The Upside of Being a Girl

The Upside of being a girl

So lately, I have been into FRAN LEBOWITZ talks and interviews. I purchased her book "The Fran Lebowitz Reader" a year after finishing her Netflix series "Pretend it's a City". I just never hear someone who talks and thinks like that [I clearly love her but I wanted to stay calm]

[below are a few text transcripts of some of her interviews/speaking that I really like. And I just wanted to remember some of them. Because life moving so fast one of these days, I can get back to these notes that will lead me to re-listen / re-watch them whenever I wanted to relax on some laughs and perspectives.]

Spotify podcast called >>"It's a Long Story"<< by Sydney Opera House station on Spotify. Total 42:34 minutes interviewed by Edwina Throsby 

Q : Are you a feminist? 

A: I never really thought of myself that way, because I never really think of myself as a person who agrees with that many people, you know. I live in the real world, but I've been able to live my life paying the least attention to men, that you can possibly pay. In that way, like someone said: did you ever meet etcetera. No, I never remember men. But I mean, Yes. I'm for girls. I always said that. I always say:

when there is like Lena Dunham when she appears in a courtroom. And people of course, first they loved her and then they hate her and write a million things about her. This is a TV show for people who are like, 22 years old and this is nothing to do with me, and if you ask, "would I watch this?" "of course I wouldn't watch this, I'm not 22 years old" people asked me "but do you think she's really that great?" and I'm always saying, do you have any idea how many really mediocre male talents, succeed spectacularly? why are you so intent on making sure that Lena Dunham is a genius because she writes television shows. The standard they hold girls to, the hatred, of someone succeeding like that, hugely when she was so young, That just envy. And that's male anchor because that's gonna be someone, I'm sure she must be older than 22 now, but the anger at someone that young succeeding is much much more if she's a girl. They were just as good as 22-year-old boys who do that well. They're probably better because it's so much harder for them.

So basically, I'm always said, I'm on the side of girls.

Pretend it's a city. "Department of Sports & Health" Min. 10.00 interviewed by Spike Lee.

S: You hate sports.

F: But the reason sports are so central is that men are in charge.

S: Men are in charge of the world

F: That is correct. Let me ask you. If women were in charge of the world, do you think there would be professional hopscotch?

S: You come from a different era. Today, women wanna play sports, and women are playing all types of sports.

F: This is one of the reasons, I'm not a girl now. Because when I was in school, girls didn't have to play football. Girls didn't have to play sports, and that was the upside of being a girl.

S: But, it's not they have to, they wanna play

F: Yes, but we did not. We didn't want to, and we didn't have to.

S: And the world has evolved.

F: In that way. I would prefer there were more women in congress and fewer playing football, but...

Pretend it's a city. "Board of Estimate" The last 5 min. Interviewed by Martin Scorsese

It's the same with the "me too" movement. Being a girl it's the same from Eve until about eight months ago. "Don't you think maybe this woman is lying?" "Don't you think she's lying?" And my feeling basically about this, I believe every single woman proves to me she's lying. I'm sure some people are lying. I'm positive, of course. But you have to prove that to me because I was a young woman. Okay? Anyone who was a girl, who was a young woman, knows what this is about. It's like what I said before, you couldn't get a shift as a waitress at the restaurant (unless you sleep with the manager) So, I believe these women.

A lot of guys who got caught, especially at the beginning, I knew every single one of them. Personally, I knew them. I knew a million stories about all these guys, but not the stories that they got caught with. Like there are men accused of violence and rape. I never heard those stories. Those are not the kind of stories you hear. as much. Because even stupid guys don't brag about things like that, because somewhere they know that this is a crime.

There is a difference between crime and the movie business. Luckily, I don't want to be a movie star, so, you know, I believe their stories about those guys and about the woman who wanted to be a movie star so much they did it. That's not the same thing as rape. it's wrong and bad. So if that's a movie business, that's one thing, but

if you make beds in a hotel at 6 dollars an hour, and the person in charge of not only your life but the fact that you're probably undocumented that person is like the janitor on that floor... That's what the problem is. Not who's a movie star or not, who's a model or not. I mean, yes, those things are wrong. Absolutely, they're wrong. I think, if we hadn't started with that no one would pay attention. People pay attention because they are movie stars. No one's gonna pay attention to the person who makes beds in the hotel. Of course, there are millions and millions of women in that position, and, basically, they're hostages. 

No, you don't have to be a movie star, but you have to earn a living, you know. So that's what this is really about.