I’ve seen a couple of videos on TikTok that put forward the idea that punk is inherently inclusive and that if something is sexist, misogynistic, homophobic, etc. then it can’t be punk. While I applaud actively trying to make punk inclusive for everyone, and I may be taking to video creators too literally in their comments, I’m very uncomfortable with this sentiment.

The reality is that a lot of punk’s early history is sexist and misogynistic and homophobic and transphobic and all the rest. A quick read through oral histories like Please Kill Me and We’ve Got the Neutron Bomb makes that clear. And we’re not even getting into hardcore here. To present punk as something that was always inclusive is to just ignore the history of punk. It also makes telling the story of punk difficult.

How do you explain Kathleen Hanna’s call of “girls to the front!” or the concept of girls only shows, with out acknowledging the misogynistic environment that riot grrl pushed back against?

How do you explain the importance of zines like J.D.’s and Homocore or bands like Pansy Division and Team Dresch without acknowledging the homophobia in the scene?

And beyond the concepts, there’s the simple matter of giving people their due credit. Riot Grrl and Queercore were two of the most important movements in the history of punk. Not because they gave us great bands, but because they rebelled against the rebellion. They called out the hypocrisy and bullshit of punk and they demanded that it be what it was supposed to be. That took a lot of guts and a lot of courage and it deserves to be recognized. And that recognition can not be properly given unless we’re willing to talk about how and where punk has failed.

In the end the power of punk comes from it’s honesty. This is an art form that is at it’s best when it is being brutally honest about the best and worst things about humanity. If we’re going to move this art form forward and pay proper tribute to the people who came before us, then we need to be brutally honest with ourselves about how we got here. We need to celebrate the things we got right, but we also need to acknowledge the things we got wrong. And we need to honor the people who showed us we were wrong.