Pussy Whipped by Bikini Kill
by Lana Fleischli
I like to write my articles five days in advance (the weekend before), so that I have time to think about it throughout the week. So, today, the date is April 25th, 2021. I was scrolling through my snapchat memories (sometimes it’s nice to live in the past when we could go to shows and not wear masks), and I found what happened exactly two years ago.
Two years ago, my friend Sadie and I were excited to go to a show-- a show which neither of us realized would greatly impact us for the next few years. I was excited from the beginning because I knew about Bikini Kill. I actually learned about them when I read MOXIE in seventh grade. In MOXIE, the main character fights sexism in her small town by creating a feminist movement inspired by the Riot Grrrls of the 90’s. It truly sparked my interest in zines and even more in feminism.
A few weeks after the show, Sadie and I both realized that we wanted to make a zine, so we created That’s Interesting Zine, and we interviewed Kim Gordon on our first issue (talk about cool women)!
It’s been exactly two years since that all began and I have been reflecting on it a lot, so I listened to Pussy Whipped because I wanted to feel empowered and Bikini Kills never fails to make me feel like the badass that I am (self confidence!).
First of all, “Rebel Girl” is on Pussy Whipped, which is just such a great song of theirs. I love how it’s about truly just building up other girls. I don’t think we ever discuss the amount of sexism that is just internalized. We all have it and have to unlearn it. But it’s not just “pick me girls”, it’s about how girls treat each other. There’s ALWAYS a competition, whether it’s about boys, grades, etc. It’s bs. I’ve always hated it, because sometimes I feel like I’m the only one noticing it, noticing myself perpetuating it, and it’s gross. I feel like many girls have experienced something like what I am saying, and that’s why a song about girls just thinking that other girls are cool is so powerful.
“Alien She” was a song I kept going back to for the same reason. Kathleen Hanna says, “She is me, I am her, she is me, I am her siamese twin”. She goes on to sing about how she wants to kill her siamese twin, but how she’s afraid she will die too. I think that is reiterating the message that women tend to tear each other down, but by “killing” your so-called “sisters”, you kill yourself. She also sings about her twin in a way where the twin sounds annoying, and I think that that is saying that you don’t have to like everyone, but you’re all in the same fight, so build each other up.
Like I said before, Bikini Kill makes me feel strong when I listen to it, and for me, that's reason enough to listen to them. It’s a reminder that we gotta support each other, and that we don't need to compete or bring others down, because that’s just internalized misogyny, and it’s not cool.
That show sparked inspiration in me to create a zine with Sadie, and later to create Desperately Seeking Serious, and to build each other up. I still get that feeling every time I hear “Rebel Girl”.