Life of Kathleen Hanna

This week in class we watched a documentary on Kathleen Hanna, a punk singer. Hanna was a strong, powerful, angry, and tough as a singer. Hanna started a band with a few friends and although none of them knew how to play any instruments, the lyrics is what mattered to them. At one of Bikini Kill’s performances, Kathleen told all the women to come to the front and all of the men to the back. At a lot of performances women wouldn’t be able to get to the front or sometimes go at all because of all the fights between men. There physically wouldn’t be enough room for women at shows, men would get aggressive and start fights during shows. Women would stay away as to not get involved, or just avoid going to shows altogether. Kathleen made sure that when she made a point she was heard. For example when she told men to move to the back or when at one of her shows she told people if they didn’t like her music that was fine and that they could leave. Hanna didn’t care what other people thought of her, she just knew that she had to stand up for other women. Hannah started to gather women just to talk about everything without men present. They called themselves “riot girls,” any women, anywhere could be a part of it. The greatest achievement was the 1st wave when the 19th amendment came to be where women could vote. Kathleen was becoming a leader and reclaiming girl hood for not only her but other women. At one point in her career the media was printing incorrect statements or revealing things she didn’t want revealed. Her solution was a press blackout, they stopped answering phones and journalists questions. After Bikini Kill broke up Kathleen wasn’t done with her music so she wrote the album “Julie Ruin.” The whole album was written, performed and recorded in her bedroom and was considered a masterpiece. She wanted it to sound like it came from her bedroom because a lot of things happen in a bedroom that people don’t think about. For girls it is where everything happens, it’s where they get ready, where they break down, where the can always go back to, and where they feel the most comfortable. However years later Kathleen started having health issues and told everyone she was done performing because she no longer had anything to say. The truth was that she was too sick to perform or do things in her everyday life like she used to be able to. She didn’t want to admit to herself that she could no longer do the thing she loves, she thought if she told herself she chose to be done it wouldn’t be as bad. That wasn’t the case, in 2010 Kathleen was finally properly diagnosed for her illness that many other doctors hadn’t been able to. Kathleen was diagnosed with lyme disease that she’d had for about 5 years before being diagnosed and put on the correct medication to help it. Even though she was finally on medication, she was struggling with everyday things. It was said that things would most likely get worse before better. Kathleen started writing again because she was told she couldn’t perform and she didn’t like that. She started a new and final band called Julie Ruin and was no longer afraid of judgement because she knew the truth and others who related to her knew the truth and that was all that mattered.