Portland is a place where you can find a community as a feminist, a vegan or a fat activist. Artists, musicians, knitters, and filmmakers can all meet like-minded souls. It’s proved the perfect place for me and all my punk friends.
BETH DITTOWhen I was a teenager I would lock myself in the bathroom for hours, bouffanting my hair like Patty Duke and trying to recreate Barbra Streisand’s flawless eyeliner, only to comb it all out and wash it all off before stepping out into the world a butchish bisexual teen.
More Beth Ditto Quotes
-
-
I have a lot of feminist idols. My favorite thing about growing up in Arkansas – well, not favorite but something I’ve always felt grateful for – was that I really had to dig for what I could. There was no Internet. There wasn’t tons of feminist literature floating around.
BETH DITTO -
Because I didn’t have any queer, lesbian, female role models I hated my own femininity and had to look deep within myself to create an identity that worked for me. Pop culture just doesn’t hand us enough variety to choose from.
BETH DITTO -
If you have a therapist who agrees with your every word, then your brain isn’t getting proper exercise.
BETH DITTO -
I hate to do what I’m told, that’s why I’m not good at 9-to-5s.
BETH DITTO -
I just like food too much, and I don’t want to change. I spent so much of childhood trying to change, and I just got sick of it … I don’t want to look like Britney Spears, I just don’t want to. She’s hideous.
BETH DITTO -
I wish I could open a piece of my brain and you could see into my memories.
BETH DITTO -
When I think about the idea of Rebel Wilson having to go to the Oscars and not having something amazing to wear that’s made for her, it drives me mad.
BETH DITTO -
When I was a kid Ellen DeGeneres and Rosie O’Donnell were mere blips on the gaydar; and they were both still in the closet.
BETH DITTO -
I was always being told off at school. The teachers would say: ‘Everyone’s talking, but you’re the one I can hear.
BETH DITTO -
I never said I wanted to be a singer for the rest of my life.
BETH DITTO -
True love is about being able to accept raw emotions, no matter how difficult.
BETH DITTO -
I worshipped Ethel Merman and I worshipped Ethel Merman a lot. It’s incredible – Ethel Merman was a conventional singer. Her naming her child Ethel Merman, Jr., was, to me, one of the coolest feminist things.
BETH DITTO -
We all seek approval, and our mother’s seal is usually the most important. The nitty gritty is that we have to accept ourselves, even if it is just to be ready for the next cut-down. Mom’s blessing or not.
BETH DITTO -
High school wasn’t so bad though because, by then, I had worked out that there were far more nerdy kids and poor kids than there were rich, popular kids, so, at the very least, we had them outnumbered.
BETH DITTO -
With a stretch belt, anything can be a dress – a dinner napkin, a tablecloth, even a towel. Just wrap and snap, and away you go in an incredible outfit. Another plus is that the belt will pull all eyes to your lovely curves, and they even look good around a coat or a jacket.
BETH DITTO







