Reading Circle February 9th, 2026: The Redstockings Manifesto (1969) vs The Riot Grrrl Manifesto (1991)

Reading Circle meets the 2nd and 4th Monday of the month at 4pm PST/7pm EST/12am UTC.

Reading Circle is a space for women to explore feminist literature as a group. Every week, we will read a short essay or excerpt of writing about feminist theory or women’s herstory, then discuss. Please read or listen to the text before each session, so we can come together for a thoughtful discussion!

About The Authors

The Redstockings Manifesto was written by a collective of women in 1969. The authors were: Ellen Willis, Kathie Sarachild, Patrician Mainardi, Irene Peslikis and Karen Rappaport. The founding members of the Redstockings were Shulamith Firestone and Ellen Willis and many other notable feminsits worked alongside them to generate some of the most influential texts of the early second wave.

"Redstockings" was a name taken in 1969 by one of the founding women's liberation groups of the 1960's to represent the union of two traditions: the "bluestocking" label disparagingly pinned on feminists of earlier centuries — and "red" for revolution.

Redstockings women would go on to champion and spread knowledge of vital women's liberation theory, slogans and actions that have become household words such as consciousness-raising, the personal is political, the pro-woman line, sisterhood is powerful, the politics of housework, the Miss America Protest, and "speakouts" that would break the taboos of silence around subjects like abortion (Redstockings.org).

The Riot Grrrl Manifesto was written by Kathleen Hanna, lead singer of Bikini Kill. It was first published in Bikini Kill Zine 2 in 1991. Tobi Vale, the drummer of the band and Kathi Wilcox, the bassist, wrote the zine alongside Hannah. This zine was part of a larger network of zines from the the Riot Grrrl movement.

The emergence of the Riot Grrrl movement began in the early 1990s, when a group of women in Olympia, Washington, held a meeting to discuss how to address sexism in the punk scene. The women decided they wanted to start a “girl riot” against a society they felt offered no validation of women’s experiences. And thus the Riot Grrrl movement was born.

The Riot Grrrl movement believed in girls actively engaging in cultural production, creating their own music and fanzines rather than following existing materials. The bands associated with Riot Grrrl used their music to express feminist and anti-racist viewpoints. Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, and Heavens to Betsy created songs with extremely personal lyrics that dealt with topics such as rape, incest and eating disorders (Feliciano, 2013).

Recording

Text

You can read this The Restockings Manifesto here.

You can also download a PDF version of The Redstockings Manifesto here.

You can read The Riot Grrrl Manifesto here.

You can also download a PDF version The Riot Grrrl Manifesto here.

Key Concepts

Class Consciousness

Class consciousness is the self-understanding and awareness that members of a social class have of their shared position, interests, and grievances within a class structure — especially in Marxist theory, where it involves recognizing common exploitation and one’s collective class identity (Munro, n.d.).

Woman-Identified

In feminist theory, “woman-identified” refers to women defining their identity, interests, and solidarity in relation to other women rather than through men or male-centered norms. It emphasizes women’s shared experiences of oppression under patriarchy and the importance of women’s relationships and collective self-determination in the struggle for liberation (Radicalesbians, 1970).

Institution

An institution is a relatively stable and enduring set of established structures, rules, norms, and shared practices that organize, regulate, and shape social behavior and interactions within a society. Institutions provide predictable frameworks for human activity, help maintain social order, and influence how individuals and groups pursue collective goals — from family and education to legal and political systems. Contemporary sociologists describe institutions as complexes of roles, norms, and values that structure stable patterns of social life (Gilad, n.d.).

Reading Questions

What are the primary messages of The Redstockings Manifesto?
What are the primary messages of The Riot Grrrl Manifesto?
How are the primary messages of these two manifestos similar?
How do the primary messages of these two manifestos differ?
Is there any language that pops out at you from The Redstockings Manifesto?
Is there any language that pops out at you from The Riot Grrrl Manifesto?
Do you think the authors of these two manifestos had similar or different goals from each other? Why or why not?
What are your final take aways from these two contrasting pieces of writing?