Absolute Beginners

Usually people say it’s ‘humbling’ when they’ve won an award. That’s not humbling. That’s the opposite of humbling. It makes you feel amazing. You’re a megalomaniac and you’re trying to say to people that you’re still humble inside, so you lie about what it feels like to be given an award. Going to prison; that’s humbling.

Rather than fighting for every woman’s right to feel beautiful, I would like to see the return of a kind of feminism that tells women and girls everywhere that maybe it’s all right not to be pretty and perfectly well behaved. That maybe women who are plain, or large, or old, or differently abled, or who simply don’t give a damn what they look like because they’re too busy saving the world or rearranging their sock drawer, have as much right to take up space as anyone else. I think if we want to take care of the next generation of girls we should reassure them that power, strength and character are more important than beauty and always will be, and that even if they aren’t thin and pretty, they are still worthy of respect. That feeling is the birthright of men everywhere. It’s about time we claimed it for ourselves.