Joanna Russ Quotes

When I started working in a feminist feminine magazine all my life was about rebelling against male authority, which is authority in general is male, so it was rebelling against everything. Everything that was around me made me angry.

As I get older I think, contrary to modern assumption but in line with the old Lerner and Lowe song, that it would actually benefit both them and society if - to quote Professor Higgins - a woman could be more like a man.

I think the fallacy is to think that Women's Liberation meant that men and women would become interchangeable. That has not happened, and most men and women would not want it to happen.

Feminism is an attack on social practices and habits of thought that keep women and men boxed into gender roles that are harmful.

Because women can do nothing except love, they've given it a ridiculous importance. They want to persuade us that it's the whole of life. It's an insignificant part.

In the last 25 years, we've convinced ourselves and a majority of the country that women can do what men can do. Now we have to convince the majority of the country - and ourselves - that men can do what women can do. ... Let's face it: until men are fully equal inside the home, women will never be really equal outside it.

Woman must not accept; she must challenge.

The notion that somehow women are wildly different infuriates me.

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

Any woman who wishes to smash into the world of men isn't very feminine.

The whole world is starting to realize that it was the most unwise thing for our society to have ignored women power, to run the society with male priorities.

A woman can never be too rich or too thin, but until very, very recently, she could be too powerful, for which - if she wasn't smart enough to camouflage herself - she generally paid the price.

I consider myself a rampant feminist.

Who laughs less than feminists?

'Power' is an explosive word, particularly when applied to women.

I think we're struggling with trying to redefine various positions at this point in history. To allow freedom for women, freedom for men, freedom from those sharply defined gender roles.

First I would probably place men at the bottom of the food chain. On a grander scale, I would say they're reacting to change. Feminism has got to be part of that.

I do think the attempt to raise consciousness has succeeded. People are very aware of gender concerns now.

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

We can't destroy the inequities between men and women until we destroy marriage.

Everything about women is in perpetual crisis.

I suspect there are people in all walks of life who need to be dragged into the 21st century in terms of attitudes towards women.

The strong emergence of pro-feminine values in highly masculine societies signals that traditional masculine structures will continue to be challenged as the Millennial generation grows up and gains even more influence.

I do not consider myself a feminist. I do not believe that by doing female-oriented films that depict a woman fighting the system, we can change the system.

Being a woman is of special interest only to aspiring male transsexuals. To actual women, it is simply a good excuse not to play football.