Feminist Quotations

Because, in fact, women, feminists, do read my poetry, and they read it often with the power of their political interpretation. I don't care; that's what poetry is supposed to do.

When I was coming of age, I remembered reading and studying the initial ideas within the feminist movement. There was this idea with my parents' generation that in order to find equality, a woman would need to behave like a man.

It's our responsibility to pass on what we inherited, not to squander it, but to build on it.

Earlier feminists were almost universally pro-choice and have dominated political debate until now. Having access to abortion was viewed as the only way women could have full equality with men, who, until recently, couldn't get pregnant.

I was a feminist in the Sixties, and can you imagine? The worst thing I could have done was to be in fashion. It was the most uncomfortable position.

I am a feminist, and I define myself: Be yourself, because if you can get away with it, that is the ultimate feminist act.

If Congress refuse to listen to and grant what women ask, there is but one course left then to pursue. What is there left for women to do but to become the mothers of the future government?

I consider myself a feminist because I believe women should have equal rights. Of course. It's just that the term 'feminism' conjures up other things for people.

If we're for one another, we're feminists. The rest is semantics.

In terms of men being feminist allies, it's just important to speak from your own place. I'd love to hear men singing about masculinity and the damage it does to them.

It matters more what's in a woman's face than what's on it.

I believe and support the feminist movement, but I am not generally interested in considering women's rights in relation to equality with men, or in a competition with men, but rather within their own rights and feminine space.

I feel like a feminist is gender equality.

There's lots of different feminist groups. It's not as straightforward as just looking like a plumber.

No, I'm not feminist. I'm not, not a feminist.

But one did not do feminist theory, as such, in those days, not only because male academic discourse did not recognize such a term, but especially because the womens movement did not either.

Of all the nasty outcomes predicted for women's liberation... none was more alarming, from a feminist point of view, than the suggestion that women would eventually become just like men.

One of the greatest gifts of Black feminism to ourselves has been to make it a little easier simply to be Black and female.

I think I started writing about identity, and I used to believe that identity is the story. But now I'm not so much subscribed to that. I mean, with 'Mr. Fox,' it has a feminist agenda as well. And so, as I sort of been away from writing about identity, I still feel that kind of tug of roots and, you know, cultural background.

To recommend that women become identical to men, would be simple reversal, and would defeat the whole point of androgyny, and for that matter, feminism: in both, the whole point is choice.

I am tired of angry feminists. I like my women happy, gregarious... and bathed.

We can't destroy the inequities between men and women until we destroy marriage.

We who don't want radical Islam to spread must compete with the agents of radical Islam. I want to see what would happen if Christians, feminists and Enlightenment thinkers were to start proselytizing in the Muslim community.

I feel the feminist movement has excluded black women. You cannot talk about being black and a woman within traditional feminist dialogue.

I like women who look like women. I hated grunge. No one's more feminist than me, but you don't have to look as if you don't give a - you know. You can be smart, bright, and attractive aesthetically to others - and to yourself.

The most important movement in the world is the feminist movement. If we can really figure out what's going on between men and women, the other problems will take care of themselves. I'm sure of it.

The states are not free, under the guise of protecting maternal health or potential life, to intimidate women into continuing pregnancies.

Any intelligent woman who reads the marriage contract, and then goes into it, deserves all the consequences.

I work toward the liberation of women, but I'm not feminist. I'm just a woman.

A lot of women are turned off by the physical appearance of some of the first feminists.

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.

The connections between and among women are the most feared, the most problematic, and the most potentially transforming force on the planet.

If the feminist program goes to pieces on the arrival of the first baby, it's false and useless.

Has feminism made us all more conscious? I think it has. Feminist critiques of anthropological masculine bias have been quite important, and they have increased my sensitivity to that kind of issue

I'll always prefer to play with women and hang out with women, and I'll always be a feminist.

The so-called feminist writers were disgusted with me. I did my thing, and so I guess by feminist standards I'm a feminist. That suits me fine.

I didn't see myself as any advance guard, or feminist.

I respect women like Gloria Steinem who paved the way. But when you say 'feminist' now, there is a message that if you are sexy and you acknowledge that part of your personality publicly, then it's somehow an affront to women. And I reject that.

Women have that weird way of trying to be feminist. You know, like 'hear me roar.' But what they really want is a man to open the door for them.

It's now taken for granted that women are in bands and you can say feminist things in your songs. But back in the early '90s, there was a lot of violence at Bikini Kill shows that people don't realize happened.

I am failing as a woman. I am failing as a feminist. To freely accept the feminist label would not be fair to good feminists. If I am, indeed, a feminist, I am a rather bad one. I am a mess of contradictions.

Socialists find me too far left; Trotskyites not far enough; ecologists say I am too happy eating foie gras, defending nuclear energy and GM plants; feminists find I am not enough of a woman; anarchists a petit-bourgeois who has sold out because I believe in universal suffrage.

Women can really be who they are. I'm about to say the F word, feminist. Often that word has such a negative connotation.

I'm criticized by the feminists, by the Jewish establishment, by Canadian nationalists. And why not? I've had my pot shots at them. I'm fair game.

I don't know why it's still a taboo to be a feminist.

Postmodernism is an academic theory, originating in academia with an academic elite, not in the world of women and men, where feminist theory is rooted.

Women have seen that they have locked themselves up with feminist writing.

Militant feminists are pro-choice because it's their ultimate avenue of power over men. And believe me, to them it is a question of power. It is their attempt to impose their will on the rest of society, particularly on men.

