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

The quip plays on the double meaning of “liberated.” Ball treats “Women’s Lib” not as an abstract political program but as something measured in lived experience—work, responsibility, and self-reliance. By saying she has been “so liberated it hurts,” she suggests that independence can come with real costs: pressure to provide, to lead, and to endure without the protections traditionally associated with conventional gender roles. The joke also reflects Ball’s public persona: a woman who achieved extraordinary professional autonomy in a male-dominated industry, yet often framed that autonomy through humor rather than ideological argument. The line can be read as both a deflection of labels and a wry acknowledgment of the burdens that accompany freedom.