Browse 902 quotes about Sexism.
“High fashion turns women into works of art, and women have always been willing to sacrifice freedom for the appearance of transcendence. What power is to a man, illusion is to a women. You can count on this: in any society, in any period, whatever style emerges to distinguish the elite from ordinary women will physically constrict.”
Source: From Eve to Dawn: A History of Women in the World, Vol. 1
“Men usurped women's right to name their children for themselves, an act inconceivable for the hundreds of thousands of years when the male contribution to procreation was unknown.”
Source: From Eve to Dawn: A History of Women in the World, Vol. 1
“In no society have women constricted men within the domestic compound or regularly battered or raped men. In no known culture, no matter how high a woman's status, have women as a caste locked up husbands, limited their bodily freedom, or denied them a voice in group decision. Men in matrilinies do not suffer as women do in patrilinies. Matrilineality is rooted in the bond between mother and child; patrilineality is rooted in dubious assertions of ownership of women and children.”
Source: From Eve to Dawn: A History of Women in the World, Vol. 1
“The first mention of prostitution comes from Sumer, where priests prostituted female captives and slaves to draw men and money to the temples. From the first, prostitution was designed to profit men.”
“Perhaps hunting, on which male anthropologists place so much weight, gave men a sense of identity, responsibility, and power.”
Source: From Eve to Dawn: A History of Women in the World, Vol. 1
“Female maturity is evident in the onset of menstruation; nothing signals male maturity. When a boy becomes capable of erection, he may or may not yet be able to father a child. The ambiguity of male maturity, together with the lack of a given role that it seems to indicate, is precisely the problem male solidarity is intended to counter.”
Source: From Eve to Dawn: A History of Women in the World, Vol. 1
“Puberty rites are specifically designed to coerce boys to reject their primary and deepest bond, to their mothers. Male initiations emphasise that men must be born twice, once through the mother and a second time through men.”
Source: From Eve to Dawn: A History of Women in the World, Vol. 1
“Isolated, confined, allowed only small amounts of certain foods and drink, taught that her body is powerful but contaminated, a girl learns that she has power - to pollute: in such cultures, menstrual blood is a source of horror and fear. Menstruation symbolises female power, considered destructive to men. If female power can destroy men, women are men's enemies, and the condition of the sexes is a state of war.”
Source: From Eve to Dawn: A History of Women in the World, Vol. 1
“Rituals were designed to protect men from Earth's retribution, and it has been suggested that after the invention of horticulture, humans began to attribute creation to a deity above nature, rather than within it, to a male God rather than a female Goddess.”
Source: From Eve to Dawn: A History of Women in the World, Vol. 1
“Patrilinies are founded on domination. To own children, men must guarantee their paternity, which requires them to guard women's bodies, claiming to own them. This claim turns women into men's possessions. Controlling another requires force, so patrilineality permits or encourages brutality towards women. Such behaviour makes for bad relations between the sexes. Brutality is rare in matrilinies, where women are surrounded by kin; men invented patrilocality to control women.”
Source: From Eve to Dawn: A History of Women in the World, Vol. 1
“Myths rarely offer facts, only metaphors for political or social forces, but myths about former female powers would not exist if men had always controlled women. If men always controlled women, their domination would need to explanation or justification, but would seem natural. Myths of once powerful females are amazingly universal.”
Source: From Eve to Dawn: A History of Women in the World, Vol. 1
“Once the mechanisms of patrilineality, patrilocality, and exogamy were in place, it was difficult for women to escape. In time, men in some groups raised vying for status to an organising principle, competing to show their importance within the group and generating "Big man" societies. These societies fostered the rise of the state and its sociopolitical form - patriarchy.”
Source: From Eve to Dawn: A History of Women in the World, Vol. 1
“The term " Patriarchy" denotes institutionalised male dominance, guaranteed by a set of interlocking structures that perpetuate the power and authority of an elite class of men over all other humans and grant all men power and authority over women of their class. Power is might - physical, psychological, or economic. Animals may dominate other animals by virtue of birth or charisma. But authority - a moral or spiritual right (tactically backed by force) to judge others and coerce behaviour - does not exist among animals. Authority is insidious because we tend to internalise it: we feel guilt at performing acts called wrong by authorities, even if we ourselves do not believe them wrong.”
