Maya Chang Matunis, Developmental Sociology, ’20

Queercore punk band Limp Wrist are pioneers of a politically subversive and sonically antagonistic musical movement, characterized by a do-it-yourself aesthetic, tongue-in-cheek and sexually explicit lyrics, and visceral performances. The band borrows their name from a derogatory slang term for the supposedly feminine mannerisms of gay men. This lyrics insert from the band’s 1999 album Out of the Closet and Into the Pit, recorded live in Philadelphia at their first performance, depicts their signature playful and unapologetic sexual philosophy.

The lyrics page includes words to their best-known song, “I Love Hard-Core Boys/I Love Boys Hard-Core.” The song exemplifies their satirizing of stereotypes of both gay men and hardcore punk rockers, emphasizing the charged sexual energy and homoeroticism of the mosh pit.

Queercore emerged in the 1980s as a confrontation of the widespread homophobia within hardcore punk, a scene associated with machismo and conservative lifestyles and politics. Limp Wrist and other Queercore bands have forged a subcultural world built on mutual recognition and celebration of the codes and cyphers of queerness within the punk scene.

Source:
Lyrics Insert, Limp Wrist Collection 1998-2011, Human Sexuality Collection, Cornell Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections

Works Cited:
Barnard, Laurent. “This Is Hardcore: Limp Wrist.” Louder. Nov 5, 2015.

DeChaine, D. Robert. “Mapping subversion: Queercore music’s playful discourse of resistance”. Popular Music & Society,1997, vol. 21, no. 4, pp. 7-37.

du Plessis, Michael and Kathleen Chapman, “Queercore: The Distinct Identities of Subculture,” College Literature 24, no. 1, 1997, pp. 45-58.

“xLimp Wristx* ‎– Out Of The Closet And Into The Pit – Philly 6/13/99” Discogs. Accessed 28 Feb 2020.