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| photo from here |
When The Punk Singer: A Film About Kathleen Hanna appeared in the "films I will probably devour" suggested section on Netflix I did just that, I devoured it instantly.
While I wasn't obsessed with Kathleen Hanna or her music until recently I have been obsessed with Nirvana and Kurt Cobain since I was 9. I read Charles Cross', Heavier than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain, when it came out in 2011 — I was 11. In it Kathleen Hanna is mentioned as a friend of Kurt and her band at the time, Bikini Kill, is also mentioned. My lack of history with Bikini Kill has more to do with living in pre-internet in Spokane, Washington and being unable to drive than lack of interest.
But I digress, this film is something I've been longing to see for quite some time. Most of my interest in Hanna stems from her status as a modern feminist icon and her involvement in the Riot Grrrl movement. What I wasn't expecting, because I'm a rube, was a story about feminism and raging against the mainstream but also a story of love. Kathleen Hanna has been with Adam Horovitz, aka Ad-Rock, from the Beastie Boys since 1997 and they've been married since 2006. HOW DID I NOT KNOW THIS? I feel like such a moron.
What an amazing testament to the power of love and acceptance that the same person who wrote "Girls - to do the dishes / Girls - to clean up my room / Girls - to do the laundry" married the person who wrote "That girl thinks she's the queen of the neighborhood / She's got the hottest trike in town / That girl she holds her head up so high / I think I wanna be her best friend, yeah".
Hanna talks about this very juxtaposition in the film and how amazing it is to her still that they ended up together.
Somehow hard rock couples, or just musicians in general ending up together for the long haul always gave me hope that perhaps someday I'd find a nice freak like me and we'd settle down and be happy, not normal, never normal, but happy.
Now that Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon are no longer together, and Beyoncé and Jay-Z just seem like too too much it's to Kathleen Hanna and Adam Horovitz that I turn for a shining example of making it.
But I digress, this film is something I've been longing to see for quite some time. Most of my interest in Hanna stems from her status as a modern feminist icon and her involvement in the Riot Grrrl movement. What I wasn't expecting, because I'm a rube, was a story about feminism and raging against the mainstream but also a story of love. Kathleen Hanna has been with Adam Horovitz, aka Ad-Rock, from the Beastie Boys since 1997 and they've been married since 2006. HOW DID I NOT KNOW THIS? I feel like such a moron.
What an amazing testament to the power of love and acceptance that the same person who wrote "Girls - to do the dishes / Girls - to clean up my room / Girls - to do the laundry" married the person who wrote "That girl thinks she's the queen of the neighborhood / She's got the hottest trike in town / That girl she holds her head up so high / I think I wanna be her best friend, yeah".
Hanna talks about this very juxtaposition in the film and how amazing it is to her still that they ended up together.
Somehow hard rock couples, or just musicians in general ending up together for the long haul always gave me hope that perhaps someday I'd find a nice freak like me and we'd settle down and be happy, not normal, never normal, but happy.
Now that Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon are no longer together, and Beyoncé and Jay-Z just seem like too too much it's to Kathleen Hanna and Adam Horovitz that I turn for a shining example of making it.