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2b4bd4f
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Because I still don't know what I really think or feel, and I'm throwing grenades and filling the air with smoke while I desperately, desperately try to get off the ground: to get elevation. Because I haven't yet learned the simplest and most important thing of all: the world is difficult, and we are all breakable. So just be kind.
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Caitlin Moran |
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32f2af4
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And of course, the deepest irony about the young being cynical is that they are the ones that need to move, and dance, and trust the most.
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Caitlin Moran |
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cc42b4c
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Don't you think women would be happier if Layla had a whole chorus about Eric Clapton watching Patti Boyd trying to climb over a park fence, pissed, in order to retrieve a shoe she threw in there, for a bet?
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Caitlin Moran |
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14e7fed
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After all, you can argue - argue until you cry - about what modern, codified misogyny is; but straight-up ungentlemanliness, of the kind his mother would clatter the back of his head for, is inarguable. It doesn't need to be a 'man vs woman' thing. It's just a tiff between The Guys. Seeing the whole world as 'The Guys' is important. The idea that we're all, at the end of the day, just a bunch of well-meaning schlumps, trying to get along, i..
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Caitlin Moran |
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0d324a9
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But if there is to be a fifth wave of feminism, I would hope that the main thing that distinguishes it from all that came before is that women counter the awkwardness, disconnect, and bullshit of being a modern woman not by shouting at it, internalizing it, or squabbling about it - but by simply pointing at it and going "HA!" instead."
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Caitlin Moran |
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ea1780e
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You wanted to become a doctor to help people and feel better at the end of your job, I think, watching them, as the nurse takes my hand. But I don't think you do feel better at the end of the day. You look like humans have constantly disappointed you.
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sadness
doctors
medical-work
helping
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Caitlin Moran |
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1e4d767
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I think it's a delightful thing, for a young teenage girl to befriend someone of another generation. She is like a window into the past, I think to myself.
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Caitlin Moran |
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e7b6b38
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The thing is, when you start smoking, you think you've bought a fun baby dragon. You think you've charmed a fabulous beast, as your toy, that will impress all that see it. And then, twenty years later, you wake up with your lungs full of cinder and shite, and the bed on fire, and you realize the dragon grew up--and burned your fucking house down.
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Caitlin Moran |
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ff26ded
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Books seem the most potent source: each one is the sum total of a life that can be inhaled in a single day.
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Caitlin Moran |
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5a1207f
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And so to read is, in truth, to be in the constant act of creation. The old lady on the bus with her Orwell, the businessman on the Tube with Patricia Cornwell, the teenager roaring through Capote -- they are not engaged in idle pleasure. Their heads are on fire. Their hearts are flooding. With a book, you are the landscape, the sets, the snow, the hero, the kiss -- you are the mathematical calculation the plots the trajectory of the blazin..
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Caitlin Moran |
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0bf8648
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Caz doesn't like 'nearness'. It makes her extremely irascible. In a three-bedroom council house with seven people in it, she is almost perpetually furious.
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Caitlin Moran |
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3297c06
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When the middle classes get passionate about politics, they're arguing about their treats--their tax breaks and their investments. When the poor get passionate about politics, they're fighting for their lives.
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Caitlin Moran |
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59171a3
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I speculate, briefly, on how different the world would be if it were run by women. In that world, if you were a lonely, horny woman - as I am. As I always am- you'd see Blu-tacked postcards by Soho doorways that read 'Nice man in cardigan, 24, will talk to you about The Smiths whilst making you cheese-on-toast+come to parties with you. Apply within'.
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Caitlin Moran |
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1ee81bc
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Jesus, I'm sorry. I have wasted your time with a fake deal. I acknowledge that this means you are of the case, and that I am now totally on my own in saving the family from destruction. I shall go back to not believing in you again. We will revert to our former positions. Sorry about all that. Take care. Lots of love to God. Amen.
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Caitlin Moran |
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b852bc0
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Please wait for me. Don't have all the fun now. Don't fill up on other people who aren't me. Don't ruin your appetite.
