Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl: A Memoir

by Carrie Brownstein

Born Naked was still in its fledgling stage—a stage from which it would, in fact, never quite fully emerge—when my friend Natalie Cox told me that I should check out what was going on down in Olympia. She thought, rightly, that I might feel a musical kinship with some of the bands coming out of there: Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, Heavens to Betsy, and others. So, though it felt slightly traitorous up in Seattle, I started seeking out K Records singles and sending away for the cassettes these Olympia bands were releasing. I bought the 7-inch compilation There’s a Dyke in the Pit, which featured the Bikini Kill song “Suck My Left One.” I also purchased the first eponymous Kill Rock Stars compilation that had the Bikini Kill song “Feels Blind.” I remember being deeply struck by the lyrics: “Look what you have taught me / Your world has taught me nothing,” and “As a woman I was taught to always be hungry . . . We could eat just about anything / We might even eat your hate up like love.” To me, that perfectly summed up being a young girl. It was the first time someone put into words my sense of alienation, the feeling that all these institutions and stories we’d been taught to hold as sacred often had very little to do with my own lived experiences. I had already been listening to punk and had related to storytellers like Joe Strummer and Paul Weller, but hearing Bikini Kill was like having someone illuminate my world for the first time. Here was a narrative that I could place myse...