Sunday Music: Rebel Girl, Riot Grrrl, And Kathleen Hanna Books

I remember my friend Paul telling me the girls were more punk than the guys. Something about general gender inequality, income or pay-gaps, and just the scene politics you could see alone in what girls did vs. what guys did at shows - “if you really think about…” and next thing I knew I had a tape of Bikini Kill he’d made me. 

I listened. 

He wasn’t wrong. 

In so many ways, this experience (sometime in the mid-90s?) put a highlighter on the statement + question:

Nothing is fair - so what are you going to do about it? 

I liked the merit-based system of small communities. I liked art being supported by the people who showed up to make it in the first place. I liked the inclusivity of it, and the safeness it could create. 

I also saw the other side of it. I knew how far off my perspective could be, and that always fascinated me. From KRS-One to Kathleen Hanna, those weren’t my eyes, but they could give me a look. 

Hearing “Rebel Girl” for the first time was arresting. Finding out Joan Jett was the other voice, next to Kathleen Hanna, plus when they were doing the “Miss Mary Mack” game on the tape, it was so cool. I’ve been a fan ever since. 

And don’t even get me started on sneaking “Deceptacon” onto mix CDs years later for people.

Do read Kathleen Hanna’s book, Rebel Girl: My Life As a Feminist Punk. Do take the time to venture into other frames of reference. And if you rock out a little bit extra too on the way, that’s what this music is supposed to do. It’s supposed to move you. Let it. 

And most of all, figure out what you want to do about it. Things only get better if we try to make them better. It takes a chorus of voices singing along. 

Kathleen Hanna’s Rebel Girl: My Life As a Feminist Punk.