No mercy for the dead.

Castration Squad, 1981.

Left to right: Tracy Lea, Alice Bag, Tiffany Kennedy, Dinah Cancer (aka Mary Bat Thing), Shannon Wilhelm, Elissa Bello.

http://soundcloud.com/alicebag/no-mercy-for-the-dead

Shannon Wilhelm, August 1978 photo by Alice Bag.

violencegirl:

“Life in this society being, at best, an utter bore and no aspect of society being at all relevant to any woman, there remains to civic-minded, responsible, thrill-seeking girls only to undermine the government; to reassess and reorganize the senseless, archaic legal system (and initiate a more effective method of enforcement), to stop the blind acceptance of implausible media role models, to re-educate apathetic female puppets who distort the image and impair the evolution of women…and to repair men.”

Castration Squad Manifesto, 1980. With acknowledgment to Valerie Solanas.

“It remains to civic-minded, responsible, thrill-seeking girls only to undermine the government”

“Although I never considered myself a regular member of Castration Squad, I ended up doing quite a few shows with them. It was an interesting collaboration, to say the least. I would say it was a bit ahead of its time in espousing militant feminism and I use the term feminism loosely because Shannon considered herself to be post-feminist. She believed that gender stereotypes were damaging to both male and female, so Castration Squad was really not about castrating men but about castrating the system that perpetuated debilitating stereotypes.” - Alice Bag, 2011 interview with Jenny Woolworth.

Castration Squad lineup, 1980. Photographer unknown.

L-R: Tracy Lea, Alice Bag, Tiffany Kennedy, Dinah Cancer, Shannon Wilhelm, Elissa Bello.

“Life in this society being, at best, an utter bore and no aspect of society being at all relevant to any woman, there remains to civic-minded, responsible, thrill-seeking girls only to undermine the government; to reassess and reorganize the senseless, archaic legal system (and initiate a more effective method of enforcement), to stop the blind acceptance of implausible media role models, to re-educate apathetic female puppets who distort the image and impair the evolution of women…and to repair men.”

Castration Squad Manifesto, 1980. With acknowledgment to Valerie Solanas.

Shannon and Tiffany, Castration Squad.

Alice Bag and Dinah Cancer.