Beth Ditto and the Post-Feminist Masquerade; or How ‘Post’ can Post-Punk Be?

This article explores the elaboration of a post-punk and queer performativity by US indie group Gossip. In particular, it elaborates on Angela McRobbie’s concept of ‘post-feminist masquerade’ in relation to the group’s frontwoman, Beth Ditto. The group has from the start claimed affiliation to the punk underground and in particular to 1990s “riot grrrls”, a movement of women’s punk bands who entwined punk strategies of reversal in clothing and musical codes with a feminist awareness of the need for women performers to rewrite accepted notions of female performativity and musicianship. Ditto in particular has engaged in a dialogic relationship with the punk legacy of riot grrrls via her femme persona and her fat-affirmative statements. Engaging with post-feminist landscapes of femininity, from nude photo shoots to advice columns on G2, Ditto’s public image works as an ‘alternative’ rendition of the complex legacy of feminist struggles for public representation interpreted through the representational strategies of punk; at the same time, Gossip also engage in a refashioning of the language of women’s punk in a post-feminist era.