Adrienne Rich Quotes

Women played no part in Athenian high culture. They could not vote, attend the theatre, or walk in the stoa talking philosophy. But the male orientation of Greek culture was inseparable of its genius. Athens became great not despite but because of its misogyny.

Misogyny should be understood as the ‘law enforcement’ branch of a patriarchal order, which has the overall function of policing and enforcing its governing ideology. Sexism wears a lab coat, misogyny goes on witch hunts.... Sexism is bookish; misogyny is combative. Sexism has a theory; misogyny wields a cudgel.

I think women, we are very interesting. We have a lot to say, and sometimes it's frustrating how all the lead parts are for men.

Women have to define themselves in the eyes of men. They have to fight for their rights, especially in a society that will pretend that there is no fight or no battle, that it's a cliché, that feminists are reactionary, all these things.

I'm supposed to have a Ph.D. on the subject of women.

Most of these feminists are radical, frustrated lesbians, many of them, and man-haters, and failures in their relationships with men, and who have declared war on the male gender. The biblical condemnation of feminism has to do with its radical philosophy and goals. That's the bottom line.

Guys pit female rappers against each other because female rappers - if you haven't noticed of late - are a lot more interesting than guys.

The notion that somehow women are wildly different infuriates me.

If the world were a logical place, men would ride side saddle.

Male supremacy has kept woman down. It has not knocked her out.

As a woman, you're not accessible to every world.

I didn't want to set up a women's studies program. I thought women should learn to operate in a coeducational atmosphere, because, especially in national security and international affairs, it's male-dominated.

I am interested in writing how women really feel, how they really think, and how they respond to men. I don't want men reading my books because they might find out too much.

The problem is with men. I know I shouldn't say this, but they've shrouded and hidden women to hide their incompetence.

I remember becoming aware of women's issues and inequality. It became glaringly clear to me when I was living in America that women are regarded as less intelligent than men.

I am not sure gender ever won't be an issue in comedy, because I think that women do have different priorities in some respects.

The thing I can say about Japan is they were progressive for a country that is very male dominant.

Clever and attractive women do not want to vote; they are willing to let men govern as long as they govern men.

There aren't good roles for women: the female parts aren't developed: the women are serving the men.

Women are very different to men, and that hasn't been respected. So when people say there's never been a good woman painter or poet or engineer or whatever, they don't understand that our skills are many simultaneously and men's skills are single.

Most historians and other writers of what we now consider 'primary sources' simply didn't think about women and their contribution to society. They took it for granted, except when that contribution or its lack directly affected men.

Women must tell men always that they are the strong ones. They are the big, the strong, the wonderful. In truth, women are the strong ones. It is just my opinion, I am not a professor.

Because of the feminist perspective, we have gotten a view of the world that is distorted.

I've been writing about misogyny for 20 years and trying to understand what femininity means for my entire career.

We as women have a voice and we are decision makers in what film to see. We always support our boyfriends and husbands by going to see the male dominated films, but we don't compel them to see films with female casts.