WHAT WOMEN SAY

We have, again, a woman running for president.  In case you're tired by the sexist, racist and misogynistic themes that accompany this modest achievement, here are a few feminist quotations said by women (and men) through the ages. They warm my heart. 💖

"Yeah, I'm a nasty woman--I'm nasty like the battles my grandmothers fought to get me into that voting booth.  I'm nasty like Susan, Elizabeth, Eleanor, Amelia, Rosa, Gloria, Condoleezza, Sonia, Malala, Michelle, Hillary."  (2017) Ashley Judd, b. 1968, actress and activist

"I'm going to keep saying loud and clear 'I'm a feminist' until it is met with a shrug." (2016) Justin Trudeau, b. 1971, Canadian Prime Minister

"Women are silenced by both the invisibility and the acceptability of the problem."  (2014) Laura Bates, b. 1986. English feminist writer

"In the future, there will be no female leaders.  There will just be leaders." (2013) Sheryl Sandberg, b. 1969, businesswoman

"We must ... ensure our daughters have ... no remaining ceilings to shatter." (2011) Barack Obama, b. 1961

"I write for those women who do not speak ... because they, we, are so terrified, because we are taught to respect fear more than ourselves."  (1983) Audre Lorde, 1934-1992, poet, feminist theoretician 

"Pornography incarnates male supremacy.  It is the DNA of male dominance." (1981) Andrea Dworkin, 1946-2005, anti-pornography activist, writer

"The connections between and among women are the most feared, the most problematic, and the most potentially transforming force on the planet."  (1979) Adrienne Rich, 1929-2012, poet, feminist writer

"Men are afraid that women will laugh at them.  Women are afraid that men will kill them."  Margaret Atwood, b. 1939, novelist, poet, literary critic

"We still think of a powerful man as a born leader and a powerful woman as an anomaly."  Margaret Atwood, b. 1939, novelist, poet, literary critic

"To call woman the weaker sex is a libel; it is man's injustice to woman." (1930) Mahatma Gandhi, 1869-1948

"Rape is the greatest possible sorrow."  (1405) Christine de Pizan, 1364-1430, writer, opponent of sexual violence

"I do not wish women to have power over men; but over themselves." (1792) Mary Wollstonecraft, 1759-1797, the first feminist

"Motherhood can be sacred only when it is voluntary." (1909) Cicely Hamilton, 1872-1952, writer, first wave feminist

"No woman can call herself free who does not own and control her body." (1920) Margaret Sanger, 1879-1966, supporter of reproductive rights

In solidarity, Nina Naomi