Right about the time that I was listening to this album, everyone around me was starting to refer to me as a feminist. I remember this man who said something about my ti-ts to two of my male co-workers (and friends). One of them thought they absolutely should tell me, the other thought I would take some "radical feminist action" against him. Ha! Looking back, it probably wasn't that horrible except that the offender was a complete lech and like 107 years-old. The dude seriously creeped me out!

Well, I didn't take a radical feminist action against him, but I did report him to his supervisor who acted like, "Yeah, so what. Big deal." So there, I thought, that was really unproductive and embarrassing. It was annoying to me, but like all the other events in my life like that, I just let it go.

I was reading a local anarchist newspaper at the time which had quite a few interesting feminist related articles. A lot of these ladies fought back and while some of their tactics were a bit aversive to me, I really admired them for it. I can see why my friends feared I might take a feminist action against him. They were probably concerned about me trying to involve them in a plot to hog-tie, strip, and spray paint the guy...not that I ever conceived such a plot. Don't get me wrong! I'm a peace loving chick. ;)

I was in my early twenties and starting to form my own political opinions and beliefs. I was out from under my mother's strange 60's feminist, yet somehow still Catholic grasp. And what a relief it was. I was laying the seeds of my agnosticism and left-wing beliefs from as early as childhood and my mother was not very tolerant of views that opposed hers. Yes, I said she was a feminist in a statement prior but, talk about an oxymoron, she was also sort of right wing. I am happy to report, she has gotten much more tolerant and open in her thinking as she has gotten older. We still don't see eye-to-eye on a lot of things, but we can actually converse.

And my then boyfriend (now husband) introduced me to the super-cool world of punk rock. I grew up in the 80's so I was already listening to some of the bigger bands like The Clash and such, but Brian really introduced me to the underground punk rock scene. We were getting stoned and listening to stuff like Conflict, Agnostic Front, Minor Threat, The Minutemen, Black Flag...I couldn't believe how great it was particularly the band Crass with their male/female vocal lead, hippie punk. Okay, maybe not hippie punk technically, but they definitely had hippie in them! I particularly enjoyed the vocal stylings of one Eve Libertine (isn't her name the greatest?) and sought out more female lead punk rock.

I don't know, maybe this isn't the right time in my life for me to be telling you about this album. I should have done it back in 1994, back when I was 25 and completely blown away by this album. I've heard it so many times now, I probably listened to it twice a day the first six months I owned it alone...not to mention all of the times I've heard it since.

But I know it has to be this album that I write about, after all, it completely changed my way of thinking about women in rock.* I mean, I dug tough rock-n-roll chicks before this. Chrissy Hynde of The Pretenders, oh yeah, she was a bad*ss. Joan Jett, you know she was tough especially when she was in the super-tough The Runaways. I even think Madonna could kick some major booty if she had too, but they all still stepped into some pretty stereotypical roles for "women in music". They looked a certain way and used their sexuality to sell their music, which I actually don't condemn in any way, but we'll get to that later.

Bikini Kill were different though. One of their messages was just straight up, we don't care what men think of us. To quote them:

Don't need you to tell us we're good,
don't need you to say we suck,
don't need your pro-tec-tion,
don't need your dick to f*ck!

Now as you may well imagine, their to-the-point lyrics which Kathleen Hanna was said to shout into people's faces and a supposed policy of asking men to stand at the back of shows, thus allowing the women to be near the stage, drew a considerable amount of criticism. I don't have a problem with the lyrics or Kathleen Hanna's delivery, however if it is true that men were asked to stay in back, I can't say I support that in the least. I don't believe in treating anyone second rate and I would be very uncomfortable even being at a show like that. Again, I don't know if it is even true, and Bikini Kill had a male guitarist (Billy Karen) so it seems doubtful and there were rumors running rampant about the band.

Besides lyrics that deem men utterly useless, the band also focused on things like rape, insubordination, and eating disorders. They were attacked for their musicianship (or lack there of, more precisely) and accused of being activists, not musicians. They turned bad press about themselves into a really powerful spoken word bit on another album.

When I first popped Pus-sy Whipped in, I wasn't sure what to expect. (How messed up is that I can't even type the title of the album I'm reviewing?!) The first song, Blood One didn't grab me too much, but my ears perked up at the chorus of Alien She:

Feminist...Dyke...Wh-ore!
Pretty, pretty....ALIEN!

