Stockings, Chains and Lipstick: Gender and Difference in Punk Culture in Portugal and Brazil

• Main Authors: Paula Guerra, Gabriela Gelain, Tania Moreira
• Format: Article
• Language: Catalan
• Published: Universitat de Barcelona; Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona 2017-10-01
• Series: Lectora: Revista de Dones i Textualitat
• Subjects: género, punk, riot grrrl, Portugal, Brasil, cenas musicais
• Online Access: http://revistes.ub.edu/index.php/lectora/article/view/20343
• ISSN: 1136-5781; 2013-9470

This article aims to contribute to an understanding of the emergence of (sub)(post) -subcultures in Portugal and Brazil, specifically in what it means to be a (sub)(post) -subcultural participant of the female gender. This effort is sustained in a critical analysis on youth subcultures and music scenes in a non-Anglo-Saxon context. Despite women's presence since the beginning of punk and the pretense of gender equality in recent years, what we see is the persistent negation of main roles in punk scenes to women. This “lack of women” in punk was and is felt as a severe blow to punk’s ambitions, as well as an example of the persistence of male hegemony in terms of the history of popular culture and of youth culture. Seeking to explore this wide range of representations, this article analyses the narratives of women in Portuguese and Brazilian punk: ten women who lived the early beginnings of punk in Portugal (in the late 70s and early 80s) and ten women who participated in the riot grrrl movement in Brazil (1995-2016).