This paper reads the poetry of Mina Loy alongside her Feminist Manifesto (1914) as an expression of personal politics that would come to the forefront of third-wave feminism. By looking at her more expressive works of poetry we are given insight into her personality. When read alongside her politics, as stated in her manifesto, we see how personal desires as well as social pressures complicate her lived politics. Using this as the framework, the paper then looks at the music and publications of the riot grrrl band Bikini Kill to show how the strained relationship between a feminist’s personal life and politics would later be embodied in feminist art. I argue that the performative and participatory aspects of riot grrrl allowed Bikini Kill to embody the inseparability of women’s politics from their personal lives—something Loy acknowledged on paper, but that her historical period would keep her from ever actualizing.
