Everything that was normally supposed to be hidden was brought to the front.
Punk subculture – Wikipedia
The First Rule of Punk: Be Yourself
Our Second Rule of Punk: ReframeWhen we successfully reframe public discourse, we change the way the public sees the world. We change what counts as common sense. Because language activates frames, new language is required… More
When we reframe, we perceive others such that they too can be themselves.
Hey girlfriend I got a proposition, goes something like this Dare ya to do what you want Dare ya to be who you will Dare ya to cry right out loud "You get so emotional, baby" Double dare ya, double dare ya Double Dare Ya by Bikini Kill
…the central tension of punk rock: it was built on individualism and an anti-hero ethos, yet expressed itself as a community
We accept you, one of us?: punk rock, community, and individualism in an uncertain era, 1974-1985What I have always been hoping to accomplish is the creation of community.Community is magic. Community is power. Community is resistance.Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century https://www.amazon.com/Disability-Visibility-First-Person-Stories-Twenty-First-ebook/dp/B082ZQBL98/ https://www.amazon.com/Disability-Visibility-Adapted-Young-Adults-ebook/dp/B08VFT4R9T/… More. The motivation for punk was individualistic artistic expression, but the glue for the subculture was the experience of finding like-minded misfits.
What is punk?
- Making friends and having fun.
- Eating cookies.
- Doing it yourself.
- Supporting your scene.
What does punk mean to you?
The Linda Lindas – “Why” – YouTube
- Going for it without being perfect.
- Describing about how you feel, and describing your emotionsJustice, equality, fairness, mercy, longsuffering, Work, Passion, knowledge, and above all else, Truth. Those are my primary emotions.Very Grand Emotions: How Autistics and Neurotypicals Experience Emotions Differently » NeuroClastic https://youtu.be/uPRa6G2a48E… More.
- It means persisting to me.
- I think punk means being free.
- Punk Origins and the Punk Umbrella
- Punk Rock and the Dream of the Accepting Community
- The Island of Misfit Toys
- DIY or DIE: Punk Rock Is a Living Thing
- That Could Be Me: Inspiring Constructionism
- Appropriate Space
- 🎶🌈 It Take a Joyful Sound: New Wave, New Phrase, Neurodiversity
- ❤️🫀 Translate Your Love Into Action
- ☀️ Standing Up for the Rights, Like the True Light!
- 🏗 We Rebuild What You Destroy
This is a call to open arms
Lay down your guard, lay down your guardA call to arms is what you need
Call to Arms, The Attack
I’m calling on you to sing along with me
Punk Origins and the Punk Umbrella
Punk was created by women, people of color, and queersBeing queer means constantly questioning what’s considered “normal” and why that norm gets privileged over other ways of being. It means criticizing who sets these norms and recognizing the privilege… More. And without all of us, it would be nothing.
Alice Bag
Maybe that is the punkness of being a woman.
Marina Muhlfriedel
There have always been, like, women in it, and queer people, and people of color.
That community is also something really cool about punk.
Eloise Wong of The Linda Lindas
When you’re black, you’re punk rock all the time, you’re a target all the time.
Sacha Jenkins
We have been pushed to the marginsFor me this space of radical openness is a margin a profound edge. Locating oneself there is difficult yet necessary. It is not a “safe” place. One is always at… More, but we create in those margins. It doesn’t get more punk than that.
Shawna Shawnté
In the early aughts of punk, queerness was actually inherently tied to the movement.
The Story of Trans Punk Pioneer Jayne County – YouTube
But before all of them, was a man who inhabited punk in all its definitions. A queer, Black man, who played his music loud and fast and with a defiantly masterful un-polish. Little Richard set the stage for everything that punk would become while inhabiting every sense of the word with pride. John Waters once declared Little Richard “was the first punk.”
QUEER PUNK HISTORY: 1575 – PRESENT
“I went through a lot when I was a boy. They called me sissy, punk, freak…”
Little Richard
Punk has never not been queer.
QUEER PUNK HISTORY: 1575 – PRESENT
I was gay. It’s nice to be happy. I was happy, and I wanted the world to know I was happy. And I wasn’t ashamed. I had been that way all my life, and I didn’t know nothing else but that. And so I told everybody that: I am gay.
