Kinderwhore
 | This article possibly contains original research. (August 2008) |
'Kinderwhore' was an image used by a handful of American female punk rock bands in the early to mid-1990s. Bands like L7, Jack off Jill, 7 Year Bitch, and Babes In Toyland were largely pigeonholed as a "kinderwhore" band, a media term for the babydoll-dress fashion popularized by Kat Bjelland and Courtney Love. It is not to be confused with Lolita Fashion.[1]
History
The kinderwhore look consisted of torn, ripped babydoll dresses or nighties, heavy makeup, leather boots, and crucially, patent leather "Mary-Jane" shoes (the kind favored by 3- to 10-year-old girls) of various colors, and exposed cleavage. Exactly who invented the kinderwhore image is up for debate, though it is widely accepted that Kat Bjelland of Babes in Toyland was the first to define it and Courtney Love of Hole was the first to popularize it.[2] Christina Amphlett of Divinyls can clearly be seen sporting the image on the cover of her band's 1983 album;[3] Love declared that she took the style from Amphlett in an interview in the Los Angeles fanzine Ben Is Dead.[4]
Kinder means children in German and Yiddish and is pronounced with a short i as in kindergarten.
References
- ^ The Greatest Female Guitarists of All Time, A–G Issue #35 Venus Magazine March 1st, 2008
- ^ "Courtney Love successfully introduced the kinderwhore look: filmy Victorian nightgowns with fright-wig doll hair and heavy makeup." Cintra Wilson. You Just Can't Kill It. NYTimes.com, September 17, 2008 (print version appeared in The New York Times September 18, 2008). Last accessed September 18, 2008.
- ^ Calendar Dec. 9,
- ^ Ben Is Dead