Favourite feminist quote...?

[Sakura]

Germaine Greer on housework:

"..Professor Jean-CLaude Kaufman of the Sorbonne tells us that housework is a deeply sensual experience--for women, that is, not for himself. Women do menial work because it turns them on; it doesn't turn men on, therefore they should not be expected to do it. Strange, isn't it, how much men know about sensations they have never had. Kaufman knows a woman in whom dish-washing produces explosions of joy....
Faking it in bed has clearly not been enough; now women are having to fake sexual arousal even when they are cleaning the toilet."

Sakura, what a great quote to get us started.

I collect these "gems of wisdom".

By the way, on the topic of housework, Zsa Zsa Gabor said "I am a marvelous housekeeper. Every time I leave a man, I keep his house."

My favourite feminist quotes include :

"People call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute." - Rebecca West

"We are given the illusion that woman can accomplish anything today and that it is her fault if she does not. It all goes hand in hand with this so-called new femininity... This renewed attempt to pin women down to their traditional role, together with a small effort to meet some of the demands made by women, -that's the formula used to try and keep women quiet. And, unfortunately, as one can see from the tragic results, it is a really successful approach. Even women who call themselves feminists don't always see through it. Once again women are being defined in terms of 'the other,' once again they are being made into the 'second sex'." - Simone de Beauvoir

"It is hard to fight an enemy who has outposts in your head." - Sally Kempton

"Women are the only exploited group in history who have been idealized into powerlessness." - Erica Jong

"The ceiling isn't glass; it's a very dense layer of men." - Anne Jardim

"Women who say they are not feminists and act like individuals with basic human rights have just got their terminology wrong." - Kaz Cook

"A pedestal is as much a prison as any other small space." - Gloria Steinem

Thanks SWD. I liked the Simone de Beauvoir one

My all time favourite quotation is from Eleanor Roosevelt: "Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent".

Now I don't know how much of a feminist she was, but that strikes me as pretty inspirational for women.

Yes, Portia, that quote has been very useful in my life when it's come to facing off a man who believes himself to be superior to me. You don't have to become someone else's image of you.

I like that Eleanor Roosevelt one, too - sometimes it's another stick to beat myself up with ("Oh, I let him get to me!") but generally it's very spine-stiffening.

I have a postcard pinned by my desk that says:

"BECAUSE
woman's work is underpaid or unpaid & what we look like is more important than what we do & if we get raped it is our fault & if we love women it's because we can't get a real man & if we expect community care for our family we are selfish & if we stand up for our rights we are loud & if we don't we are typical week females & if we want to get married we are out to trap a man & if we don't we are unnatural & because we aren't deemed responsible enough to decide if, when, and how we give birth
WE ARE FEMINISTS."

That about sums it up for me.

ahem. I mean "typical WEAK females" there. Oh dear. Can someone get this baby OUT of me, please?! Trying to sleep is impossible, and it makes everything else so grotty!

blackcurrants, I like it! From today there is also going to be a card on my desk saying that.

blackcurrants, sorry to hear that sleeping is difficult for you at the moment. I hope that improves soon. Have you much longer to go? I hate having insomnia - it does put one at such a low ebb and so many things become more of a struggle.

Aw, thanks SDG - I'm just having a moan cos it's 7am on a Sunday and I've been awake for 2 hours! (good practice, I suppose) - 4 more weeks, though frankly I'd be happy with 3, or even 2... it's really hot here (USA), around 30c every day, and even with airconditioning I'm struggling a bit. Still, at least I'm not a typical 'week' female

Have always loved: ' A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle...'

Blackcurrants - I really love the because quote, have heard it before and it's so.....true.
I have a other:

Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed. If I fail, no one will say, "She doesn't have what it takes." They will say, "Women don't have what it takes." ~Clare Boothe Luce

Oh, and LOVE this one:

Remember, Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, but backwards and in high heels. ~Faith Whittlesey

i am loving this thread, cant think of any of my own.

I like this more contemporary reference:

I see my body as an instrument, rather than an ornament. ~Alanis Morissette

I asked a Burmese why women, after centuries of following their men, now walk ahead. He said there were many unexploded land mines since the war. ~Robert Mueller

Women's chains have been forged by men, not by anatomy. ~Estelle R. Ramey

Women are the only exploited group in history to have been idealized into powerlessness. ~Erica Jong

No one should have to dance backward all of their lives. ~Jill Ruckelshaus

There is more difference within the sexes than between them. ~Ivy Compton-Burnett

Just signing in so that I don't miss any of these.

The Robert Mueller quote is chilling.

"I will not have my life narrowed down. I will not bow down to somebody else's whim or to someone else's ignorance."
bell hooks

wastingaway - I know, so sad

I also like :

"Freedom of the press means no-iron clothes."

• Anon.

A few more for you.

"Women: their rights, and nothing less; Men: their rights, and nothing more." - Susan B. Anthony

"Anti-feminism is also operating whenever any political group is ready to sacrifice one group of women, one faction, some women, some kinds of women, to any element of sex-class oppression: to pornography, to rape, to battery, to economic exploitation, to reproductive exploitation, to prostitution. There are women all along the male-defined political spectrum, including both extreme ends of it, ready to sacrifice some women, usually not themselves, to the brothels or the farms. The sacrifice is profoundly anti-feminist; it is also profoundly immoral..." - Andrea Dworkin

Thanks for posting these, I need some to carry around in my head.

"as much as people hate a woman with an opinion - i have one" - christina aguilira