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love
missing-someone
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Caitlin Moran |
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1187907
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All my life, I've thought that if I couldn't say anything boys found interesting, I might as well shut up. But now I realize there was that whole other, invisible half of the world--girls--that I could speak to instead. A whole other half equally silent and frustrated, just waiting to be given the smallest starting signal--the tiniest starter culture--and they would explode into words, and song, and action, and relieved, euphoric cries of "..
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Caitlin Moran |
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676c36d
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And when you are being kissed like this, you are Christmas Day; you are the moon shot; you are field larks. My shoes were suddenly worth a million pounds, and my breath was the ethyl in champagne. When someone kisses you like this, you are the point of everything.
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Caitlin Moran |
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e5bf574
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It's worth remembering that [having a baby] is not of vital use to you as a woman. Yes, you could learn thousands of interesting things about love, strength, faith, fear, human relationships, genetic loyalty, and the effect of apricots on an immune digestive system. But I don't think there's a single lesson that motherhood has to offer that couldn't be learned elsewhere. If you want to know what's in motherhood for you, as a woman, then-in ..
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Caitlin Moran |
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44ee195
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Kite spends three minutes trying to calm me down - 'Dutch! Dutch!' - and then just hugs me with his huge arms, so I am completely wrapped up, and inside him, like an owl inside a hollow tree. This is my most enjoyable crying ever - if all crying were this pleasant, I would do it more often.
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Caitlin Moran |
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abc2606
|
When did feminism become confused with Buddhism? Why on earth have I, because I'm a woman, got to be nice to everyone? And why have women--on top of everything else--got to be particularly careful to be "lovely" and "supportive" to each other at all times? This idea of the "sisterhood" I find, frankly, illogical, I don't build in a 20 percent "Genital Similarity Regard Bonus" if I meet someone else wearing a bra. If someone's an arsehole, s..
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Caitlin Moran |
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a83ac01
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Quite how a heterosexual couple hiring a female cleaner ends up as a betrayal of feminism isn't terribly clear- unless you believe running a household is, in some way: a. an inarguable duty of womenkind- that, in addition, can b. only ever be done out of love, and never for cash, because that somehow "spoils" the magic of the household. As if dishes know they've been washed by hired help, instead of the woman of the house, and will feel all..
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Caitlin Moran |
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5cff11b
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I used to fear their deaths--the car! the dog! the sea! the germ!--until I realized it need never be a problem: on the trolley, on the way to the mortuary, I would put my hands into their ribs and take their hearts and swallow them, and give birth to them again, so that they would never, ever end.
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Caitlin Moran |
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cea27c3
|
The idea that pornography is intrinsically exploitative and sexist is bizarre: pornography is just some fucking, after all. The act of having sex isn't sexist, so there's no way pornography can be, in itself, inherently misogynist. So no. Pornography isn't the problem. Strident feminists are fine with pornography. It's the porn industry that's the problem. The whole thing is as offensive, sclerotic, depressing, emotionally bankrupt and desu..
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Caitlin Moran |
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3cb5b0e
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I want to tell Caz - also a redhead - that I have finally found her another role model, aside from Woody Woodpecker, and Annie in Annie.
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Caitlin Moran |
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eb42fc6
|
Because I am fully aware of what the word "fat" means--what it really means, when you say it, or think it. It's not just a simple, descriptive word like "brunette" or "34." It's a swear word. It's a weapon. It's a sociological subspecies. It's an accusation, dismissal, and rejection."
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Caitlin Moran |
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62c5931
|
I don't want him to pity me. I don't want him to see what I look like when I do something for the first time. I don't want anyone watching me change. I will do all my changing in private. In public I am, always, the finished thing. The right thing, for the right place. A chrysalis is hung in the dark.
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Caitlin Moran |
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ac37c04
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A gig, I realize now, is a place where people come together and give permission for anything to happen. Things can be said and shouted and sung; people get pissed; people get kissed-there is a communal agenda of joyous wilding. These are the boardroom meetings of young people, where we establish our vibe.
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Caitlin Moran |
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8da9480
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Death is not a release, but an incentive. The more focused you are on your death, the more righteously you live your life.
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life
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Caitlin Moran |
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21fa05b
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These days, if your child announced that they wanted to be a politician most people would react as if they had come down to the breakfast table and said, 'Mother, Father - I've decided to become a massive pervert.
