Mickalene Thomas Quotes

The two pillars of feminism are narcissism and entitlement.

I call myself a feminist, not a feminist filmmaker. If somebody asked me if I had a feminist sensibility it would be pretty hard to deny, but is it the theme of my work? Not necessarily. I'm interested in a lot of things.

I am for feminism. I stand up for women standing up for themselves in the same way I stand up for being black.

You can't be a woman and not be a feminist, I don't think. If you care about the world and the world you exist in and your rights.

I merged those two words, black and feminist, because I was surrounded by black women who were very tough and and who always assumed they had to work and rear children and manage homes.

Why should women not be a martyr for her cause?

Women will no longer be silent when they suffer injustices against them.

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

Women are a great civilizing force in any society and when they are repressed things don’t work very well.

Unless the woman is liberated, there is no freedom in Iraqi land.

Women in most countries may take their aspirations for freedom for granted, but for many of us, it is brand new.

Men think that self-sacrifice is the most charming of all the cardinal virtues for women, and in order to keep it in healthy working order, they make opportunities for its illustration as often as possible. I would fain teach women that self-development is a higher duty than self-sacrifice.

I feel like, all things aside, it's a really great time to be a woman. And I don't want to hear stories from, like, white dudes anymore. Like, not really. I want to hear stories from women.

I do not subscribe to a feminism that demands perfection or super heroic nobility of women. But I do insist that putting women at the service of patriarchy is no victory for us.

Not to get too deep, but I was brought up by these women who if you wanted to label them, maybe they were feminists, but you know what? They never asked for that or wanted it and they never got up on a soapbox and spoke about it, they just did it. They did their work, they did their jobs, they were who they were.

I don't consider myself a political artist, but I am political just by nature of being a woman.

Feminism has always been a theme that I'm very interested in.

Feminist art is not some tiny creek running off the great river of real art. It is not some crack in an otherwise flawless stone. It is, quite spectacularly, art which is not based on the subjugation of one half of the species.

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.

I have a lot of feminist idols. My favorite thing about growing up in Arkansas - well, not favorite but something I've always felt grateful for - was that I really had to dig for what I could. There was no Internet. There wasn't tons of feminist literature floating around.

I'm fascinated by how much we, as women, have to subjugate and hide ourselves in order to get on in the world.

I think of feminism as more of a political ideology.

Any woman who chooses to behave like a full human being should be warned that the armies of the status quo will treat her as something of a dirty joke. That's their natural and first weapon. She will need her sisterhood.

What is feminism? Simply the belief that women should be as free as men, however nuts, dim, deluded, badly dressed, fat, receding, lazy, and smug they might be.

In 1995, I was thrust into the role of reluctant, flag-waving feminist and emotionally-focused artist/advocate.