“I waited to be told what was good about me. [...] All that time I had spent readying myself, the articles that taught me life was really just a waiting room until someone noticed you- the boys had spent that time becoming themselves.”— Emma Cline, amazon.com
“Feminism isn't about making women strong. Women are already strong. It's about changing the way the world perceives that strength.”— G.D Anderson, fandomsandfeminism.tumblr.com
“I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life's a bitch. You've got to go out and kick ass.”— Maya Angelou, facebook.com
“The people I'm furious with are the Women's Liberationists. They keep getting up on soapboxes and proclaiming that women are brighter than men. That's true, but it should be kept quiet or it ruins the whole racket.”— Anita Loos, writersalmanac.org
“I am a feminist, and what that means to me is much the same as the meaning of the fact that I am Black: it means that I must undertake to love myself and to respect myself as though my very life depends upon self-love and self-respect.”— June Jordan, amazon.com
“I am an instrument in the shape of a woman trying to translate pulsations into images for the relief of the body and the reconstruction of the mind.”— Adrienne Rich, amazon.com
“The most notable fact our culture imprints on women is the sense of our limits.”— Adrienne Rich, amazon.com
“The most important thing one woman can do for another is to illuminate and expand her sense of actual possibilities.”— Adrienne Rich, amazon.com
“The connections between and among women are the most feared, the most problematic, and the most potentially transforming force on the planet.”— Adrienne Rich, amazon.com
“Mainstream feminism marginalizes women of colour. It fails to recognize that gender inequality and racial inequality are intersectional. And race isn’t the only thing that white feminism is missing. Feminism should be about all women, not just one type of woman. How can we talk about sexism without…”— Melisa Ergin, thoughtcatalog.com
“We’ve been taught a woman’s body will cause men to sin. We’re told that if a woman shows too much of her body men will do stupid things. Let’s be clear: a woman’s body is not dangerous to you. Her body will not cause you harm. It will not make you do stupid things. If you do stupid things it is beca…”— Nate Pyle, huffingtonpost.com
“It really is crazy that the word “feminist” can have negative connotations in 2014. It upsets me that the younger generation of women think it’s a dirty word, and associate it with a kind of militantism or a sense of female superiority. It’s not. It just means liberation, and equality.”— Natalie Dormer, thedailybeast.com
“Feminism has fought no wars. It has killed no opponents. It has set up no concentration camps, starved no enemies, practiced no cruelties. Its battles have been for education, for the vote, for better working conditions, for safety on the streets, for child care, for social welfare, for rape crisis…”— Dale Spender, amazon.com
“We call ships ‘she’. We call our machines 'women’. We compare women to black widows and vipers. And you’re going to tell me it’s not 'lady-like’ to scream, to take up space, to fight and demand respect and do whatever I want. You’ve looked at nuclear bombs and been so in awe that you could only name…”— Anonymous, naamahdarling.tumblr.com
“We as women are trained to see ourselves as cheap imitations of fashion photographs, rather than seeing fashion photographs as cheap imitations of women.”— Naomi Wolf, amazon.com
“What’s the worst possible thing you can call a woman? Don’t hold back, now.You’re probably thinking of words like slut, whore, bitch, cunt (I told you not to hold back!), skank.Okay, now, what are the worst things you can call a guy? Fag, girl, bitch, pussy. I’ve even heard the term “mangina.”Notice…”— Jessica Valenti, amazon.com
“I think the average guy thinks they’re pro-woman, just because they think they’re a nice guy and someone has told them that they’re awesome. But the truth is far from it. Unless you are actively, consciously working against the gravitational pull of the culture, you will predictably, thematically, c…”— Junot Dìaz, theatlantic.com
“The thing about this is that sculptures like these in art history were for the male gaze. Photoshop a phone to it and suddenly she’s seen as vain and conceited. That’s why I’m 100% for selfie culture because apparently men can gawk at women but when we realize how beautiful we are we’re suddenly ful…”— Kim Kiyun, rosalarian.tumblr.com