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Female Quotes

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Female Quotes

“A feminist is anyone who recognizes the equality and full humanity of women and men.”

MenHumanityWomenFeminismMen And WomenFemaleEmpowermentFeministEqualityCivil RightsEmpoweringWomen EmpowermentEmpowering WomenMen WomenGender EqualityEmpowered WomenWomen Empowering WomenInspirational Strong WomenBeing EqualStrong Women And LoveWomen EqualityEquality For AllEquality Of ManInspirational FeministHuman EqualityProud WomanEmpowering Female
Author:Gloria Steinem
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“Yes, my consuming desire is to mingle with road crews, sailors and soldiers, barroom regulars - to be a part of a scene, anonymous, listening, recording - all this is spoiled by the fact that I am a girl, a female always supposedly in danger of assault and battery. My consuming interest in men and their lives is often misconstrued as a desire to seduce them, or as an invitation to intimacy. Yes, God, I want to talk to everybody as deeply as I can. I want to be able to sleep in an open field, to travel west, to walk freely at night.”

MenWantI CanFactsAbleLife IsDesireNightGirlInterestSleepWalksDangerFieldsListeningSceneFemaleWestSoldierIntimacyCrewAssaultInvitationsConsumingSailorSpoiledSeducingBatteriesOpen FieldsMisconstrued
Author:Sylvia Plath
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“Cities at night, I feel, contain men who cry in their sleep and then say Nothing. It's nothing. Just sad dreams. Or something like that...Swing low in your weep ship, with your tear scans and sob probes, and you would mark them. Women--and they can be wives, lovers, gaunt muses, fat nurses, obsessions, devourers, exes, nemeses--will wake and turn to these men and ask, with female need-to-know, "What is it?" And the men will say, "Nothing. No it isn't anything really. Just sad dreams.”

KnowsMenNeedsFeelsDreamNightTurnsAsksSleepCitiesWifeCryTearsLoversLowsFemaleMarkFatsObsessionShipsNurseSwingsMuseExesNemesisCities At Night
Book:The Information
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“If a man we don't know phones us up one day and talks a little, makes no suggestions, says nothing special, but nevertheless pays us the kind of attention we rarely receive, we're quite capable of going to bed with him that night, feeling relatively in love. That's what we women are like, and there's nothing wrong with that - it's the nature of the female to open herself to love easily.”

IfsKnowsMenKindLittlesFeelingsNightPayAttentionSpecialOne DayBedCapableFemalePhonesNeverthelessSuggestions
Author:Paulo Coelho
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“Women and men communicate differently, often on entirely different planes. But just as men have failed us, we have failed them. It has been one of our great collective female shortcomings to presume that whatever we do not perceive simply isn't there, or that whatever is not communicated in our language is not intelligible speech.”

MenHas BeensDifferentLanguageSpeechMen And WomenFemaleCommunicatePlanesPerceiveCollectivesShortcomings
Book:Self-Made Man: One Woman's Year Disguised as a Man
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“A week in the hospital she had told us. A hysterectomy, she had said. It had seemed unremarkable to me in a woman of forty-six long finished with childbearing, although every day that I grow older I realize there is never anything unremarkable about losing any part of what makes you female - a breast, a womb, a child, a man.”

MenChildrenLongSaidGrowsRealizingWeekSixLosingFemaleFinishedBreastsFortyHospitalsWombChildbearingHysterectomy
Book:Object Lessons: One True Thing ; Black and Blue
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“If art is not to be life-enhancing, what is it to be? Half the world is feminine - why is there resentment at a female-oriented art? Nobody asks The Tale of Genji to be masculine! Women certainly learn a lot from books oriented toward a masculine world. Why is not the reverse also true? Or are men really so afraid of women's creativity?”

IfsMenWorldChildrenArtBookAsksHalfCreativityCreationBearsGeniusArt IsFemaleRageTalesFeminineResentmentReverseIrrelevantMasculineEvokeSneer
Author:May Sarton
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“On one hand the eternal attraction of man towards femininity (cf. Gn. 2:23) frees in him-or perhaps it should free-a gamut of spiritual-corporal desires of an especially personal and "sharing" nature (cf. analysis of the "beginning"), to which a proportionate pyramid of values corresponds. On the other hand, "lust" limits this gamut, obscuring the pyramid of values that marks the perennial attraction of male and female.”

