Beth Ditto has been a feminist force to be reckoned with since she stormed into the public consciousness in the early 2000s, the lead singer of her almighty punk band Gossip, and their unforgettable anthem Standing In The Way of Control. As a (very loud and very outspoken) member of the Queer community, Beth has also gained the status of a bona fide LGBTQIA+ icon. While Gossip disbanded in 2016, they recently reformed – to stans' delight – and will be on tour in the UK in September with their new record, Real Power. Oh, and they’ll also be performing at Glastonbury this weekend, too.
Beth sat down with GLAMOUR to share her wit, wisdom and wonderful anecdotes in our final interview of our Beauty of Pride series, celebrating self-expression, identity and power in the Queer space throughout the Pride month of June.
And from the meditative powers of makeup to channelling Uncle Fester, Beth’s chat was pure, undiluted joy - while also sharing some important messaging about the power of self-worth, not giving a damn about what others think of you, maintaining good mental health and wigs! She really loves her wigs.
Over to you Beth Ditto…
Why is it important for you to use your platform as a member of the LGBTQ+ community?
It means a lot to me to give back to the feminists, activists and Queer people and musicians and artists that gave me so much. I think that's what's so incredible about being 43 now and [my band] Gossip has been advancing since I was 18, so that's 25 years, and it's been so incredible to see how the world has shifted. You're welcome in the world, but it is so important to me to keep passing on the information and to be open to changes and conversations that the youth are having around gender, race, poverty, war, sexism, genderism, there's all these different things. Then it's been such a gift to actually see these conversations happening, conversations that I wouldn't even have imagined 20 years ago, because they just weren't in that consciousness yet.
I think a lot of the time people are afraid of being wrong. I think a lot of the time people don't want to learn new things because that means they may have to ask questions and that makes people feel vulnerable. But I just try to come at everything with grace and more of an open heart than I used to.
Just to talk about Queer joy and just joy at all, we made this record. We worked with Cody Critcheloe who directed the video, and he did the artwork for Real Power, the Gossip record, and I was on the phone with him and I was like, "The world's in so much turmoil. There's so much going on. How can I sell this thing?"
He's another Queer person, also a southerner from the US, and he was like, "Beth, I just decided that the most radical thing I can do right now is just let myself have some joy." And that to me, it's just so phenomenal. It's just one of the most beautiful things I've heard. I was like, "Oh my God. Yeah, I'm not allowing myself joy."
Why do you think makeup is so important to the queer community?
Makeup for me is something that's really deep and fun and meditative. I really enjoy the time I get to spend with my face. I don't have a lot of things that I will sit and think about myself and just be directly looking at my face. It is a time to be really creative. Also, a little bit of a perfectionist. You get to try things out and try products out.
... I think a lot of the time too, we see makeup or we see hair or we see clothes or whatever it is as beauty, and it's not. That's something that I'm always trying to explain to people, especially my nieces and nephews, it's not about being more beautiful. It can be. And also that's relative, so that's incredible.
I think Queers are really used to rolling with those punches and having to start from scratch and really dig inside and find a home within themselves. And then when you can literally change the landscape of your face or your body, that's so powerful. And it's beyond false lashes. My niece, Eva Beth, she's my baby, she just graduated high school. When I had short bangs, I shaved my eyebrows off. She said to me, "Aunt Beth, you look like Uncle Fester."
But I was like, "Oh my God, I do." And that's the thing is I loved it. She didn't mean it as a dis.
The star talks rejecting beauty standards and her obsession with scents.
What is the most radical thing you've done in the name of beauty? (Is it the Uncle Fester move?)
No. There's way more radical things! I think probably the most radical thing I've done in the name of beauty, in whatever context, is maybe to challenge the beauty standard and just love myself and charge and condition myself and stop the idea of competing with other people and just nipping that in the bud. Feminism 101: jealousy kills real love.
This is not a competition, and my body is shaped differently than yours. Yours is shaped differently than me. Some people might have a birthmark, some people have freckles, some people have short hair, some people have no hair. It's all relative. And I think that was the most radical thing I ever did was just decide that I didn't want to be in that anymore. And how that radically changed me [and] the people I interacted with… no one tells you that when you're a little kid, especially around being fat. There's a lot of things that are like that for people, but especially around being fat. It was something that people would openly talk to you about.
