Peta Todd Quotes

I'm not a sex symbol.

I see explicit covers on magazines, and they're getting even more explicit, and it's like, Are women being empowered, or is this just what sells magazines? Are they feeling pressured, or have they really come into themselves and are saying, 'I am woman, hear me roar?'

I would say that, of course, it is wrong to objectify women. But at the same time, entertainment should not be inter-mingled with commodification.

There's a lot more to being a woman than being 18 years old on the cover of Maxim magazine.

The whole sex symbol or babe thing doesn't bother me.

I think all women in Hollywood are known as sex symbols. That's what our purpose is in this business. You're merchandised, you're a product. You're sold and it's based on sex. But that's okay. I think women should be empowered by that, not degraded.

I don't know what a world would be like if you do away with sexy images.

It would have been very easy for me to put on a little tight skirt and go out and try what I always call the 'Barbie doll' roles.

We all know that television is better for women as they get into their 40s. You could be more three-dimensional, not just the wife or the mother.

I am not a sex symbol.

If I have chosen the female form in particular, it is because beauty has been debased and exploited in our sensual 20th century.

There's nothing wrong with looking at a woman's kneecaps.

Black women have always been these vixens, these animalistic erotic women. Why can't we just be the sexy American girl next door?

Most women's magazines simply try to mold women into bigger and better consumers.

Young girls have been infected by television programs and have become sex addicts…. Young women should not laugh in public.

I don't agree with beauty contests. I did it one time. It wasn't embarrassing being Wonder Woman; it was embarrassing walking around on stage in a bikini. It was ridiculous, stupid, and humiliating.

We know in our society, women are valued for their sexual desirability and not necessarily for what they have to say.

You didn't have to read 'Playboy,' visit the mansion, wear pajamas, or even be straight: The effects of its ideas about women on the American psyche were totalizing. Women were inferior to men because, for 'Playboy,' they were scenery - pretty, passive, usually white, often blonde, there.

I was groomed as a so-called sex symbol, a rival to Marilyn Monroe, and from then on, whenever my picture appeared in paper, it was 'sex kitten,' 'sex symbol,' 'sex goddess,' 'sex pot.' I've accepted it, and I'm flattered, but in some ways, it's been a hindrance to me because I haven't been able to be taken seriously as an actress.

So often, in films, there are two ways a female can be portrayed: either innocent and virginal or the complete opposite.

I'm so aware how often women's bodies are objectified on film.

Growing up, it was hard to associate with some of the women who were being portrayed in the media.

Much of the discussion around how people look at women focuses on culture, as if the media is entirely to blame. As if, without magazines and commenting hosts, we'd all suddenly dress in practical overalls and only judge a person on the quality of their charity work and poetry.

It is not a dirty word, "feminism." I just think that women belong in the human population with the same rights as everybody else... The problem is, "A feminist looks like this, or is like that." We are taught not to like ourselves as women, we are taught what we're supposed to look like, what our measurements are supposed to be. I never hear what measurements men are supposed to be. Just women.

We women should remember that we are much more than just breasts.