“I told everybody I am GAY” Little Richard 1932-2020
Punk Rock and the Dream of the Accepting Community
The lyrics referred to the way many people viewed fans of punk rock (who often endured stares, slurs and assaults at the time), but they could just have easily been about people diagnosed with mental illnesses, who are frequently looked down upon as crazy, violent and unintelligent.
Punk Rock and the Dream of the Accepting Community | Psychology Today
As soon as I said, “Hello, this is exactly who I am”, I found the most beautiful community of people.
yungblud
But, do you know what?
I found you!
I love you.
I love all of you out there.
And this is why I’m so proud to belong here.
Because this family is about spreading love.
yungblud
You are with us.
Look at the people around you.
You finally belong somewhere.
yungblud
The Island of Misfit Toys
I don’t give a damn ’bout my reputation
Bad Reputation, Joan Jett
Never been afraid of any deviation
And I don’t really careThe activities that constitute care are crucial for human life. We defined care in this way: Care is “a species activity that includes everything that we do to maintain, continue,… More if you think I’m strange
I ain’t gonna change
DIY or DIE: Punk Rock Is a Living Thing
The most important message I got from punk, was the DIY ethos. The DIY ethic. It’s inherently part of surviving.
Don Letts, SHOWstudio: Stussy – Talking Punk with Don Letts and John Ingham
Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Go’s described the early Masque scene: “Everyone was kind of into the whole homemade thing, ‘cause … you couldn’t buy real punk clothes like they could in London.”
“We Accept You, One of Us?”: Punk Rock, Community, and Individualism in an Uncertain Era, 1974-1985
Next in a punk sensibility was its love affair with pastiche. As the true postmoderns they were, punks drew freely from highbrow culture, lowbrow culture, and places in between, picking and choosing as they went, bound by no formal ideology.
In practice, however, punks consciously or unconsciously drew on previous youth cultures, with methodologies and ideologies marked by pastiche and bricolageIn the arts, bricolage (French for “DIY” or “do-it-yourself projects”) is the construction or creation of a work from a diverse range of things that happen to be available, or… More. In other words, punks borrowed freely from previous youth cultures and dominant society, melding these elements into a new form of expression.
“We Accept You, One of Us?”: Punk Rock, Community, and Individualism in an Uncertain Era, 1974-1985
…punks viewed the pedestrian actions of everyday life as potential expressions of art and ideology.
The vast majority of the time, however, female punks took a pastiche approach, drawing inspiration from many areas of popular culture. According to journalist Kristine McKenna, “punks rejected the Academy and drew instead from ‘low’ sources: graffiti, underground comics, advertising, car culture, the tarot, blaxpoitation, bondage and pornography, surf culture, fifties industrial films, Mad magazine, and the universe of American detritus that winds up in thrift stores. It all got tossed in the blender.” As this quote suggests, there was no single, agreed-upon guise in early punk. Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Go’s described the early Masque scene: “Everyone was kind of into the whole homemade thing, ‘cause … you couldn’t buy real punk clothes like they could in London.”
“We Accept You, One of Us?”: Punk Rock, Community, and Individualism in an Uncertain Era, 1974-1985
In punk and metal tradition, StimpunkStimpunk combines “stimming” + “punk” to evoke open and proud stimming, resistance to neurotypicalization, and the DIY culture of punk, disabled, and neurodivergent communities. Instead of hiding our stims, we… More Diego made their own battle vest in celebration of their influences.




Oh bondage, up yours Oh bondage, no more Oh bondage, up yours Oh bondage, no more
The punks wore clothes which were the sartorial equivalent of swear words, and they swore as they dressed–with calculated effect, lacing obscenities into record notes and publicity releases, interviews
Subculture: The Meaning of StyleWhile the autistic individual is interviewing, they will often be acutely self-aware and preoccupied by their own nervousness and internal coaching, and be simultaneously experiencing two conversations at once—one that is shared… More and love songs. Clothed in chaos, they produced Noise in the calmly orchestrated Crisis of everyday life in the late 1970s–a noise which made (no) sense in exactly the same way and to exactly the same extent as a piece of avant-garde music. If we were to write an epitaph for the punk subculture, we could do no better than repeat Poly Styrene’s famous dictum: ‘Oh Bondage, Up Yours!’, or somewhat more concisely: the forbidden is permitted, but by the same token, nothing, not even these forbidden signifiers (bondage, safety pins, chains, hair-dye, etc.) is sacred and fixed.
