Jessica Valenti Quotes About Feminism

Quotes about: Feminism

• Feminism isn't simply about being a woman in a position of power. It's battling systemic inequities; it's a social justice movement that believes sexism, racism and classism exist and interconnect, and that they should be consistently challenged.

  Jessica Valenti

  Believe, Position Of Power, Racism

• While falling in love is fun, it's not everything, and it's not the antidote to an unfulfilled life, despite what Reese Witherspoon movies may tell you.

  Jessica Valenti

  Falling In Love, Fun, Bad Ass

  Jessica Valenti (2014). “Full Frontal Feminism: A Young Woman's Guide to Why Feminism Matters”, p.62, Seal Press

• Something you hear a lot is that feminism dead. But if feminism is dead, why do people try so hard to kill it?

  Jessica Valenti

  People, Feminism, Trying

  Source: bigthink.com

• I think feminism has always been global. I think there's feminism everywhere throughout the world.

  Jessica Valenti

  Thinking, Feminism, World

  Source: bigthink.com

• You have to have your personal life, and at the end of the day I think what people forget, especially when you're online, is that you're a person too, right, and that you're not this ideal of feminism, that everything you do like feminism just like falls in your wake.

  Jessica Valenti

  Fall, Thinking, People

  Source: bigthink.com

• I think feminism has always been global. I think there's feminism everywhere throughout the world. I think, though, for Western feminism and for American feminism, it not so surprisingly continues to center Western feminism and American feminism. And I think the biggest hurdle American feminists have in terms of taking a more global approach is that too often when you hear American feminists talk about international feminism or women in other countries, it kind of goes along with this condescending point of view like we have to save the women of such-and-such country; we have to help them.

  Jessica Valenti

  Country, Thinking, Feminist

  Source: bigthink.com

• I'm really aware of how feminism and feminist rhetoric has been appropriated by the right.

  Jessica Valenti

  Feminist, Feminism, Rhetoric

  Source: bigthink.com

• I think the biggest hurdle American feminists have in terms of taking a more global approach is that too often when you hear American feminists talk about international feminism or women in other countries, it kind of goes along with this condescending point of view like we have to save the women of such-and-such country; we have to help them.

  Jessica Valenti

  Country, Thinking, Views

  Source: bigthink.com

• Something I say a lot when it comes to anti-feminist stereotypes is that they exist for a reason. The stereotypes of feminists as ugly, or man-haters, or hairy, or whatever it is - that's really strategic. That's a really smart way to keep young women away from feminism, is to kind of put out this idea that all feminists hate men, or all feminists are ugly; and that they really come from a place of fear. If feminism wasn't powerful, if feminism wasn't influential, people wouldn't spend so much time putting it down.

  Jessica Valenti

  Powerful, Hate, Smart

  Source: bigthink.com

• I think that it's incredibly important that we're actually paying attention to the feminism that's going on on the ground in different countries and see what we can do to support the work that's already going on, as opposed to kind of assuming that we know best for women in other areas.

  Jessica Valenti

  Country, Thinking, Support

  Source: bigthink.com

• My informal writing style is a political choice, because I want feminism to be more accessible.

  Jessica Valenti

  Writing, Choices, Political

• I always go with the dictionary definition of feminism, which is just social, political and economic equality for women.

  Jessica Valenti

  Political, Feminism, Definitions

  Source: bigthink.com

• If there's an article about sexual assault, if there's a video about feminism on YouTube, you're going to get the most horrible, disgusting comments ever. And sometimes the comments are pornographic, and sometimes the comments are really harassing. So I think that it's kind of a difficult place for women to write sometimes.

  Jessica Valenti

  Writing, Thinking, Feminism

  Source: bigthink.com

• Something you hear a lot is that feminism dead. But if feminism is dead, why do people try so hard to kill it? Something just isn't making sense there. So I think when young women hear like, hey, someone's trying to get something over on me, you know, someone's trying to deliberately keep me away from a movement that could make my life better, I think that really resonates with them.

