Queer punx: young women in the Newcastle hardcore space

Abstract

This article investigates the ‘becoming’ of queer female punx in the contemporary hardcore scene in a regional Australian city. Twelve young women aged 20–30 years were interviewed about their experiences of queer identity. They emphasized their involvement in the music scene as a key catalyst for the development of a queer punk identity even though the local hardcore scene is male-dominated and homosocial. We find that these young female queer punx assert their identity through collectively summoning and synthesizing the counternormative resources of both queer and punk Do It Yourself (DIY) to configure the space of hardcore differently. Our findings confirm the durability of a playful, subversive punk ethos in constituting challenges to the normative.