MenShouldHandsSpiritualDesireValuesLimitsEternalFemaleMarkMalesAttractionLustAnalysisFemininityPyramidsCfs
Author:Pope John Paul II
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“Butch repositioned the Sox cap, and as his wrist passed by his nose, he got another whiff of himself. "Ah, V. . . listen, there is something a little weird going down on me." "What?" "I smell like men's cologne." "Good for you. Females dig that kind of thing." "Vishous, I smell like Obsession for Men, only I'm not WEARING any, you feel me?" There was silence on the line. Then, "Humans don't bond." "Oh, really. You want to tell that to my central nervous system and my sweat glands? They'd appreciate the news flash, I'm sure.”

MenWantFeelsHumansKindLittlesLinesSilenceNewsFemaleAppreciateSmellObsessionNervousNosesSweatFlashCapsWristsNervous SystemGlandsCologneVishousCentral Nervous System
Author:J.R. Ward
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“I suppose the most important thing, the heaviest single factor in one's life, is whether one's born male or female. In most societies it determines one's expectations, activities, outlook, ethics, manners - almost everything. Vocabulary. Semiotic usages. Clothing. Even food. Women... women tend to eat less... It's extremely hard to separate the innate differences from the learned ones. Even where women participate equally with men in the society, they still after all do all the childbearing, and so most of the child-rearing.”

MenChildrenStillsImportantHardLife IsBornDifferencesActivityExpectationsEthicsFemaleImportant ThingsMalesDetermineFactorsMannersClothingsVocabularyOutlookInnateUsageChild RearingSemioticsChildbearing
Book:The Left Hand of Darkness
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“The rise to prominence of the Saudi novel in Arabic is the great man-bites-dog of recent world literature. Saudi Arabia is a country without a free press, where European styles and forms are distrusted and where the female half of the population became literate only in this generation.”

MenWorldCountryFormLiteratureHalfNovelGenerationsDogStyleFemalePressesPopulationGreat MenBitesArabiaSaudi ArabiaSaudisThis GenerationFree PressProminenceWorld Literature
Author:James Buchan
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“For the record, this isn’t a male/female thing. It’s a people thing. You talk about men being cold...you should see women from my standpoint. We’re talking the Arctic tundra would be warmer. Believe me, you don’t want to know my vantage point on your gender. As a man, if I grabbed your breasts, I’d be arrested. Any idea how many women have felt free to grab my crotch at will? (Acheron)”

PeopleIfsKnowsMenWantShouldBelieveIdeasWould BeFeltTalkingRecordsColdFemaleMalesGenderBreastsBelieve In MeArrestedStandpointArcticVantage PointMale Female
Book:Devil May Cry
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“Susan hardly had begun to slow down when Tera appeared from between a couple of buildings and loped over to the car. I leaned forward, opened the door, and she got into the backseat. I threw her the extra clothes I had picked up, and she began to dress without comment. It worked," I said. "We did it." Of course it worked," Tera said. "Men are foolish. They will stare at anything female and naked.”

MenSaidCoursesDoorsCarBuildingCoupleClothesFemaleDressesFoolishNakedStaringExtrasCommentSlow DownBackseat
Book:The Dresden Files Collection 1-6
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“...the Female Once-Over - a process by which one woman creates a detailed profile of another woman based upon about a million subtle details of clothing, jewelry, makeup, and body type, and then decides how much of a social threat she might be. Men have a parallel process, but it's binary: Does he have beer? If yes, will he share with me?”

IfsMenDoeBodyMightSocialProcessMillionsShareTypeFemaleThreatDetailsBeerSubtleMakeupClothingsParallelsBe A ManJewelryProfileOne WomanDresdenAnother WomanBinaryBody TypesDresden Files
Author:Jim Butcher
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“Where were all the women gamblers? It wasn't as if being a woman wasn't a huge risk all by itself. Twenty-eight percent of female homocide victims were killed by husbands or lovers. Which, come to think of it, was probably why there weren't any women gamblers. Living with men was enough of a gamble.”

