Here’s something nice: Shirley Manson is still pretty awesome. If you were around in the 1990s, chances are pretty good that you loved Shirley Manson and/or her band, Garbage. She was part of the female-led rock band revolution, along with Hole, The Breeders, Ani DiFranco, Siouxsie and the Banshees, No Doubt, Portishead, Bikini Kill and more. It’s sort of painful to realize that the era of mainstream, badass Riot Grrl-driven alt-rock music is over. Anyway, Shirley is still around, and Garbage is still around. They’re touring, and to promote their latest album (Strange Little Birds), Shirley spoke to an Australian TV show about the state of feminism today and what she thinks of the young girls growing up in the current social media-driven culture. Shirley is 50 years old, by the way. And yes, she still kicks ass. Some quotes from her interview:
On identifying as a feminist: “Why any woman would want to divorce themselves from the idea of equality is beyond my understanding. With September 11 I think the world got really conservative. And whenever the world gets conservative, women are affected.”
The erosion of women’s rights across the world: “There’s definitely a global movement towards eradicating women’s rights. You’ll see it in Poland, you’ll see it in Argentina, you’re seeing it in the States. I mean, it’s just everywhere.”
Women got complacent: “I think that’s a result, in some ways, of a generation that followed the 90s, and women took for granted their rights, their human rights. [They] thought they were there to stay, not really understanding that human rights get eroded constantly and you always have to be really vigilant to make sure that these rights that women have fought so hard for remain in place. Instead we got a whole generation of young women who maybe thought they were living in the Garden of Eden. I’m not entirely sure what went wrong or what’s happened but they divorced themselves from the idea of feminism.”
The women fighting the good fight: “I think any woman that breaks conventional rules, stereotyping, is fighting the good fight. Whether that’s Michelle Obama, whether it’s Serena Williams, whether it’s Grimes … any successful athlete, any engineer, any producer, I mean, everybody’s at it.”
On social media: “There’s so much pressure on young women to be beautiful, to put a photograph up on social media and have people go, ‘Wow, you’re so beautiful.’ Unfortunately it’s such an empty pursuit, really, to be told you’re beautiful. It’s kind of meaningless because there will always be another beautiful woman to follow. Ironically, when I was my youngest and most beautiful I felt the most pressure. I was always feeling that I was falling short and, you know, looking back, I was young and beautiful, and I didn’t know I was, I was oblivious to that fact. I think women really need to shift their focus onto something that creates a foundation for them as they grow through life. Nobody stays young and beautiful forever; therefore, build a platform on which you can stand through storms. As I’ve gotten older … I have focussed on things that I consider much more important. I want to be a great writer, I want to be good at what I do, I want to go on stage and blow people away.”
During the presidential election, I watched an interview with Gloria Steinem in which she talked about watching women in their 20s come to the slow realization that the world was still a really sh-tty place to be a woman. While Steinem said some/many problematic things during the election, the fundamental truth of that interview stuck with me: that teenage girls and women in their 20s grew up in an era where they were told they were equal, that they had a level playing field, that they could do anything a man could do. And by the time we get to our 30s, we’ve seen enough of the world to know that all of that was a lie. I imagine women are feeling that even more in the wake of the election. Anyway, I agree with what Shirley says here, although I wouldn’t necessarily call it “complacency.” I think “naiveté” might be a better word for it, especially since two generations of women have now been raised with the fundamental lie that they are equal, that there is a level playing field, that there isn’t a separate set of rules for them.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Everthing. She. Said. And Kaiser too. I’m in awe.
I love her. I do. Since I was growing up with her as my music idol in mid 90s. She represented true beauty to me. I agree with what she says and unfortunately you can see how this cult of sexy lean and beautiful youth that supposedly represents what it is being a woman has completely overtook the music industry. There are no Garbage or Hole of the 21 century. She came along with Gwen Stefani. I would really like to hear Shirley’s thoughts on Gwen now. She was a kick ass rocker. And she turned into this oversexualized doll that basically rewrites the same songs about boyfriends and love. That’s her only theme now despite the fact she is over 40 and has kids.
Yes. It pains me greatly to know my son already has a huge advantage over my daughter, just because of gender alone.
It was somewhat of a shock for my very liberal husband as well.
It’s hard to tell my children to be their best, try their hardest, work for their goals, the way the world seems to be heading.
I am grateful to live in Canada, if only we could shut up Kevin O’Leary.
kevin o’leary is such an embarrassment.
ugh.
and i hear you, original kay…i am back to being grateful i had two sons and no daughters. especially now.
xxxooo
I know what you were trying to say…but your comment skeeved me out. I once watched a documentary and in it they interviewed an Indian woman about her sex-selective abortion to abort a female and that was the answer she gave. That life would be better for sons. Your comment reminded me of that. I feel like not having daughters isn’t the solution. I know that’s not what you were saying, but it was kind of an eerie parallel.
