Skip to main content

Humor & Life Quote by Lucille Ball

"Women's Lib? Oh, I'm afraid it doesn't interest me one bit. I've been so liberated it hurts"

About this Quote

A perfect Lucille Ball needle: light on its feet, sharp in the ribs. On the surface, she’s dismissing Women’s Liberation with a breezy shrug. Underneath, she’s doing something more complicated - claiming she’s already living the freedom the movement is demanding, and also quietly mocking how liberation gets packaged into a slogan that asks women to audition for their own emancipation.

The joke hinges on that last clause: “so liberated it hurts.” It flips “liberation” from a noble political aim into a bodily sensation, almost a strain injury. Ball is winking at the way “having it all” can become its own punishing expectation, especially for a woman whose success required relentless self-command. She ran a production empire, navigated a male-dominated industry, and built a persona around controlled chaos. She wasn’t waiting to be granted permission - but she also knew that “freedom” in show business often comes stapled to overwork, scrutiny, and the demand to stay likable.

Context matters: second-wave feminism was cresting into mainstream conversation, and celebrities were being pressed to pick a side. Ball’s line reads like strategic comedy in a tense cultural moment. By sounding uninterested, she avoids being drafted into ideological combat; by sounding hyper-liberated, she keeps ownership of the narrative. The subtext isn’t “women don’t need feminism.” It’s “don’t tell me what liberation looks like - I’ve been doing it in public, at a cost, for years.”

Quote Details

TopicWitty One-Liners
SourceHelp us find the source
Cite

Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Ball, Lucille. (2026, January 18). Women's Lib? Oh, I'm afraid it doesn't interest me one bit. I've been so liberated it hurts. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/womens-lib-oh-im-afraid-it-doesnt-interest-me-one-8541/

Chicago Style
Ball, Lucille. "Women's Lib? Oh, I'm afraid it doesn't interest me one bit. I've been so liberated it hurts." FixQuotes. January 18, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/womens-lib-oh-im-afraid-it-doesnt-interest-me-one-8541/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Women's Lib? Oh, I'm afraid it doesn't interest me one bit. I've been so liberated it hurts." FixQuotes, 18 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/womens-lib-oh-im-afraid-it-doesnt-interest-me-one-8541/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.

More Quotes by Lucille Add to List
Lucille Ball quote on liberation and irony
Click to enlarge Portrait | Landscape

About the Author

Lucille Ball

Lucille Ball (August 6, 1911 - April 26, 1989) was a Comedian from USA.

23 more quotes available

View Profile

Similar Quotes

Margaret Thatcher, Leader
Margaret Thatcher
Donna Shalala, Public Servant