On punk friendship and the limits of community | Intellect Skip to content
1981
Volume 12, Issue 1
  • ISSN: 2044-1983
  • E-ISSN: 2044-3706

Abstract

The article examines two recent memoirs by punk musicians, by Justin Pearson and by Michelle Cruz Gonzales, and asks how do these works rethink the value and function of community in punk and what might be involved in recognizing friendship as something that can structure punk around altogether different operations than a notion of community presently does? The article contests a popular and scholarly perception that punk is best appreciated as a distinct community of outcasts, a view that justly recognizes that punk is much more than a failed social protest. Gonzales and Pearson challenge the assumption that punk offers a community for marginalized individuals, documenting the routine discrimination they faced from punks who prioritized uniformity and idealized norms of white male heterosexuality. Their memoirs examine how punk sometimes replicates the discriminatory social norms the authors encountered outside of the subculture and thus these works explore the limits of interpreting punk as a separate community. As an alternative, Gonzales and Pearson test out expressions of punk friendship that retain some of the optimism and sociability of punk while also remembering the centrality of relations of power that condition any practice of living with others.

Funding
This study was supported by the:
  • Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Insight Development Grant
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/punk_00161_1
2023-05-23
2024-04-24
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Achtermann, M. E.. ( 2021;), ‘ Yes, but is it punk?. ’, in R. Bestley,, M. Dines,, A. Gordon, and P. Guerra. (eds), Trans-Global Punk Scenes: The Punk Reader, vol. 2, Bristol:: Intellect;, pp. 2135.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Bayard, M.. ( 1999;), ‘ Introduction. ’, in C. O’Hara. (ed.), The Philosophy of Punk: More Than Noise, San Francisco:: AK Press;, pp. 813.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Bestley, R.,, Dines, M.,, Gordon, A., and Guerra, P.. ( 2019;), ‘ Introduction: The punk narrative turned upside down. ’, in R. Bestley,, M. Dines,, A. Gordon, and P. Guerra. (eds), The Punk Reader: Research Transmissions from the Local and the Global, Bristol:: Intellect;, pp. 1121.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Butler, J.. ( 2005), Giving an Account of Oneself, New York:: Fordham University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Butt, G.. ( 2016;), ‘ Being in a band: Art-school experiment and the post-punk commons – A lecture. ’, in G. Butt,, K. Eshun, and M. Fisher. (eds), Post Punk: Then and Now, London:: Repeater;, pp. 5783.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Butt, G., and Millner-Larsen, N.. ( 2018;), ‘ Introduction: The queer commons. ’, GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, 24:4, pp. 399419.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Dines, M.. ( 2016;), ‘ Introduction. ’, in M. Dines, and M. Worley. (eds), The Aesthetic of Our Anger: Anarcho Punk, Politics, Music, Colchester:: Minor Compositions;, pp. 920.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Ensminger, D. A.. ( 2016), The Politics of Punk: Protest and Revolt from the Streets, Lanham, MD:: Rowman & Littlefield;.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Furness, Z.. ( 2012;), ‘ Introduction: Attempted education and righteous accusations. ’, in Z. Furness. (ed.), Punkademics: The Basement Show in the Ivory Tower, Colchester:: Minor Compositions;, pp. 524.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Gelder, K.. ( 2007), Subcultures: Cultural Histories and Social Practice, New York:: Routledge;.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Gonzales, M. C.. ( 2016), The Spitboy Rule: Tales of a Xicana in a Female Punk Band, Oakland, CA:: PM Press;, 2016.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Haenfler, R.. ( 2006), Straight Edge, New Brunswick:: Rutgers University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Halberstam, J.. ( 2013;), ‘ Go gaga: Anarchy, chaos, and the wild. ’, Social Text, 31:3, pp. 12334.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Hebdige, D.. ( 1979), Subculture: The Meaning of Style, New York:: Routledge;.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Kallio, A. A.. ( 2018;), ‘ Give violence a chance: Emancipation and escape in/from school music education. ’, in G. D. Smith,, M. Dines, and T. Parkinson. (eds), Punk Pedagogies: Music, Culture and Learning, New York:: Routledge;, pp. 15670.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Leblanc, L.. ( 2008), Pretty in Punk: Girls’ Gender Resistance in a Boys’ Subculture, New Brunswick:: Rutgers University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. MacLeod, D.. ( 2010), Kids of the Black Hole: Punk Rock in Postsuburban California, Norman, OK:: University of Oklahoma Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. McRobbie, A.. ( 1990;), ‘ Settling accounts with subcultures: A feminist critique. ’, in S. Frith, and A. Goodwin. (eds), On the Record: Rock, Pop and the Written Word, London:: Routledge;, pp. 5567.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Mulkerin, A.. ( 2011), Building a Better Robot: 10 Years of the Mr. Roboto Project, Pittsburgh, PA:: University of Roboto Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Muñoz, J. E.. ( 2013;), ‘ “Gimme gimme this… gimme gimme that”: Annihilation and innovation in the punk rock commons. ’, Social Text, 31:3, pp. 95110.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Muñoz, J. E.. ( 2018;), ‘ The wildness of the punk rock commons. ’, The South Atlantic Quarterly, 117:3, pp. 65358.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Murphy, M. M.. ( 2016;), ‘ Anarcho-punk in the republic of Ireland: The hope collective. ’, in M. Dines, and M. Worley. (eds), The Aesthetic of Our Anger: Anarcho Punk, Politics, Music, Colchester:: Minor Compositions;, pp. 199226.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Nguyen, M. T.. ( 2012;), ‘ Riot grrrl, race, and revival. ’, Women & Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory, 22:2&3, pp. 17396.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Nguyen, M. T.. ( 2016;), ‘ Preface. ’, in M. C. Gonzales. (ed.), The Spitboy Rule: Tales of a Xicana in a Female Punk Band, Oakland, CA:: PM Press;, pp. xvxviii.
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Nyong’o, T.. ( 2005;), ‘ Punk’d theory. ’, Social Text, 23:3&4, pp. 1934.
    [Google Scholar]
  26. O’Connor, A.. ( 2008), Punk Record Labels and the Struggle for Autonomy, Lanham, MD:: Lexington Books;.
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Pearson, J.. ( 2010), From the Graveyard of the Arousal Industry, Berkeley, CA:: Soft Skull Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Reversal of Man ( 1998), Revolution Summer, Los Angeles:: Independence Day Records;.
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Reynolds, S.. ( 2017;), ‘ 1976/86. ’, in R. Cabut, and A. Gallix. (eds), Punk Is Dead: Modernity Killed Every Night, Alresford:: Zero Books;, pp. 26268.
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Stanley, E.. ( 2018;), ‘ The affective commons: Gay shame, queer hate, and other collective feelings. ’, GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, 24:4, pp. 489508.
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Thompson, S.. ( 2004), Punk Productions: Unfinished Business, Albany, NY:: State University of New York Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Grinnell, George C.. ( 2023;), ‘ On punk friendship and the limits of community. ’, Punk & Post-Punk, 12:1, pp. 2744, https://doi.org/10.1386/punk_00161_1
    [Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.1386/punk_00161_1
Loading
  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): BIPOC; commons; discrimination; gender; life writing; memoir; memory; power
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error