This phrase appeared on an old flyer for a spoken word performance by Kathleen Hanna, Tobi Vail, and Kill Rock Stars founder Slim Moon:

In Girls to the Front, Sara Marcus describes a 1992 performance of this song:

On the line “this is my ass,” she whirled around, bent over, and flipped up her dress to reveal the pale globe of it, cleanly bisected by a thong bikini’s thin black line. Later, while Billy handles some guitar troubles, Kathleen sang a snip of Hall & Oates–“Oh, here she comes; watch out boys, she’ll chew you up”–and segued into a Patti Smith-style spoken word piece:

I’m a man eater
I’m a real bitch walking down your street
Cause you know there’s two kinds of girls: good ones and bad ones
And if you wear that dress tonight
and if you wear those high heels
and if you expose your bare ass to two hundred people
you KNOW what kind of girl you are, honey.“
(P. 115)

A reference to Jerry Falwell’s religious right Moral Majority, an organization that was misnamed, in L7’s assessment.

Issues for which the Moral Majority campaigned:

-Censorship of media outlets that promote an “anti-family” agenda
-Enforcement of a traditional vision of family life
-Opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment and Strategic Arms -Limitation Talks
-Opposition to state recognition and acceptance of homosexual acts
-Outlawing abortion in all cases
-Targeting Jews and other non-Christians for conversion to conservative Christianity

In “Girls to the Front,” Sara Marcus writes of Hanna’s delivery of these lines at a 1992 pro-choice benefit show with Fugazi and L7: “Kathleen’s voice was undeniable. She tore the old fairy tale a new asshole” (pp. 114-115)

Google this line to see how much resonance it still has for so many listeners today. A quick, concise response to some of the less-compelling criticisms of Bikini Kill and Riott Grrrl, specifically that they were exclusionary towards men and otherwise off-putting in their anger and critiques of systematic oppression and dominant culture

(Source: http://feu-follet.tumblr.com)

In Emily White’s 1992 article “Revolution Girl Style Now,” she writes of this line:

In the same way Nikki McClure envisioned a pearl necklace, with each bead a time bomb, So Hanna sees the conventional charms of femininity as potential weapons"

image by Stella Marrs