Women’s Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal welcomes the submission of essays for an upcoming special issue focused on women and punk rock. From Patti Smith to Annabella Lwin, the Slits, and the Go-Gos, women in punk rock have occupied both important and contested spaces. While Patti Smith is revered for her contributions to the nascent punk rock scene in New York City in the 1970s, other women have not been afforded such artistic respect. As punk rock increasingly becomes the subject of academic discourse, the consideration of women and their importance to the genre remains limited. How was punk changed by the presence of women like Debbie Harry, Alice Bag, Siouxsie Sioux, or Exene Cervenka? Did women use or contribute to punk in ways different from men? What is the legacy of punk rock women?

Topics could include but are not limited to:

Nancy Spungen and other “dangerous” punk women

Punk rock fans and groupies

Beth Ditto and contemporary punk identities (the music may not be punk, but the attitude is)

Vivienne Westwood and the commodification of punk fashion

Lydia Lunch and the women of the Cinema of Transgression

Susan Seidelman's film Smithereens

Women's Studies publishes 8 issues a year, providing a forum for the presentation of scholarship and criticism about women in the fields of literature, history, art, sociology, law, political science, economics, anthropology and the sciences. It also publishes poetry, film and book reviews.

Each manuscript must be accompanied by a statement that it has not been published elsewhere and that it has not been submitted simultaneously for publication elsewhere. All manuscripts should be typed, double-spaced, one-sided, and formatted according to MLA guidelines. Essays should be approximately 25 pages in length. Authors should also supply a shortened version of the title for a running head, not exceeding 50 character spaces, an abstract of approximately 100 words, the author's affiliation and location. Each submitted article must contain author's mailing address, telephone number, and e-mail address.