Punk rock is a living thing.
It’s about turning problems into assets.
Don Letts, Rebel Dread
That Could Be Me: Inspiring Constructionism
For her 19th Birthday, she took a chance on seeing a London band with a provocative name.
That band was the Sex Pistols.
At the time, The Pistols were merely support for obscure Welsh metal outfit Budgie, they were mostly playing
There is nothing more human than play. Humans were designed to learn in play. In fact, nearly all mammals evolved this way.Play’s Power At our learning space, we provide learners fresh… More ramshackle rock’n’roll covers and there was barely anyone there.
They were just a bunch of kids playing music with no pretensions of professionalism.
But that was key: Like many others after first seeing the Sex Pistols, Elliot was hooked and realised that she could do this too. “That’s why I formed X-Ray Spex.”
Before Riot Grrrl: X-Ray Spex & “Oh Bondage Up Yours!” | New British Canon – YouTube
Pretty much immediately Poly Styrene and X-Ray Spex’s influence was felt. Just like seeing the Sex Pistols had convinced Styrene that getting onstage without much musical grounding was possible, a generation of punk and new wave women saw X-Ray Spex and thought “That could be me.” Her left of centre look also helped in that, not being the traditional male fantasy of many other women that had appeared on Top of the Pops. “The idea that just anyone could (start a band) was really big to me. That people in your neighbourhood could start a cassette label or a record label, that you could see people who were making records walking down the street. And they didn’t necessarily have to be in a glossy magazine, and they didn’t have to weigh 90 pounds and have blonde hair down to their ankles or whatever was the fashion of the day.”
Before Riot Grrrl: X-Ray Spex & “Oh Bondage Up Yours!” | New British Canon – YouTube
I would argue that the ability young women and girls now have to embrace the DIY approach to music would not be as prevalent as it is now had Riot Grrrl not busted down the door back in the 90s.
The 90s DIY feminist art punk scene in the Pacific Northwest gave us Kurt Cobain, Ian MacKaye, and Sleater Kinney. And the list of bands in the Riot Grrrl legacy goes on.
Riot Grrrl: The Story of Feminist DIY Punk
I can fix my bike up (Do it yourself) I can grow a salad (Do it yourself) I can start a punk band (Do it yourself) Do it, Do it, Do it, Do it, Do it yourself I can make peanut butter (Do it yourself) I can walk myself home (Do it yourself) I can make the rain come (Do it yourself) Do it, Do it, Do it, Do it, Do it yourself Do it do it yeah x3
I can make the first move (Do it yourself) I can fight my own corner (Do it yourself) I can put it back together (Do it yourself) Do it, Do it, Do it, Do it, Do it yourself I can put shelves up (Do it yourself) I can give a hair cut (Do it yourself) I can heal a broken heart (Do it yourself) Do it, Do it, Do it, Do it, Do it yourself Do it do it yeah x6 You are good enough (Do it yourself) You are strong enough (Do it yourself) You are smart enough (Do it, Do it, Do it, Do it, Do it yourself) x3 You are good enough (Do it, do it, do it) You are strong enough (Do it, do it, do it) You are smart enough (Do it, do it, do it) x2 Do it yourself
DIY by Dream Nails
Appropriate Space
The spaces where we belong do not exist. We build them with radical love and revolutionary liberation.
Gayatri Sethi, Unbelonging
Two of the most important developments that began in the 1990s, and continue to thrive today, are the staging of house shows and the establishment of volunteer-run community spaces. Both materialize DIY in important ways, but each has a unique historical trajectory.
In the face of such struggles, the creation of house spaces, volunteer-run spaces, and other punk- specific locations truly materialize DIY in powerful ways that also model what it means and feels like to do DIY together.
