By the time I was playing in Sleater-Kinney, a lot of those early battles—for space, for respect, for recognition within the context of punk and indie music—had already been fought. We were ultimately recognized as a band, not just as a female band, and that is a luxury that cannot be overstated. A certain kind of exhaustion sets in from having to constantly explain and justify one’s existence or participation in an artistic or creative realm. What a privilege it must be to never have had to answer the question “How does it feel to be a woman playing music?” or “Why did you choose to be in an
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