Kayla Leland
Professor Santos
EN-003
Blog Entry #6
The Punk Singer
This week in class we have watched a documentary called The Punk Singer, featuring Kathleen Hanna in which they talk about feminism and the riot grrrl movement. Kathleen Hanna was in the band Bikini Kill that was mainly about feminism and she later founded the riot grrrl movement. Kathleen wasn’t afraid to stand up for people who were raped or sexually abused as she helped and encouraged these woman to speak out. The beginning of the documentary opens with Kathleen singing a spoken word in which she repeatedly says "in the middle of the night in my house" in order to make her point across because she wanted to speak out.
Kathleen Hanna performed with such a energetic presence and her voice was so strong that she was seen as this beam of light, screaming for what she believed in. As a result, Kathleen created a new role model for many women. One interesting thing I found in this documentary was how Kathleen talked about her first trust fall with her mother in which her mother dropped her and told her for that to be a lesson not to trust people. Kathleen later had the first riot girl movement at a youth-based activist organization in D.C which was called Positive Force. This influenced other girls to start riot grrrls all around the country and share their stories.
I think her sickness was sad how it had allowed her to stop making music for a long period. Kathleen had told everyone she had nothing else to say and wanted to stop performing when she knew she had more say. She didn’t want her sickness to define her. People may not believe her but it is the people out there that share her same story and go through the same experiences she had gone through that relate with her and that will listen to her music. Some people even argue against her and say those things never happened to her.
Kayla, I really liked how you included the part about her first trust fall, when her mother had dropped her then told her never to trust anyone, not even her mother. I think that is an awful thing and it just reflects and backs up her point about her rough childhood.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you when you said it was sad that she couldn't continue doing what she loved when she got sick because it was and I would feel the same exact way if that happened to me. I think that she was a very powerful women because she did not let the sickness take over her life, and she got back up to cincture her music/ feminist career.
ReplyDeleteI also found it very interesting how she told the story about the trust fall with her mother. the message that came with this story, "don't trust anyone not even your own mother" was very powerful and I think set Kathleen up for what the real world would bring
ReplyDeleteKayla, I agree with it being a little overwhelming for her to let the sickness define her. No one ever wants to give up their passion due to a sickness. She is still a huge influence to the movement like you said, even though she can not do as much as she'd like with music!!!!!!!!
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