Sunday, April 10, 2005

On Being A Woman

The thing women have yet to learn is nobody gives you power. You just take it. ~Roseanne Barr

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Feminism is the radical notion that women are people. ~Cheris Kramarae and Paula Treichler

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Man endures pain as an undeserved punishment; woman accepts it as a natural heritage. ~Author Unknown

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I was told that whistling wasn't ladylike, but I knew even then that women were simply not supposed to be that happy. ~Anonymous, quoted in Kindling the Spirit by Lois P. Frankel

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I see my body as an instrument, rather than an ornament. ~Alanis Morissette, quoted in Reader's Digest, March 2000

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I'm tough, I'm ambitious, and I know exactly what I want. If that makes me a bitch, okay. ~Madonna Ciccone

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Men are taught to apologize for their weaknesses, women for their strengths. ~Lois Wyse

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I became a feminist as an alternative to becoming a masochist. ~Sally Kempton, attributed

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I do not wish them to have power over men, but over themselves. ~Mary Wollstonecraft

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There are very few jobs that actually require a penis or vagina. All other jobs should be open to everybody. ~Florynce Kennedy

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Instead of getting hard ourselves and trying to compete, women should try and give their best qualities to men - bring them softness, teach them how to cry. ~Joan Baez, "Sexism Seen but not Heard," Los Angeles Times, 1974

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A woman reading Playboy feels a little like a Jew reading a Nazi manual. ~Gloria Steinem

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How good does a female athlete have to be before we just call her an athlete? ~Author Unknown

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Women are not inherently passive or peaceful. We're not inherently anything but human. ~Robin Morgan

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I think, therefore I'm single. ~Lizz Winstead

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Marriage is for women the commonest mode of livelihood, and the total amount of undesired sex endured by women is probably greater in marriage than in prostitution. ~Bertrand Russell, Marriage and Morals

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We've begun to raise daughters more like sons... but few have the courage to raise our sons more like our daughters. ~Gloria Steinem

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Our only hope for the redemption of woman from the thralldom of dress lies in the belief that her hitherto limited sphere of activities has been so insufficient for her intellectual occupations that she has been forced to expend her thoughts in decorating her person, instead of enlarging her mind. ~Mercy B. Jackson

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Every time we liberate a woman, we liberate a man. ~Margaret Mead

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I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat. ~Rebecca West, 1913

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Because women's work is never done and is underpaid or unpaid or boring or repetitious and we're the first to get fired and what we look like is more important than what we do and if we get raped it's our fault and if we get beaten we must have provoked it and if we raise our voices we're nagging bitches and if we enjoy sex we're nymphos and if we don't we're frigid and if we love women it's because we can't get a "real" man and if we ask our doctor too many questions we're neurotic and/or pushy and if we expect childcare we're selfish and if we stand up for our rights we're aggressive and "unfeminine" and if we don't we're typical weak females and if we want to get married we're out to trap a man and if we don't we're unnatural and because we still can't get an adequate safe contraceptive but men can walk on the moon and if we can't cope or don't want a pregnancy we're made to feel guilty about abortion and...for lots of other reasons we are part of the women's liberation movement. ~Author unknown, quoted in The Torch, 14 September 1987

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