Kathleen Hanna

Kathleen Hanna
Kathleen Hanna with Bikini Kill: January 17, 1996
Background information
Also known as	Julie Ruin
Born	November 12, 1968 (1968-11-12) Portland, Oregon, USA
Origin	Calverton, Maryland
Genres	Punk, riot grrrl, electroclash, indie rock
Occupations	Musician, activist, writer
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, bass guitar, sampler, drums, drum machine
Years active	1990–present
Associated acts	Bikini Kill, Le Tigre, Julie Ruin The Julie Ruin

Kathleen Hanna (born November 12, 1968) is an American musician, feminist activist, and punk zine writer. In the early- to mid-1990s she was the lead singer and songwriter of Bikini Kill, before fronting Le Tigre in the late 1990s and early 2000s. In 1998, Hanna released a solo album under the name Julie Ruin and is currently heading a project called The Julie Ruin.

Biography

Childhood

Born in Portland, Oregon, Hanna moved with her family to Calverton, Maryland in 1971. As Hanna's father changed occupations, the family moved several more times. Hanna's parents were divorced while she was in high school.

Hanna first became interested in feminism around the age of nine, after her mother took her to a rally in Washington D.C. where feminist icon Gloria Steinem spoke.

Though several years would pass before she became an outspoken feminist, the event left an impression on her. In a 2000 interview with BUST magazine, Hanna recalled:

“

My mom was a housewife, and wasn't somebody that people would think of as a feminist, and when Ms. magazine came out we were incredibly inspired by it. I used to cut pictures out of it and make posters that said "Girls can do anything", and stuff like that, and my mom was inspired to work at a basement of a church doing anti-domestic violence work. Then she took me to the Solidarity Day thing, and it was the first time I had ever been in a big crowd of women yelling, and it really made me want to do it forever.

”

In the 2006 documentary, Don't Need You: the Herstory of Riot Grrrl, Hanna elaborates on the effect feminism had on her in childhood, recalling that her interest grew when her mother checked out a copy of Betty Friedan's "The Feminine Mystique" from the library. Yet Hanna and her mother's involvement in the women's rights movement had to be done quietly in the years before her parents' divorce, due to her father's disapproval. Hanna has also appeared in the documentary Who's Afraid of Kathy Acker? Don't Need You: The Herstory of Riot Grrrl is titled after a Bikini Kill song.

College

Hanna attended The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington in the late 1980s. During this time she began working as a stripper to support herself while studying photography. Working with fellow Evergreen student and photographer Aaron Baush-Greene, she set up a photo exhibit featuring the pair's photography, which dealt, respectively, with sexism and AIDS. However, the school administrators took the photos down before they got the chance to be viewed, an act of censorship that prompted what Hanna refers to as her "first foray into activism"–the creation of an independent feminist art gallery called Reko Muse with friends Heidi Arbogast and Tammy Rae Carland. The three women then formed a band called Amy Carter, which put on shows before the art exhibitions.

Hanna also began doing spoken word performances that addressed sexism and violence against women, issues with which she became concerned after volunteering for a domestic violence organization over the next two years. Eventually she abandoned spoken word in favor of music, being inspired by one of her favorite writers, countercultural icon Kathy Acker. Hanna recalled, "Acker asked me why writing was important to me, and I said, 'Because I felt like I'd never been listened to and I had a lot to say,' and she said, 'Then why are you doing spoken word—no one goes to spoken word shows! You should get in a band.'"

Hanna later started another band called Viva Knievel that toured the United States for two months before disbanding. Upon returning to Olympia, Hanna began collaborating with fellow Evergreen student and punk zinester Tobi Vail after seeing a performance of The Go Team, (a band made up of Vail, Billy Karren, and Calvin Johnson) and recognizing Vail as the mastermind behind the fanzine Jigsaw, which Hanna greatly admired and loved.

Bikini Kill

Hanna and Tobi Vail's first collaboration was a zine called Revolution Girl Style Now. This led to a later zine titled Bikini Kill, a response to sexism in the punk rock scene, written with fellow Evergreen student and friend Kathi Wilcox. The three women decided to form a band to personify their ideals and recruited Vail’s bandmate Karren as the fourth member, naming the band after their zine.