The emergence
Underground: The Subterranean Culture of DIY Punk Shows | Microcosm PublishingEmergence is the way complex systems and patterns arise out of a multiplicity of relatively simple interactions.Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds Emergent strategy is a way that all of… More of the house as a DIY venue explicitly and implicitly challenges conceptions of the home as cut off from public life. Houses are transformed from somewhat isolated private spheres to pseudo-public spaces when punks decide to host shows in their homes. House show spaces are now standard locations for punk shows and are considered important options for DIY punk bands touring the U.S.; however, this contemporary awarenessAcceptance means training mental health service providers to look at autism and other disabilities as a part of a person’s identity, rather than a problem that needs to be fixed. Acceptance… More among punks that houses can function as venues did not develop uniformly. The contemporary DIY touring network is very much a product of efforts made in the 1980s but shifted and changed throughout the 1990s because of some limitations with the more common spaces used for shows during the ‘80s. Punk bands have played at houses since the music began.
There is, however, a major differenceOur friends and allies at Randimals have a saying, What makes us different, makes all the difference in the world.Randimals We agree. Randimals are made up of two different animals… More between these other uses of the home for collective music experiences and punk house shows. The people who live in the house and book the shows are enacting a DIY philosophy and politics, as are the bands that play and many of the people in attendance. The home space has in effect been appropriated to shift from a container for standard domestic practices to a pseudo-public place that offers an alternative venue option for many DIY punk bands that are often excluded from more official (or legitimate) live music venues.
Underground: The Subterranean Culture of DIY Punk Shows | Microcosm Publishing
Do you ever feel unsafe? Do you wanna take up space? Do you (Take up space) Wanna? (Take up space) Do you Oh, do you wanna? Ooh, ooh Ooh, ooh Sha-la-la-la-la --Take Up Space by Dream Nails
I think the key here is space.
“It’s Not Rocket Science” – NDTi
🎶🌈 It Take a Joyful Sound: New Wave, New Phrase, Neurodiversity
It take a joyful sound To make a world go around Come with your heart and soul Come on come and rock your boat
“Punks are outcasts from society. So are the Rastas. So they are bound to defend what we defend,” Marley concluded. Shortly thereafter, they began recording the single Punky Reggae Party, and by naming an underground social phenomenon, helped further it.
Culture Clash: Bob Marley, Joe Strummer and the punky reggae party | Reggae | The Guardian
New wave, new phrase New wave, new craze It take a joyful sound To make a world go around Come with your heart and soul Come on come and rock your boat Because it's a punky reggae party And it's tonight It's a punky reggae party And it's alright Rejected by society (do re mi fa) Treated with impunity (so la te do) Protected by my dignity (do re mi fa) I search for reality (So La te Do) --Punky Reggae Party by Bob Marley & The Wailers
New wave, new phrase
New wave, new craze
NeurodiversityNeurodiversity is the diversity of human minds, the infinite variation in neurocognitive functioning within our species.NEURODIVERSITY: SOME BASIC TERMS & DEFINITIONS Neurodiversity is a biological fact. It’s not a perspective, an approach, a… More
What Neurodiversity Means to Me
Neurodiversity, to me, means both a fabulous celebration of all kinds of individual minds, and a serious, holistic
Autistic Community and the Neurodiversity Movement: Stories from the FrontlineSystems Thinking Is Not Indigenous Holistic ThinkingIndigenous holistic thinking is not systems thinking because many Indigenous peoples and communities do not separate their world or landscapes into “systems” in the… More acknowledgment of the necessity of diversity in order for society to survive, thrive, and innovate. It means identity, belonging, and community. It means I am not broken, not aloneAloneness is a characteristic that many creatives embrace and yearn for. Being alone is anything but lonely. Reading, writing, and creating art all demand a personal space where one can… More, and neither are my siblings standing with me beneath that huge, multi-colored neurodiversity umbrella: we the autistic
Autistic ways of being are human neurological variants that can not be understood without the social model of disability.If you are wondering whether you are Autistic, spend time amongst Autistic people, online and offline. If… More, the mad, the weirdly-wired, the queer, the crippledSome people with disabilities call themselves “crips.” “Crip” used to be a mean word for disabled. It is short for “cripple.” But some disabled people call themselves “crips” on purpose…. More, and the labeled with neurodivergent
Neurodivergent, sometimes abbreviated as ND, means having a mind that functions in ways which diverge significantly from the dominant societal standards of “normal.”NEURODIVERSITY: SOME BASIC TERMS & DEFINITIONS Neurodivergent is quite… More diagnoses like flowers that glorify our beautiful bodies and minds.

Neurodiversity is one of the most powerful ideas of our generation.
It take a joyful sound. Reframe.
