“A lot of the political change that could happen is going to be super boring.” Quote by Melissa Gira Grant
“It makes me so angry when people say, "We never hear from people who are happy doing sex work." Well, that's because they're working. The activism privileges people who hated doing sex work, are no longer doing it, and have a job at a social service organization, for example, that trains them on how to speak to the media. We are hearing from those people quite a bit.” PeopleSpeakTrainActivismHatedSocial Service Author:Melissa Gira Grant
“We hear from sex workers who have through their own volition become media figures, or have despite their own wishes become media figures. Like Ashley Dupré, who has a sex advice column in the New York Post. You get outed and then people expect you to write a memoir because they think, what else are you going to do with your life?” PeopleThinkingWritingWishAdviceMemoir Author:Melissa Gira Grant
“Every story has a point of view and whether it's by what one chooses to include or exclude from a story or whether it's a very specific agenda that is pushed, there is no such thing as objective media. Once you realize that it's more than just a marketplace of ideas, it's a battleground of ideas that are suppressed and the ideas that are pushed forward in the mainstream media are the ones that independent media has a chance to address. I think that the democratization of media in that way can be very helpful in allowing the truth to come out in a way that it might not on CNN or FOX.” ThinkingRealizingChanceIndependentPoint Of ViewHelpful Author:Tom Morello
“I have a strange situation as far as my name is concerned, because of course, what should my name really be? Is it my traditional Jewish name? Or this curious name my parents put together, partially to honor departed family members, and partially to keep me away from the absolute craziness of my grandparents' fame and the intrusiveness of their fans? So many people call me "MTT," and some do say, "Oh Maestro," and some are comfortable calling me Michael.” PeopleTogetherParentSituationStrangeHonorFameConcernedCuriousCall MeCrazinessDeparted Author:Michael Tilson Thomas
“We're missing a lot of the real-life stories of what people's work looks like. Those are the people that I want sitting on the zoning board meetings, on the zoning commissions. Those are the people I want participating in business improvement in their own industry. The gentrification processes that often happen in cities so often manifest in street sweeps of sex workers. How do you get sex workers on neighborhood associations, regarded as members of the neighborhood?” PeopleMissingMeetingsImprovementNeighborhoodManifestLife Story Author:Melissa Gira Grant
“I went to college in Amherst and lived in Northampton for many years and we had our quaint little feminist sex toy shop that somehow made it in town and wasn't scandalous. But you still got the vibe once in awhile that this didn't used to be okay. That twenty years ago women would have come in saying, "You can't sell realistic-looking sex toys. You have to only sell things that look like dolphins or something."” CollegeOkayFeminist Author:Melissa Gira Grant
“I remember being in high school in the '90s, and even then somehow hearing about the the Canadian Supreme Court's Butler decision which was meant to keep "obscene" material from entering Canada. The stuff being stopped at the border was almost all lesbian.” SchoolRememberDecisionHigh SchoolSupreme CourtObscene Author:Melissa Gira Grant
“Kristin Gwynne has been writing some great stuff about the sexually violent element of "stop-and-frisk." This isn't just "turn out your pockets." This is young people being groped. That form of power - using sexuality for power and control - seems pretty straightforward to me. When are we going to just say that the cops are the enemy here?” PeopleWritingEnemySexualityViolentCopStraightforwardSexually Author:Melissa Gira Grant
“Teamwork is not always going to be split equally, and being able to work on a team without competing with your peers is an important skill to have. If you're that good, the other things you do independently will be seen, and over time it will be obvious that you're a winner.” ImportantTeamObviousWinnerTeamworkCompeting Author:Sophia Amoruso
“Many people are too lazy to go out, can't afford to, or are too swamped. If you can manage your workload and get out for lunch, more power to you. You're at the wrong employer if you find yourself penalized for something so human.” PeopleManageLazyFinding Yourself Author:Sophia Amoruso