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Quote by Jenni Fagan

“I’ve got the voice of a siren – it’s not a voice to launch a thousand ships, it’s a voice to sink them.”

Quote by Jenni Fagan

Book:Hex

Work

Hex

Hex is a work of speculative fiction that delves into the world of magical practices and enigmatic occurrences, set in a richly imagined universe. more

Author

Jenni Fagan

Browse famous quotes and profile details for Jenni Fagan. more

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“My view is that, using Woodhouse’s own words, the male-to-female transsexual is a “fantastic woman, ” the incarnation of a male fantasy of feeling like a woman trapped in a man’s body, the fantasy rendered flesh by a further male medical fantasy of surgically fashioning a male body into a female one. These fantasies are based in the male imagination, not in any female reality. It is this female reality that the surgically-constructed woman does not possess, not because women innately carry some essence of femininity but because these men have not had to live in a female body with all the history that entails. It is that history that is basic to female reality, and yes, history is based to a certain extent on female biology.”

“The female-to-constructed-male transsexual is the token that saves face for the male “transsexual empire. ” She is the buffer zone who can be used to promote the universalist argument that transsexualism is a supposed “human” problem, not uniquely restricted to men. She is the living “proof” that some women supposedly want the same thing. However, “proof” wanes when it is observed that women were not the original nor are they the present agents of the process. Nor are the stereotypes of masculinity that a female-to-constructed-male transsexual incarnates products of a female-directed culture. Rather women have been assimilated into the transsexual world, as women are assimilated into other male-defined worlds, institutions, and roles, that is, on men’s terms, and thus as tokens.”

“Male-to-constructed-female transsexualism is only one more relatively recent variation on this theme where the female genitalia are completely separated from the biological woman and, through surgery, come to be dominated by incorporation into the biological man. Transsexualism is thus the ultimate, and we might even say the logical, conclusion of male possession of women in a patriarchal society. Literally, men here possess women.”

“Sapevano, come dobbiamo sapere noi, che il patriarcato è un sistema muscolare e rispetta solo ciò che teme. Per questo, per raggiungere quelli che oggi chiamiamo traguardi, migliaia di donne hanno pagato col disprezzo della loro famiglia, hanno perso il rispetto borghese delle loro comunità, la possibilità di vivere vite tranquille e, in alcuni casi, perfino la vita. Dobbiamo essere loro grate e il modo migliore per farlo è non dimenticare che quei diritti esistono solo finché restiamo pronte a tirare fuori le unghie per difenderli.”

“He then introduced a second, more delicate subject. Not only in villages, but also in towns, he had seen women cover their faces and their eyes as his party passed by. This habit, which caused particular discomfort in the heat of the summer, was, at least to some extent, the result of male selfishness, of scruples for purity. ‘But, friends, our women have minds too.’ So teach them morals and then stop being selfish. ‘Let them show their faces to the world, and see it with their eyes … Don’t be afraid. Change is essential, so much so that, if need be, we are prepared to sacrifice lives for its sake.”

“You say you reject your gender. But that isn’t right. Your gender is whatever you make it. It is your sex you reject. It is your sex you recognize when you like your dress but not the way it fits. It is your sex you try to hide when you tuck your penis or tighten your corset. It is your sex you hope to alter with hormones. But your sex is your flesh. You are no poltergeist enmeshed in skin and bone and brain. You are skin and bone and brain. A war upon your flesh is a war upon yourself.”

“I poured too much of myself into you. I lost too much. Even my life before you feels suspicious. My relatives are old and I have no heirs. I counted on you to take my memories, to be their witness, to give them a home. You were family. You were an extension of me. My past seems like an illusion now, the mad fancy of someone who no longer exists.”