IfsThinkingMenEnoughRiskHugeLoversHusbandPercentFemaleTwentiesVictimEightGambleBeing A Woman
Book:Welcome to Temptation/Bet Me
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“I do assure you, Sir, that I have no pretension whatever of that kind of elegance which consists in tormenting a respectable man. I would rather be paid the compliment of being believed sincere. I thank you again and again for the honour you have done me in your proposals, but to accept them is absolutely impossible. My feelings in every respect forbid it. Can I speak plainer? Do not consider me now as an elegant female intending to plague you, but as a rational creature speaking the truth from her heart.”

MenHeartKindDoneFeelingsSpeakAcceptingImpossibleCreaturesFemalePaidRationalSincereHonourComplimentAgain And AgainElegantElegancePlagueProposalRespectableSpeak The TruthYou AgainPretensionRespectable ManHonour You
Book:Pride and Prejudice
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“To my embarrassment, I was crying again. Real girl tears for the second time, these ones born out of frustration. That didn't happen to me very often, but I hated it when it did. It was faulty wiring in the female body, tear ducts attached directly to the frustration meter. Trying to explain to men that no, I wasn't being manipulative, I just couldn't stop my eyes from leaking salt water, only added to the aggravation.”

MenTryingRealBodyHappensEyeGirlWaterBornCryTearsFemaleHatedFrustrationSaltEmbarrassmentAggravationMeterManipulativeFemale BodyWiringSalt WaterReal Girl
Book:Demon Hunts
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“I soon began to sense a fundamental perceptual difficulty among male scholars (and some female ones) for which 'sexism' is too facile a term. It is really an intellectual defect, which might be termed 'patrivincialism' or patrochialism': the assumption that women are a subgroup, that men's culture is the 'real' world, that patriarchy is equivalent to culture and culture to patriarchy, that the 'great' or 'liberalizing' periods of history have been the same for women as for men.”

MenWorldHas BeensRealMightCultureTermPeriodsIntellectualFemaleDifficultyFundamentalsMalesAssumptionSexismReal WorldScholarPatriarchyDefects
Author:Adrienne Rich
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“Being female in this world means having been robbed of the potential for human choice by men who love to hate us. One does does not make choices in freedom. Instead, one conforms in body type and behavior and values to become an object of male sexual desire, which requires an abandonment of a wide-ranging capacity for choice... Men too make choices. When will they choose not to despise us?”

MenWorldHumansMeanDoeBodyDesireValuesHateChoicesObjectsThis WorldTypeBehaviorCapacityFemaleMalesWideDespiseConformAbandonmentLove HateSexual DesireBody Types
Book:Intercourse
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“Emma Willard told the legislature that the education of women "has been too exclusively directed to fit them for displaying to advantage the charms of youth and beauty" The problem, she said, was that "the taste of men, whatever it might happen to be, has made into a standard for the formation of the female character." Reason and religion teach us, she said, that "we too are primary existences...not the satellites of men.”

MenHas BeensMadeSaidReasonCharacterProblemMightHappensExistenceTeachYouthFitTasteStandardsAdvantageFemalePrimariesCharmFormationLegislatureFemale CharactersSatellitesEmma
Book:A People's History of the United States
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“You don’t owe prettiness to anyone. Not to your boyfriend/spouse/partner, not to your co-workers, especially not to random men on the street. You don’t owe it to your mother, you don’t owe it to your children, you don’t owe it to civilization in general. Prettiness is not a rent you pay for occupying a space marked ‘female’.”

MenChildrenMotherSpacePayStreetsCivilizationFemaleWorkersPartnersYour ChildrenEmpoweringWomen EmpowermentSpouseEmpowering WomenFemale EmpowermentEmpowered WomenWomen Empowering WomenInspirational Strong WomenCo WorkerStrong Women And LoveYour BoyfriendPrettinessEmpowering Female
Author:Erin McKean
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“Women: I liked the colors of their clothing; the way they walked; the cruelty in some faces; now and then the almost pure beauty in another face, totally and enchantingly female. They had it over us: they planned much better and were better organized. While men were watching professional football or drinking beer or bowling, they, the women, were thinking about us, concentrating, studying, deciding - whether to accept us, discard us, exchange us, kill us or whether simply to leave us. In the end it hardly mattered; no matter what they did, we ended up lonely and insane.”

