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Double Dare Ya
Bikini Kill
The C.D. Version of the First Two Records
1994

I was a dumb and didn't write this post when I was in the throes of riot grrrl a few weeks ago.  When I had a spark of a something in me.  It's not even that that spark has been extinguished--just that it isn't as pronounced or intense.

I think one of the things that most attracted me to riot grrrl is its do-it-yourself activism.  I've never considered myself an activist...in the sense I most associate with the word--demonstrations and and politics and petitions and voices unified.  Riot grrrl was all those things, but wasn't only those things.  I like something I read about DIY and zine-making that said that creating a zine--no matter the subject--is, in itself, a political act.  When you create something, you shift from consumer to producer; from a relatively passive role to an active one.  And, even if it is on a small scale, you choose the message that is being put out there.

That is the action I can take; my little act of resistance.  For now, anyway.

"Double Dare Ya" starts with unshakable static; a buzz emanating from a speaker.  Kathleen Hanna says, "Is it supposed to be doing that?" before (I imagine) giving the speaker a swift kick and charging ahead.  I like that this wasn't edited out.  They are making this music.  They are figuring things out.  Bikini Kill wanted "REVOLUTION GIRL-STYLE NOW!", "a call for all girls to start bands, start 'zines and participate in the making of independent culture." And, I would add, question the culture they found themselves in.

I had read about "Double Dare Ya" before hearing it, but that did not lessen its impact.  This song makes my ears tingle and the fine hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

Dare ya to do what you want
Dare ya to be who you will
Dare ya to cry right outloud

I think this song is brilliant because it takes a game associated with young girls at sleepover parties (a game that can often degenerate into something malicious (see BH90210 for an example, haha)) and turns it into this ferocious call for revolution.