Source: From Eve to Dawn: A History of Women in the World, Vol. 1
“Patriarchies are societies within institutions - hierarchical bodies of government, religion, law, education, commerce, and culture - designed to transcend individual lives, to endure over ages, and to maintain and transmit power from man to man, a practice called "Passing the mantle". All institutions have customs or laws that give men prerogatives or advantages and that exclude or limit the participation of women and certain men. Patriarchies in different states disempower different groups of men, but they all disempower women.”
Source: From Eve to Dawn: A History of Women in the World, Vol. 1
“Matriarchy, if it existed, would be identical to patriarchy, with females dominant. Women have wielded great power in the world and have had personal authority over men in their families or communities. But no society has institutionalised female-dominance, a sociopolitical structure giving women authority over men and the right to use force against them. So entrenched is patriarchal thinking, however, that people commonly use the term "Matriarchy" to describe women living free of male authority.”
Source: From Eve to Dawn: A History of Women in the World, Vol. 1
“States are corporations masquerading as peoples. They encompass diverse peoples with varied customs, bloodlines, and languages, and they are ruled by an elite that imposes unity by force and asserts a bond of nationality that supersedes traditional blood or family ties.”
Source: From Eve to Dawn: A History of Women in the World, Vol. 1
“Status is treacherous for women: in patriarchies, it is always a trade-off for freedom.”
Source: From Eve to Dawn: A History of Women in the World, Vol. 1
“Men who rise in status win greater autonomy or power, but women who rise in status must cede control of their reproductive and person life or their work.”
Source: From Eve to Dawn: A History of Women in the World, Vol. 1
“People in simple societies may have killed infants they could not feed in times of scarcity. Female infanticide is an entirely different matter. It occurs in societies with private property in which only males can own property, and it is justified by the need for male heirs. In such societies, men alone can perform religious rituals. Female infanticide is obviously a manifestation of low self esteem for females. Since women's status was traditionally associated with their reproductive capabilities, female infanticide also implies a low value for reproduction. It occurred in most ancient states.”
Source: From Eve to Dawn: A History of Women in the World, Vol. 1
“Today, no law or custom forces women to constrict themselves this way. They do it to gain status, to set themselves off from the common herd of a despised species. Elite women always adopt fashions that impede freedom of movement and action, and those who want to appear to be elite always imitate them. Men mock women as slaves to fashion but women's concern with fashion has a sub text. All women know that females are barely known as animals.”
Source: From Eve to Dawn: A History of Women in the World, Vol. 1
“Democracies claim that they do not subscribe to the lie of patriarchy but hold everyone equal. A society of equals votes for one man to be held a limited superior for a limited time, in order to govern not as a divine appointee, but as the people's choice. But patriarchal thinking, with its idolisation of power a belief in transcendence, permeates all societies and cannot simply be ignored. Power cliques develop in patriarchies, and soon enough become supreme, even over the elected governor. In our time, these cliques are multinational corporations. Politics cannot change unless patriarchy ceases to be the primary structure of our thought.”
Source: From Eve to Dawn: A History of Women in the World, Vol. 1
“Patriarchy insists that some people are better than others because its primary reason for existing is to assert that men are superior to women. But because this claim is a falsehood, it is regularly challenged. States built on lies are insecure and are easily threatened; leaders must endlessly propagandise, insisting their lies are truths.”
Source: From Eve to Dawn: A History of Women in the World, Vol. 1
“Patriarchy was conceived as a revolution against female domination; men pulled together against a sex described as inferior in order to usurp women's powers. But they did not really want women's powers: they did not want the responsibility for producing and raising children and the daily work of sustaining men. They wanted symbolic powers - ownership of children and women.”