One of the biggest problems with the modern feminist movement is its failure to bring men along with us.

Let women issue a declaration of independence sexually, and absolutely refuse to cohabit with men until they are acknowledged as equals in everything, and the victory would be won in a single week.

As a result of the feminist revolution, feminine becomes an abusive epithet.

'I hate discussions of feminism that end up with who does the dishes,' she said. So do I. But at the end, there are always the damned dishes.

I'm sure it's why I'm such an odd duck in my feminist generation, because I've always been equally fair to men.

It's not that sexual liberation or feminist messages are dead.

Feminism is sort of like God. Many people profess to believe in it, but no one seems to be able to define it to everyone's satisfaction.

Men should stop treating feminists like ladies, and instead treat them like the men they say they want to be.

What I increasingly felt, in marriage and in motherhood, was that to live as a woman and to live as a feminist were two different and possibly irreconcilable things.

First I would probably place men at the bottom of the food chain. On a grander scale, I would say they're reacting to change. Feminism has got to be part of that.

I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas.

People were always able to look at Bettie Page and see what they needed her to be and she gave them that permission to do so. So in that way she's a feminist but I don't think she was ever trying to be.

One of the things about equality is not just that you be treated equally to a man, but that you treat yourself equally to the way you treat a man.

I try to be feminist in, like, I love myself and I don't need someone else's approval.

I'm a woman who was raised to believe that you are not complete unless you have a man. Well, in some ways it's true. I am a feminist to a point. But I'm not going to deny the fact that I love to be with men.

In 2008, I was one of the young feminist whippersnappers who voted for Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries - or as many of my older counterparts called me at the time, a traitor.

The feminists who are aware of the effects of patriarchy realize that we are all in the same boat from the dangers of patriarchy, and that the oppression of women is universal.

I am a humanist not a feminist. Theres a big difference.

We shouldn't accept things just because somebody says so.

Today, unless women gain jobs and athletic scholarships commensurate with their percentage of the population, feminists scream discrimination.

I want to put any number of assorted 'ists' - such as relativists, deconstructionists, destructivists, postmodernists, the more maudlin kind of pacifists and feminists - firmly in their place.

You can't be a woman and not be a feminist, I don't think. If you care about the world and the world you exist in and your rights.

It's self-deceptive to think we're in a post-feminist world when we never tried a feminist world.

Feminists bore me to death. I follow my instinct and if that supports young girls in any way, great. But I'd rather they saw it more as a lesson about following their own instincts rather than imitating somebody.

A friend of mine wrote a script, a feminist romantic comedy. She had a feminist scholar consult on it. My friend said, 'Oh, my friend Gillian read it and really loved it.' She goes, 'Gillian Jacobs, you mean: Britta Perry, feminist icon?'

Always speak the truth, think before you speak, and write it down afterwards.

Looking back Little Lulu was an early feminist, but at the time I just thought she was a really feisty developed comic strip character.

So, when the discussion about not using the term feminist came up at a conference workshop, I couldn't believe it. The more I listened, the more I felt the need to express my passion about my identity as a feminist.

It's not always easy being a full-time feminist - especially as a young woman - when you're constantly being told that what you do is irrelevant. I'm on the defense all the time.

Truly, the challenges we face are not Democratic challenges or Republican challenges. In fact, they are not political challenges at all; they are fiscal challenges, and educational challenges, and the challenges of figuring out how to take care of each other.

I read that book 'Fat is a Feminist Issue', got a bit desperate halfway through and ate it.

I'm not at all an active feminist. On the contrary, I'm a bourgeois. I love family life, I love doing the same thing every day.

Remember that in the early days of the feminist movement, they refused to have a leader; different women would just stand up and speak. The early feminists were very careful to not put what was spontaneously arising back in the old bottle.

I deplore the shying away that can go on, within women, from the term 'feminist.' I am, absolutely, all about being a feminist.

Anthropology in general has always been fairly hospitable to female scholars, and even to feminist scholars

If you say, I'm for equal pay, that's a reform. But if you say. I'm a feminist, that's a transformation of society.

All of the significant art of today stems from Conceptual art. This includes the art of installation, political, feminist and socially directed art.

If women would today would rise en masse and demand their emancipation, the men would be compelled to grant it.

'Feminism' is such an incredibly awkward word for us these days, isn't it? Not to be feminist would be bizarre, wouldn't it?

I was frustrated with how academia tended to present feminist theory in disconnected or inaccessible ways. I wanted to try and bring a sociological feminist lens to the limited and limiting representations of women in the media and then share that with other young women of my generation. YouTube was the perfect medium.

Social media is not just another way to connect feminist and activist voices - it amplifies our messages as well.

The issue of gender was never my biggest concern; my biggest concern was doing good work. When the feminist movement really got going, I wasn't an active part of it because I was more concerned with my own mental pursuits.

The cornerstone of the political correctness that dominates campus culture is radical feminism.

What is feminism? Simply the belief that women should be as free as men, however nuts, dim, deluded, badly dressed, fat, receding, lazy and smug they might be. Are you a feminist? Hahaha. Of course you are.

If you say you're not a feminist, you're almost denying your own existence.

It's easier to sit there and say you don't like feminists because they don't have a sense of humor.

Feminists don't like me, and I don't like them.

There's a side of me that dislikes feminism. I think we surrendered something and women were unable to reveal any kind of vulnerability.

Gone are the days when reality fed the feminist movement.

Now my mother, interestingly enough, was not a feminist in her own mind.

To be a feminist, you could cut your hair really short. You have to be really angry about something.

Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender.