The Punk Singer Page #4

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about sexual abuse.

They wanted to talk about coming

out and get information and.

...share information

with each other.

I actually wrote a riot grrrl

manifesto in the bikini kill.

...fanzine called "grrrl power. "

And I wrote what I dreamed

riot grrrl could be and.

...encouraged other girls and women.

...to write their manifestos of.

what they wanted

riot grrrl to be.

The idea was that any woman

anywhere could take that name.

...and use it and create

anything she wanted.

We didn't brand it or copyright

it or anything like that.

It belonged to everybody.

All of us felt like, "look.

Here are some ideas.

Take it and run with it. "

Other girls started riot

grrrls all around the country.

All-American rejects

Feminism had been kind of

scared of pop-culture music.

It was really good at protesting.

...it and not good at making it.

And so riot grrrl was making it.

It was making 'zines, and it was.

...making rock bands, and it

was speaking to people.

And Kathleen was a major

motivator of that.

First wave of feminism began in.

1848, the seneca

falls conference.

It was the first time that women.

...organized on behalf

of themselves.

They all happened to

be abolitionists.

They were opposing slavery.

It was a movement for human

rights, but they weren't equal.

...members of this movement.

So, they turned their raised

consciousness on themselves and.

...their organizing skills on

themselves and said, "we need.

...our own independent movement

for our own rights. "

So, that first wave of the

women's movement focused itself.

...on citizenship, and that's

most symbolized by the vote.

There was a swell of activism

again, coming out of the.

...civil rights' movement and the.

...peace movement and the

free-speech movement.

So, the women who were part of.

...these movements eventually

turned their raised.

...consciousness on themselves and.

...said, "we need to have our own

independent movement for our.

...rights, for equality, to be

treated as full human beings. "

The biggest goal of the

second wave was equality.

That was the surge of activism

that was the second wave.

Rebecca Walker's article

"becoming a third wave"... So...

...she used that term, and that's

because she, her mother was.

Alice Walker, and she was a

daughter of the second wave, and.

...she was trying to find a way to.

...say, "we're different, but

we're part of this history. "

Third wave was founded in.

...response to a feeling on college.

...campuses in 1992 that feminism

was in some ways dead...

...irrelevant, that women of my

generation were apathetic, not.

...desirous of working on behalf

of women's empowerment.

You can't overstate her.

...importance to

third-wave feminism.

She was incredibly inspiring.

She was kind of the first person.

...to come forth and say, "this

is what feminism is gonna look.

...like, and we don't take your.

...bullshit, patriarchs

and rapists. "

And it was incredibly exciting.

Oh, baby, I want you

you're so f***ing big

you're so big and hard

you've got such a big cock

push it in deeper now

oh, deeper, harder

I'm almost coming

I mean, more than any other.

...person I've ever met,

Kathleen was a leader.

Sugar

I can almost reach mine now

now, now

sugar

I mean, a lot of what we saw

riot grrrls doing was, like...

...girls going back to, like,

their girlhood and reclaiming.

...girlhood that has been taken

away from them, that has been.

...directed down some bullshit

path, where they're like, "I'm.

...actually gonna be a little

girl that has power now.

I'm gonna relive that part so.

...that I can then direct my whole.

...growing-up experience from

there, from point 'a. '"

...the third wave is like a hot.

...but angry bisexual girl who is.

wearing a minidress

with combat boots.

There's like a lot of attempting.

...to reconcile a lot of extremes

that are in all of us.

Yes, she totally

used her sexuality.

I love that.

Use it... whatever we got.

You gonna give me some sh*t?

You gonna define me?

You gonna tell me what I am?

Okay, great, I'm that.

Being a stripper is what

let me be in bikini kill.

Do I wish that there was a job

that paid me that amount of.

...money and that gave me that

flexibility, where I didn't have.

...to take my clothes off?

Sure, of course I do.

But it didn't exist, and

I wanted to make music.

I worked at McDonald's,

and I was a vegetarian.

And I just felt like

it was the same thing.

I was a feminist, and I

worked at the strip bar.

Sugar

And we're bikini kill.

Everybody knows what to do.

I don't need to tell you.

We played at the

capitol with fugazi.

It was around the time of the

abortion march, and so, it was.

...like abortion without apology.

A lot of the D.C. Music has that.

...monumental sound that maybe does.

...come from living in the capital.

It's like this big feeling that.

...it's really important that what.

we're doing is super-important.

We're so close to

the seat of power.

And then these bands are making

this huge-sounding music but.

...about stuff that's totally

different than what the.

...politicians are doing.

You think that I don't know

I'm here to tell you I do

you think us

sluts don't know

we know the truth

about you now

Jigsaw, Jigsaw youth

I know there's not one way,

one light, one lame truth

won't fit your definitions

won't meet your lame demands

not into win-lose reality

won't fit into your plans

A usa today reporter came and.

...then wrote this really

condescending thing about what.

we were doing and focused on.

what our clothes looked like and.

what our bodies looked like.

We must all be sexual-abuse

survivors because we're singing.

...about rape, and, therefore,

nobody has any imagination or.

...knows anybody who's had things.

who's had things happen to them.

So, we must all have had

these tragic histories.

It was really frustrating to

a lot of us, especially that.

...another woman would write.

...something that we

thought was so stupid.

So, we just decided to stop

thinking about it and talking.

...about it and just not answering.

...the phone when

journalists called.

And that was what everybody

called a press blackout.

They're like, "no, actually...

...you're not gonna f***ing co-op

this f***ing revolution.

F*** you.

It's actually not

gonna be televised.

That was genius.

It was very savvy, and it was.

...something that was thinking much.

...bigger than a lot of us did.

People involved with riot

grrrl were reluctant to do.

...interviews with mainstream.

...press or rolling stone or people.

who got interested in and

got wind of the movement.

It's hard to see yourself.

written about or talked about in.

...a third-person or

some removed context.

It's always just gonna

seem wrong somehow.

The facts are wrong.

Something's wrong.

It's always wrong.

It was also for her own

self-preservation and.

...protection, 'cause people were.

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