The Feminine Critique- Tumblr edition

Listening can be a radical activity…For any listener, at risk are not only a sense of self, place and society, but also knowledge of one’s own complicity with oppression

Binaries are like the black holes of knowledge- Nothing ever gets out and nothing new can get in.

It’s the action, not the fruit of the action, that’s important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there’ll be any fruit. But that doesn’t mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.

Courage is more exhilarating than fear and in the long run it is easier. We do not have to become heroes overnight. Just a step at a time, meeting each thing that comes up, seeing it is not as dreadful as it appeared, discovering we have the strength to stare it down.

I rode in private cars, private limousines, private yachts and private planes, but had no privacy.

Here’s the thing about revolutions—there is no taking them back. You may review history and wish that it had gone the other way; perhaps you always longed to be a British colonist and regret the outcome of the American Revolution. Or maybe you liked the idea of a man behind a horse and plow and feel that the Industrial Revolution was all a big misstep.

But personal laments are only that: personal. They cannot change what has been done. If you feel that the sexual revolution destroyed the American family by giving women power over their reproductive choices, and that power turned daughters and wives, by and large, into a bunch of wanton hussies, well, stew over your feelings all you want, but you might as well give up thinking that it is possible to herd us up and drive us back into the kitchen—which, depending on how many revolutions have offended you, might be a kitchen with a washboard and cake of soap or a smoke house featuring a picture of King George.

So often you’re going to be criticized no matter what you do, so be criticized for what you think is best and right.

We expect so much of the woman who is married to the President, but we don’t really know what it is we expect. There is something about the position itself which raises in Americans’ minds concerns about hidden power, about influence behind the scenes, about unaccountability, yet if you try to be public about your interests and concerns, then that is equally criticized. I think the answer is just to be who you are and do what you can do and get through it and wait for the First Man to hold the position.

I shall do all that I can, with all that I have, wherever I am.

And when we speak we are afraid
our words will not be heard
nor welcomed
but when we are silent
we are still afraid
So it is better to speak.

If you spend your entire life comparing yourself to everyone you meet, your gonna drive yourself crazy.

I believe the best way to celebrate…is to examine the very real problems women face today…many new opportunities are open to women, too many are available only to the lucky few. Many barriers continue to the paths of most women, even on the most basic issue of equal pay for equal work…This year is not the time to cheer the visible few, but to work for the invisible many, whose lives are still restricted by custom and code….the formal and informal restrictions that confine women. Many…spring directly from those emotional ideas about what women can do and should do. These definitions of behavior and ability inhibit men and women alike, but the limits on women have been formalized into law and structured into social custom. For that reason, the first important steps have been to undo the laws that hem women in and lock them out of the mainstream of opportunities…

If you’re twenty-two, physically fit, hungry to learn and be better, I urge you to travel— as far and as widely as possible. Sleep on floors if you have to. Find out how other people live and eat and cook. Learn from them— wherever you go.

Stop trying to make everyone like you. You can give all the money to the rich, they will still call you a socialist. They are never going to like him. He could personally save them from drowning, but they would still not like him. He is the wrong age, the wrong party, the wrong color. He will never pry their irrational fears from their cold, dead minds and he should just stop that tactic.