"A diva is someone who pretends to know who she is and looks fabulous doing it"
About this Quote
A diva, in Jenifer Lewis's hands, isn't a tantrum with sequins. It's a performance of certainty in a world that punishes women - especially Black women in entertainment - for taking up space. The sly twist is in "pretends": Lewis punctures the myth that identity arrives fully formed, then immediately crowns the audacity required to act like it did. The diva isn't delusional; she's strategic. She knows confidence is often a costume you put on before it becomes your skin.
"Looks fabulous doing it" lands like a punchline, but it's also a survival tactic. In celebrity culture, visibility is leverage, and glamour becomes both shield and megaphone. Lewis signals that presentation isn't vanity so much as a language: you telegraph control when the industry tries to write you as disposable, difficult, or "too much". The fabulousness is the receipt.
The quote also reads like insider commentary from a working actress who has watched the label "diva" get wielded as a disciplinary tool - shorthand for "woman with standards" or "Black woman who won't shrink". By framing divahood as a kind of chosen theater, Lewis reclaims the term from tabloids and gatekeepers. The intent isn't to excuse bad behavior; it's to expose how quickly self-possession gets recast as pathology when it comes wrapped in charisma.
Underneath the humor is a practical manifesto: if the world insists you perform, perform yourself - loudly, beautifully, and on your own terms.
"Looks fabulous doing it" lands like a punchline, but it's also a survival tactic. In celebrity culture, visibility is leverage, and glamour becomes both shield and megaphone. Lewis signals that presentation isn't vanity so much as a language: you telegraph control when the industry tries to write you as disposable, difficult, or "too much". The fabulousness is the receipt.
The quote also reads like insider commentary from a working actress who has watched the label "diva" get wielded as a disciplinary tool - shorthand for "woman with standards" or "Black woman who won't shrink". By framing divahood as a kind of chosen theater, Lewis reclaims the term from tabloids and gatekeepers. The intent isn't to excuse bad behavior; it's to expose how quickly self-possession gets recast as pathology when it comes wrapped in charisma.
Underneath the humor is a practical manifesto: if the world insists you perform, perform yourself - loudly, beautifully, and on your own terms.
Quote Details
| Topic | Witty One-Liners |
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