Creativity Quote by Yoko Ono

A lot is doing quiet work in that little “ourselves.” Yoko Ono isn’t describing the 1960s as a fashion decade or even a playlist; she’s framing it as a collective jailbreak, with the self as both prisoner and project. The line is simple on purpose. It echoes the era’s slogans while refusing the period’s easy nostalgia. “Conventional society” isn’t a single villain so much as an atmosphere: gender scripts, sexual norms, Cold War obedience, polite racism, the expectation to keep your weirdness private and your politics optional.

Ono’s intent is also defensive in the way artists often have to be: reclaiming the decade from the version that turns rebellion into retro branding. Coming from her, “freeing ourselves” points past protest toward practice. Her work with Fluxus, instruction pieces, and performance treated liberation as something you do to perception and behavior, not just institutions. The subtext: freedom isn’t granted by a government or even achieved by a movement once and for all; it’s iterative, personal, and sometimes awkward.

There’s a sharper edge when you remember Ono’s place in 1960s culture: an avant-garde woman navigating a male-dominated art world and later a tabloid-ready scapegoat in rock mythology. “Releasing ourselves” reads as an insistence that the story of the ’60s can’t be reduced to charismatic men and loud guitars. It’s about unlearning, refusing, and reinventing, even when the culture punishes you for trying.