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International Women’s Day is around the corner on March 8, and what can be a better time to celebrate feminism? Feminism has given women a universal sisterhood to fall back on when the world tries to weigh them down. And of course, it’s not just women: feminism has been the saving grace of every gender, whether our outdated patriarchal society accepts it or not.
Here is a list of feminist quotes to take inspiration from and take a step towards a future that is more conducive to equality for everyone out there.
- “A culture fixated on female thinness is not an obsession about female beauty, but an obsession about female obedience. Dieting is the most potent political sedative in women’s history; a quietly mad population is a tractable one.”
—Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth - “Sister,
if he
wants to touch
that beautiful and rare diamond
between your legs,
if he
wants to slip into
that honey they swarm around,
always hungry, always go,
then he
will take it however you
give it to him.
And if you want to give it to him hairy,
that’s how he’s going to fucking take it.—Stop trying so hard. Find your own beautiful.”
—Vironika Tugaleva - “Reading is an act of radical empathy: turning the page instead of turning away.”
—Damian Barr, Maggie & Me - “The witch is the ultimate feminist icon because she is a fully rounded symbol of female oppression and liberation.”
—Pam Grossman, Waking the Witch: Reflections on Women, Magic, and Power - “There are garments in all of our wardrobes we don’t wear
because we don’t dare. We bought the jumpsuit for when we
were feeling brave and it turns out we never are. A friend of
mine had a party and asked us to wear that thing we already
own that we never dare wear and it was the most wonderful
night. One woman wore her bridal gown. Others wore more
cleavage than clothes. Some wore glam rock shoes and velvet
capes. Others, tight jeans and crop tops. Some, cosplay cos
times. We were all given permission to say yes to our most
daring selves. The one we leave hanging up at home. You don’t
have to be queer to leave the best part of yourself in the closet.
Most of us are doing it all the time,”
—Deborah Frances-White, The Guilty Feminist: From Our Noble Goals to Our Worst Hypocrisies - “There are other things I’d rather write about, but this affects everything else. The lives of half of humanity are still dogged by, drained by, and sometimes ended by the pervasive variety of violence. Think of how much more time and energy we would have to focus on other things that matter if we weren’t so busy surviving. Look at it this way: one of the best journalists I know is afraid to walk home at night in our neighborhood. Should she stop working late? How many women have had to stop doing their work, or been stopped from doing it, for similar reasons?”
—Rebecca Solnit, Men Explain Things to Me - “…women are conditioned to waste hours, days, weeks, months (although, truth be told, it’s most likely years) doubting, undermining, and ultimately hating parts, if not all, of themselves based solely on “problems” with their bodies that can be solved by buying products from an industry that invented these problems in the first place. How fucking convenient. And when all is said and done, what is the prize for this self-torture? Fitting neatly within society’s destructive narrative about the female body.”
—Phoebe Robinson, Everything’s Trash, But It’s Okay - “Until women are allowed to make mediocre works of art while still succeeding in the way that many white men get to do this every single day, we will not have the power to take our creative freedoms back. We will be limited by impossible expectations reserved for the few. As long as we are put and put ourselves on a patriarchal pedestal, too high to succeed and doomed to fail, then surely we will be set up to do exactly that, every time.”
—Amber Tamblyn, Era of Ignition: Coming of Age in a Time of Rage and Revolution - “But, these days, fairy-tale endings come in all shapes and sizes. It’s okay for the princess to end up with the prince, it’s okay for her to end up with the footman, it’s okay for her to end up on her own. It’s also okay for her to end up with another princess, or with six cats, or to decide she wants to be a prince. None of those make her any more or less a feminist.”
—Sarah Haywood, De Cactus - “Your feminist premise should be: I matter. I matter equally. Not ‘if only.’ Not ‘as long as.’ I matter equally. Full stop.”
—Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions
Want to dig even more deeply into feminism? You’ll want to check out these feminist poems, as well as these best feminist books.
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