My admiration for Kathleen Hanna, riot grrrl superstar and vocal feminist started late. In the 90’s, admittedly I had not yet discovered the joy of punk and riot grrrl music. Instead I was listening to the big pop bands of the time. My love for women in music was starting to emerge though, as The Spice Girls came into prominence. They were five women who were talking about empowerment and having fun. This appealed a lot more to me than the plethora of boy bands that were ten to the dozen at that time.
Looking back now, I can obviously see the feminism Spice Girls touted was very watered down. But it was through loving them, that I eventually discovered Feminism for real and on that journey also found out about the nineties movement that was riot grrrl. I was gutted that I was perhaps too young to appreciate it in its time, but I grew a big appreciation for the music and the DIY feminist spirit behind it.
I fell in love with Kathleen Hanna, my new elected feminist icon. She had made such powerful music with Bikini Kill, and then went on to make feminist electronic music you could dance to with Le Tigre. It wasn’t just the music though, it was the encouragement to create, even if it wasn’t pretty. To let your voice be heard without fear.
I was delighted when I got to see her perform live with The Julie Ruin nine years ago in London. Just to be anywhere near Kathleen was a dream. She has inspired me in so many ways. Once I discovered Bikini Kill, I discovered more and more women in bands, I discovered zines. I made my own zine for a while, and I started my own internet radio show focusing on women in music. I learnt from Kathleen to not be afraid to create, and definitely never to let my gender deter me.
Fast forward to now, and to be lucky enough to have the opportunity to read an advance copy of Kathleen’s memoir ‘Rebel Girl: My Life as a Feminist Punk’ made my day. I was so excited to read it, I restrained myself from reading it too soon, so that I could have the book fresh in my consciousness by the time I would be writing this review.
The month of May finally came round and I couldn’t stop myself any longer. I started reading and once I started unsurprisingly I found it hard to stop. I was so engrossed that every opportunity I found, I opened it up to read.
‘Rebel Girl’ is a book that describes not only Kathleen’s evolution through music, but how she has grown as an activist and feminist. The book gets deeply personal as she describes the various trauma she has been through, including rape and abuse. She describes the challenges of being in a female band at a time when men dominated. Hanna also writes about the difficulty of being in an independent DIY band, not making any money, and then being called out for ‘selling out’ when trying to find means to be able to pay their rent.
I found Kathleen’s honesty really refreshing. She is very open, not only about her traumatic past and her experience having Lyme disease, but she puts herself under scrutiny too. She writes about the problems with riot grrrl, and examines herself as a feminist, considering how maybe she hasn’t been as inclusive to black women and how she is working to change that.
It’s not all doom and gloom, or challenging though. I was delighted in reading how Bikini Kill came to work with Joan Jett, and the blossoming love between her and her now husband Adam Horovitz of the Beastie Boys. The adoption of their son. While there are many hard moments in this book, there are also many good and inspiring ones.
I finished the book loving Kathleen Hanna all the more, for knowing what she’s been through in more detail, but also feeling that spark of inspiration once again like I had when I initially found out about her all those years ago. ‘Rebel Girl’ left me with feminist rage but also passion and determination.
There is so much more to this book than I have mentioned, but I would recommend it to any fan, but also anyone that wants to be inspired. Whether that’s being inspired to overcome adversity, to create music or art, or to speak up and be heard.
‘Rebel Girl-My Life as a Feminist Punk’ is out on the 14th May and you can pre order it on Amazon.
Kathleen Hanna Online- Instagram | Facebook | TikTok
Review written by Hayley Foster da Silva
Keep up to date with all new content on Joyzine via our
Facebook / Twitter / Instagram / Mailing List