Kinderwhore

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Kinderwhore was an image used by a handful of American female punk rock bands in the early/mid 1990s. The kinderwhore look consisted of torn, ripped Baby Doll dresses, heavy makeup and leather boots. Exactly who invented the Kinderwhore image is up for debate, though it is widely accepted that Kat Bjelland of Babes in Toyland was the first to define it and Courtney Love of Hole was the first to popularise it. ^[1]

[edit] History

For many years, an argument between Courtney Love and Kat Bjelland over who had come up with the idea raged, with Bjelland claiming that Love had stolen the style from her. Before earning their own success, Love and Bjelland had played together in a band called Sugar Baby Doll, and so it is difficult to prove either way who came up with the idea of Kinderwhore. Love claimed that she took the style from Christina Amphlett of 1980s Australian rock group, Divinyls, in an interview in the Los Angeles fanzine Ben Is Dead. ^[2]

The look typically consisted of torn and/or dirty Babydoll dresses, plastic girl's hair clips, ripped stockings and leather boots. In addition, it was common to wear overdone, often smeared makeup with the look. The intention was for it to be a sexually provocative, D.I.Y. subversion of the traditional prom queen look, and the supposed feminine, fragility of the image works in stark contrast to Bjelland's extremely aggressive singing style. It caught the attention of the rock music press (particularly in the UK) who were the first to label it Kinderwhore or Baby Doll depending on the publication.^[3]

Following the notoriety garnered by Babes In Toyland, a new found interest in all female (or at least female fronted) bands began. Any American band with at least three female members were categorized under the term Riot Grrrl. Though Kinderwhore and riot grrl are forever linked, by no means did all of the Riot Grrrls dress in the Kinderwhore fashion. Rather, Kinderwhore was part of the reason for Riot Grrrl's early success. In discussing Riot Grrrl's early British success, the context of the early 1990s British music scene must be remembered. Any sense of style at the time was largely non-existent; shoegazing bands who stared at the floor whilst playing and had no exciting image were all the rage, and so the exciting Kinderwhore look would have stood out on front covers.

In the wake of 1995, the kinderwhore look quickly spread across the world and was worn by many female artists. American female musicians that adopted the kinderwhore look were, Los Angeles' Kim Shattuck of The Muffs, (original Sugar Baby Doll member) Jennifer Finch from L7, New York's Lunachicks, while Florida's Jessicka from Jack Off Jill and San Francisco's Switchblade Symphony took a more Goth approach to the look. In the UK, bands like Fluffy, and Daisy Chainsaw's KatieJane Garside wore dirty torn Victorian Baby Doll dresses with knee high socks and Mary Jane (shoe)s. Further, the male Kinderwhore, Twiggy Ramirez of Marilyn Manson, adopted his look from then girlfriend Jessicka (from Jack Off Jill and later of Scarling.) and a desire to ridicule Courtney Love.

After the riot grrrl movement and grunge became passe, the kinderwhore look died out very quickly soon after. Courtney Love, one of the prime exponents of both Riot Grrrl and Kinderwhore, moved into acting. When she returned from the acting world for Hole's last album, 1998's Celebrity Skin, she had dropped her controversial Kinderwhore image, though she has remained controversial through her actions and statements. Kat Bjelland took a leave of absence from music after Babes In Toyland broke up to have her son Henry in 1999. The new mom adopted a new darker longer hairstyle and less childlike attire when she remerged as founder of the band Katastrophy Wife. ^[4]