The Last Housewife Quotes

“If only it was always like this. If beauty was purely a power and not a target, a vulnerability that could draw the wolves and put you at their mercy.”
― Ashley Winstead, The Last Housewife

“What did you call yourself when you’d taken an active role in your own suffering? When your hands weren’t clean, when there wasn’t a single part of you that was, especially not your mind, all those deep, dark corners?”
― Ashley Winstead, The Last Housewife

“there’s no such thing as an objective observer. That’s why stories are powerful. If you’re listening, you’re part of it.”
― Ashley Winstead, The Last Housewife

“Before we begin, I need you to know: We no longer exist for them, you and I. We are no longer a mirror reflecting their anxieties, their desires. We are not saviors, or seductresses, or symbols. We exist only for ourselves. Tragic and sublime, ordinary and animal, in the mold of all humans, long before and long after us. They will tell you you’ve done the right thing. They will tell you you’ve made a grave error. Pay them no mind. Talk to me instead… Tell me about the time you looked up at the moon when you were a child and imagined it was looking back. Tell me about the moment your body first fit against the curves of another’s, and you felt at home. Tell me how you’ve ached to be bigger than this mortal life could grant, bigger than they would allow, how you’ve carried that ache in the center of your chest every hour of your life, the pain like a festering wound, a shrine to the bittersweet agony of being alive. Tell me these things, and I will tell you I know you. Let’s show each other our pieces, and tell each other we understand. It’s the strongest power we possess, the transfiguration of the unfathomable into something we can recognize, something that bridges the gulfs between us.”
― Ashley Winstead, The Last Housewife

“Let him go. That was what the world expected. What they always expect of women—grace, forgiveness, moral superiority. We were supposed to look our rapists in the eyes, the men who’d tortured us, and show them mercy.”
― Ashley Winstead, The Last Housewife

“Or maybe I realized people are rarely interested in another person's pain - so you have to dress it up accordingly.”
― Ashley Winstead, The Last Housewife

“Don had almost destroyed me. Him, and the rest of the ravenous men, hungry since I was young. All my life, they’d shaped my fears and desires, determined when I felt safe and when I was afraid. That was a fucking life sentence. When would they ever stop?”
― Ashley Winstead, The Last Housewife

“There would never be another antagonist more insidious than her own mind.”
― Ashley Winstead, The Last Housewife

“But when I blinked and focused, all that stared back at me was my own face, reflected in the window. "What if you're a woman," I said, feeling each word like fire in my throat, "and the world teaches you who you are, and where your place is, from the moment you're born, but all along, it's a lie. What if the lie chains you everyday? If you're not thinking straight any minute of your life, and even your defiance, even your pleasure, is suspect?" I pressed my palm against the cold glass. "How does consent work then? What makes you want the things you want? Is it your choice, or were you molded?”
― Ashley Winstead, The Last Housewife

“Maybe I’d performed for so long I wasn’t capable of recognizing my real feelings. Were there even such things, or was everyone always reacting in ways we understood we were supposed to? When did the performance ever end?”
― Ashley Winstead, The Last Housewife

“Life’s going to stomp you no matter what. Wouldn’t you rather get stomped here, in a mansion, surrounded by champagne and hors d’oeuvres? If they’re going to own you one way or the other, why not enjoy it? Lean in, Shay. Look at me, in this Gucci dress. These bruises? They’re Gucci bruises. It’s the VIP option, trust me. All the other options are this, but worse.”
― Ashley Winstead, The Last Housewife

“You were playing by their rules, Shay. Capitulating to the same patriarchal system that sexualized you so young. Even if you’d felt in control, it would’ve been an illusion.”
― Ashley Winstead, The Last Housewife

“Just because you've believed something your whole life doesn't mean it's right.”
― Ashley Winstead, The Last Housewife

“We no longer exist for them, you and I. We are no longer a mirror for reflecting their anxieties, their desires. We are not saviors, or seductresses, or symbols. We exist only for ourselves. Tragic and sublime, ordinary and animal, in the mold of all humans, long before and long after us.”
― Ashley Winstead, The Last Housewife

“The rip of the match against the box, my hate becoming tangible, sparking and catching fire. The spike of adrenaline right before I tossed the match, turning my body into an inferno a second before the world became light and heat.”
― Ashley Winstead, The Last Housewife

“If I was born bait, I would at least dangle myself.”
― Ashley Winstead, The Last Housewife

“Like most women, I grew up with the looking, grew into it.”
― Ashley Winstead, The Last Housewife

“You weave and you weave, until you can no longer tell if you are the storyteller or the story being told. And when he craves it, your paper thin skin, when he wants to drink your blood ,your living stories, do you not let him lick up every spoonful? Do you not swirl around the look in his eyes like a cup of tea, desperate to read the leaves, to parse who you are to him, who you will be to history? After all, names like yours are never etched into the books unless men like him allow it.”
― Ashley Winstead, The Last Housewife

“I moved to the window, keeping my back to him. "Is it always an expression of freedom?" This time, I didn't wait for him to answer. "What if you've come to believe the options available to you are limited?" My chest rose and fell. "What if the way you think the world works is wrong? What if life taught you something false, or people lied to you, convinced you they knew better than you did? Can you really choose freely if you've been mistaught?”
― Ashley Winstead, The Last Housewife

“Once, I’d kneaded dough naked on my hands and knees, and I’d liked it.”
― Ashley Winstead, The Last Housewife

“this: when I’m outside, there’s always a hum in the back of my mind. A little thread of anticipation. I think most girls are the same.”
― Ashley Winstead, The Last Housewife

“Those girls are the best. They tell themselves they’re being sexually liberated when I take them home and chain them in my basement. Owning their sexuality, and all that.” “Maybe they are,” I said, trying not to visualize.”
― Ashley Winstead, The Last Housewife

“Consider this a lesson in being an adult. If you go to a boy’s house dressed like an invitation, take shots and flirt with him all night, give every indication of wanting to sleep with him, what do you think he’s going to do? Ms. Hargrove can’t go crying wolf over every sexual encounter she regrets, or else cops would spend all our time chasing hungover college kids after a bad lay.”
― Ashley Winstead, The Last Housewife

“She thrust a pamphlet at me. Suicide Prevention Hotline, it said. Her voice was soaked in reassurance, "No matter what you're feeling, I promise it gets better." I stared at her until she staggered back. "No," I said. "It doesn't.”
― Ashley Winstead, The Last Housewife

“asceticism”
― Ashley Winstead, The Last Housewife

“My whole life has been like that. Starts and stops. Doing something brave, getting something right, then messing up, burning all the progress to the ground.”
― Ashley Winstead, The Last Housewife

“But the panic from earlier was leaking out of me. In its place, a night-blooming flower unfurled its petals, spreading a warm, easy nectar that made my limbs languid.”
― Ashley Winstead, The Last Housewife

“To find all that was left of my life with Laurel and Clem were the memories inside my head—such an unreliable place to store such precious things.”
― Ashley Winstead, The Last Housewife

“Have you ever had an encounter that went so wrong you lay awake at night reliving it?”
― Ashley Winstead, The Last Housewife

“That’s when my life carved into a before and an after.”
― Ashley Winstead, The Last Housewife