eMusic Review 0
After mainstream magazines distorted riot grrrl's stringently independent politics (including an infamous 1992 Newsweek piece which tried to infantilize its feminism), r.g. spirit guides Bikini Kill — more focused and vitriolic than ever — recorded the movement's most important album. "I don't owe you nothing!" they shrieked all over 1994's Pussywhipped. Driven by an irrepressible hive of guitar, they scalped everything from sexist alpha males to the beauty standard — familiar gender-studies territory, but coming from Hanna's sarcastic dry-heaving and broken-glass growl, it felt like the most revolutionary idea ever. Though their lyrics were simple — "Magnet" famously snipes, "You don't own me/F***!" — their message of rage and reclamation hit hard; ten years later, it still influences feminist bands and even academic feminist theory. No song illustrates their broader cultural importance better than the ripping "Star Bellied Boy," a one-minute-and-30-second-long song, drawn and quartered with blood-curdling screams and anvil-dropping riffs, which airs the dark anguish of date rape. Pussywhipped also features the definitive take of "Rebel Girl," the anthem which encapsulated riot grrrl's spirit: "That girl thinks she's the queen of the neighborhood/I got news for you: SHE IS!"
