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Proposal/abstract for conference presentation titled “Deriving ‘Authenticity’ from Obscure Fiction: Ladies and Gentleman, The Fabulous Stains (1981) as Prototype for the Riot Grrrl Movement”

Presented at Mid-Atlantic Popular and American Culture Association, Boston, MA, November, 2009

Bikini Kill founder Kathleen Hanna explains, “When I was growing up, I didn’t have access to fanzines. I didn’t know about punk. [...] [USA Network’s Night Flight is] how I learned about punk. That was one of my main influences when I was younger.” Night Flight, a four-hour program that aired late on the USA Network from 1981 to 1991, aired several obscure and otherwise unreleased films along with music videos, concert footage, experimental films, and interviews. During the weekend of February 15, 1985, Night Flight aired a film titled Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains. This began an unorthodox underground distribution (via taped copies of the program) of an influential and obscure cult film. The film (which itself possesses a fascinating story regarding its production and failed initial release) features the story of Corrine “Third Degree” Burns (Diane Lane) who, when victimized by potential media exploitation, hijacks the attention to benefit her band, The Stains. With The Stains, Corrine spreads a message to young girls that they don’t have to “put out” and to the men who stand in her way that they are merely “old [men] in a young girl’s world.” In the end, The Stains fail commercially (much in the same way the encompassing film failed commercially) but in the wake of her “failure,” Corrine inspires her followers, The Skunks, to reject the hegemony of misogynistic rock culture. In Ladies and Gentlemen’s commercial failure, the prototypical origins of Hanna’s Riot Grrrl movement can be found. In this paper conceptual, aesthetic, and cultural similarities between the Riot Grrrl movement and Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains will be explored.