With all the seriousness & spirituality which my church’s priest summons up the words to say, “Let us pray,” I invite us, “Let us dissect.”
This is the artifact in question, which I will use to frame this article. Journal entry? Whatever it’s called.
A screenshot from a YouTube video where Carrie Brownstein, Corin Tucker and Janet Weiss, otherwise known as the iconic band Sleater-Kinney (voted best rock band in America in 2001) perform their song Modern Girl:
I know Carrie Brownstein as Fred Armisen’s co-comedian in Portlandia. I was also born in 2000, far too late to understand the cultural impact of the riot grrrl, punk, post-punk era coming out of the Pacific Northwest.
I picked up Carrie’s memoir “Hunger Makes me a Modern Girl” at my local library because that’s a great title, and I’m so glad I did.
I finished the book last night at approximately 11:01 PM, and, as you can see by the screenshot, I promptly pulled up YouTube to see some of their live shows.
I knew I would be getting the second iteration of Sleater-Kinney: they disbanded in 2006 and rejoined in 2012. I knew that phones and social media weren’t in their fans’ pockets on any of their world tours. I am so jealous of that.
In typical tech-addict fashion, I pulled up the comments as I listened to the song because one form of input is never enough, and I became so grossly annoyed, borderline enraged, at this comment thread.
For one, to say it’s weird watching someone do the thing that formed them into who they are from ages 19 to 32 (roughly), is insane. Maybe I overuse the word insane, but I feel like this exchange here perfectly demonstrates to me, someone with the full context of a memoir on hand, the way the Internet blows context out of the water. Poof, it’s gone. Nothing matters or makes any sense anymore.
It is weird to watch this musician perform a song like she has done thousands of times prior, spanning more than a decade, just because I say so. Portlandia came after years of searching how to define oneself after being part of a band, after death and breakups and heartbreak. But still, it is weird to see what came first? Alright, moving on.
“Don’t I always see you hating on so-and-so, haha small world” WHAT?! Do people make careers out of hating in the comments section?! What the actual FUCK is wrong with you if you are a recognized hater on the Internet? I guess I am also a hater, but definitely not recognized. Holy f***ing shit, people need hobbies. Go read a book, maybe? Listen to a vinyl? Eat some avocado toast? Anything to distance yourself from the context-less-cesspool that is an Internet comments section.
The last one really got me. It is what inspired the subtitle of this article, “Is he trolling or are we all insane?” Because if you’ve read this memoir, you’d know that from the beginning, Sleater-Kinney never had a bassist, and that was always brought up. “Why don’t you have a bass player? You should really have a bass player. They’re not a real band if they don’t have a bass player.”
This, coupled with the incessant labeling of them as an all-female band, demonstrates really well how exhausting it is to be perceived as a woman by the Media. You will be interrogated but never assumed to be the expert in the room, you will field questions you wouldn’t get if you were male, like “why are you in an all-girl band?” Nobody asked the Beatles “why are you in an all-male band?” I wasn’t around when they were a band, but I can guarantee it.
So for someone to just casually drop a critique as old as time on a YouTube comments section of all places, even when they allegedly have the context in front of them, which should be enough to inspire you to shut the fuck up, is just crazy. Sometimes I find myself at a loss for words. Right now is one of those times. I hope what I’ve said has made you think or at least entertained you.
That’s a pretty good encapsulation of what I took away from Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl: I don’t know what to say or do when the music stops, I just hope it was enough to be here for it.
Now I will leave you with some great lyrics by a band that predates Portlandia (although the show is excellent in and of itself, it just sucks that we have such a hard time perceiving women as truly multifaceted).
My baby loves me, I'm so happy
Happy makes me a modern girl
Took my money and bought a TV
TV brings me closer to the world
My whole life
Was like a picture of a sunny day
My whole life
Was like a picture of a sunny day
My baby loves me, I'm so hungry
Hunger makes me a modern girl
Took my money and bought a donut
The hole's the size of this entire world
My whole life
Looks like a picture of a sunny day
My whole life
Looked like a picture of a sunny day
My baby loves me, I'm so angry
Anger makes me a modern girl
Took my money, I couldn't buy nothin'
I'm sick of this brave new world
My whole life
Is like a picture of a sunny day
My whole life
Is like a picture of a sunny day
My whole life
Is like a picture of a sunny day
My whole life
Is like a picture of a sunny day