Guest Blogger: Frightwig , feminism, and the riot grrrl movement of the 1990's

The Cecilia Kuhn Frightwig Collection is completed and available to researchers! A big thanks to Mac, our spring intern, who was a huge help getting this collection processed. Here are Mac's thoughts on Frightwig, feminism, and riot grrrls.

Taken from poster from the Cecilia Kuhn Frightwig Collection, SFH 668

If the way the Frightwig women were expressing themselves confused some people, then they must have been doing something right.

Frightwig is an all-women punk band from San Francisco that formed in 1982 with members Deanna Mitchell and Mia d’Bruzzi. Their feminist morals and their energetic live performances did not win the hearts of everyone, but the people who were fans were quite dedicated. Some people thought they were awful and not talented, while others understood their expression and why it was important. The Frightwig girls expressed feelings and emotions through their music that most women could relate to. Ideas of sexuality and femininity were challenged through their music and their performance. It comes as no surprise that Frightwig is credited with being a big inspiration for the riot grrrl movement of the 1990s. 

Cecilia Kuhn, Mia d'Bruzzi, and Deanna Mitchell.

Frightwig toured Europe with D.O.A. and played shows all over the U.S. and in Canada. Although they are a band made up of women, calling them a girl group would not be fitting stylistically. Frightwig is noisy, unrefined, and intense. They often got compared to Flipper in terms of sound. In terms of performance, they are incredibly unique and do not have anyone they can really be compared to. At their shows, it is a tradition of theirs to have a man come up on stage during “A Man’s Got to Do What A Man’s Got to Do” and do a striptease for them. Their lyrics about being angry towards men, but also being  attracted to them is something that people can relate to. A piece by Yvette Cadeux for Band Age describes them as “hetero-feminists”, and an article from L.A. Weekly describes them as “ghastly nymphets”. Frightwig sometimes got called “unstable” or other insults used for women who do not conform to certain roles and expectations, despite their male counterparts doing the same thing. Regardless of the criticism, Frightwig demanded that their presence be felt in a male-dominated music scene and there were a lot of men who were fans of Frightwig, like the Dead Milkmen and journalist Don Baird.

Cecilia Kuhn 

During their European tour with D.O.A., drummer Cecilia Kuhn kept a journal. She tells lots of great stories about people they met, getting lost and being late to shows, the effects a lack of sleep had, and trying to speak German. One of my favorite stories is about her getting into an altercation with an intoxicated man and jabbing him with a broom while he called her a stupid cow, an insult that she embraced and asked why he was hanging around her if she was a stupid cow. She also goes on to talk about the guys of D.O.A. and how much she misses home. It is interesting to read an untouched version of a person’s life on tour without it being paraphrased by an author in a biography or potentially fabricated by other people’s recollections. Also, from reading the journal, I learned that Cecilia had a great sense of humor. 

The riot grrrl movement in the 1990s channeled the same feminist anger through their music that Frightwig did. Courtney Love has mentioned Frightwig as being a big inspiration to her and her music. One article says that Frightwig “in a single show, inspired the formation of Hole, Babes in Toyland, and L7”. Women face issues by simply existing and their presence in music is no exception. Punk is a genre in which artists often express their anger with politics and being treated differently, so women deserve to have a place in the scene. Penelope Houston of the Avengers and Jennifer Miro of the Nuns set the stage for Frightwig to come and leave their mark as women in the punk scene. If the way the Frightwig women were expressing themselves confused some people, then they must have been doing something right. 

All photographs by Bobby Castro. From the Cecilia Kuhn Frightwig Collection, SFH 668