A Quote by Curtis Sittenfeld
Sometimes, there can be a slightly condescending assumption that anything unlikable about a female character is a mistake, as if they're a contestant in a beauty pageant and have to seem charming and upbeat all the time.
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When a woman creates an unlikable character, a lot of people think it's a mistake.
I accidentally entered a youth pageant when I was 14. That's like a beauty pageant, but without the beauty. It was terrible.
Especially as a title-holder, you can do great things with charities, because people suddenly care about what you have to say. I wanted to make a difference, which is why I created the Queen of the Universe pageant. I want to change all of those stigmas in the beauty pageant world.
There is a thing about beauty. Beauty is always associated with the male fantasy of what the female body is. I don’t think there is anything wrong with beauty. It’s just what women think is beautiful can be different. And there can be a beauty in individualism. If there is a wart or a scar, this can be beautiful, in a sense, when you paint it.
I think every time you take a female character, a black character, a Hispanic character, a gay character, and make that the point of the character, you are minimalizing the character.
The panelists on To Tell The Truth, which is the one that I really knew, they cared about getting it right. They wanted to guess, you know? Although, when I was on as a contestant, the one time I was on as a contestant, apparently they had a rule, which was that when children were on, everybody would get a vote - and Kitty Carlisle voted for me.
I sometimes react to making a mistake as if I have betrayed myself. My fear of making a mistake seems to be based on the hidden assumption that I am potentially perfect and that if I can just be very careful I will not fall from heaven. But a 'mistake' is a declaration of the way I am, a jolt to the way I intend, a reminder I am not dealing with the facts. When I have listened to my mistakes I have grown.
A culture fixation on female thinness is not an obsession about female beauty but an obsession about female obedience. Dieting is the most potent political sedative in women’s history; a quietly mad population is a tractable one.
What I find weird is that the term 'chick lit' is used to encompass literally anything a woman writes about relationships. It's the assumption that because you're female, you must write in a certain way. I don't understand why that is - it is a bit demeaning.
Somewhere a woman is praying her toddler wins a beauty pageant. I say this because sometimes people wonder why God lets tornadoes happen.
Unlike the people you see in Mathew Brady's photographs from the Civil War, the men and women of the Revolution seem more like characters in a costume pageant. And it's a pageant in which the performers are all handsome as stage actors, with uniforms and dress that are always costume perfect.
A cultural fixation on female thinness is not an obsession about female beauty but an obsession about female obedience.
Sometimes the director will want you to write about the character, sometimes he'll want you to live in the location that the character is from or something like that, but I don't usually make a lot of notes or anything like that.
People are saying, "I have a right to my opinion. Don't just keep condescending, telling me what to think." There's something slightly liberating about that, but also it lends itself to being taken advantage of, because in come the demagogues.
I sometimes think that I might be slightly autistic. There might be a syndrome that hasn't been named. I don't seem to see the world in the same way that most people I know see it. They don't seem to be baffled by it.
Winning a pageant or sometimes simply participating in a contest can change your life. Outer beauty is just a part of the judgement, but what's important are your views and opinions that are shown to the world.
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