Althouse: "I had to wrestle with myself as a feminist to do it, and it was a lot of money. But I'm very happy with the result."

June 13, 2026

"I had to wrestle with myself as a feminist to do it, and it was a lot of money. But I'm very happy with the result."

"No one noticed for like six months. And then I wrote the piece, and now everyone wants to talk about it. But that's okay too. But, yeah, my daughter, who's 13, has autism, said, 'I will never respect you if you do it.'... You know, everyone has to figure it out for themselves, but don't buy into the feminine beauty myth. You know, that you can do and be whoever you are in whatever way you want to treat your body and your face and it's up to you. You know, that's a personal personal thing... I just didn't want everyone to think I look sad when I feel in fact very happy...."

45 comments:

Michael Fitzgerald said...: Did she get that herpes chancre removed finally?; 6/13/26, 4:00 AM
Shouting Thomas said...: Feminine beauty is a “myth?”

No, it isn’t. It’s an ideal, and like all ideals some people are equipped to live up to it and others aren’t. From a tit-for-tat perspective (humor intended), let me do the old role reversal. Nobody thinks that men living up to the ideal of athleticism, sculpted bodies and handsome faces is a “myth,” or that it’s tragic the men have to compete. Why should women be exempt from the eternal competition for beauty, fame and glory? We’re supposed to dumb everything down so that no woman ever feels bad?; 6/13/26, 4:31 AM
rehajm said...: She did have rbf, resting bitch face. I recall her discussing it quite a bit. She looks better and seems happy about it. Not gonna rag on it…; 6/13/26, 5:38 AM
Saint Croix said...: No one noticed for like six months.

Wouldn't it suck to buy a new car, and nobody noticed?; 6/13/26, 5:46 AM
Jamie said...: She looks like either Cagney or Lacey now (I don't know which is which). It appears to have been good work, but, like Jennifer Grey, I no longer recognize her. [shrug]; 6/13/26, 5:53 AM
Saint Croix said...: don't buy into the feminine beauty myth. You know, that you can do and be whoever you are in whatever way you want to treat your body and your face and it's up to you.

That double negative is a little confusing. Is she saying, Don't buy into the "feminine beauty myth," because feminine beauty is real and you need to pay attention to it?

Or is she saying, "Don't buy into the myth of feminine beauty," which is a weird comment to make, after you've had plastic surgery.

I read her comment the first way, but Shouting T read it the second way.; 6/13/26, 5:59 AM
Achilles said...: The key to understanding Leftists is to realize they don't believe a single word that comes out of their mouth. Everything is performative.

Their only goal is to take your stuff and force you to work for them.

They are thieves and slavers.

Once you understand that then the Democrat party makes sense.; 6/13/26, 6:07 AM
Saint Croix said...: If she's trying to appear younger and more attractive, she should have colored her hair while she was invisible for six months.

And if she's trying to find a romantic partner, she should go on dating apps, not call her publicist and announce to the world that she's had plastic surgery.; 6/13/26, 6:07 AM
n.n said...: Humanity celebrates feminine beauty. We mock feminist flaws.; 6/13/26, 6:11 AM
Saint Croix said...: I had to wrestle with myself as a feminist

While you're on a self-improvement kick, you ought to take your feminism out behind the barn and shoot it, and bury it in the dirt, maybe put up a mental gravestone ("1973-2026"), and be a humanist from here on out. Meryl Streep is right!; 6/13/26, 6:11 AM
wendybar said...: No amount of surgery can cut out the extreme TDS she is inflicting on her child who is confused over her own gender identity.; 6/13/26, 6:13 AM
Eva Marie said...: “I had to wrestle with myself as a feminist“
Maybe in a cage match on the White House lawn.; 6/13/26, 6:20 AM
Eric the Fruit Bat said...: Impressive as it is, my guess is Rosie O'Donnell's highly developed talent for self-rationalization is merely average among people successful in show business.; 6/13/26, 6:21 AM
Leland said...: She's a feminist? What part of feminism claims that the WTC must have been an inside job because steel doesn't melt? What part of feminism flees to foreign countries when things don't go their way? Now she has a facelift to approve her feminine appearance? I think pompous ass better describes her.; 6/13/26, 6:33 AM
Eva Marie said...: I’ll tell you what’s sad. No one noticed for six months. All that money spent, daughter alienated, feminist principles trampled . . . and no one noticed.
“I’m pretty. Not like everybody says — like ugly. I’m pretty and I want everyone to notice!”; 6/13/26, 6:35 AM
Saint Croix said...: “I had to wrestle with myself as a feminist“
Maybe in a cage match on the White House lawn.

