History Commons^™

A Zine Of One's Own: Diy And Alternative Expression Among The Beats And The Riot Grrrls, Lauren Brown

Honors Theses

In my thesis, I investigate the cultural, artistic and political effects of the Beat Generation and a subculture within Generation X known as the Riot Grrrls. Both groups serve as an alternative to their mainstream cultural counterparts-the Beats are a reaction to 1950s post‐war suburbia, and the riot grrrls subvert the pop‐culture overload and the backlash against feminism that is indicative of Generation X. Arising in the midst of the conformist 1950s, the Beats were a group of writers and artists, some of them women, who were willing to fight against the constraints of male‐dominated “Wonder bread” culture. Similarly, the …