Bikini Kill soon became part of the seminal Olympia, Washington music scene of the early 1990s, which was characterized by political awareness, a strong artistic do-it-yourself ethic, and an emphasis on local collaboration and support.

The band's first release for the Kill Rock Stars label was a self-titled EP produced by Ian MacKaye of Fugazi. Bikini Kill then toured the UK, recording a split LP with UK band Huggy Bear. This tour was filmed and the band was interviewed by Lucy Thane for her documentary, It Changed My Life: Bikini Kill In The UK. Upon returning to the U.S., the band began working with Joan Jett, who produced their single, "New Radio/Rebel Girl". After the release of this record, Hanna began co-writing some songs with Jett for her new album.

At the same time Hanna produced several solo pieces for the Kill Rock Stars "Wordcore" series of recordings, including the 7" single "Rockstar" and the song "I Wish I Was Him" (a song written by Ben Lee and originally recorded by his band Noise Addict about alternative rock heartthrob Evan Dando) on the KRS compilation Rock Stars Kill.

In 1994, Hanna appeared in the Sonic Youth video for Bull in the Heather.

The first two Bikini Kill EPs were released on CD as the appropriately and very literally-titled The C.D. Version of the First Two Records in 1993. The band released two more full-length albums, Pussy Whipped in 1994 and Reject All American in 1996, and in 1998, Kill Rock Stars released Bikini Kill: The Singles, a collection of the group's seven inch and compilation tracks. Bikini Kill broke up on friendly terms around April 1998.

Influence on Riot Grrrl

In 1991, the band spent a summer in Washington, D.C., where Hanna began collaborating with Allison Wolfe, Molly Neuman and Jen Smith from the band Bratmobile on the zine riot grrrl, which became a call to action for increased feminist activity and female involvement in the punk rock scene. In a 2000 interview with Index Magazine, Hanna related:

“

We wanted to start a magazine, and Allison Wolfe and Molly Neuman from the band Bratmobile had started a little fanzine called riot grrrl and we were writing little things for it. I'd always wanted to start a big magazine with really cool, smart writing in it, and I wanted to see if the other punk girls in D.C. that I was meeting were interested in that. So I called a meeting and found a space for it, and it just turned into this sort of consciousness-raising thing. I realized really quickly that a magazine wasn't the way to go. People wanted to be having shows, and teaching each other how to play music, and writing fanzines, so that started happening. It got some press attention, and girls in other places would be like "I wanna do that. I wanna start one of those."

”

Hanna also earlier stated:

“

Because we don't wanna assimilate to someone else's (boy) standards of what is or isn't.

”

Le Tigre

Hanna performing with Le Tigre in the early 2000s, in Indianapolis, Indiana.

In Portland, Oregon, Hanna began working with friend and zine editor Johanna Fateman on a live show for Julie Ruin. The collaboration resulted in the two briefly forming a band called The Troublemakers, named after a G. B. Jones film, which ended when Fateman relocated to New York City to attend art school.

Hanna joined Fateman on the East Coast, and with the addition of filmmaker Sadie Benning, they started another band called Le Tigre (French for The Tiger). This band continued to pursue a more electronic style of music similar to the sampler-driven sound Hanna had begun to explore with Julie Ruin. The band recorded for the Mr. Lady Records label, its first recording being the self-titled Le Tigre, which included the singles "Hot Topic" and "Deceptacon." After the first record, Sadie Benning left the band to be replaced by JD Samson for the follow-up CD Feminist Sweepstakes. When Mr. Lady Records closed down, the group switched labels to Universal Records for the 2004 release of This Island.

Le Tigre is currently on hiatus. According to the Le Tigre website, during her time off from the band Hanna has been volunteering as a band coach for "The Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls". She also taught an art class at NYU's grad school in the Fall 2007 semester. She is married to Adam Horovitz, a.k.a. Ad-Rock of the Beastie Boys. The two have been involved since 1997, and were married in 2006.

