Creating a safer space: Being safe and doing safety in queer and feminist punk scenes*

Abstract

Debates around ‘safe spaces’ have often focused on the issue of free speech, ignoring their historical role in enabling cultural, political and social participation by people from otherwise marginalised groups. This article provides an everyday empirical examination of how safer spaces operate in practice. It draws on the example of queer and feminist punk scenes in the UK, contextualising their use of safer spaces policies within wider activist lineages. It argues that when used within communities of shared understanding, such policies can have a positive prefigurative impact, creating creative space for being ‘other’ and for doing cultural and political work. The article illustrates how these benefits can be limited when some marginalised identities are prioritised over others, showing how Crenshaw’s theorisation of intersectionality is operationalised in everyday practice by queer and feminist punks. It unpicks the complex relationship between notions of ‘safety’ and ‘comfort’, and shows how understanding this is imperative for implementing policies that purport to support marginalised groups’ cultural participation.