The frontwoman for one of the most famous bands of the 1990s riot grrrl movement, Bikini Kill’s Kathleen Hanna has changed music and culture.
Videos by American Songwriter
The artist, who also co-founded groups like Le Tigre and the Julie Ruin, and who is married to Beastie Boy Adam Horowitz, brought women to the front of the stage, both as performers and in the audience. She also wrote the iconic song “Rebel Girl” and was the inspiration behind the title for the song by Nirvana, fronted by friend Kurt Cobain, “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”
But what did the now-52-year-old Portland, Oregon-born provocative, outspoken musician, who also suffers from Lyme Disease, have to say about life and love, her craft, and the world at large outside of her punk rock songs?
Here are the 25 best Kathleen Hanna quotes.
1. “It’s now taken for granted that women are in bands and you can say feminist things in your songs. But back in the early ’90s, there was a lot of violence at Bikini Kill shows that people don’t realize happened.”
2. “I always thought that putting tons of reverb on my voice was kind of the equivalent of airbrushing. And I wanted other girls and women to hear a real female voice that wasn’t completely manipulated.”
3.”You learn that the only way to get rock-star power as a girl is to be a groupie and bare your breasts and get chosen for the night. We learn that the only way to get anywhere is through men. And it’s a lie.”
4. “I’m not a goddess, for crying out loud. I’m a regular person who took feminism—which I have a deep connection to—and mixed it with music, which I really love to do.”
5. “I’m really annoyed by the wave of country music that’s just a list of stuff. It almost sounds like L.A. people writing country music, because it’s just a list of stuff: ‘My pickup truck and my cowboy boots and my Levi’s jeans and my girlfriend with the short shorts.’ It’s so boring!”
6. “I know I love sexy surf guitars, I know I love loud snare. I love really simple repeating bass lines, and I love weird mad scientist keyboard sounds.”
7. “In 1985, I was living with my sister in Virginia, and since I was still in high school, I worked at McDonald’s to save money to get an abortion. It sounds really terrible, but it was the best decision I ever made. It was the first time I took responsibility for my actions. I messed up, had sex without contraception, and got pregnant at 15.”
8. “I have late-stage Lyme disease. I was misdiagnosed for many, many years and told I had lupus, MS, Crohn’s disease, and even degenerative arthritis. And finally, in 2010, I got the correct diagnosis, because on the last Le Tigre tour, I was having several seizures a day and at times not being able to brush my own teeth.”
9. “If I can’t sing them myself, there’s nothing better than writing songs for other people and watching them be performed. It’s kind of more thrilling than doing it yourself.”
10. “I was making stickers for guys’ bands. I was in the front row photographing bands, booking bands, doing all of the kind of backstage stuff, and I didn’t even think for a second I could do it, and then I saw Babes in Toyland, and all that changed.”
11.”In terms of men being feminist allies, it’s just important to speak from your own place. I’d love to hear men singing about masculinity and the damage it does to them.”
12. “So many women have experienced horrific forms of male violence throughout their lives, and why isn’t there a song about how you get depressed because of it?”
13. “Certain people are like ‘Oh, here come the Feminazis!’ You end up acting 10 times nicer than you even need to be, to be the opposite of the stereotype like ‘You’re the man-haters!’ We’re always bending over backward being extra nice. And I don’t know if being nice is my legacy.”
14. “Feminism rotates between backlash and interest. And the cool thing about the Internet is that it’s allowing women more access to their own history. Part of the problem before the Internet was that we didn’t know which books to read. Someone had to tell you.”
15. “To make riot grrrl move into the future in a new way with a bunch of new names and a bunch of new energy, younger people have to learn about it and apply it to their own lives and own modern conversation. And they are.”
16. “I can’t constantly be trying to write the unwritten song, the song that the 15-year-old girl needs. I need to write the song that I need.”
17. “Since I loved underground music, I tried to carve a space for feminism within it. Those were my hopes.”
18. “You feel like people are looking at you like, ‘I wanted the old Kathleen. Where’s the old Kathleen?’ I felt that way at the beginning of Le Tigre. I felt people were like, ‘You’re not angry enough anymore.’ People still ask me that. ‘Are you still angry?’ I’m like, ‘About what? About that question? Yes.'”
19. “I’m totally into Taylor Swift. I think she has super-clever lyrics, and I love that she writes her own music. Some of the themes she writes about are stuff I wish was there for me when I was in high school, and I’m so happy she really cares about her female fans. She’s not catering to a male audience and is writing music for other girls.”
20. “It’s unexpected for women’s issues to be brought up in places other than women’s centers on college campuses or crisis places.”
21. “I felt it was really, really important, not just in the vein of feminist erasure or whatever but also just as an artist that I honored my work.”
22. “I always tell girls who say they want to start a band but don’t have any talent, ‘Well, neither do I.’ I mean, I can carry a tune, but anyone who picks up a bass can figure it out. You don’t have to have magic unicorn powers.”
23. “I feel so lucky that I met the love of my life. You know somebody’s in it to win it when they’re changing your IV bag or you’re having a seizure and they’re holding you. And helping you to the bathroom. You know that they love you.”
24. “Find something you really love doing and mix it with something you really care about. That’s why I’ve had such longevity as an artist. I really, really care about ending violence against women, and I really, really love playing music. It’s super enjoyable!”
25. “There’s just as many different kinds of feminism as there are women in the world.”
Photo by Burak Cingi/Redferns
