explicate local understandings of girl's resistance in the punk subculture. (I hate that word subculture...).

An ethnographer attempts to find visceral understandings of people's lived experiences. Her research, both as an ethnographer, a full participant in the scene, and via her interviews and guided conversations, is thorough. Leblanc does an exemplary job, by examining the scene with a critial and feminist eye. Although all ethnographic research is situated in a localized place and time, it does present the essence of being a female punk in the late 90's.

As a member of the punk scene since the early 1980's, and as a member of academia since the late 1990's this work rings true from both standpoints. Is it perfect? No, but no ethnographic research is perfect. This is pretty close...