Review

The Spitboy Rule: A Review

The Spitboy Rule: Tales of a Xicana in a Female Punk Band

by June Sawyers
Booklist
July 21st, 2016

Not your typical punk band, Spitboy was ahead of its time, a feminist band that eschewed random sex and drugs and defied expectations in other, more mundane ways. Given their choice of music, fans just naturally assumed they were angry, so they were surprised by how “nice” they appeared. Now the band’s drummer, Gonzales, has written a memoir about punk from a female perspective. The only person of color in the group, she tells a tale of sexism, class issues, and racism. As for many women her age, the all-female band the Go-Go’s were an inspiration. “Then I heard the Clash,” writes Gonzales. “That was it. I was going to be in a punk band . . . that stood for something.” Gonzales grew up on welfare, raised by a single mother in California, and punk was the music that spoke to her. She wanted to write songs with female themes for a band that would rock as hard as men. Gonzales taught herself to play drums as a teenager and became accustomed to hearing sexist comments (“You hit hard for a girl,” etc.). Gonzales writes about feeling confused and discontented as a woman of Mexican descent who doesn’t speak Spanish and as a member of an otherwise all-white punk band. Fans of punk music no matter the gender are sure to find this memoir of interest.

Back to Michelle Cruz Gonzales’s Author Page