The Julie Ruin

In 2010, Hanna announced she was reprising her 1997 act Julie Ruin into "The Julie Ruin" with Kenny Mellman and Kathi Wilcox, and that they would be creating a new record. On December 11 at the Knitting Factory in New York City, the new The Julie Ruin played its first show, mostly consisting of covers.

Abortion

In interviews, Hanna has been frank and willing to openly discuss her decision to have an abortion when she was younger, saying in one particular interview: "It was one of the first things I did on my own; I worked at McDonald's, raised the money and did it. I'm really, really passionate about pro-choice, because I wouldn't be here talking to you right now if I'd had a kid at 15." Hanna has expressed her belief that talking about her abortion will encourage other women to openly discuss the topic as well, helping to decrease the social stigma that often accompanies such discussion and also helping to sustain political momentum and further progress with regard to the pro-choice movement.

In popular culture

• She was mentioned in an episode of The L Word. A group of friends are playing celebrity at a dinner party, when the character Shane McCutcheon selects her name. Most of the lesbians seem to know it's her from the description -"Le Tigre, and Julie Ruin, Bikini Kill"- yet the straight people at the party have no clue who she is. This results in the character of Alice joking, "Oh, she just pretty much started the whole riot grrrl music scene, but hey...", which leaves one straight man asking, "What's the riot grrrl music scene?"

• Although she did so unintentionally, Hanna inspired the name for Nirvana's 1991 breakthrough single, "Smells Like Teen Spirit", when she wrote "Kurt Smells Like Teen Spirit" on Kurt Cobain's wall. At the time, Kurt was unaware that Kathleen was referring to a deodorant marketed specifically to young women, and thought that besides having a nice ring to it, the phrase also helped to succinctly summarize, organize and unify the then-nascent song's seemingly-disparate lyrical content into a theme.

• On the Fourth of July, 1995— while playing at the Lollapalooza Music Festival, Courtney Love punched Hanna in the face, after pelting her with candy and throwing a lit cigarette at her. Hanna had allegedly instigated the fight by making a joke about Love's daughter shooting up heroin in a closet. This is also referenced in the below-mentioned NOFX song "Kill Rock Stars" with the lines "I wish I could have seen Courtney/demonstrate some real misogyny."

• In the episode "The Getaway, Almost" (Season 8), of the 1990s American sitcom Roseanne, Roseanne (Roseanne Barr) and Jackie (Laurie Metcalf) go on a road trip and pick up a young hitchhiker, Garland, a self-proclaimed "Riot Grrrl" played by Jenna Elfman. While driving, Garland begins to tell a clueless Roseanne and Jackie about riot girls and gives them a tape to listen to featuring female bands such as L7, Babes In Toyland, and Bikini Kill. While listening to Bikini Kill's "Don't Need You", Roseanne and Jackie discuss women in music, coming to the realization that men dominated the music scene and most often wrote songs that belittled women. In regard to "Don't Need You", Roseanne says "at least these girls are actually saying something". Because of this sudden awakening, Roseanne and Jackie become angry when they see a male truck driver with "naked lady mud flaps" and a bumper sticker reading "Save the Whales, Harpoon a Fat Chick". Enraged, they begin to shout obscenities at the trucker, to which he responds with sexual suggestions and insults. Feeling empowered, both Jackie and Roseanne continue to shout explicitly and yell "women rule dirt bag!" The continued distraction causes the trucker to collide with a utility pole and Roseanne and Jackie nearly get arrested as a result.

• Hanna wrote the introduction to performance artist Karen Finley's ten-year summary of work, The Reality Show, published by The Feminist Press in 2011.

• The NOFX song "Kill Rock Stars," from the album So Long and Thanks for All the Shoes, is written about Hanna, referencing her by name ("Kill the rockstars? How ironic, Kathleen. You've been crowned the newest queen"). It is supposedly about singer Fat Mike's feelings that Hanna's feminist views are rather anti-men ("I thought the goal here was mutual respect" and "can't change the world by hating men" are two lines from the song) and, therefore, hypocritical. The song's title itself is a reference to riot grrrl record label Kill Rock Stars.