Agree with everything you said, pinetree.
Yeah about Kevin, he’s got to go. He’s the last thing we need here in Canada.
I live in Canada, we have plenty of issues here. Far from equality if you ask me.
I am grateful to live in Canada too, in part because of my daughter. Although there’s sexism here too, guaranteed health insurance, sex ed, abortion access, one-year maternity leaves, same-sex couple rights, and public junior K are still miles ahead of the situation in the States. Girls are vaccinated against HPV by the public system – in the schools (we’re in Ontario). Fewer guns means fewer guns used in domestic violence, too. Canada has a lot of work to do about STEM education, workplace equality, child care, and elder care, and where I live women who do administrative work are still called “girls” (grrr) but they are “girls” who don’t need to tag onto a husband’s insurance and “girls” who are generally better protected by the social safety net.
Shirley is my forever crush. I adore her. I saw this interview and agree with everything she said. My only hope is that the election of he who shall not be named has woken up a lot of people (young women especially) and has ushered in a new era of bad ass women refusing to sit back and let their hard fought rights be taken away from them.
I agree, Louisa. Not so long ago, many young women were distancing themselves from “the f word” (feminism). I’m old enough to know why we need to step up and be vigilant; younger women now see how quickly what we assumed to be inalienable rights can disappear.
But I also see, thanks to social media and its impacts, women standing up for ourselves more than ever. Just a few short years ago, for instance, slut shaming was considered acceptable–valid moral judgements. Because women were brave enough to speak out, this way of controlling us is losing its power.
I believe that men have had their turn running the world. It got us here. Now that we need brains more than brawn, emotional intelligence more than bravado, and creativity more than destruction, it’s time for women to take over. Every time we speak up, stand up, and lead through positive, peaceful action, we move closer to improving things for ourselves, our sisters, and the world at large.
Thanks for listening 💜
AMEN!
Who run the world? GIRLS! hahaha love it
Had to listen to “Milk”. I can so much relate to everything she said.
This! many times over.
Agree with Shirley 100%. She looks great too.
Oh, don’t forget Veruca Salt, Kaiser. Seether is still my jam.
She’s a total Boss! Always has been, hopefully always will be.
My idol since i was 12. Thank you Shirley!
Love her. Hope I look this good at 50. And everything she says is spot on. I’m raising two awesome girls, and the conversations I’ve had to have with them during and after the election is terrifying. Nothing that I would have imagined in the year 2016. It’s very very apparent that we as a nation haven’t come that far since I was a kid, on so many levels.
This weekend my daughter and I are going to write a thank-you letter to Hillary Clinton for being the powerful woman and candidate she has been. My daughter is in college and showed enormous empathy for what Clinton must have experienced after the election. I think it was a proxy for what she, herself, was feeling as a young woman who voted in her first presidential election for a black man and in her second presidential election for a (white) woman.
It breaks my heart to think of young women today trying to make their way under the powerful and lawless all-groping shadow of the president-elect.
My son is ten and I had him watch the debates- I thought it was teaching him
How a horrible human being would be defeated by an awesome mom. ( i extricated is from his abusive father in court -took 5 years). I thought It would teach him the rules of being a man- don’t assault, don’t name call, don’t stalk (everything trump did or admitted to in the debate stage). Instead? The haters of our nation proved that feminism has suffered an immense set-back. We have a lot of work to do!
My son is ten and I had him watch the debates- I thought it was teaching him
How a horrible human being would be defeated by an awesome mom. ( i extricated us from his abusive father in court -took 5 years). I thought It would teach him the rules of being a man- don’t assault, don’t name call, don’t stalk (everything trump did or admitted to in the debate stage). Instead? The haters of our nation proved that women’s rights have suffered an immense set-back. We have a lot of work to do!
She’s so right. Even here in the UK, where women’s reproductive rights aren’t in any danger at all. The austerity program of the last 6 years has seen 85% of the cuts in welfare and services fall upon women. Equality legislation notwithstanding. And if you enforce female poverty and cut female services, you make all sorts of things impossible – such as escaping abusive relationships. There is no doubt women’s equality has been rolled back in the UK.
Utterly deluded – every last one of you. Female British PM, Female German President etc….id say Trump’s female Campaign Manager is going to be fairly employable for LIFE Too. My wife out earns me and I’m tired of this redundant dialogue….it’s becoming more equal (as it should) stop taking this Trump ‘setback’ so personally. Let’s not get carried away.
