Jessica Valenti Quotes

Historically, it appears that society has capitalized on what is at most a degree of difference between the sexes in order to institutionalize the polarization of aggression.

The first thing that strikes the careless observer is that women are unlike men. They are 'the opposite sex' - (though why 'opposite' I do not know; what is the 'neighbouring sex'?).

The little rift between the sexes is astonishingly widened by simply teaching one set of catchwords to the girls and another to the boys.

Constantly there's a credibility issue; you're judged on how you look. If you look good, people assume you aren't credible. It's a battle you'll always fight if you're on TV and a female.

I'm interested in what happens to people when they get into that publicity machine. We tend to think things have changed, but there's still a deep sexism underlying the way women are treated publicly.

A woman's experience is different from a man's in virtually every respect, including how she is treated by the media.

The one that sticks out in my mind and has all along was the New York Times piece on Melania Trump.Calling her a mannequin and a trophy wife, which if anybody had ever said that about any - Michelle Obama was a lawyer. But Melania Trump has been a successful businesswoman. She speaks several languages. A mannequin and a trophy wife and it was just - fine, they were allowed to say that about her.

The tendency in the media is to portray everyone in the film industry as sex-starved creatures. Please spare us.

There's this belief with no merit that media with women at the center applies only to women, but media with men at the center applies to everyone.

You know the difference between guys and girls? Usually girls say it's no different whatsoever. But you see, a lot of girls they don't understand that they are better than us guys. If you think about it, they are much more manipulative.

There's going to be biological differences between the genders. There's going to be biological differences between two women or two men. There's biological differences between all of us. My concern is, why are we so concerned about it? Why are we so worried about it? Why, whenever a study comes out about men do this one way and women do this one way, or men's brains and women's brains - why are we so interested in that? You know, what makes us so fascinated by differences between the sexes? And I think more often than not that interest is deeply embedded in sexism.

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

Every year there's five cop shows, five medical shows and five 'Law & Orders,' but when it's a show about women, they want to pit everyone against each other. I don't think they'd do that if it was a guy show. I think there's room for all of us.

Two phrases I hate in reference to female characters are 'strong' and 'feisty.' They really annoy me. It's the most condescending thing. You say that about a three-year-old. It infantilises women.

We don't have enough young, female antiheroes. We don't accept women as antiheroes the way we do the men.

If you yell about one woman, you're not a misogynist. If I yell about Michelle Bachman, that doesn't make me a misogynist. If I compare all women to Michelle Bachman, then I'm a misogynist.

When you write, you are not either sex. But when you're read you are definitely gendered.

You're allowed to make things for women on television and there's not like... you don't have to go through the humiliation of having made something directed at women. There it's just accepted, whereas if it's a feature, it's like 'So, talk to me about chick flicks.'

I think women get labeled a lot as being crazy. But I think men make us crazy.

I understand, as the young, attractive woman in film, that there's always going to be people seeking out extra salacious things for you to do.

Women candidates have two unique problems. They have trouble raising money and being taken seriously by the media.

Once, power was considered a masculine attribute. In fact, power has no sex.

I never realized until lately that women were supposed to be the inferior sex.

All of the qualities that you need to be a good opinion columnist tend to be qualities that aren't valued in women.

If you talk about an issue, what comes back is a description of what you're wearing. Reporters only want to know how tall you are and if your teeth are capped.