Source: From Eve to Dawn: A History of Women in the World, Vol. 1
“The assertion of female inferiority prepares the ground for men's subjection, because the principle of superiority ramifies endlessly. If one man can be superior to another, the second man may also be superior to a third, and so on. If men can be superior to women, some men can be superior to other men. Male solidarity attempts to blur that fact, to assert that "down deep" all men are brothers. But this ideal is far from realisation in this world - men are united only when they are opposed to women. Male superiority is a psychological core of patriarchy, but its political and economic purpose is the subjection of other men. Men have regularly rebelled against one ruler or another but have never rebelled against the principle of superiority - the only rebellion that can end the injustice and misery that arises from invidious distinctions - or generic discrimination.”
Source: From Eve to Dawn: A History of Women in the World, Vol. 1
“The shift from female centrality to male domination occurred before the development of writing, so its roots are hidden. In consequence, and men's response over the millennia to all moves by women towards greater autonomy, suggests that it emerged from male hostility towards women and was imposed on them. The destruction of matricentry was the first and most important male war against women.”
Source: From Eve to Dawn: A History of Women in the World, Vol. 1
“Men believe that women were nonvolitional beings, bound to their bodies and their instincts. But studies have shown that mothering is learned; is not instinctive. We learn to mother by being mothered, and creatures that are not mothered cannot do it. Taking care creates love, for a baby, a piece of land, an animal. Men devalue this work, attributing it to mere instinct, ignoring the many women who abandon children or raise them cruelly. Taking responsibility is not instinctual in human beings as it is in other mammals. It is a choice.”
Source: From Eve to Dawn: A History of Women in the World, Vol. 1
“In analyzing the sex-class system, feminists are accused of inventing or perpetuating it. Calling attention to it, we are told, insults women by suggesting that they are victims, stupid enough to allow themselves to be victimized. Feminists are accused of being the agents of degradation by postulation that such degradation exists.”
Source: Right-Wing Women
“Men have always been permitted in fiction and in life to simply be what they are, no matter how dark or terrifying that might be. But with a woman, we expect an answer, a reason.”
Source: Maeve Fly
“Women have a unique lose-lose position where they are either respected but rejected, or accepted but not respected. What a choice.”
Source: The Gender Bias: The Barriers That Hold Women Back, And How To Break Them
“Women suffer an immense burden of impression management concerning everyday behaviours, many of which are the same behaviours required for success. Assertive women risk being seen as 'bossy,' whereas assertive men are considered 'decisive.' Women prepared to have a difficult conversation are 'ball breakers,' whereas men are just expected to 'speak the truth.' Women risk being perceived differently to men for displaying the same behaviours, saying the same things, in the same way, in the same context. Women feel the pressure of considering how they will be perceived to avoid being judged less favourably.”
Source: The Gender Bias: The Barriers That Hold Women Back, And How To Break Them
“People who would not ordinarily reach for a sexist stereotype - let alone consciously act on it - find themselves behaving in a way that inadvertently denounces a woman's competence solely because that idea of incompetence is deeply ingrained in a sexist stereotype: an image of women that should be kind and caring and not critical or judgemental. Any deviation sees women being disliked and denigrated, with their competence being brought into question.”
Source: The Gender Bias: The Barriers That Hold Women Back, And How To Break Them
“Women cannot be left to bear the burden of calling out inequality simply because they're the ones experiencing it the most acutely.”
Source: The Gender Bias: The Barriers That Hold Women Back, And How To Break Them
“By denying women the opportunity to fail in the same way afforded to men, by raising the stakes for half of society so significantly, we have yet another socially constructed systemic barrier to women succeeding.”
Source: The Gender Bias: The Barriers That Hold Women Back, And How To Break Them
“Too many women are smeared just for occupying their [male] space. Particularly those whose space involves holding power. For women who venture into governance, the spreading of fake news and disinformation has been particularly pronounced. Research has found that female politicians are targeted far more than their male peers.”
Source: The Gender Bias: The Barriers That Hold Women Back, And How To Break Them
“Anyone can write male sexist fiction. Anyone can write feminist propaganda. I hope to avoid both, and to entertain you while I'm doing it.”
