The most challenging and frustrating thing about attempting to discuss women in punk is that, by nature, punk is impossible to pin down. In the twenty-five years that have passed since women in punk first shook its fist at the world, fact and fiction, truth and legend, have become intertwined. Punk was and still is about irreconcilable contradictions. It is based on the idea that art should be an available means of expression for anyone. Yet Punk has always been such a boys club, that it has been hard for women to break in, because of this the women who have made it in punk are very strong women. Punk has always railed against the homogeneity of mainstream society, but replaced the rules of the status quo with an even stricter code for "proper" punk behavior; for a movement that claimed not to care about what anyone thinks, punk is painfully image-conscious. The women in Punk are great role models. They've shown you can do whatever you want, regardless of gender norms. The stick up for themselves and tell it like it is, sometimes while raising a family.
             It is not surprising, then, that Punk produced a larger number of influential female artists than most any other pop movement. To impose a feminist critique upon the music they made would be foolish, however, because most female Punk artists either denied their feminism or avoided the issue altogether. The result was one of Punk's greatest contradictions: While playing music without a blatant feminist agenda, female artists made real inroads in the male-dominated music world. These women make a post-feminist statement: They demonstrate their belief that women and men were equals by doing what they please and not making a fuss about it. Through their lyrics they show you that it is ok to be yourself and you don't need to conform to societies expectations of women. As Poly Styrene of the X-Ray Specs sang on their song "Art-i-ficial,""When I put on my make-up/...