Radical Sista

I thought it was really interesting that Ranjin Kaur’s DJ name is Radical Sista. In a way, she was appointing herself to be a “radical” change, not solely with music, but also with a humanistic and cultural change. For example, she points out that “there were more Asian women at college and they were going to the daytime gigs” (270). With the influx of more women at college, there were changing ideals on the stereotypes of women. Although it was hard, as she references one time when she was probably one out of four women at an event with 700 men, she is that “radical” change, slowly progressing the way women are viewed in contemporary society. With music as a medium for participation , women are able to actively engage in changing the past’s norms for women. Also, she mentions that “on the family front it was kind of like, ‘we’ve lost her now, we’ve lost her to the world of music… no one is going to marry her’” (272). I thought this was funny, but also accurate in the way it depicts a lot of the old stereotypes. If something doesn’t sit well with parents or is just out of the ordinary, it’s difficult to imagine that domesticated lifestyle and standards for that different individual. Being “lost to music” was comical because it’s as if they make it seem like she lost her sanity to it. However, I think that Radical Sista’s family perhaps overlooked the fact that her music highlights her parents’ past in Punjab; her music glorifies the cultural history and makes it relevant and engaging to a wider audience.