  Jessica Valenti

  Thinking, People, Feminism

  Source: bigthink.com

• I remember at the time - right before we started Feministing.com - doing a Google search for the term "young feminism" and the term "young feminist," and the first thing that came up was a page from the National Organization for Women that was about 10 or 15 years old. And it just struck me as so odd that there was all of this young feminist activism going on, but that it wasn't necessarily being represented online, that the first things in a Google search to come up were really, really old. I think to a certain degree we really filled a gap, and that's why we got such a large readership.

  Jessica Valenti

  Thinking, Feminist, Google

  Source: bigthink.com

• I think the idea that feminism is dead is dangerous because it leads women and men to believe that (1) they don't have to do anything; the work has been done, and that everything is okay now; and (2) it leaves them kind of alone, I think, in a struggle, and that's something I've seen a lot when I go to colleges and I speak to young women.

  Jessica Valenti

  Believe, Struggle, College

  Source: bigthink.com

• I think feminism is taking off. It's just not visible in the way that we would like it to be.

  Jessica Valenti

  Thinking, Feminism, Way

  Source: bigthink.com

• I always go with the dictionary definition of feminism, which is just social, political and economic equality for women. And that's kind of a strategic thing on my part, because I think that it's the hardest definition to argue with. You know, who doesn't want that? Everyone wants equality for women.

  Jessica Valenti

  Thinking, Political, Feminism

  Source: bigthink.com

• There was no real strategic decision about editorial tone. It was kind of a write whatever you want to write, and we'll see how it goes. I think that we lucked out in that all of the women who started writing at Feministing.com were really funny, and I don't think that's something people are used to seeing or hearing when they read feminism. You know, you think feminism and you kind of think academic, women's studies, dry, humorless; there are all of these stereotypes that go along with what feminist thought is and what feminist writing is.

  Jessica Valenti

  Real, Writing, Thinking

  Source: bigthink.com

• There have been women who stumbled across Feministing randomly, through a bizarre Google search or something, and had no idea what feminism was. They thought it was something older women do, or bought into the hairy bra-burning man-hating stereotype 100 percent. Anything that deviates from that is very exciting for them.

  Jessica Valenti

  Hate, Men, Ideas

• I think people resist feminism because they're scared. I think for women, they're scared of being picked on or of being called out.

  Jessica Valenti

  Thinking, People, Feminism

  Source: bigthink.com

• What bothers me the most about the way that people appropriate feminist language is that they are the same people who are - you know, anti-feminists - they're the same people who say that feminism is ruining the family, yet when it behooves them to, they'll say Sara Palin's a feminist - when all of a sudden it works in their favor.

  Jessica Valenti

  People, Feminist, Feminism

  Source: bigthink.com

• Young women know that something is off; they know that the world is a messed-up place. They know that the world is a sexist place because they've had experiences in their own life; they see things happening to their friends, to their parents. But because feminism isn't widely accepted, because they don't necessarily have access to feminist thought or to feminist groups, they don't necessarily have a language to put behind the feelings and the thoughts that they're having. And they certainly don't have a support system to let them know like, hey, that's okay; you're right, that is screwed up.

  Jessica Valenti

  Support, Feminist, Parent

  Source: bigthink.com

• We've been growing our readership every month, and we're kind of like, where are they all coming from? This is wonderful! And I think one of the best surprises was that you hear so often that young women don't care about feminism, that young women don't identify as feminists. But really, the majority of our readers are young women. So to see so many young people kind of get involved and really take to Feministing.com was a really exciting thing.

  Jessica Valenti

  Thinking, People, Feminist

  Source: bigthink.com

• I hope that by modeling feminism in my own life, work and relationships that it will haut become an organic part of my daughter's life. But I'm also fully prepared for her to become a Republican as a way to rebel as a teenager - that would be just my luck!

  Jessica Valenti

  Daughter, Teenager, Luck

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