Bedrooms have always been sacred ground for girls; the one square footage where you got to decide who you were before anyone else weighed in. This week I'm talking to Rachel Moss, author of In the Girls' Room: Essays on Bedroom Culture from the 90s to Now, about the long, weird, footnote-worthy history of what girls actually do behind a closed door: making zines, starting bands, papering walls with posters of their heroes, filling notebooks with genuinely bad poetry. We go from the Riot Grrrl scene in 90s Olympia and Kathleen Hanna's outsized (and under-credited) cultural footprint, to the moral panic of Reviving Ophelia and the Cassie Bernall myth, to Tavi Gevinson and Rookie Mag, all the way up to "bed rotting" as bedroom culture's more depressed, more online cousin. It's a conversation about privacy, creativity, and what happens to a private space once the internet — and your own phone — starts listening in. Grab your zine scissors, we're getting into it. Become a Patreon member → https://www.patreon.com/cw/MaryMahoney Timestamps00:08 — Intro: what "bedroom culture" is, and welcoming Rachel Moss 02:28 — Rachel's zine shelf and the joy of meeting a fellow zine person 03:04 — Making zines in secret in rural Ohio, and the Courtney Love conspiracy zine detour 05:26 — Defining bedroom culture: making, consuming, and archiving 09:21 — Where it starts: the 1950s "invention" of the American teenager 10:40 — Riot Grrrl 101: Olympia, Kathleen Hanna, and Bikini Kill 14:18 — Sadie Benning's bedroom video diaries and the tangled Riot Grrrl web (Le Tigre, etc.) 17:26 — The dark side: Prozac Nation, Reviving Ophelia, and the Cassie Bernall myth 22:51 — Shared family computers, Net Chick, and the first wave of girls building websites 28:35 — Rookie Mag, Tavi Gevinson, and Petra Collins' uncredited influence 36:00 — Bed rotting, depression, and Qualeasha Wood's 2025 gallery performance 44:44 — Building Internet Bedroom, staying independent, and resisting the algorithm 53:32 — Where to find Rachel's book, Substack, and Instagram TranscriptFull episode transcript here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/19mENoNtmGvp4XVh_7MELEsh1laxpvIVMx-meN9-OaZk/edit?usp=sharing Connect with Mary: Website: www.marymmahoney.comInstagram: @mimimahoneyEmail: MaryMargaret.Mahoney@gmail.comConnect with Rachel Moss: Order Rachel’s books here: https://www.internetbedroom777.comYouTube: Rachel Moss (@internetbedroom) Instagram: @girlguttersSubstack: https://internetbedroom.substack.com Love the show? Please leave a rating and review! It helps other listeners find Landline. Sponsor Message: Landline is sponsored by Libro.Fm. Listen to your favorite books and support your local bookstores! (Link: https://tidd.ly/40tPrKb ) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
