The feedback that I got from writing that column and others (like the one I wrote months before that about ironic bigotry for shock value) makes me realize that there are just so many different ways of relating to punk, and that my way of relating to it is a minority perspective, and I use the word minority recognizing all of its connotations.
I grew up going to shows in a town where if certain people in the audience were making it impossible for the rest of the audience to enjoy the show by being violent or otherwise intolerable, certain bands would stop playing and wait for the idiocy to die down before they started playing again. That is punk to me: Creating the kind of atmosphere you want to have around you. Realizing that you are in charge of your own experience.

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Follow Up to “Don’t Punch Me”

I share this idea of what punk shows should be like, and its pretty miserable going to shows in a town where it seems like not many other people do.

Sometimes I wonder how it is that I got here from a far-flung there. I used to be a different kind of girl: I growled, scratched, ducked my head when I spoke, balled fist always in air. Somewhere along the way I’ve developed some skills I didn’t have before — patience, and a loud clear voice that carries to the backs of lecture halls. I explain poststructuralist feminist theory with (I hope) flare. I’m making an effort here, translating tough girl into academia.

— Mimi Thi Nguyen, Punk Planet 38 (July/August 2000)