Enid Coleslaw is the punk girl protagonist in the Terry Zwigoff directed film Ghost World (2001) based on the comic novels of Daniel Clowes, (of which Enid’s name is an anagram). In the film, set in the 1990s, deadpan Enid and her equally, if not more deadpan best friend Becky have rejected modern life which they see as an endless swamp of shopping malls and consumerism and instead build their own reality based on self reliance, smart aleck asides and for Enid, Punk Rock.
Enid dyes her hair green as she listens to “What do I Get?” by The Buzzcocks, later arriving at the local record shop to be ridiculed by the employees because of her look. “Who are you supposed to be, Cyndi Lauper?? they tease, “It’s obviously an original 1977 Punk Rock look” she counters.
Throughout the film Enid dips in and out of a selection of retro counter-cultures, Blues, Ragtime, Punk, and even listens to the 1965 Bollywood marvel that is Jaan Pehechaan Ho all on her own. Typical of the 1990s and beyond, it’s now a time when it’s possible to flit between genres, daily if you like. Punk wasn’t like that, Punk was big enough, wide enough and so of the moment that it was completely consuming.