Kathleen Hanna Quotes

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Kathleen Hanna

Profession : Musician

Birth : November 12, 1969

In terms of men being feminist allies, it's just important to speak from your own place. I'd love to hear men singing about masculinity and the damage it does to them.

Kathleen Hanna

I'm not a goddess, for crying out loud. I'm a regular person who took feminism - which I have a deep connection to - and mixed it with music, which I really love to do.

Kathleen Hanna

I wanna be a legend; I wanna be a cult hero. I do!

Kathleen Hanna

I wanted to make something that I wanted to hear that I wasn't hearing.

Kathleen Hanna

I'm just working and having a good time and seeing what develops, which is so awesome, because you don't know what's going to happen, and I'm letting myself do that a lot more than I ever have.

Kathleen Hanna

I was in a band in the '90s called Bikini Kill, and we were so freaked out about documentation then, and there was the whole thing, not just about the male gaze, but that people were going to misrepresent you... a kind fear of the mainstream that a lot of us had.

Kathleen Hanna

People have always had these weird things about how you have to be really good looking to be a singer.

Kathleen Hanna

I wanted to say to myself as much as anyone else that we made art.

Kathleen Hanna

I really like to talk about my work in a way that is complicated.

Kathleen Hanna

I just write what I want to write.

Kathleen Hanna

It's unexpected for women's issues to be brought up in places other than women's centers on college campuses or crisis places.

Kathleen Hanna

I think as a culture, we don't like conflict or looking at icky stuff - especially in our downtime.

Kathleen Hanna

Certain people are like 'Oh, here come the Feminazis!' You end up acting 10 times nicer than you even need to be, to be the opposite of the stereotype like 'You're the man haters!' We're always bending over backwards being extra nice. And I don't know if being nice is my legacy.

Kathleen Hanna

There are so many great artists that are doing interesting things, that I don't want to focus on boring people.

Kathleen Hanna

If I had to choose between the band or the friendships, I'd choose the friendships at this point.

Kathleen Hanna

Feminism rotates between backlash and interest. And the cool thing about the Internet is that it's allowing women more access to their own history. Part of the problem before the Internet was that we didn't know which books to read. Someone had to tell you.

Kathleen Hanna

Facing sexism and racism and classism and transphobia, there are ways to choose to act in those situations, and there shouldn't be a prescriptive list of things that you have to say.

Kathleen Hanna

Sometimes, being a feminist artist, there are times where I'm in a position where I just want to feel like I'm saying all the right things politically, or I feel like I have to mention my own project over other people's projects. But I don't do that anymore. I just want to be off the cuff and honest.

Kathleen Hanna

Not to rag on myself, but when people say, 'What does it feel like to be an icon?' I'm like, 'My dog does not think I'm an icon, my cat does not think I am an icon, my cousin does not think I am an icon.' I have a really lovely group of friends, and I just don't think about it.

Kathleen Hanna

I feel so lucky that I met the love of my life. You know somebody's in it to win it when they're changing your IV bag or you're having a seizure and they're holding you. And helping you to the bathroom. You know that they love you.

Kathleen Hanna