Mallory O'Meara QUOTES

41 " At first, it made me so angry that she, as I saw it, took this gross offense to both her and her career lying down. She should have made a giant stink, she should have fought back, she should have, she should have, she should have. So often, the onus of these situations is placed on the victims. You shouldn’t have been wearing that miniskirt if you didn’t want to get groped. You shouldn’t have been rude to that cop if you didn’t want to get harassed. You should have said something when your boss was making sexual advances. You should have fought harder, been smarter, been more careful. The truth is that these situations shouldn’t happen at all. Milicent Patrick should have triumphantly returned from the Creature tour and gone on to a long and successful career designing monsters for Universal Studios. Yes, it would have been absolutely badass if she marched into Bud Westmore’s office and dumped a bucket of manure on his head. Yes, it would have been amazing if she went back to all those newspapers who interviewed her and gave them a new story about what a turd Bud Westmore was. But why was I being so hard on her? Wasn’t she allowed to say “fuck this”? At what point are women forgiven for not being supernaturally resilient Amazons who spend all their waking hours fighting injustice? Milicent was thirty-seven and had been working in and out of male-dominated artistic industries for fifteen years. She had a more successful and varied creative career than many people could dream of. My frustration with her was just a way of protecting my broken heart. I needed to forgive her and direct my anger at a place where, instead of corroding my insides like battery acid, it could actually accomplish something. "

― Mallory O'Meara , The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick

42 " In a low-cut, tight-fitting black crepe dress, worn under a white lace coat, with flashing necklace, earrings and bracelets, Miss Patrick, who is of Italian German descent, looked a lot more like a fashion illustration herself than a creator of bizarre monsters. Unmarried, she admits to no current romance. “Why should I bother with the Hollywood wolves?” she murmured. “I’m happy with my monsters.” —Milicent Patrick in an interview with journalist Jane Corby for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Valentine’s Day, 1954 "

― Mallory O'Meara , The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick

43 " Having a new tattoo really sucks, "

― Mallory O'Meara , The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick

44 " The Western world entered a new era: medieval times.
Unfortunately, it wasn't anything like the themed restaurant. There were a lot less roasted turkey legs and a lot more open-air latrines. "

― Mallory O'Meara , Girly Drinks: A World History of Women and Alcohol

45 " Women need to see themselves fighting monsters. "

― Mallory O'Meara , The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick

46 " The thing about depression is that it lies to you. Depression will find the one thing you are worried most about and convince you that it is real. "

― Mallory O'Meara , The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick

47 " To the privileged equality feels like oppression "

― Mallory O'Meara , The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick

48 " In fact, it’s not just Hollywood. It’s most industries. It takes a very strong person not to succumb, to stand up to the ridiculous sexist bullshit. It’s constant hard work resisting the pressure to think that your only value as a woman is in your youthful looks, even for someone who isn’t dealing with mental health issues. "

― Mallory O'Meara , The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick

49 " There is always a part of us that longs for the things we couldn’t have as a child. We’ll always desperately want them. A lost parent, financial security, beautiful things, a sibling. Milicent grew up in the most extreme version of this. Sometimes, it’s as big and indefinable as love. Sometimes, it’s as opulent as your own Wonderland. "

― Mallory O'Meara , The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick

50 " Milicent found an objective happiness in her new life, but she still battled with depression. Remember, depression is a mental health issue. When you have depression, you don’t need a specific trigger or thing to get depressed about. Depression takes care of that for you, finding worries in your life or inventing reasons to be depressed. You can be depressed during the times in your life when you should be happiest, whether because of work success or finding a great romantic partner or going on a wonderful trip. Milicent was also struggling with the migraines that had tormented her since Disney. These two malefactors would sometimes keep her laid up in bed for days at a time. "

― Mallory O'Meara , The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick

51 " Patriarchal oppression and misogynistic societal expectations play the biggest roles in a culture's drinking habits. The double standard that drinking women face is deeply rooted in male anxieties about control and their fear of women acting like people, not property.

If you want to know how a society treats its women, all you have to do is look into the bottom of a glass. "

― Mallory O'Meara , Girly Drinks: A World History of Women and Alcohol

52 " Despite [Cleo Lythogoe] being one of the world's most successful alcohol smugglers, reporters asked her the type of asinine interview questions women are still asked today. Instead of inquiring about her whiskey, they wanted to know why Cleo was single and what her love like was like. Silly reporters. Girls don't like boys, they like whiskey and money. "

― Mallory O'Meara , Girly Drinks: A World History of Women and Alcohol

53 " Generally, the gendering of alcohol is only found where women have access to drinking space. If you can't keep women out of the space where drinking happens, you keep them out of the drinks themselves. "

― Mallory O'Meara , Girly Drinks: A World History of Women and Alcohol

54 " Ladette culture formed in response to lad culture, which was formed in response to men feeling threatened by feminism, which spread in response to sexism. You'd think it would be easiest to just cut to the chase and get rid of the sexism, but here we are. "

― Mallory O'Meara , Girly Drinks: A World History of Women and Alcohol

55 " Advances in women's rights have marched forward, only to be dragged back by governments and systems that were frightened of their power and determined to oppress them. Women are still fighting and winning and losing and fighting again. The one constant is their resilience. "

― Mallory O'Meara , Girly Drinks: A World History of Women and Alcohol