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Gloria Steinem

Gloria Steinem Quotes

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Famous Gloria Steinem Quotes

“I no longer believe the conservative message that children are naturally selfish and destructive creatures who need civilizing by hierarchies or painful controls. On the contrary, I believe that hierarchy and painful controls create destructive people. And I no longer believe the liberal message that children are blank slates on which society can write anything. On the contrary, I believe a unique core self is born into every human being; the result of millennia of environment and heredity combined in an unpredictable way that could never happen before or again.”

PeopleWayNeedsWritingBelieveHumansChildrenSelfHappensI BelieveBornHuman BeingsResultsFamilyEnvironmentCreaturesMessagesUniqueConservativePainfulContrarySelfishCoreDestructiveBlankUnpredictableHierarchySlateHeredityBlank Slates
Author:Gloria Steinem
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“Whatever a 'superior' group has will be used to justify its superiority, and whatever an 'inferior' group has will be used to justify its plight. Black men were given poorly paid jobs because they were said to be 'stronger' than white men, while all women were relegated to poorly paid jobs because they were said to be 'weaker.”

MenSaidJobsUsedGivenBlackWhiteGroupsPaidStrongerDiscriminationSuperiorsJustifyInferiorsSuperiorityWhite ManPlight
Book:Outrageous acts and everyday rebellions
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“During years of working for a living, I have experienced much of the legal and social discrimination reserved for women in this country, I have been refused service in public restaurants, ordered out of public gathering places and turned away from apartment rentals. All for the clearly stated, sole reason that I am a woman.”

YearsHas BeensCountryReasonSocialDiscriminationRestaurantsSoleApartmentGatheringReservedWorking For A LivingGathering Places
Author:Gloria Steinem
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“Economics anxiety may be even more common than the often identified 'math anxiety,' for unlike math, which has its personal uses, economics is seen as a mysterious set of forces manipulated from above.”

MayUseForceCommonAnxietyEconomicsMathMysterious
Book:Moving Beyond Words: Essays on Age, Rage, Sex, Power, Money, Muscles: Breaking the Boundaries of Gender
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“We've learned that women can and should do 'men's jobs,' for instance, and we've won the principle (if not the fact) of getting equal pay. But we haven't yet established the principle (much less the fact) that men can and should do 'women's jobs': that homemaking and child-rearing are as much a man's responsibility, too, and that those jobs in which women are concentrated outside the home would probably be better paid if more men became secretaries, file clerks, and nurses, too.”

IfsMenShouldChildrenFactsHomeJobsPayResponsibilityPrinciplesHavensEqualPaidEqualityInstanceNurseSecretaryFilesClerksEqual PayChild RearingHomemaking
Author:Gloria Steinem
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“There's no such thing as post-feminism. It's like saying post-democracy, excuse me, what does that mean? We're nowhere near equality, so the very idea of post-feminism is ridiculous. The same people who 30-40 years ago said the women's movement is not necessary, 'it's going against nature, my wife is not interested' [are] the same people now saying 'well it used to be necessary but not anymore.' The very invention of the word post-feminism is the current form of resistance.”

PeopleYearsWellsMeanDoeSaidIdeasFormUsedDemocracyWifeFeminismMovementYears AgoCurrentsExcuseMy WifeRidiculousInventionResistanceUsed To BePostsNot InterestedExcuse Me
Author:Gloria Steinem
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“The U.S. has more guns per capita and supplies more guns to the world than any other country. What would be a fistfight without guns turns into dead bodies with them. Families with guns in the house are more likely to shoot themselves accidentally than to shoot any intruder. Women abused by their partners have a five-fold increased risk of being killed when their partner owns a gun. Every three hours, at least one child is wounded or killed by gunfire.”

WorldChildrenCountryBodyWould BeTurnsThreeHouseHoursFiveRiskGunPartnersOther CountriesWoundedFoldsSuppliesIntruders
Author:Gloria Steinem
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“For girls and women, storytelling has a double and triple importance. Because the stories of our lives have been marginalized and ignored by history, and often dismissed and treated as 'gossip' within our own cultures and families, female human beings are more likely to be discouraged from telling our stories and from listening to each other with seriousness.”

HumansHas BeensStoriesCultureGirlHuman BeingsHistoryOur LivesListeningFemaleImportanceTreatedStorytellingGossipIgnoredDiscouragedSeriousnessMarginalized
Author:Gloria Steinem
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“I have always employed humor, and I think it’s absolutely crucial that we do because, among other things, humor is the only free emotion. I mean, you can compel fear, as we know. You can compel love, actually, if somebody is isolated and dependent — it’s like the Stockholm syndrome. But you can’t compel laughter. It happens when two things come together and make a third unexpectedly. It happens when you learn something, too.”

KnowsMeanTwoHumorHappensTogetherEmotionLaughterThirdsTwo ThingsLove Actually
Author:Gloria Steinem
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“In short, pornography is not about sex. It's about an imbalance of male-female power that allows and even requires sex to be used as a form of aggression. ... But until we finally untangle sexuality and aggression, there will be more pornography and less erotica. There will be little murders in our beds - and very little love.”

LittlesFormUsedSexBedFemaleMurderMalesSexualityAggressionPornographyImbalanceLittle LoveMale FemaleFemale Power
Author:Gloria Steinem
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