ThinkingMenWayEndsMatterFacesAcceptingStudyFootballColorPureFemaleLonelyNo Matter WhatDrinkingCrueltyInsaneBeerOrganizedClothingsNow And ThenConcentratingBowlingDrinking Beer
Author:Charles Bukowski
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“This fear of maleness that they inspire estranges men from every female in their lives to greater or lesser degrees, and men feel the loss. Ultimately, one of the emotional costs of allegiance to patriarchy is to be seen as unworthy of trust. If women and girls in patriarchal culture are taught to see every male, including the males with whom we are intimate, as potential rapists and murderers, then we cannot offer them our trust, and without trust there is no love.”

IfsMenFeelsCultureGirlLossGreaterEmotionalInspireTaughtCostOffersDegreesFemaleMalesIncludingIntimatePatriarchyMurdererAllegianceUnworthyNo LoveWithout TrustMaleness
Book:The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love
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“Aggressive and hard-charging women violate unwritten rules about acceptable social conduct. Men are continually applauded for being ambitious and powerful and successful, but women who display these same traits often pay a social penalty. Female accomplishments come at a cost.”

MenHardSocialPowerfulPaySuccessfulCostFemaleAccomplishmentAggressiveDisplayAcceptableTraitsAmbitiousPenaltiesUnwrittenChargingUnwritten Rules
Book:Lean In for Graduates
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“No wonder male religious leaders so often say that humans were born in sin—because we were born to female creatures. Only by obeying the rules of the patriarchy can we be reborn through men. No wonder priests and ministers in skirts sprinkle imitation birth fluid over our heads, give us new names, and promise rebirth into everlasting life.”

MenGivingHumansNamesBornReligiousSinLeaderWonderBirthPromiseCreaturesFemaleMalesMinistersPriestsImitationPatriarchyEverlastingRebirthFluidSkirtsRebornObeyingReligious LeadersSprinklesEverlasting Life
Author:Gloria Steinem
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“We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller. We say to girls: 'You can have ambition, but not too much. You should aim to be successful, but not too successful. Otherwise, you will threaten the man.' Because I am female, I am expected to aspire to marriage. I am expected to make my life choices, always keeping in mind that marriage is the most important. Now, marriage can be a source of joy and love and mutual support, but why do we teach girls to aspire to marriage and we don't teach boys the same?”

MenShouldMindImportantJoyChoicesGirlWomenInspiringBoysTeachSupportSuccessfulToo MuchHe ManSourceAmbitionFemaleAnd LoveAimExpectedBeing SuccessfulMutualAspireShrinksLife ChoicesFlawlessMutual SupportSay To A Girl
Author:Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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“The tango is the man and woman in search of each other. It is the search for an embrace, a way to be together, when the man feels that he is a male and the woman feels that she is female, without machismo. She likes to be led; he likes to lead. Disagreements may occur later or they may not. When that moment comes, it is important to have positive and productive dialogue, fifty-fifty. The music arouses and torments, the dance is the coupling of two people defenseless against the world and powerless to change things.”

PeopleMenWorldWayFeelsMayTwoImportantMomentsTogetherHe ManMen And WomenFemaleEmbraceDanceMalesLikesDialogueFiftyProductiveThat MomentTormentPowerlessDisagreementTangoDefenselessMachismoCoupling
Author:Juan Carlos Copes
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“Among the innumerable Footsteps of Divine Providence to be found in the Works of Nature, there is a very remarkable one to be observed in the exact Balance that is maintained, between the Numbers of Men and Women; for by this means it is provided, that the Species may never fail, nor perish, since every Male may have its Female, and of a proportionable Age.”

MenMayMeanEndsAgeFoundChanceNumbersFailingEffectsDivineBalanceMen And WomenFemaleSpeciesMalesRemarkableProvidenceFootstepsGeneticsDivine Providence
Author:John Arbuthnot
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“There prevails among men of letters, an opinion, that all appearance of science is particularly hateful to Women; and that therefore whoever desires to be well received in female assemblies, must qualify himself by a total rejection of all that is serious, rational, or important; must consider argument or criticism as perpetually interdicted; and devote all his attention to trifles, and all his eloquence to compliment.”

MenWellsImportantScienceDesireAttentionOpinionSeriousFemaleArgumentCriticismLettersAccountsAppearanceRationalRejectionComplimentHatefulAssemblyEloquenceTrifles
Book:The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752
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