A Quote by Roxane Gay

This is the real problem feminism faces. Too many people are willfully ignorant about what the word means and what the movement aims to achieve.

Roxane Gay

Quote Topics

About Achieve Aims Faces Feminism Ignorant Many Means Movement People Problem Real Real Problem Too Too Many People Word

Quote Author

Roxane Gay
American - Writer

When I grew up, feminism wasn’t something that was really talked about. There’s a really negative stereotype about feminism in the media. That really plays badly for young women understanding the movement. Maybe people don’t want to identify themselves as feminists because of the label. But people need to understand what feminism means and educate themselves before they reject it.

Julie Zeilinger

When feminism falls short of our expectations, we decide the problem is with feminism rather than with the flawed people who act in the name of the movement.

Roxane Gay

I get very frustrated when I hear women saying, "Oh, feminism is passé," because I think feminism means empowerment. Men can be feminists, too! Many men are feminists. We need feminism. It's not against men; it's about the empowerment of women. It's the respect of women - giving women equal rights, the same opportunities.

Annie Lennox

There's a willful ignorance. We indulge people who are willfully misrepresenting the facts. I don't think those [anti-choice] congresspeople are as much benignly misguided as they are intentionally and willfully ignorant of the facts of reproduction. That lends itself very well to them being ideologically driven and carrying out agendas that, if they were to be really honest about the facts, would be a tougher sell.

Willie Parker

One's enemies are always talking about 'post-feminism.' It is a word invented by people who would like to do away with feminism.

Gloria Steinem

There's no such thing as post-feminism. It's like saying post-democracy, excuse me, what does that mean? We're nowhere near equality, so the very idea of post-feminism is ridiculous. The same people who 30-40 years ago said the women's movement is not necessary, 'it's going against nature, my wife is not interested' [are] the same people now saying 'well it used to be necessary but not anymore.' The very invention of the word post-feminism is the current form of resistance.

Gloria Steinem

People have accepted the media's idea of what feminism is, but that doesn't mean that it's right or true or real. Feminism is not monolithic. Within feminism, there is an array of opinions.

Judy Chicago

My problem with the word 'clean' is that it has become too complicated. It has become too loaded. When I first read the term, it meant natural, unprocessed. Now it doesn't mean that at all. It means diet. It means fad.

Ella Woodward

Whoever aims publicly at great things and at length perceives secretly that he is too weak to achieve them, has usually also insufficient strength to renounce his aims publicly, and then inevitably becomes a hypocrite.

Friedrich Nietzsche

You don't see many people crying over the wrong they do to God every time His word is neglected or when one willfully sins.

Monica Johnson

As all advocates of feminist politics know most people do not understand sexism or if they do they think it is not a problem. Masses of people think that feminism is always and only about women seeking to be equal to men. And a huge majority of these folks think feminism is anti-male. Their misunderstanding of feminist politics reflects the reality that most folks learn about feminism from patriarchal mass media.

bell hooks

It's only that we live in a patriarchal society, and therefore, the word 'feminism' has to be used as a counter to patriarchy. But feminism is about being equal. The word used should be 'equalist,' as it is about all humans being equal and respecting each other for that.

Kalki Koechlin

Misogyny is ingrained in people from the time they are born. So to me, feminism is probably the most important movement that you could embrace, because it's just basically another word for equality.

Taylor Swift

It's like with feminism. We talk a lot about feminism meaning complete freedom, and for some people, that means, like, 'Free the nipple!' But there's another end of the feminist spectrum, and that's where people like me are.