Remembering Riot Grrrl Fashion with Kathleen Hanna

In a scene from Sini Anderson's new documentary The Punk Singer, Kathleen Hanna sits by a lake in a striped beret, holding a mug with a poodle on it. If you bumped into her on the street in the ensemble, you might mistake her for a quirky mom with a thing for Bichon Frisés rather than one of the faces of the 90s Riot Grrrl movement and the frontwoman of Bikini Kill and Le Tigre. 

But that mom-with-a-poodle wouldn't be telling a story about the time Courtney Love punched her backstage at Lollapalooza in 1995. The Punk Singer, out today in New York and LA and early next month in other cities, revisits this and many more moments from the life of an artist and feminist icon, from early spoken word poetry to concerts where she famously yelled "All girls to the front!" to her current battle with Lyme disease.

According to Sini, the director of the movie, a poodle mug "is actually pretty punk" when held by a woman who's essentially "the punk rock Jackie O," she said in an interview. Sini, a friend of Kathleen's for 13 years, seems to get her interview subject in a way that's rare for documentaries. The two have more than a few things in common: both have long been involved in feminist art, and, improbably, both also suffer from Lyme, a disease Sini sadly contracted during the filming of The Punk Singer. 

Seeing Kathleen and her peers' fashion evolve––often via amazing archival footage––was one of the most interesting parts of The Punk Singer. In the 90s, Kathleen was famous for tongue-in-cheek ensembles such as a dress with a SPEEDO-CLAD man printed on it or BRA-TOPS under which she would paint the word "slut" on her stomach. Often misinterpreted by the media, style was an integral part of the Riot Grrrl movement in that it challenged the mainstream aesthetics that were were complicit in women's oppression. "I was trying to do interesting gender stuff," Kathleen explained in an interview. "Like, fucking with the idea that I’m a woman who still has what’s considered masculine traits."

It's an attitude we're missing nowadays, when female musicians seem more interested in using irony to titillate mainstream sensibilities than to challenge them. "People are more afraid of being put in the box of the angry feminist," said Sini. "But anger can also sometimes be really powerful."

The Punk Singer is out today in theaters and on IFC's video on demand.

Kathleen Hanna. Photo Courtesy of Dusty Lombard.
Kathleen Hanna. Photo Courtesy of Dusty Lombard

Kathleen Hanna. Photo Courtesy of Dusty Lombard