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Feminist Literature Quotes

Browse 41 quotes about Feminist Literature.

Feminist Literature Quotes

“Bondmaid. It came back to me then, and I realized that the words most often used to define us were words that describe our function in relation to others. Even the most benign words - maiden, wife, mother - told the world whether we were virgins or not. What was the male equivalent of maiden? I could not think of it. What was the male equivalent of Mrs., of whore, of common scold? I looked out the window towards the scriptorium, the place where the definitions of all these words were being bedded down. Which words would define me? Which would be used to judge or contain? I was no maiden, yet I was no man’s wife. And I had no desire to be.”

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Book:The Dictionary of Lost Words
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“I’m about to begin halfway saying that— —that she was incompetent. Incompetent for life. She had never figured out how to figure things out. She was only vaguely beginning to know the kind of absence she had of herself inside her. If she were an expressive creature she would say: the world is outside me, I am outside me.”

LonelinessIdentityMelancholyIntrospectionAlienationBleakPsychological FictionAbsurdismExistential AngstFeminist Literature
Book:The Hour of the Star
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“We are not built to be weapons, Kasara. But to build and renew, to lead with empathy and compassion, that is a woman’s job. Think of the other leaders, think of how their factions run on hate and greed. That is why I am here, that is why I took up the VO, because women are supposed to change the world. My father didn’t have only daughters as punishment from some distant god. No, he had daughters because some distant god knew what we could do.”

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Book:Wishing for Corruption
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“Somehow, as we made our entrance into the realm of young womanhood, we began to lose power. Fascinating research on girlhood is happening these days. It confirms that young girls often feel strong, courageous, highly creative, and powerful until they begin to receive undermining sexist messages that encourage them to conform to conventional notions of femininity. To conform they have to give up power.”

PowerFeminismFeministConformityWomen EmpowermentFemininityWomen S StrengthGirlhoodFeminine PowerFeminist Literature
Book:Communion: The Female Search for Love
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“Why should women have to give up their name upon marriage, as if they are nothing but hood ornaments to their husbands! And why should a child be identified only by their father’s name and not the mother’s, who by the way, is the root of all creation - who is creation! We are never going to have a civilized society with equity as foundation, unless we acknowledge and abolish such filthy habits that we’ve been practicing as tradition. Showing off our skin-deep support for equality few days a year doesn’t eliminate all the discriminations from the world, we have to live each day as the walking proof of equality, ascension and assimilation.”

FeminismMotherhoodWomens RightsPatriarchyToxic MasculinityFeminist LiteraturePatriarchal CultureInternational Womens DayGender DiscriminationGender Equity
Book:The Gentalist: There's No Social Work, Only Family Work
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“Literately’ was used in a novel by Elizabeth Griffiths. While no other examples of use have been forthcoming, it is, in my opinion, an elegant extension of ‘literate’. Dr. Murray agreed I should write an entry for the Dictionary, but I have since been told it is unlikely to be included. It seems our lady author has not proved herself a ‘literata’- an abomination of a word coined by Samuel Taylor Coleridge that refers to a ‘literary lady’. It too has only one example of use, but its inclusion is assured. This may sound like sour grapes, but I can’t see it catching on. The number of literary ladies in the world is surely so great as to render them ordinary and deserving members of the literati.”

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Book:The Dictionary of Lost Words
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“I take offense at those who want to criticize the feminist movement when they themselves have done nothing to move the needle forward on equality. I am offended by those who are nostalgic about the second wave of feminism or the first wave and claim that today's feminists aren't fighting real wars. Let me be clear: as women, as gender non-confirming individuals, our rights are under assault right this very moment. Our bodies have been sexualized, objectified, touched without our consent; our agency over our bodies is not respected. We are in a perennial state of defense because this is war being waged on us from all fronts.”

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Book:Feminists Don't Wear Pink (And Other Lies): Amazing Women on What the F-Word Means to Them
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“I've made it my mission to be an ally to women in this generation, to break down misogynistic stereotypes, remove walls that divide them, and create a community grounded in us supporting one another. In my experience as a young women, a female business owner, a daughter, sister, and friend, I've learned the being a feminist isn't your own voice, but how you use your stage to encourage and support other women to find theirs.”

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Book:Feminists Don't Wear Pink (And Other Lies): Amazing Women on What the F-Word Means to Them
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“Why are those characters running and jumping, and that girl character is watching and giggling at the side? Why, when I was at school, were no celebrated scientists, musicians, or playwrights, women? Why are we only taught about the achievements of men? Why, when women unite and come together with their voices raised, does the term 'witch hunt' get bandied around? Why are some of my natural characteristics referred to as 'tomboy'?”

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Book:Feminists Don't Wear Pink (And Other Lies): Amazing Women on What the F-Word Means to Them
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“No matter who you are, if in your mind you are born a girl, you will grow to be a women through experience. It is not a biological process, it is not losing your virgnity, it is not giving birth or raising children, nor is it a thing that can be calculated or defined: it is a staggeringly ineffable, gorgeous uphill battle from chaos towards a chosen selfhood of contentment, self-belief, self-love, and empowerment.”

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Book:Feminists Don't Wear Pink (And Other Lies): Amazing Women on What the F-Word Means to Them
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“Também lembrei de Buddy Williard dizendo com uma voz sinistra e sabichona que depois que tivéssemos filhos eu me sentiria diferente e não mais teria vontade de escrever poemas. E me ocorreu que talvez fosse verdade aquela história de que casar e ter filhos era como passar por uma lavagem cerebral, e que depois eu que você ficava inerte feito um escravo num pequeno estado totalitário.”

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Book:the bell jar
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“I resisted feminism in my late teens and my twenties because i worried that feminism wouldn't allow me to be the mess of a woman i knew myself to be. But then i began to learn more about feminism. i learnt to separate feminism from Feminism or Feminists or the idea of an Essential Feminism - one true feminism to dominate all of womankind.”

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Book:Bad Feminist
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“But as for the rest of you, sisters, when anyone says to you, this, that or the other is natural, then fight. Nature does not know best; for the birds, for the bees, for the cows; for men, perhaps. But your interests and Nature’s do not coincide. Nature our Friend is an argument used, quite understandably, by men.”

FeminismGender RolesFeminist QuotesGender InequalityGender DifferencesFeminist LiteratureGender NormsFeminist Philosophy
Book:Praxis
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“And this is when I realize that perhaps feminism isn't about being morally pure or well-liked, and is more about doing the damn thing. Maybe it's about being a women in her truth, fighting for her cause, her dreams, her vision and doing it exactly as she sees fit.”

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Book:Feminists Don't Wear Pink (And Other Lies): Amazing Women on What the F-Word Means to Them
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“One day we're the storm, loud and unmanageable. One we're the sun, radiating light in every direction. One day we're air, breezing in and out invisibly. One day we're fire, furious and passionate. And we don't need an app to tell us when our anger is justified. Or to shave off our hair to be true feminists. Or unanimous approval to prove we're a trailblazer. Or damn underwear to declare us liberated. And we certainly don't need to devise a new set of feminist rules and specifications that tell some women they qualify and others, 'You can't sit with us.”

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Book:Feminists Don't Wear Pink (And Other Lies): Amazing Women on What the F-Word Means to Them
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“Our bodies are life-growers by nature, tied to the moon by some invisible, yet visceral cord. We get to walk through the world in bodies that are mysterious, majestic even, and our intuition as women is pretty off-the-charts.”

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Book:Feminists Don't Wear Pink (And Other Lies): Amazing Women on What the F-Word Means to Them
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