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Caitlin Moran |
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d0276b5
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she is in the girl Matrix trying to catch invisible slow mo bullets those of us outside the Matrix can't see. You can always tell when a woman is with the wrong man because she has so much to say about the fact that nothing is happening. When a woman finds the right person, on the other hand, they just disappear for six months and then they resurface, eyes shiny and usually about six pounds heavier.
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Caitlin Moran |
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ee496f9
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And that was the point I knew I just loved this filthy, ugly, loquacious man in a fur coat, who would spend the day roaming all over town, looking for bright lights, and laughter - and then at night come on stage, and unbutton two buttons on his waistcoat, with his clumsy, fat fingers, and show you his heart beneath.
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Caitlin Moran |
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2f90a73
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Personally, I find the idea that women are supposed to "love" shopping bizarre - nearly every woman I know wants to cry after 45 minutes of trawling the high street looking for a shirt and hits the gin with alacrity upon the sad occasions when jeans have to be found."
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Caitlin Moran |
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2e80106
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You actually don't exist while you're in your bedroom," I say to the dog, so that she knows this important fact. "Teenage girls in bedrooms aren't real." --
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Caitlin Moran |
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e345144
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This is what happens, when it feels like the weight of the world is crushing right down on you. You fear it's going to change you forever. And you're right. It is. It's going to turn you into something that is both beautiful, and the most indestructible thing on the planet. I am both touched, and amused, by how apt its name is: Hope. "I relate to you," I say to the Hope Diamond, as I stand there, staring at it. "I get what you are saying. Y..
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Caitlin Moran |
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87b698a
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Anger is just fear, brought to the boil.
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Caitlin Moran |
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471bcbf
|
It's amazing to me that it's still considered a notable, commendable trait -'Oh, she's a well-known feminist' -in a woman, or a girl, or a man, or a boy. That that is the unusual thing. Really, it should be the reverse. Rather than what seems like a minority having to spend time, energy, brain and heart explaining why they're 'into' equality, the majority should be explaining why they're not. You put the time into explaining why -in a world..
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feminism
respect
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Caitlin Moran |
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f85f88f
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Because I haven't yet learned the simplest and most important thing of all: the world is difficult, and we are all breakable. So just be kind.
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Caitlin Moran |
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5e9f623
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for all that people have tried to abuse it and disown it. "feminism" is still the word we need. No other word will do. And let's face it, there has been no other word, save "Girl Power" -- which makes you sound like you're into some branch of Scientology owned by Geri Halliwell. That "Girl Power" has been the sole rival to the word "feminism" in the last 50 years is a cause for much sorrow on behalf of the women. After all, P. Diddy has had..
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humor
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Caitlin Moran |
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50e4c8d
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When God gives you no lemons - make nonmonade!
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Caitlin Moran |
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61c06d4
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I cannot understand antiabortion arguments that center on the sanctity of life. As a species, we've fairly comprehensively demonstrated that we don't believe in the sanctity of life. The shrugging acceptance of war, famine, epidemic, pain, and lifelong, grinding poverty show us that, whatever we tell ourselves, we've made only the most feeble of efforts to really treat human life as sacred.
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Caitlin Moran |
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c442412
|
I do understand why women started to reject the word "feminism." It ended up being invoked in so many bafflingly inappropriate contexts that--if you weren't actually aware of the core aims of feminism and were trying to work it out simply from the surrounding conversation--you'd presume it was some spectacularly unappealing combination of misandry, misery, and hypocrisy, which stood for ugly clothes, constant anger, and, let's face it, no f..
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Caitlin Moran |
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c03c01c
|
With mounting concern, I learned that having a PS600 handbag is like having a crush on the Joker in Batman. You MUST do it. It is an irreducible fact of being a woman.
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Caitlin Moran |
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7efb1b0
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I appear to have no time for blondes--except for Bugs Bunny, dressed up as a woman, as he seduces the fool Fudd. That is a woman I could be, definitely: a cartoon man-rabbit dressed up as a girl, trying to have sex with a stuttering bald man. I could definitely do that.
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Caitlin Moran |
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b8d3ad7
|
Rock music needs very supportive bras, I note, holding onto my bosoms as I leap up and down, doggedly. This is something the music press had never mentioned. They have so little guidance for girls.
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Caitlin Moran |