❤️🫀 Translate Your Love Into Action
I wasted my twenties in submission I thought I was outside the system I was rolling over for wealth and power As if they really cared about me The kids are just getting started They only just learned how to howl And most of them throw in the towel Bout the time that they turn twenty three You've got the taste for transcendence That translates your love into action And participate in the fight now For a creed you can truly believe
Furman penned the second new single “Evening Prayer” as a “rallying cry” for her fan base. “We music fans go to shows for transcendence; it’s like being called to prayer,” she says. “But as Abraham Heschel said, ‘Prayer is meaningless unless it is subversive, unless it seeks to overthrow and to ruin the pyramids of callousness, hatred, opportunism and falsehood.’ I want all our fans to become activists. We punk fans have so much energy to give to the fight against injustice, i.e. the abuse of the poor by the rich, i.e. climate change. So this is one to get you in the mood.”
Ezra Furman’s Summer of Pride Mix: Listen | Billboard
It is time for the evening prayer Time to do justice for the poor It is time for the evening prayer Time to do justice for the poor Tonight you've got fire in your bloodstream Your frail human heart is still pumping And make this one night you'll remember A note you'll deliver by hand And when you get up in the morning Let no man return it to sender Pour gasoline on the embers Give yourself a physical record Deliver that fire in the real world And tell them that E Furman sent ya
☀️ Standing Up for the Rights, Like the True Light!
…punk and reggae are assumed to go together. The chocolate and peanut butter of the music world. But in the late 70’s, the decision to combine them at all—to attempt to create musical solidarity between Britain’s working class whites and the new Caribbean immigrant population—was a revolution in itself.
punk rock and reggae: a love story in 2 acts | AFROPUNK
Reggae music is still here As the voice of the people everywhere Whenever there is injustice and tyranny Reggae music is there Standing up for the rights, like the true light! Reggae music gonna make me feel good Reggae music gonna make me feel alright now Reggae music gonna make me feel good Reggae music gonna make me feel alright now (Reggae, reggae, reggae gonna make me feel good!) Reggae music gonna make me feel alright now Reggae music gonna make me feel good Reggae music gonna make me feel alright now --Reggae Music by Jimmy Cliff
New wave, new phrase New wave, new craze --Punky Reggae Party by Bob Marley & The Wailers
Song recorded by Lee Perry. The alliance of punk rockers and Jamaican immigrants including Rastaman during the rock against racism festival (where punks and reggae bands played together against the British National Front) the Brixton riot’s soundtrack. This is an alternative version alternating dub and vocals.
punky reggae party perry sessions 1977-BOB MARLEY & LEE PERRY
🏗 We Rebuild What You Destroy
BECAUSE we are interested in creating non-hierarchicalThe belief in the existence and relevance of social hierarchies must be suspended.The Beauty of Collaboration at Human Scale: Timeless patterns of human limitations The extent to which a community… More ways of being AND making music, friends, and scenes based on communication + understanding, instead of competition + good/bad categorizations.
RIOT GRRRL MANIFESTO
BECAUSE doing/reading/seeing/hearing cool things that validate and challenge us can help us gain the strength and sense of community that we need in order to figure out how bullshitCredulous acceptance of baloney can cost you money; that’s what P. T. Barnum meant when he said, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” But it can be much more dangerous… More like racism, able-bodieism, ageism, speciesism, classism, thinism, sexism, anti-semitism and heterosexism figures in our own lives.


We can take turns taking the reins Lean on each other when we need some extra strength We’ll never caveFuturist David Thornburg identifies three archetypal learning spaces— the campfire, cave, and watering hole—that schools can use as physical spaces and virtual spaces for student and adult learning (bit.ly/YvRuWC)Australia’s Campfires,... More or we’ll never waver And we’ll always become braver and braver We’ll dance like nobody’s there Wе’ll dance without any cares We’ll talk 'bout problеms we share We’ll talk 'bout things that ain’t fair We’ll sing 'bout things we don’t know We’ll sing to people and show What it means to be young and growing up --Growing Up by The Linda Lindas
Further readingThere are three types of reading: eye reading, ear reading, and finger reading.The Dyslexia Empowerment Plan: A Blueprint for Renewing Your Child’s Confidence and Love of Learning Most schools and… More,