Home / Quotes / Quote by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Quote by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

“The connection between our archaic system of punishment and our androcentric culture is two-fold. The impulse of resistance, while, as we have seen, of the deepest natural origin, is expressed more strongly in the male than in the female. The tendency to hit back and hit harder has been fostered in him by sex-combat till it has become of great intensity. The habit of authority too, as old as our history; and the cumulative weight of all the religions and systems of law and government, have furthermore built up and intensified the spirit of retaliation and vengeance. They have even deified this concept, in ancient religions, crediting to God the evil passions of men. As the small boy recited; 'Vengeance. A mean desire to get even with your enemies: 'Vengeance is mine saith the Lord'--'I will repay.”

Book:The Man-Made World

Work

The Man-Made World

Browse quotes and source details for this work. more

Author

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Charlotte Perkins Gilman was an American novelist, social reformer, and feminist. Her works explored the status of women in society, family, and career, and had a profound impact on women's literature and social movements. more

“[Christianity] is a religion for slaves and women!' said the warrior of old. (Slaves and women were largely the same thing.) 'It is a religion for slaves and women' says the advocate of the Superman. Well? Who did the work of all the ancient world? Who raised the food and garnered it and cooked it and served it? Who built the houses, the temples, the aqueducts, the city wall? Who made the furniture, the tools, the weapons, the utensils, the ornaments--made them strong and beautiful and useful? Who kept the human race going, somehow, in spite of the constant hideous waste of war, and slowly built up the real industrial civilization behind that gory show?--Why just the slaves and women.”

Government Law Christianity Society Feminism Crime Gender Punishment Radical Feminism Gender Critical Feminism

Book:The Man-Made World

Source: The Man-Made World

“[Suggesting an additional definition for 'politics':] The art of organizing and handling men in large numbers, manipulating votes, and, in especial, appropriating public wealth.”

Government Law Society Feminism Gender Sexism Radical Feminism Gender Critical Feminism

Author:Charlotte Perkins Gilman

“Nowhere else in the whole range of life on earth, is this degradation found--the female capering and prancing before the male. It is absolutely and essentially his function, not hers.”

Feminism Evolution Sociology Radical Feminism Gender Critical Feminism Women S Literature Social Anthropology Cultural Anthropology Gender Criticism

Book:The Man-Made World

Source: The Man-Made World

“It is the inextricable masculinity in our idea of government which so revolts at the idea of women as voters. 'To govern:' that means to boss, to control, to have authority; and that only, to most minds. They cannot bear to think of the woman as having control over even their own affairs; to control is masculine, they assume. Seeing only self-interest as a natural impulse, and the ruling powers of the state as a sort of umpire, an authority to preserve the rules of the game while men fight it out forever; they see in a democracy merely a wider range of self interest, a wider, freer field to fight in.”