Source: Sword and Sorceress
“Feminism is sexism.”
“Still, somehow, inexplicably, "man-hater" is a word tossed around with insouciance as if this was a real thing that did harm. Meanwhile we have no word for men who kill women. Is the word just "men"?”
Source: Sex Object: A Memoir
“Sometimes we call these men domestic abusers when the victim is someone they know, but when they kill strangers to them, we just call these men crazy. Lone wolves. Unbalanced. But here's the thing - what is crazy about killing a woman in a culture that tells you women's lives are worth nothing?”
Source: Sex Object: A Memoir
“Edgar Allan Poe once called the death of a beautiful woman "the most poetical topic in the world" and I have often found myself wondering how many women writers who have killed themselves or let themselves be otherwise obliterated were trying, somehow, to fulfil this most popular of narratives. We're most valuable when we're smiling, dead, posing, our words hanging on the page with no real body behind them.”
Source: Sex Object: A Memoir
“Men's pain and existential angst are the stuff of myth and legend and narratives that shape everything we do, but women's pain is a backdrop - a plot development to push the story along for the real protagonists. Disrupting that story means we're needy or selfish, or worst of all, man-haters - as if after all men have done to women over the ages the mere act of not liking them for it is most offensive.”
Source: Sex Object: A Memoir
“A man writes to separate himself from the common history. A woman writes to join it.”
“I looked into their new mom gift baskets. The basket included... a scarf. A fucking scarf.
My first thought was that this company bulk ordered them for something else, and couldn't get rid of them, so they pivoted and tried to make it a "mommy scarf;" selling you on the idea that there are scarves specifically for women who have children. Which are very different, from normal scarves, for childless women.
"Great for dressing up a look or just keeping mama warm while she's out conquering the world." The fact that they wrote a blurb about why a human would need a scarf at all, to me, further proves how dumb we think women are.
As if there's some tired mom out there, typing into Google "what is scarf and how?" "neck cold. how do i hot it?”
Source: All Things Aside: Absolutely Correct Opinions
“Growing up, I never knew a relaxed woman. Successful women? Yes. Productive women? Plenty. Anxious and afraid and apologetic women? Heaps of them. But relaxed women? At-ease women? Women who don't dissect their days into half hour slots of productivity? Women who prioritize rest and pleasure and play? Women who aren't afraid to take up space in the world? Women who give themselves unconditional permission to relax? Without guilt? Without apology? Without feeling like they need to earn it? I'm not sure I've ever met a woman like that. But I would like to become one.”
“It has become a habit to conceive of women - both historically and currently - not by their achievements, but by the restraints placed upon them; to study the locked door, and fail to see the windows broken from inside.”
Source: Essex Girls: For Profane and Opinionated Women Everywhere
“So Anne Knight holds up her placard, and fixes the dubious observer with her pale unblinking eyes. "Woman has the capacity for instructing man," she wrote, and her toils "have strengthened her mind and matured her judgement till she is now superior to man...”
Source: Essex Girls: For Profane and Opinionated Women Everywhere
“Accept nothing less than a revolution.”
Source: Enough: the violence against women and how to end it
“The culture you get is the behaviour you tolerate.”
Source: Enough: the violence against women and how to end it
“Is the suggestion that democracy requires a fair trail for all, except those charged with crimes against women? There are many brilliant feminist lawyers who defend people charged with serious sexual violence for a living. They are precisely the people who should be defending those trials. They challenge the evidence properly and legitimately. They make sure that the accused has a fair trail, and that any conviction is a safe one. But in doing so they do not pander to myths about female behaviour that are not only outdated, but demonstrably false. It is these lawyers, above all others, who are bringing the justice system up to date. We need more of them.”
Source: Enough: the violence against women and how to end it
“Division is the surest way to frustrate a social movement.”
Source: Enough: the violence against women and how to end it
“I suppose I am not alone in having once been oblivious to what I owed to women before me, and to the notion that I ought to find ways of repaying the debt.”
Source: Essex Girls: For Profane and Opinionated Women Everywhere