“I've never been nostalgic, personally or politically - if the past was so great, how come it's history?”
History“Can I just say here how much I hate the word 'pamper'? While pretending to celebrate and indulge women, it actually implies that their bodies are so revolting that even their 'me time' must be dedicated to turning them into living dolls if potential suitors are to be prevented from running screaming in horror.”
Women“I've never been nostalgic, personally or politically - if the past was so great, how come it's history?”
History“The Feminist Me says that a woman's right to her own body should be inviolate at all times, free from fear of peeping paps.”
Fear“As I get older I think, contrary to modern assumption but in line with the old Lerner and Lowe song, that it would actually benefit both them and society if - to quote Professor Higgins - a woman could be more like a man.”
Society“I've always thought of beauty therapy, 'alternative' treatments and the like as the female equivalent of brothels - for essentially self-deceiving people who feel a bit hollow and have to pay to be touched.”
Beauty“Most women are wise to the fact that lots of men love a cat-fight, and thus go out of their way not to give them one.”
Women“A good part - and definitely the most fun part - of being a feminist is about frightening men.”
Men“The truth of the matter is, beauty is a specific thing, rare and fleeting. Some of us have it in our teens, 20s and 30s and then lose it most of us have it not at all. And that's perfectly okay. But lying to yourself that you have it when you don't seems to me simple-minded at best and psychotic at worst.”
Beauty“When did women whose looks are not their living start conducting themselves like the simpering inmates of an Ottoman empire seraglio?”
Women“The money I pay for my cultural experiences came willingly from my own pocket - they were not the result of bread being removed from the mouths of the poor so that Miss Thing here could mince off to the circus smelling of roses.”
Money“It's received wisdom that the English are uniquely child-unfriendly.”
Wisdom“What sort of sap doesn't know by now that picture-perfect beauty is all done with smoke and mirrors anyway?”
Beauty“As a kid, I grew to define what I didn't want my life to be like by sitting behind moaning women on the bus, hearing them bang on about their aches and pains, both real and imagined.”
Women“No one knows 'men' as such, any more than anyone knows 'women,' and if they do generalise they're probably trying to hide their own ignorance. You might know one 'man,' yes, or even lots of individual 'men'.”
Women“As a precocious teen I dreamed of being Graham Greene. Well, as it turned out, I never wrote a great novel, sadly, and I never converted to Catholicism, happily, but I did do one thing he did. That is, in middle age I moved to a seaside town and got into a right barney with the local powers-that-be.”
Age“As with most liberal sexual ideas, what makes the world a better place for men invariably makes it a duller and more dangerous place for women.”
Women“The freedom that women were supposed to have found in the Sixties largely boiled down to easy contraception and abortion things to make life easier for men, in fact.”
Freedom“When I moved out of London 13 years ago, I found a whole other reason not to drive. This was because my new husband Dan, unlike my dad, did drive, and this became a great source of fun and adventure.”
Dad“Women, more often than not, do things which aren't remotely relaxing but are all about preening, which is just another sort of work.”
Women“'Stress' was the catch-all every pamper-pedlar I spoke to used to explain why healthy women feel the need to be regularly patted, petted and preened into a state of babyish beatification.”
Women“Make no mistake, most women are well aware that they've never had it so good when they enter a spa or salon, it is purely a hair/nails thing, a prelude to an evening of guilt-free fun.”
Women