Once reduced to shaking tambourines or just being displayed as pretty ornaments for others, women are now forming bands, creating their own underground.

Though lacking massive amounts of testosterone, they could inspire your kid sister to pogo on any sexist male's crotch.

Fed up with exclusion from mosh pits and concert bills, groups like Bratmobile, Bikini Kill and L7 have started a grass-roots revolution aimed at narrow-mindedness.

Mapping out the territory for these bands are fanzines like Riot Grrrl. Stationed in Washington, D.C., it has spread to New York, Amherst, Mass., and further west. Just recently, the 'zine has expanded to include a high school edition, Riot Grrrl High School, also in Washington, D.C.

"Riot Grrrl is a media for girls to speak up and speak their minds," said Renee Tantillo of Riot Grrrl. "Riot Grrrl is a fist in the face of preconceived notions that people have of what girls should act like, be like, etc."

Riot Grrrl exudes poetry, essays and girl power stuff, said Erika Reinstein of Riot Grrrl. She said she hopes to hold a summer convention in August and start sending Riot Grrrl through mail-order.

Riot Grrrl began when a few women involved in the D.C. alternative scene placed an ad for any women interested to attend a meeting.

"We did this meeting and 20 girls showed up, and it was really an amazing thing," said singer Kathleen Hanna of Washington, D.C.'s Bikini Kill. "They realized a lot of things about guys around them . . . It's been going on since last July."

State College has yet to feel the brunt of the new women's movement. Judging from the lack of diversity at Asylum's Battle of the Band contest in March, things are not improving despite national recognition of a few.

Bands like Junction, Code Blue, Koehler Bay and Gang Guru are the only notables providing any forum for a woman's voice.

"The whole scene up here is the bar scene. What people want to hear is AC/DC and Led Zeppelin covers," said singer Vanessa Downing of Junction. "So the atmosphere of this environment is not that conducive to women playing."

Sylvia Feldman of Koehler Bay said the problem goes deeper than the lack of women performers.

"We're a college town, we're supposed to be on the cutting edge of new music, not playing 'Freebird' at the bars," Feldman said.

Many women are following the lead of Olympia, Wash.'s Bratmobile and Bikini Kill. For those bands, prior instrumental knowledge was not required.

With those bands, starting up was just a matter of being aggressive enough.

"I would really encourage (women) to fuck shit up at shows or parties -- that's how we started," said singer Allison Wolfe of Bratmobile. "Just get a hold of that mike. The most important thing to do is to resist professionalism."

Downing concurs but hopes the women have some learning experience before they hit the stage.

"I think if girls want to get involved in music, and if they don't know how to play the instrument, then learn," Downing said. "Get involved with other women or get in another band. Look for women like you."

In State College, joining The Asylum or putting on benefits at The Veterans of Foreign Wars post, 139 N. Barnard St., provides outlets for women to plug into.

So far it has been the women who've had the last laugh. After Spin magazine printed Wolfe's address in an article, she received tapes from female bands. One group, calling themselves an "all-female fucker" band sent a CD.

"I just took the CD and returned them a favor in the shape of a bloody tampon," Wolfe said.