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Gloria Steinem

Gloria Steinem Quotes

Journalist

Gloria Steinem is an American journalist and social activist, renowned for her leadership in the women's rights movement. Born on March 25, 1934, she was one of the founding editors of Ms. magazine and played a pivotal role in the women's liberation movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Steinem's work has covered a wide range of issues from gender equality to environmental justice.

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All Men Ifs People Feminism Thinking Feminist Way Humans Children Knows Needs Want Violence Ideas Groups Feels May Mean Self Believe

Famous Gloria Steinem Quotes

“I think that we have successfully said that rape is not sex, it’s violence. But what we have not successfully said is that pornography is not erotica. Porne means female slaves. Eros has an idea of love and mutual pleasure and free choice. I fear that pornography is taking over sex when in fact it’s way more about domination.”

Sex Violence Domination Pornography Rape Erotica Eros Porne

Author:Gloria Steinem

“What I think we need to do is infuse everyday and every action with the kind of values we hope will be in the future, with kindness, with nurturing, with dreams, ambition, using your talents, not resorting to violence, other forms of conflict resolution, with humor, with poetry, with music.”

Thinking Needs Kind Dream Action Form Values Kindness Violence Talent Conflict Ambition Everyday Resolution Nurturing Conflict Resolution Using Your Talents

Author:Gloria Steinem

“The human body is not obscene, sexuality is not obscene. But it [pornography] is not sex, it is violence. It encourages acceptance of the idea that violence is a legitimate part of sexuality.”

Humans Ideas Body Sex Violence Acceptance Sexuality Pornography Human Body Obscene

Author:Gloria Steinem

“One act of violence takes four generations to heal.”

Four Violence Generations Heal Acts Of Violence Four Generations

Book:My Life on the Road

Source: My Life on the Road

“Feminism is not antisexuality. On the contrary. It says that sexuality shouldn't be confused with violence and dominance and that it should be a matter of free choice. It shouldn't be forced on you by economics, including dependence on a husband, or by pressure.”

Should Matter Choices Violence Feminism Husband Economics Pressure Including Sexuality Contrary Confused Dependence Dominance Free Choice

Author:Gloria Steinem

“If we were going to address what involves the biggest number of women, reproductive freedom is a fundamental human right - like freedom of speech, the most basic right. Freedom from violence, since women worldwide are still like 70% at least of all victims of violence. Equality in the family, democracy in the family, since the family is the microcosm of everything else, so if you have inequality and violence in the family, it normalizes it in the street, for foreign policy, for every place else.”

Ifs Humans Stills Numbers Democracy Violence Streets Policy Speech Victim Fundamentals Inequality Addresses Foreign Policy Freedom Of Speech Microcosm

Author:Gloria Steinem

“Probably those three things affect the most people: reproductive freedom, freedom from violence, and democratic families. But there may well be someone sitting at this table who has a great idea to do something else that wouldn't come under those umbrellas and that would really be great, and make all kinds of change.”

People Wells Kind May Ideas Three Violence Sitting Tables Democratic All Kinds Three Things Great Idea Umbrella

Author:Gloria Steinem

“... we've allowed a youth-centered culture to leave us so estranged from our future selves that, when asked about the years beyondfifty, sixty, or seventy--all part of the average human life span providing we can escape hunger, violence, and other epidemics--many people can see only a blank screen, or one on which they project fear of disease and democracy.”

Source: Passion, Politics, and Everyday Activism: Collected Essays: Moving Beyond Words; Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions; and Revolution from Within

“It was the first female-style revolution: no violence and we all went shopping.”

Firsts Violence Style Revolution Wall Female Shopping Berlin Wall

Author:Gloria Steinem

“I think of the future in two ways - survival plus moving forward. Under survival, I would put all the efforts to save the female half of the world from violence directed at us specifically because we are female.”

Thinking World Way Two Moving Effort Half Violence Survival Female Moving Forward Plus Two Ways

Author:Gloria Steinem

“I think if we could raise one generation of kids without violence and shaming, we don't know what might be possible.”

Ifs Thinking Knows Might Kids Violence Generations Raises

Author:Gloria Steinem

“The origins of violence against women by men are not biological. If that were the case, it would exist in every culture. And it doesn't exist in every culture.”

Ifs Men Culture Cases Violence Violence Against Women

Author:Gloria Steinem

“Society definitely encourages and condones men's violence toward women. Not as much as it used to be when it was less visible, and there were still laws on the books that made it alright for men to beat their wives, as long as it was within certain limits, and women were chattel.”

Men Long Made Stills Book Law Used Certain Wife Violence Limits Beats Used To Be Made It Visible Alright

Author:Gloria Steinem

“During the first suffragist wave in this nation, women were possessions, like a table or a chair. So violence toward them was quite condoned. The attitude has diminished, but it's still there.”