The most radical thing, I think, is you really do have control over what you think about yourself, and it is deprogramming. You really do have to remind yourself that it's constant work. It doesn't get easier. It changes. Certain things you let go of, but guess what? You start ageing, different set of rules, baby!! And also self-forgiveness for not getting it right all the time, or not being the perfect advocate or activist or whatever.
What's the one rule you live by when you take care of your mental health?
The biggest rule that I live by taking care of my mental health is take your meds. I've been medicated since I was a teenager and I live somewhere that nine months out of the year is raining and seasonal depression, all this stuff, your hormones, your body, whatever it is [affects you]. But sleep is a big one. And also don't hang out with people that make you feel like shit. If you see that happening, it's a big wake-up call.
And I don't mean just people coming down on you or talking down to you or degrading you necessarily, but people who can't get their lives together and make you feel bad. There's all different ways that people can make you feel bad about life. And I think reevaluating those things is so good for your mental health and remembering who your friends are and more importantly, remembering who you are and that you are valuable in some way, even if it's just to yourself.
What's your best clap back against current beauty standards?
It is an oldie, but a goodie: ‘What you think about me is none of my business. I don't care.’ That is the beauty about getting older. Something happens. Just like, "I don't give a fuck." If I'm not being awful to you. I think that the whole debate... It is like this with anything, with any fringe or marginalised person or oppressed group, you'll become the target of people's bullshit and they will deliberately seek you out and make you feel targeted. They will. You're targeted. Miserable people really hate to see people happy and can't just mind their own damn business, so what you think about me is none of my business. If I'm not hurting you, if I'm not hurting anybody, why not? Yeah, I've got a fat ass. I've got cellulite. Who cares?
She opened up to GLAMOUR about her eclectic fragrance personality, radical beauty moves and mental health hacks.
What's the biggest beauty disaster you've ever had?
There've been quite a few! Oh my God, trying to take my tights off at shows. They were so hot and I could not stand them on my skin anymore. And just lifting it up and just full-fledged genitalia! Luckily it's very contained, so it wasn't too graphic, but that's really funny.
It's just funny. Who cares? I'm not very modest or timid. It comes from growing up in a big southern family with one bathroom and 10 people and 12 people in the house. You just don't have privacy, so you're just like, "Hey."
How has makeup helped shape your personal identity?
I've always loved makeup…I went through a fun phase where I didn't want to be feminine because I was going through discovering feminism 101 and having my own feelings about it and what that meant to wear makeup and what that meant to dress and what it meant to be in relationship to my body. I knew I was gay, but I didn't know I was fem, which is this whole other thing.
I was really confused. I wasn't really attracted to people that looked like me, so that was confusing in and of itself. I would go into the bathroom that we shared with a hundred thousand people with the little bit of makeup that we had, and I would just be in forever drawing on.
Your beauty cabinet catches fire. What are the three products you save?
These are my three things: I wear Mac liquid blast, 24 hour waterproof Point Black, is what it's called. You literally can swim in it and you have to use oil to get it off. I think probably my wigs. I have two wigs and one is in this vintage wig box that my friend Linda, who passed away, made for me. It's the last wig she made for me, that I would grab and I think maybe a razor, because I feel like as long as your eyebrows are gone, you just always look a little off. And that's the point. It doesn't matter of what I'm wearing. You'll always be like, "Something's so weird."
And finally, what does Pride mean to you?
It means looking out for each other and remembering not to take things for granted. Especially things are wild everywhere as far as the US goes. I think it's about community. And now it's cool because there's all these gaybies running around, everybody's having babies! And for me, that's when I'm at my best. I love kids. I'd rather hang out with people's kids. And it can be taking your friends' kids to the picnic, and only do kids stuff with them. And that's been really fun because it's really nice to see, especially with everything that's going on, [this idea ] ‘how Queer people are trying to groom children.’ And that's one of the biggest misconceptions and just outright lies. We are normal people. We go to work. Some of us! I kind of work, but we go to work and we worry and we have health and we have a body. And it is not hard to just think about other people and take the time to check on your friends, the time to celebrate and take inventory of the good and the bad in the past year, what is changing, what our fears are together and celebrate at the same time…But just seeing our history and how we've been here and we've been here forever and we're always going to be here. No matter what people try to do to us, we're always going to be, and there's nothing you can do about it, so that's the beauty of Pride.
This interview has been edited for clarity