Discography

Bikini Kill

Albums

• Revolution Girl Style Now! self-released cassette (1991)
• Bikini Kill (EP) on Kill Rock Stars (1991)
• Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah split LP with Huggy Bear on Catcall Records in the UK, Kill Rock Stars in the US (1993)
• The C.D. Version of the First Two Records, compilation (1993)
• Pussy Whipped on Kill Rock Stars (1994)
• Reject All American on Kill Rock Stars (1996)

Singles

• Wordcore Volume 1 7" single on Kill Rock Stars
• New Radio/Rebel Girl 7" single on Kill Rock Stars (1993)
• The Anti-Pleasure Dissertation Single on Kill Rock Stars (1994)
• I Like Fucking/I Hate Danger 7" single on Kill Rock Stars (1995)

Compilations

• "Feels Blind" on Kill Rock Stars LP/CD (1991)
• "Candy" on Throw: The Yoyo Studio Compilation on Yoyo Records (1991)
• "Daddy's Lil' Girl" on Give Me Back LP, Ebullition Records (1991)
• "Suck My Left One" on There's A Dyke In The Pit, Outpunk Records (1992)
• Bikini Kill: The Singles (1998)
• Sinner, Joan Jett, contributes to the songs "Five", "Watersign", "Baby Blue" and "Tube Talkin" (2007)

Julie Ruin

• Julie Ruin on Kill Rock Stars (1997)

Le Tigre

Full-Length albums

• Le Tigre (1999) Mr. Lady
• Feminist Sweepstakes (2001) Mr. Lady
• This Island (2004) Universal

Singles and EPs

• Suture - "Good Girl" Split - Dischord 76.5 & Decomposition 1. Recorded at WGNS Studios 8/91
• Hot Topic (1999)
• From the Desk of Mr. Lady EP (2001)
• Remix (2003)
• Standing In The Way Of Control 12" split EP with The Gossip on Kill Rock Stars
• This Island Remixes Volume 1 EP, Chicks On Speed Records
• This Island Remixes Volume 2EP, Chicks On Speed Records

Miscellaneous

• Real Fiction, The Fakes, Kill Rock Stars
• Inside Out, Internal External, K Records
• Featuring..., Internal External, K Records
• Rock Star / Mean (wordcore v. 1) as Kathleen Hanna and Slim Moon, Kill Rock Stars
• Rock Stars Kill, includes Hanna's "I Wish I Was Him", Various Artists, Kill Rock Stars, 1994
• Ball-Hog or Tugboat? LP/CD "Heatbeat"-Mike Watt
• Decomposition 00, Suture, Kill Rock Stars, 1991
• Suture!, Suture, Kill Rock Stars, 1992
• Home Alive, The Art Of Self Defense, Epic, 1996, includes "Go Home", written and performed with Joan Jett and Evil Stig
• Realistes, Comet Gain, Hanna featured on the track "Ripped-Up Suit"
• Play Pretty For Baby, The Nation of Ulysses, includes backing vocals by Hanna
• American Idiot, Green Day, the song "Letterbomb" begins with vocals by Hanna as Whatsername
• Viva Knieval 7" single, Ultrasound Records, 1990
• "60 second wipe out" Atari Teenage Riot Hanna featured on lead vocals on the song 'No Success' 1999
• "Playgroup" Playgroup Hanna featured on lead vocals on the song 'Bring it on' 2001
• "Wordy Rappinghood" Chicks on Speed features Hanna on vocals 2003
• "Kiss on the lips" from the album 'Naked' from Joan Jett is a duet with Hanna 2004
• "Hey Hey My My Yo Yo" Junior Senior Hanna featured on the song 'Dance, Chance, Romance' 2007

Bibliography

Fanzines

• My life with Evan Dando: Popstar
• The Kathleen Hanna newsletter
• Le Tigre zine/tour program

External links

• Laurie Weeks interviews Kathleen Hanna
• Salon.com audio "RockStar" mp3
• Kathleen's Herstory from the Le Tigre site
• Two interviews with Hanna on the NPR show Fresh Air: one from 2000, and one from 2001 and the hairstyles.
• Kathleen Hanna at the Internet Movie Database
• Kathleen Hanna site
• Kathleen Hanna article in Ms. Magazine
• Kathleen Interview by Hilary Frey