Firsts Stills Nations Attitude Violence Tables Wave Possession Chairs Suffragists

Author:Gloria Steinem

“Violence is not inevitable. I mean, the only inevitable form of violence is the kind that we understand, the only legitimate (if there can ever be legitimate violence) and that's self-defense.”

Ifs Kind Mean Self Form Violence Defense Inevitable Self Defense

Author:Gloria Steinem

“If you have two groups of people and you say one is inferior to the other, which is a lie, then the only way to maintain the lie is through violence or the threat of violence.”

People Ifs Way Two Lying Violence Groups Threat Inferiors

Author:Gloria Steinem

“Where men come to and women come together most intimately in sexuality in the home has become suffused with violence.”

Men Home Together Violence Sexuality

Author:Gloria Steinem

“Violence against women is clearly not solved, not at all solved, and the reasons for it, which are controlling women's bodies in order to control reproduction, are definitely not solved.”

Reason Body Order Violence Reproduction Violence Against Women Women's Bodies Controlling Women

Author:Gloria Steinem

“If [George] Zimmerman had been arrested for domestic violence, Trayvon Martin might still be alive.”

Ifs Stills Might Alive Violence Domestic Violence Arrested Trayvon Martin Trayvon Zimmerman

Author:Gloria Steinem

“I would say that reproductive freedom comes first, then violence and economics.”

Firsts Violence Economics

Author:Gloria Steinem

“We need to take violence against women seriously. It is the biggest indicator of whether a country is violent inside itself, and whether it will be militarily violent against another country.”

Needs Country Violence Violent Violence Against Women Indicators

Author:Gloria Steinem

“More than poverty, more than degree of education, religion, access to natural resources, even degree of democracy - violence against females is the biggest indicator of whether a country will be violent in itself or be willing to use military violence against another country.”

Country Use Natural Poverty Democracy Violence Military Willing Degrees Resources Female Access Violent Natural Resources Indicators

Author:Gloria Steinem

“From pacifist to terrorist, each person condemns violence - and then adds one cherished case in which it may be justified.”

May Persons Cases Violence Add Terrorist Justified Pacifist

Author:Gloria Steinem

“Patriarchy requires violence or the subliminal threat of violence in order to maintain itself... The most dangerous situation for a woman is not an unknown man in the street, or even the enemy in wartime, but a husband or lover in the isolation of their home.”

Men Home Order Situation Enemy Violence Streets Dangerous Lovers Husband Threat Feminist Isolation Patriarchy Wartime Subliminal Dangerous Situations

Author:Gloria Steinem

“I want us to organize, to tell the personal stories that create empathy, which is the most revolutionary emotion. The truth of the mater is that hierarchy and violence can't be remedied by more hierarchy and violence. The end doesn't justify the means, the means we choose decide the end we get. The means are the end.”

Want Mean Ends Stories Emotion Violence Empathy Revolutionary Justify Organize Want U Hierarchy Personal Stories

Author:Gloria Steinem

“What would happen if even one generation were raised with respect and without violence?”

Ifs Happens Violence Generations Raised

Author:Gloria Steinem

“No other form of violence is legitimate. It is never acceptable to use violence to solve a problem. Whether personal or political.”

Use Problem Form Political Accepting Violence Solve Acceptable

Author:Gloria Steinem

“Battered women is a phrase that uncovered major, long-hidden violence. It helps us to face the fact that, statistically speaking, the most dangerous place for a woman is in her own home, not in the streets.”

Long Facts Helping Home Faces Language Violence Streets Dangerous Majors Phrases Battered Dangerous Places Battered Women

Book:Outrageous acts and everyday rebellions

Source: Outrageous acts and everyday rebellions

“Obviously, untangling sex from aggression and violence or the threat of it is going to take a very long time. And the process is going to be greatly resisted as a challenge to the very heart of male dominance and male centrality.”

Heart Long Sex Process Challenges Violence Long Time Threat Males Aggression Dominance Male Dominance Aggression And Violence

Book:Outrageous acts and everyday rebellions

Source: Outrageous acts and everyday rebellions

About the Author

Born: March 25, 1934
Known for: Journalist
Quotes: 620

Related Topics

Men Ifs People Feminism Thinking Feminist Way Humans Children Knows Needs Want Violence Ideas Groups Feels May Mean Self Believe

Popular Topics

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Books & Sources

Outrageous acts and everyday rebellionsRelated source material

My Life on the RoadRelated source material

Revolution from Within: A Book of Self-EsteemRelated source material

Doing Sixty & SeventyRelated source material

Moving Beyond Words: Essays on Age, Rage, Sex, Power, Money, Muscles: Breaking the Boundaries of GenderRelated source material

Passion, Politics, and Everyday Activism: Collected Essays: Moving Beyond Words; Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions; and Revolution from WithinRelated source material

Moving Beyond Words: Age, Rage, Sex, Power, Money, Muscles: Breaking Boundaries of GenderRelated source material

Marilyn: Norma JeaneRelated source material

Revolution from WithinRelated source material

The Trouble With Rich WomenRelated source material

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