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Rating: 
Summary: Punk Meets Academia
Review: "Pretty in Punk" has really interesting subject matter, but the fact that the book was written for an academic audience, apparently, makes reading it rather slow work. The tone is earnest and pedantic, and ideas tend to be repeated frequently. It's kind of like: this is my thesis, this is how I will support my thesis, here are the supporting facts and examples, now I will restate my thesis. The main thesis is that punk rock guys are pretty much as sexist as other guys, and that punk rock girls get double the negative response, first from society at large, then from punk guys. The individual experiences and comments of the girls she interviewed are the most interesting thing about the book. Not a fun read, but interesting if you can get through it.
Rating:
Summary: Punk Meets Academia
Review: "Pretty in Punk" has really interesting subject matter, but the fact that the book was written for an academic audience, apparently, makes reading it rather slow work. The tone is earnest and pedantic, and ideas tend to be repeated frequently. It's kind of like: this is my thesis, this is how I will support my thesis, here are the supporting facts and examples, now I will restate my thesis. The main thesis is that punk rock guys are pretty much as sexist as other guys, and that punk rock girls get double the negative response, first from society at large, then from punk guys. The individual experiences and comments of the girls she interviewed are the most interesting thing about the book. Not a fun read, but interesting if you can get through it.
Rating: 
Summary: a disappointment
Review: Basically this book was the author's dissertation. And that's about it. The writing isn't that good, and the "study" as a whole is very limited. In particular she ignores the previous punk generation, and doesn't address the changes in the scene over 20 years. This ignores the fact that as punk became more common, the common problems of the general culture seeped back in - especially sexism. It could be used as a starting point for young people to enter the discussion, but certainly can't be seen as any kind of definitive text because there are too many holes. I was disappointed because I was so looking forward to someone finally opening up this topic, and had expected something better.
Rating: 
Summary: Punk "academic" likes Leblanc's work
Review: Having experienced life inside the scene and outside as Leblanc has, I am grateful to her for allowing the girls to speak. This work can't be definitive and it can't be everything to everyone who reads it because we all experienced the movement in different ways. However, Leblanc's writing is accessible and she adequately addresses sexism within the scene. She is writing about girls' resistance and so has excluded male voices. I think she does an incredible job of bringing the movement alive to those who have lived it, in her words and in the girls' words. Thanks for not glossing over the bad parts of the scene. Thanks for letting us relive the good parts!
Rating: 
Summary: Was this published in 1999 or 1979?
Review: How can you write a book about punk girls' "gender resistance" in the late 90s and yet barely mention riot grrrl?! Punk rock is so much more than mohawks and gutter punks, and yet these are the only kinds of punk girls that populate this book. I mean, her sample is very, very narrow. Only someone with very limited access to punk rock would believe that this was a thorough survey of girls and women in the "scene." This reads like a book that might've made more sense in the late 70s or early 80s. And as feminist cultural studies go, this is a very poor example.
Rating:
Summary: An Interesting, if Limited, View on Female Punk Philosophy
Review: I found this book interesting in that I found myself identifying with many of the general statements that were made about gender resistance and female gender resistance within the punk sub-culture in particular. However, I feel that the sample for this book was very limited.
Rating: 
Summary: imaginative punk sociology
Review: In this work, Leblanc has looked at women's involvement in a subculture that most people have never seen girls actively participating in. In response to another review, it is very important that Leblanc picked up on the fact that girls have *always* been rebelling through punk, and they haven't needed a female-oriented movement like riot grrrl to act. She doesn't marginalize riot grrrl; instead, she focuses on an often ignored population of women who have a confused position in their subculture. Leblanc's personal relationship with the contradictions in the lives of women in punk rock creates a very powerful, ground-breaking, feminist work.
Rating:
Summary: Enough of the "identifying" with punk culture
Review: Leblanc does a fine job in this book laying down the evolution of Fem-punk. She, unfortunately, doesn't consider much of the homosocial and homoerotic behavior of her male-dominated punk culture and, therefore, losses out on a great possible extension to her study. The book relies, at times, too heavily on interviews with female punks. Leblanc doesn't do too much consideration about the Birmingham school. Again, this weakens her arguments. Overall, I think that this study was very insightful at times but often drifted away from subculture theory.
Rating:
Summary: A Critical Punk Ethnography
Review: Many of the other reviews tend to give Leblanc a difficult time, but I found it quite refreshing over the punk movement oral history stuff and the like (which are half lies, half legend and half truth - yes...3 halves!). This book did exactly what it set out to do: develop and explicate local understandings of girl's resistance in the punk subculture. (I hate that word subculture...). An ethnographer attempts to find visceral understandings of people's lived experiences. Her research, both as an ethnographer, a full participant in the scene, and via her interviews and guided conversations, is thorough. Leblanc does an exemplary job, by examining the scene with a critial and feminist eye. Although all ethnographic research is situated in a localized place and time, it does present the essence of being a female punk in the late 90's. As a member of the punk scene since the early 1980's, and as a member of academia since the late 1990's this work rings true from both standpoints. Is it perfect? No, but no ethnographic research is perfect. This is pretty close...
Rating:
Summary: Finally...find out how girls fit in the picture.
Review: Takes you into the stories of many young punk rock girls. The best part of this book is how you can identify w/ everyone of the girls. Very well written and informative. A must for any one who ever was ever will be or is a punk rock girl.
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