Last Sunday in the Washington Post, art critic Jessica Dawson said, ”Yoko Ono matters as much today as ever.” Recent works include the remix albums Yes, I’m a Witch and Open Your Box. (If you need further proof of her current cred, just look to her addition as a headliner for the ultra-hip Pitchfork Music Festival.) Here’s an excerpt from the Washington Post interview that focuses on her thoughts about feminism and art.

You’ve said that the role of the artist is to “change the value of things.” What is the value of women in our society right now?
[Feminism] came in and it did its job in a way. But even women got scared of that title because there was such a backlash. This is still a backlash time. But the nice thing about it, everybody understands about women now. Because of that they’re getting more scared. [Laughs.] There will be a time when the opposite sex will understand that we care for them, too. And we understand them, too.

I worry that women of my generation—I’m 34—are less vigilant in advocating for equal rights. In the art world, the percentage of women represented in major group shows is low to declining. How do you feel about these trends?
That’s why I say backlash. Women are starting to find that they might want to go back to the traditional body of women in the sense of wanting to create a family, wanting to have babies. And when they have children they want to spend more time caring for their children. And that’s okay, too. Finally they all come to the same realization that we are half the sky and the world. We are a very important energy that the society can use. To denigrate us or to abuse us or to sweep us under the rug is not beneficial for the society itself.

[Yoko Ono in Conversation with Anthony DeCurtis: 6/18/07]

Bonus Trivia: June 18 is Paul McCartney’s birthday.