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Naomi Griffin

Abstract

This article considers the relevance of geographical theories about gender roles and how gender is performed, to the situated context of a local DIY (‘Do It Yourself) punk scene. It draws on an auto-ethnographic study carried out by the author between September 2008 and May 2009, which explored the themes of the body, gendered performativity and gendered spatialities. The study was based on the author’s observations, reflections and conversations with other participants at live music events (‘shows’) in a particular region of the UK, but also revealed how DIY punk offers an example of an imagined community, crossing temporal, spatial and cultural boundaries with a sense of belonging and collective identity expressed by participants. The study illustrates the complexity of the relationship between punk ideologies and practices and the ways that spaces can simultaneously offer contradictory and negotiable opportunities for empowerment and resistance, acceptance and exclusion.

Author Biography

Naomi Griffin is an interdisciplinary PhD student at Northumbria University, UK. Her thesis draws predominantly from Geography and Sociology and explores conceptions and negotiations of power and resistance within DIY (Do It Yourself) activism. She received her undergraduate degree from Durham University in 2009 in Education Studies and Geography. This article was adapted from an undergraduate project on Geography and Gender.

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