I would definitely watch that.

Rosie O'Donnell, throttling herself, falling to the ground, rolling around, jumping up and flying backwards, smacking herself in the face, getting up on the ropes and doing a swan dive into the canvas, beautiful smackdown. Maybe she throws herself out of the ring and climbs back in? This would be hilarious.

And then she's all bloodied and bruised, talking to the reporters after the fight. "Feminism lost. From now on, I'm a humanist." And the crowd goes wild.; 6/13/26, 6:36 AM
Temujin said...: What Shouting Thomas said. Feminine beauty is not a myth. It is now, and has been since we walked on two legs, the driving force of both men and women. It has sparks wars, legends, books, movies. Even the Gods in ancient times were portrayed in beauty (well...some of them). Artists have tried to capture feminine beauty for millennia. It is what is still used to attract buyers, sell products, and move the world.

But Rosie O'Donnell (whatever that is) poo-poohs it so as to not spoil her 'feminist' cred. Whatever that is.; 6/13/26, 6:44 AM
Eva Marie said...: On the on hand she says, “It’s a personal thing”. On the other hand she judges celebrities who lose a lot of weight (I’m thinking she means Oprah) and don’t announce to the world how they did it. Same old Rosie.; 6/13/26, 6:45 AM
n.n said...: Feminists, masculinists, et al, are class-disordered ideologues. Can't we all just reconcile with our sex-correlated attributes? Abort your progressive religion. Sequester your liberal license. Baby Lives Matter.; 6/13/26, 6:55 AM
Iman said...: “I had to wrestle with myself as a feminist“

NEVER wrestle a pig…; 6/13/26, 7:15 AM
Humperdink said...: The perpetual snarl overwhelms any beauty traits. See: Michelle Obama.; 6/13/26, 7:40 AM
narciso said...: She slowly devolved like gollum; 6/13/26, 7:43 AM
Rustygrommet said...: She's still Rosie O'Donnel.; 6/13/26, 7:49 AM
Achilles said...: "I had to wrestle with myself as a feminist to do it, and it was a lot of money. But I'm very happy with the result."

What everyone needs to realize is that "Feminism" capital F needs to be viewed as intra-female sexual competition.

Rosey O'donell doesn't actually believe in feminism. She wants other women to believe in feminism so they sabotage their chances with the men that Rosey wants to attract.

Rosey is also limited physically in how many children she can have. So her only option as a high status female is to limit the number of offspring lower status women can have.

This is the opposite of male reproductive competition which is based on having more resources and more security and as many children as possible.; 6/13/26, 8:07 AM
Aggie said...: The outrage is still there, though, or she wouldn't be saying anything about 'people not noticing'.; 6/13/26, 8:19 AM
Joe Bar said...: Hey, looks like it worked out for her. We're all happy for her.

And, yes, feminine beauty is not a myth.; 6/13/26, 8:24 AM
Eva Marie said...: “She wants other women to believe in feminism so they sabotage their chances with the men that Rosey wants to attract.”
Rosie O’Donnell is a lesbian. But why should facts matter.; 6/13/26, 8:25 AM
Known Unknown said...: Good for her. She looks great.; 6/13/26, 9:19 AM
Known Unknown said...: "feminine beauty is not a myth. It is now, and has been since we walked on two legs, the driving force of both men and women. "

Camille Paglia understood this, and that women really have all of the power but have been shamed into not using it.; 6/13/26, 9:21 AM
William50 said...: Lipstick on a pig.; 6/13/26, 9:21 AM
Dagwood said...: I'm impressed with how much better she looks than in the images of her I've seen over the last several years. Hair is styled much better, too.; 6/13/26, 9:48 AM
Smilin' Jack said...: “You know, that you can do and be whoever you are in whatever way you want to treat your body and your face and it's up to you.”

Nobody contests that. But how people respond is up to them. You have a right to weigh 400 lbs; you don’t have a right to be considered attractive.; 6/13/26, 10:19 AM
Smilin' Jack said...: People conflate beauty and sexual attractiveness. The beauty of flowers, sunsets, mountains etc. is subjective and largely socially constructed. Sexual attractiveness is an objective fact of biology, and competition for mates has been a driving force of evolution for hundreds of millions of years. Feminists aren’t going to change the rules no matter how much they try.; 6/13/26, 10:47 AM
Lazarus said...: She does look a lot better ... until she opens her mouth ...

