Beth Ditto | Beauty of Pride Beauty Memo

It means a lot to represent the scene that I came from,

and to give back

to the queer scene.

To talk about queer joy and just joy at all.

When we made this record, we worked with Cody Critcheloe

who directed the video,

and he did the artwork for Real Power, the Gossip record.

And I was on the phone with him,

and I was like, The world is in so much turmoil.

There's so much going on.

How can I promote this?

How can I talk about this, just myself the whole time?

Believe it or not, I do worry

that I'm talking about myself too much.

He's another queer person, also a southerner from the US,

and he was like, Beth, you know what?

I just decided that the most radical thing I can do

right now is just let myself have some joy.

And that is, to me, is just so phenomenal.

It's just one of the most beautiful things

that I've heard and I was like, Oh my God.

Yeah, I'm not allowing myself joy.

And to see young queers and young activists,

and normal conversations with my 18-year-old niece,

about gender and feminism and capitalism, it's wild.

It's in her vernacular and it's just, it feels so special.

Take your meds, take your meds.

Sleep is a big one.

And also, don't hang out with people that make you feel

like shit.

What you think about me is none of my business,

I don't care.

Oh my God, trying to take my tights off at shows,

'cause they were so hot,

and I could not stand 'em on my skin anymore,

and just lifting it up and just full fledged genitalia.

Luckily, it's very contained.

Because there's a transformation,

I think anything is possible,

and when you can literally change the landscape

of your face or your body, that's so powerful.

It's not about being more beautiful.

[laughs] My niece, Ava Beth, she's my baby,

she just graduated high school and when I had short bangs,

'cause I shaved my eyebrows off, she said to me,

Aunt Beth, there's, you look like uncle Fester.

[laughs] And I was like, Oh my God, I do.

That's the thing is I loved it.

She didn't mean it as a diss, she was like,

I'm clocking something and it's real.

Reclaiming your idea of beauty,

your identity, your power,

your self-expression for yourself is so powerful,

and makeup can really do that.

Stop the idea of competing with other people,

and just nipping that in the bud.

Feminism 101.

Jealousy kills girl love.

This is not a competition.

You really do have control over

what you think about yourself and it is deprogramming.

You really do have to remind yourself that that's,

it's constant work.

It doesn't get easier.

It changes.

Certain things you let go of, but guess what?

You start aging.

Different set of rules, baby.

When I was younger, in my twenties,

it wasn't cool to do Pride in the punk scene.

Now, you can say it's corporate, you can say whatever,

that's the least of our worries.

It means looking out for each other,

and remembering not to take things for granted.

We've been here and we've been here forever,

and we're always gonna be here.