Melissa McCarthy covers the upcoming issue of Redbook Magazine. She’s promoting her film The Boss costarring Kristen Bell, which is out April 6th. It’s a comedy and she plays a mogul, arrested for insider trading, who loses everything and tries to win back an empire with the help of a Girl Scout-type troop. (I think they call them Dandelions.) The trailer made me laugh a few times I have to admit. McCarthy is so good at playing characters who don’t GAF. McCarthy is also promoting her somewhat reasonably priced clothing line, which has clothing in all sizes, not just plus-sized clothing, but offers more range in the larger sizes. She had a lot of nice things to say about feminism, body image and raising her daughters:

On talking to her daughters about body image
“Give me your best punch in the face, and I’ll take that punch, rather than have my kid feel bad about herself….There’s an epidemic in our country of girls and women feeling bad about themselves based on what .5% of the human race looks like. It starts very young. My message is that as long as everybody’s healthy, enjoy and embrace whatever body type you have.”

Her thoughts on young women who say, “I am not a feminist”
“I always think, ‘Oh, that sounds so dumb.’ And I don’t mean that in a hateful way. It just sounds so ill-informed. Do you think women should be paid less? You don’t believe in equality for women? I think people have worked hard to put a negative spin on the word.”

Why we should stop judging each other
“With women, there’s this constant weird cultural thing where we’re always supposed to be comparing ourselves with one another. Who wore it best? Whose butt’s better? Instead, how about if everyone wins? How intensely boring would it be if we were all the same?”

On the importance of all women feeling comfortable and stylish in their clothes
“A good portion of women in America are size 14 and higher. I just try to make clothing that’ll make all women feel really good….When I feel good about my clothes, I’m more patient with my kids. I don’t beep at the guy in his car texting in front of me. I look at the world a little differently. The small happy moments add up. A little bit of joy goes a long way.”

[From Redbook]

She droped a lot of wisdom in those few lines. I’m like that with my kid, I would take a lot of personal pain if it would make him feel better. I really like what she said about feminism especially. Every day I’m grateful for this job but I’m especially grateful for what I’ve learned here about feminism, about intersectionality and how we don’t have to identify with every faction of the movement to call ourselves feminists. I’m a feminist and I am teaching my son what that means and how that benefits all of us. Good for McCarthy for calling it like she sees it. I also loved what she said about trying not to beep at the guy texting in front of her. Usually I try to make eye contact with them to shame them somehow, but they’re so busy looking down they don’t even notice me.