I had been called all of those things before, I could relate. I agreed to being a feminist - finally I was at peace with the word. There was no shame in it. I wasn't a dyke, but I didn't feel particularly offended at being called one either. I did have a lot of gay friends. I didn't consider myself a wh-ore, but maybe I would be to the most prude of people. I was also finally starting to accept myself and my body, but I definitely knew I was an alien compared to most people.

The next song that really grabbed me was Lil Red. Here was Kathleen Hannah - super cute and as rumors proported, a stripper - singing:

These are my ti-ts, yeah,
this is my as-s,
These are my legs,
watch them walk fuc-king away,
these are my nails,
to scratch out your eyes!

Alright, it's a bit harsh, but I still loved that she had the guts to say it and not worry about what other people think. I love my husband and lucky me - he is great to me, he likes Bikini Kill too, and he's not threatened by lyrics like this!

Next is Tell Me So which finds Kathleen (the singer) on drums and Tobi Vail (the drummer) coming out from behind to lay down the vocals. As far as singing ability, she holds her own although I prefer Kathleen's style which reminds me very much of seminal late 70's punker Polly Styrene of X-Ray Specs (a very high compliment in my book). In this one, I love the lines Tobi screeches:

If you are gonna look at me,
I am gonna get a prize...

A solid effort, but Kathleen's drumming isn't quite up to snuff with Tobi's and Tobi's singing isn't quite up to snuff with Kathleen's...and it is probably for the best that they only do this on two tracks. I do admire the courage though. They both seem very bold to me, thick-skinned to what others may think. A contrast to bassist Kathi who was said to play with her back to the audience out of shyness.

Oh, and who could forget Sugar? This one might make you a little uncomfortable when you first hear it, but that is what is so god-damned brilliant about it. It's supposed to be uncomfortable. Kathleen, in a voice somewhere between sultry and snarling vicious:

I'm your self-fulfilling porno queen,
I - MIMIC OUT YR EVERY FU-CKING FANTASY,
Yeah, yeah!
And now, in my head,
I'm on my knees,
Why can't I ever get my...Sugar???

This song starts out brutal and frank, challenging stereotypical man/woman roles in sex and ends really melancholy with the girl unable to come. I know it may sound a little dumb, but it is actually very powerful.

I don't want to give you a blow, by blow account of the album, but I will also mention Rebel Girl which is really cool, but sounds sort of out of place on the album. I thought maybe it was a cover version when I first heard it. Musically, this reminds me of like L7 or something and Bikini Kill did come out of Olympia, Washington so they probably had sort of a grunge influence on them. Also, this album was produced by Joan Jett and, if memory serves me, so was the L7 album that got popular in the early 90's, Bricks Are Heavt. The rest of the album sounds pretty much hardcore punk, noisy, abbrasive, and lo-fi in an endearing way, but this song could have almost been played on the radio if it wasn't so blatantly lesbian. Sure there was that goofy-sweet song I Kissed A Girl by some long forgotten one-hit-wonder (remember that song???), but it was a far cry from:

When she walks,
the revolution's coming,
in her hips,
there's revolution,
when she talks,
I hear the revolution,
in her kiss,
I taste the REVOLUTION...

And my personal favorite line from the song, I think I wanna take you home, I wanna try on your clothes...ooohh!. Dontcha just love it? Takes me back to the days when I put my girlfriends above and before all - sleep overs, trading clothes, laughing, joking, and being crazy!

Well, I thought Bikini Kill were pretty neat and cute in their baby doll dresses, tights, and green lipstick. I ran out and bought their first two albums and my own baby doll dresses and tights and blue lipstick (I never did look good in green), but I was already 25 and I was starting to outgrow some of this stuff and get settled and feel happy. By the next album I bought...uhhh...Reject All American I really couldn't get into them anymore. I had grown up a little and it seemed like maybe they hadn't or they had and the passion for the music was gone. Whatever the case, it didn't grab my ear like the others and I think Bikini Kill soon dismantled there after.

I still play this album to this day, almost nine years later though!





* I began this article about a year ago and planned to submit it to the "Chicks Rock Write Off". As you can see, I didn't make the deadline!

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