Cool user name! I think you would love and identity with this Twitter account: @manwhohasitall
(Texas just decided to make women who have abortions hold funerals. Just, y’know, FYI.)
I was sexually assaulted last year, were you? I’ve been sexually assaulted probably a dozen times over my life. And so have my friends. Have you? Are their certain countries you can’t travel to because they wouldn’t be safe to because of your gender? Oh wait, they only have those travel warnings for women don’t they?
I could go on and on, but why I am I feeding a troll to begin with? The key tenet of privilege is that those who have it don’t know it.
Women who are in charge of entire countries is still remarkably rare. You just named two places out of how many in the world and you think we’re catching up? That’s deluded.
Kelly Conway is one woman on the Trump team. She will not be employable beyond a very specific small group of people and I doubt anyone will want her on a corporate board in the same way they wanted Condoleezza Rice – a fellow conservative who is highly connected beyond her circle and is a scholar and an intellect (hardly Conway’s parvenu).
The Obama administration has significantly more woman in positions of authority and that began when he first ran for office. His administration was a first in that regard and it was notable although unlikely to continue under a Trump presidency.
Reproductive rights are being rolled back all over the world and this is happening in western countries. Women are subjected to sexual assualt and intimidation all over the world. There are countries where women still can not drive, appear in pubic or be permitted to travel without male relatives. There are many countries in the world that marry off their daughters when they are children because there are no other options. There are many countries in the world where girls are subjected to genital mutilation. There are many countries in the world where girls are not allowed to attend school. Women in the US still do not make the equal pay for the same jobs. They are excluded at greater percentages from advancement and raises. They make up a fraction of corporate leadership and even fewer sit on corporate boards. These are facts in evidence not deluded fairy tales.
Please stop parading your one or two examples of success as the norm. The women you are referring to are outliers.
@pussygrabbah — Roe V. Wade being overturned by the Trump administration’s pick for Supreme Court disproves your entire post. And gives every American woman the right to be mad as hell at this moron being our President.
@pussygrabbah the german President is Male ! The Chancellor is female, that’s a difference, go do you Homework…..
It is not the norm, you don’t get the Point at all, but hey we are used to it, most Men are less educated than Woman, weaker intellect, that’s a Fact by the Way, and still we liberally let you in our lives….
You don’t seem to be the brightest Tool in the Box…your Nickname is telling..
Nice one Trixie. I think the fact that his wife out earns him might be a factor.
I love a good troll.
@Pussygrabbah I think YOU’RE the one who is deluded. Kudos for managing to find a couple paltry examples of women in leadership positions (but I wouldn’t count being the orange one’s campaign manager as being a primo leadership position but I digress) but the point of feminism is equality. 50/50 not like 3 token leadership roles, not 5% or 10% of the senate but 50%. Your wife out earning you is beside the point, she may be more educated or competent than you, or both. The point is YOU don’t get to decide how personal anyone is taking this “set back” and because it doesn’t affect you, inherently you haven’t really thought about it deeply nor do you understand what’s happening. It’s insulting to suggest otherwise. Also your handle sucks.
Shirley M. Is awesome and spot on. But this global movement has been building for decades.
Young women today are often uninformed about women’s rights history. They don’t have the understanding of how many of these rights are recent, and continually need to be protected.
That Roe v Wade might be overturned due to the Trump administration (*vomit) is a testament to the power of this global movement, and information is our friend. Encourage knowledge, people. This is what ignorance brings.
Truly a goddess. My spirit animal! Go get em Shirley!
Lord, that flame red hair… She is breathtaking.
And I cosign everything she says. Brava, Ms. Manson.
I’m too pooped to comment intelligently, so: honking for Shirley.
there is still a lot of talk about feminism and none about the disrespect and competition between women themselves. I have seen countless examples of women aggressively pursuing married men, backstabbing each other at work, actively trying to destroy other women’s confidence (like commenting about how “tired you look” or that you “lost soooo much weight”)
Forget about feminism, there is no sisterhood
Those things aren’t related…….
There are always going to be nasty, petty minded people around. That has zero to do with feminism.
I remember when she hated on the spice girls, wanted to fight J-lo and called Christina Aguilara the c word. She was unnecessarily nasty to some of the female pop stars in late 90 early 2000s. She seems to have grown up.
the war on women is not new. but now is really frightening and getting strenght. maybe this teaches us women a lesson -to speak up, to not let men get away with everything, to think first about us and not them (men), to not repeat what society wants us to do (marriage, children, laugh at the stupid male jokes, etc). Maybe it is our wake up call.