I wonder what this story is supposed to distract us from ...; 6/13/26, 11:13 AM
FullMoon said...: “I had to wrestle with myself as a feminist“

Going out on a limb, gonna figure her concern was not feminista, but , concern about the results. She got lucky, could ended up like Micky Rourke; 6/13/26, 11:29 AM
Wince said...: "I had to wrestle with myself as a feminist to do it, and it was a lot of money."

I took that to mean the cost of the lubricant she needed to purchase (due to surface area) for her to KY wrestle with herself.; 6/13/26, 11:33 AM
Achilles said...: Eva Marie said...

“She wants other women to believe in feminism so they sabotage their chances with the men that Rosey wants to attract.”
Rosie O’Donnell is a lesbian. But why should facts matter.

Because that "fact" doesn't matter.

You are dodging the main point of the post. Feminism is high status women telling low status women to do stupid self-sabotaging things and then living a different way in their own life.

You cannot talk honestly about this subject. You should go look in the mirror and ask yourself why.

But I will tell you the answer: It is easier to convince someone of a lie than it is to convince them they have been lied to.

You have been lied to and you refuse to accept and admit it because there is shame involved.; 6/13/26, 12:41 PM
DAN said...: "I just didn't want everyone to think I look sad when I feel in fact very happy...." The Joker said that too.; 6/13/26, 12:51 PM
Rabel said...: On April 16 Althouse put up a Rosie post and asked why she was using such a heavy digital filter online -

"If she's actually ready to get serious about the interests of women, why is she presenting herself like this?"

She was covering up the scars of a work-in-progress.

Now that she is "presenting herself like this" permanently does it mean she is "serious about the interests of women" or not?; 6/13/26, 1:05 PM
Fred Drinkwater said...: She could have just said, "I'm doing this so I don't die early."; 6/13/26, 2:58 PM
Eva Marie said...: @Achilles:
Sorry, but your argument doesn’t make sense. Either Rosie is a meaningful example or she isn’t. If she is, then the fact she’s a lesbian is relevant and disproves your point. If she isn’t, then you picked a bad example.
But let’s pretend that when you talk about Rosie you’re not really talking about Rosie, you’re talking about some vague category of “high status women” secretly manipulating “low status women.” That’s convenient, because it means any actual fact can be brushed off as “missing the point.”
Your story about “sabotaging their chances with men” also doesn’t fit with your constant refrain that old women can’t have babies. If women are only valued as baby‑makers, there isn’t much to “sabotage” once they’re past baby‑making age. So why would old high‑status women care whether old low‑status women get facelifts?
As for “high status women” supposedly not wanting “low status women” to have babies: where do you think they get their nannies, maids, and handsome chauffeurs? High status women have always relied on large numbers of poorer women having lots of children.
You say I “can’t talk honestly” about this, but what you actually mean is that I don’t buy your premise about a nefarious breeding conspiracy. That’s not some hard truth I’m avoiding. It’s just a bad theory that falls apart as soon as I look at your details.
And BTW, upon reflection, my mirror agrees with me.; 6/13/26, 3:55 PM
Eva Marie said...: Let me just add these high status women are the ones who want to keep the flow of cheap illegal domestic help flowing. Given the choice between cleaning toilets themselves or having a philandering husband who has his way with the maids, high status women have always chosen the philandering husband. Just ask Maria Shriver.; 6/13/26, 4:16 PM
Eva Marie said...: Most of what people attribute to “feminism” is actually the downstream effect of women being able to control their fertility cheaply and reliably. The politics adjusted to the technology that was largely created by male scientists (and welcomed by both men and women). Once the pill existed, the profit motive made sure cheap birth control was aggressively marketed and distributed around the world.; 6/13/26, 4:56 PM
Achilles said...: Eva Marie said...

You say I “can’t talk honestly” about this, but what you actually mean is that I don’t buy your premise about a nefarious breeding conspiracy. That’s not some hard truth I’m avoiding. It’s just a bad theory that falls apart as soon as I look at your details.

All you did in those 3 posts is whine.

Fertility rates crashed because women want to make choices.

All of those choices end up with lots of cats and SSRI prescriptions and a collapsing society.

The results are undeniable. Women are on more medications and unhappier than they have ever been.

Feminism has had bad results for everyone involved.; 6/13/26, 9:52 PM
Eva Marie said...: The ‘whining’ is in your head.
Scott Adams used to call this ‘two movies on the same screen’- you’re watching one, I’m watching another- and there’s not much I can do about that.; 6/13/26, 10:43 PM