Surprised? Don't be - we knew of her brilliance a while ago. Photo: Getty
Caitlin Moran’s book, a personal treatise on modern feminism, How to Be a Woman, has just been released in the US, and the Daily Beast, like anyone with a bit of taste, is falling all over themselves about it, calling her the 'British Tina Fey'. The book, which is being made into a sit-com and a movie, has so far generated enormous buzz. Moran sat down with the media website to promote all things womanly and even made them a video – bless. But before we cut to the vid, (we felt like feminist icon Aaron Sorkin just now), we urge you to have a read of some bits of the interview we have lovingly reproduced below.
Have you seen Girls? Oh my God, have I seen Girls? I live in Girls. I am Girls. I'm going to interview Lena Dunham because I'm so obsessed with her that I could cry. I love her. Watching Girls has just given me renewed courage. I just love what she’s done. She's just realized that often a reaction shot of her lovely big round face is enough.
And what’s that agenda?
There’s a realization that I came to writing the book: that often so much of being a woman is about keeping secrets. True things about being a woman—bleeding, masturbating, being pregnant, giving birth, the way that we get obsessed with relationships, bad boyfriends, having sexism happen to us—they’re all things that we try to keep secret. You’re supposed to cover all that stuff up and sort of deal with it quietly on your own. Not let anyone smell your smells or see your stains or know the bad things happening in your heart or the things that confuse you. And you’re kind of led to believe that if you're ever truthful about all these bad things, you’d be kind of socially ostracized, and people would point at you and you would be punched in the street. The thing that I've realized and I think Lena Dunham has realized is if you actually do say these things nothing bad happens. People don’t have a go at you and you aren’t socially ostracized and what actually happens is all these women go, “Oh, that’s really fucking funny and that happened to me.” And that’s the only thing that happens. The secret is it doesn’t need to be a secret. You can be socially accepted and tell the truth about what it is to be a woman.
People here are also calling you the British Tina Fey.
The only reason that would be difficult is because I would want to have sex with myself. I just love her so much. I had written How to Be a Woman before I read Bossypants, and I just thought, God, any woman who can make you cry laughing describing a cervical smear gone wrong is a proper comic genius. She makes me bark laughing. She just doesn’t take the idea of being a woman seriously at all. She’s not trying to be dignified and sexy, which is always such a relief. I'm writing the film and the sitcom with my sister, and every so often if we’re stuck for inspiration we both look at a picture of Tina Fey for about five minutes. On one occasion where we were really badly stuck, we tore a picture of Tina Fey in half reverently and ate it in order to try to absorb her powers. And sure enough, about five minutes later, we cracked the gag. So even her picture, when eaten, Tina Fey is very powerful.
For the full interview, go here.
