Hysteria: Goodbye, For Now!

Hello everyone, I have good news and bad news. I’ll break the bad news first: Hysteria is going on hiatus until late August 2026, which is probably around 4 months. I know, I know! I’m just as grief-stricken as you are. As for the good news, though, not to be cheesy or anything, but I’m so proud of what I have created here with Hysteria! This blog has been amazing not only because I can explore my interests in a more academic setting, but also because I can introduce more and more people to something near and dear to my heart. I want to give a wholehearted thank you to everybody who has ever taken the time to read one of my posts or even look at the blog art I create. I owe you guys a big thanks! For today, I’m going to do a mini-Q&A, talk about my favorite blog posts I’ve written, and make a couple of closing remarks. If this is where you stop reading, fear not: Hysteria will persist over the next three years, every August through May. Always check the UIC Radio website for updates! I hope you all enjoy the final Hysteria episode for the 2025-2026 school year.

☆ My Favorite Blog Posts of 2025/26

I am a very busy gal, and I write a LOT. I write about everything, all the time (who would’ve expected this from an English major), so there’s bound to be pieces of writing I like more than others. Here are my top three favorite blog posts I’ve written this year:

🥉 Third Place: Review of Dazey and the Scouts' 'Maggot'

[taken from bandcamp]

I know how popular these guys are getting, and I’m so glad I got to sprinkle in a little bit of old-fashioned riot grrrl in the article I wrote about them. I think that, as the younger generations listen to the new wave of riot grrrl and feminist alternative/punk, they should definitely understand the roots of the genre and how it’s more than just music, it’s something YOU can get involved in! Even though this post was short, I’m putting it as my third-favorite one of the year.

🥈 Second Place: A Closer Look at Katie Jane Garside

[taken from pinterest]

The reason why I started this blog was to immerse people in unfamiliar subcultures and introduce them to figures I respect and admire, and that I think people would like. SO, I’m sure you can understand how excited I was when I decided to do a post all about Katie Jane Garside, one of my favorite proto-riot grrrls!! I wish I had dived a little deeper, but there was so much I could have talked about, and I know how bad my attention span is, so I settled for a mini-biography. This post gets the number two spot! And now, for my favorite blog post this year…

🥇 FIRST PLACE: What IS Kinderwhore?

[taken from my instagram! i made this photo with pictures from pinterest and picsart]

Any time my blog post is over a five-minute read, you can probably tell that I’m WAY too passionate about the subject at hand. That being said, I think about kinderwhore all the time. ALL. THE. TIME. It’s just the perfect fashion style to me, and I’ll do everything in my power so that people who are even vaguely intrigued with the concept can learn all about it and its feminist origins. I’m happily going to profess this post as the best one I’ve written this year. It’s thorough, amusing, and I had the most fun writing it!! Let me know your guys’ favorite Hysteria post :)

☆ Future Blog Posts

Fear not, next year I will be diving way deeper into more niche music artists, or at least the most prominent ones in feminist punk and riot grrrl. To list off a couple, I’m planning to talk about Heavenly, Sleater-Kinney, Poly Styrene, L7, Jack Off Jill, Le Tigre, The Frumpies, Lunachicks, among many others! I’m pretty much set for the next three years content-wise. Also, I’d love to be able to see some of these bands in concert, but I’ve unfortunately missed their prime by like thirty years, darn. I hear Bikini Kill is going on tour, though… 👀

☆ Q&A With Mila!

It has come to my attention that a lot of you guys don’t know anything about me and only think I listen to feminist punk, which is NOT true, so I’m going to answer some questions about myself and my blog!

Q: Who even are you, you pink-haired freak?

[my boyfriend took this photo of me at a route 66 stop!]

A: That was a little rude, but my name is Mila Ponce, and I’m a freshman at UIC studying English with a concentration in professional writing and publication. I love music, and I actually play acoustic and electric guitar. I love all of the colors in the rainbow except for orange and yellow. I’m a pescatarian and love road trips across rural America, but I’ve been to Ireland, England, Spain, Costa Rica, Germany, and Mexico, among other countries. My favorite books are Alice in Wonderland, Lolita, and A Clockwork Orange. Outside of music journalism, I have an extensive background in poetry. You can read some of my pieces here, here, or see them featured in the DePaul Blue Book or the National Poetry Quarterly. I warn you, though, they're from when I was sixteen, so they're not exactly the pinnacle of literature.

Q: What the heck is Hysteria? Why should I read it?

A: You should at least know that it’s my blog for UIC Radio… you’re literally reading it right now… but anyways, Hysteria is where I talk about everything feminism, primarily punk music from the nineties. Sometimes I talk about movies or books, so it’s really whatever I’m feeling that week, though I’d like to get better about giving a heads up of what I will be talking about the following week. And honestly, why shouldn’t you read it?

Q: Where did the name Hysteria come from? 

A: Oh boy, I’ve been waiting for this one. I’m not really sure if I discussed this in my intro post this year, but the word hysteria and its related terms are deeply rooted in misogyny and stigma surrounding mental illness. Obviously, I talk about misogyny and mental illness on this blog a lot, so I thought, what’s a better name for a blog that talks about hysterically screaming and singing women who are deemed insane by male standards? I recommend reading this article from Marquette University if that kind of thing interests you. The actual inspiration came from reading either The Yellow Wallpaper or a Gilbert and Gubar text in the Women and Lit class I had first semester. Also, for all you American McGee’s Alice fans out there, the hysteria mode in Alice: Madness Returns definitely played a role in deciding that. I’m still trying to get him on for a brief interview piece! Mr. McGee, if you are reading, I would love to have you on!! 😢

Q: Is this the only kind of music you listen to?

A: NO! Not by any means! I talk a lot about the value in recognizing different perspectives and points of view on here, so it wouldn't be fair if I didn't listen to other subgenres and music cultures. I am the biggest Modest Mouse-r known to man, and if this weren’t a feminist blog, it would be a slacker rock review blog. Speaking of which, I just did a review of the album There’s Nothing Wrong With Love by Built to Spill on a magazine I write for called AltZine, read it here! #shamelessplug

☆ Closing Remarks

Well, it’s been a journey. I’m sincerely grateful to you, the reader, because without you, there would be no I! I hope you guys enjoyed the last post of this year. I’m so sorry it was later than usual (I have ten thousand essays due all at once). Thanks to UIC Radio for platforming so many talented youths; we have so much to say, and, amazingly, we get the opportunity to.  I’ll see you all in August. BYE!

See you soon,

Mila