With radical roots in the Socialist Party of America and the Soviet suffrage movement, International Women's Day is commemorated each year on March 8th, and the weeks around that date have become a time to reflect, celebrate and advocate. Fittingly, in the U.S., March is also Women's History Month. With this in mind, we asked a number of our favorite artists to highlight some of the women who have most inspired them. Up today, feminist metal-rap provocateur Dana Dentata, whose most recent release is November's Daddy Loves You EP, featuring the hard-hitting single "lil blood."
1. Courtney Love
I always talk about my male inspirations and even though I love Nirvana and was very inspired by them early on, I wouldn't have picked up a guitar and started a female rock band if it weren't for Courtney. It's not often you see a woman playing a guitar and she showed me it was possible. She is unapologetic, fearless, messy and says shit everyone else is too afraid to. She's embracing all the stereotypes everyone gives a woman and does it without giving a shit. I've always been very inspired by her aesthetic always being a mix of pretty and ugly, soft and hard.
2. Wendy O. Williams
The heavy-metal priestess. Seeing Wendy chainsaw a guitar at a young age inspired me to bring more to my performances. She defied the expectations of what a frontwoman should say/do and how they should look. She could be onstage with her tits out and carry so much masculinity with it. Nothing about her is male gaze. She created a world around her and had the coolest most interesting characters in her band with the sickest album covers. I love every single Plasmatics album. She will always feel like a spirit mother to me. Rest in peace, W.O.W.
3. Lil' Kim
The album Hard Core is such a perfect album and so important for woman and rap in general. She was extremely vulgar and in her power. Men don't realize how satisfying it is to hear a woman in control saying whatever the fuck she wants and demanding respect and pleasure. She vocalized a level of sexual freedom that doesn't happen often. What's sad is what was so bold and wild for her to do is now casually the lyrics within the No. 1 song in the world by a man. WAKE UP WORLD.
4. Michelle Lamy
I'm drawn to her. I've read she's done everything from designing, creative direction to being a defense lawyer, cabaret dancer and she hired Rick Owens. I think people are so ADD with their looks and always have different styles, makeup and hair, and I love how she is consistent and distinct. Classic style icon. You can see her from a mile away because there is only one Michelle Lamy. Women are shamed after the age of 30 to act and dress a certain way and she is such a sick example of how you don't have to turn into a pumpkin — you can still be cool and interesting.
5. My therapist Hillary
She inspires my thought process to recognize a lot of the gas lighting and abuse that's been put on me by narcissist psychopath men. We are conditioned to think and feel a certain way our entire lives and make excuses for men or carry a lot of the weight of their mistakes and their damage. She inspires me to take different roads of thought and have an outside perspective of how I've been conditioned. It's not something you can magically do on your own. I'm a different person and in a much better place in my life because of her.
