““I’ve always felt frustrated listening to a band and dancing, and there’s some knucklehead who comes up and says, ‘Oh, hey, I love how you dance,’” ex- plains the 33-year-old Hanna, who’s been the reigning feminist of the indie-rock scene since it exploded ten years ago. “I think, ‘Did I ask for that because I was stand- ing in front having such a good time?’ And then, ‘Maybe I’ll stand in the back and dance,’ or ‘Maybe I’ll stay home and lis- ten to the record and dance in my room by myself.’... It’s that sort of feeling that even in leisure time you’re still on the clock and being looked at through the male gaze—to turn a little Femi- nist 101 phrase on you,” she adds with a laugh.”
“A short time later, in 1991, Hanna started
Bikini Kill, just as the Riot Grrrl movement was attracting young women across America. In interviews, Hanna has denied being a Riot Grrrl “founder,” but the feminism espoused by that movement is very much in sync with her own—one that builds awareness from the personal experiences of oppression and unfairness that every young woman goes through and turns that awareness into action. In a way, Riot Grrrl meetings were like consciousness-raising sessions updated for the 1990s—and so were Bikini Kill shows. “I always saw performing as an advertise- ment for feminist activity,” Hanna explains. Concerts didn’t erupt into rallies, exactly, but following Hanna’s example of what a young woman can be—loud, smart, political and sexy—girls and young women started to speak out.”
- Frey, Hillary. Nation; 1/13/2003, Vol. 276 Issue 2, p27-28. Accessed by the Academic Search Complete database on the 13 April 2011
By Sarah Gill
