When I am made fun of in the press I just remember those days when I’d come home to find that the water had been turned off because my mother couldn’t afford the bill. Suddenly, everything feels easier. – Beth Ditto
I really worshipped Mama Cass a lot. Mama Cass, who was really fat and she didn’t lose weight. Yeah, she went on diets but for the most part of her life and the better part of her career she was a big person. – Beth Ditto
You live in this shadow that you’re going to burn in Hell until you’re saved. And I still worry about it a little. I don’t believe in Heaven, but I do still fear Hell. – Beth Ditto
I was overcome by the Holy Ghost one time, but in a Baptist way. I was six or seven, and I was saved. I just cried and cried. It was joy! – Beth Ditto
My size has helped make me an amazing performer too. The cliche of the Funny Fat Friend: I absolutely was that character – I am that character… It’s a complicated bag of tools I acquired, and I’ve put them all to work onstage. – 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
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
Aretha Franklin was a teenage mom, a musician who came from an incredibly Christian background, but there was a lot of love, which is really inspiring in a feminist way. – Beth Ditto
Granny Ditto always referred to perfume as ‘smell good’ and for me it’s an essential. I have a sweetheart who’s extremely allergic to most scents, so I have to be extra careful – as well as creative – in the smell department. The key, I’ve found, are essential oils, which come in all kinds of 100% natural scents. – Beth Ditto
Thanks to capitalism, the importance placed on beauty has never been so manipulated. We are the guinea pigs force-fed ads that tell us how pathetic we are: that we will never be loved, happy or valuable unless we have the body, the face, the hair, even the personality that will apparently be ours, if only we buy their products. – Beth Ditto
I think it’s really cool that there are people like Adele on the cover of ‘Vogue’ and ‘Rolling Stone,’ and like I think it’s really important that people are talking about your body, because if they don’t, then you’ll never be able to break that barrier. – Beth Ditto
Girls are taught to sing high and pretty, like Antony, not low and from the guts like Nina Simone. But we’re slowly trying to change that. There are so many things we’re not told growing up, and it’s our true feminist responsibility to take the truth to the people who need to hear it. – Beth Ditto
For me the greatest revenge of all is having a happy adulthood, waking up in my gorgeous turquoise bedroom in the morning beside a person who really inspires me. That’s the best revenge a girl-loving girl from the Bible belt could possibly have. And, importantly, it’s healthy. – Beth Ditto
My mother told me Homer Ditto was not my father. Nope. Mom had had a fling with some other guy who was my dad. Some dude who didn’t stick around too long who Mom was happy to get rid of. She chose Homer, and Homer chose me, so he lent me his name even though I didn’t have his blood. – Beth Ditto
I love sad songs. They say so much. I love country music but even the happy songs sound really sad. – Beth Ditto
I believe I owe all the best parts of my adulthood to embracing my imperfections and showcasing them. – Beth Ditto
I was born to be married. I just feel comfortable there. I love the idea of being partnered for ever. I love my girlfriend, we’ve been best friends since I was 18. There’s not a thing we haven’t been through except for marriage… We’ve had talks about what we would name our kids since we were in our 20s. – Beth Ditto
Just like my straight friends, I am repeatedly asked when I plan to have kids, and have been told many times, by various branches of my bloodline, that ‘even lesbians can have babies these days.’ – Beth Ditto
As a kid, I was always mad – just noticing the women at Thanksgiving, running around the kitchen, while the men were watching football. For one, I don’t want to cook, and for two, I hate football. I was stuck in the middle. – Beth Ditto
I can take care of a house, and some people I meet, I think, ‘You don’t even know how to make a bed.’ – Beth Ditto
This archaic idea – that a woman who is unmarried and childless at 30 is somehow unnatural – will probably always exist, and, like most social standards, it is ridiculous. – Beth Ditto
I’m a great believer in karma, and the vengeance that it serves up to those who are deliberately mean is generally enough for me. – Beth Ditto
It’s really hard for me to sometimes put myself out there, like ‘Hey, how do you feel about making music together?’ because maybe I’m afraid of rejection or I don’t want to put anybody out. It’s the Southerner in me, like, ‘I don’t mean to bother you but do you mind making a song?’ – 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
I thought to be feminine was to give in to straight culture, or the beauty standard, but in my heart I had a flair for fashion and style. They were passions I kept secret because I didn’t understand I could love clothes and hair and makeup and still like girls. – Beth Ditto
I’m a feminist, of course, and I feel as if I’m very politically correct, although I do question what’s P.C. and what’s not – I don’t just accept what I’m told. – Beth Ditto
I want to make the IKEA of clothes for fat girls and boys. Cheap, affordable, basic – but ethically made. Basics, you know? Like Spanx – I’m still confused as to why retailers haven’t ripped them off yet and done it well. It’s because they don’t understand the basics behind it. I love Spanx. I’m wearing ’em right now! – Beth Ditto
