"I'm not interested in a revival," says Kathleen Hanna. "I'm not interested in 'Riot Grrrl Part Deux.'"
It's one of the first things she says when we talk on the phone ahead of her appearance in Portland, and it sounds like she's had to say it a lot recently. Thanks to mounting nostalgia for the '90s, she's started getting letters from teenagers that say things like, "'I wish I lived in the '90s... I wanna revive riot grrrl,'" she says. "And it's like, please don't. Start your own thing, start something that speaks to your generation, start something smarter and better."
Hanna's been positioned—often reluctantly—as a figurehead of the feminist punk and art movement since she was lead singer of Bikini Kill. Twenty-five years later, Hanna's writing and performing with her newest band, the Julie Ruin, with visual art projects in the works (she's a fan of installation artist Yayoi Kusama). When she says she doesn't want a riot grrrl mulligan, it doesn't come off as nihilistic or demurring, but deeply practical, at least if you care more about lasting social change than vintage baby barrettes. "I guess that's a kind of horrible message," she admits, laughing. "I'm like, 'Don't do it!' But... look at what punk rock feminism brought to the table and find the stuff that you can take into the future that's great, and throw the stuff that was stupid away."
