December 2010
Interviewer: Did you hear t.A.T.u’s version of ‘How Soon Is Now’?
Morrissey: Yes, it was magnificent. Absolutely.
Again, I don’t know much about them.
Interviewer: They’re the teenage Russian lesbians.
Morrissey: Well, aren’t we all?
OMG, Moz!
This song cheers me up when I feel miserable.
Real women are tall. Real women are short. They’re wide. Gaunt. Their bones can stick out of their collarbones, or be disguised by curves or fat. There are real women with breasts and real women with flat chests. There are real women who have had to have their breasts or ovaries removed, and not having those doesn’t make them any less of a real woman. There are even real women who might not be cis-gendered women. Real women are gay or straight or pansexual or femme or butch or any place along the gender identity spectrum, and if they identify as a woman, they’re still a real woman. Real women, beautiful women, come in every variation of skin tone, size, socio-economic background, political persuasion that you could possibly ever think of. You’re taking two (huge) steps backward when you tell a woman to be proud of her curves, and in the same breath, tell a thin woman to eat a sandwich.
Feminism is not about empowering one kind of woman. Body positivity is not about empowering one kind of woman. Self-love is not about empowering one kind of woman.