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. Are you a feminist? Hahaha. Of course you are.
Caitlin MoranRead
Any action a woman engages in from a spirit of joy, and within a similarly safe and joyous environment, falls within the city-walls of feminism. A girl has a right to dance how she wants, when her favourite record comes on.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Women should engage in joyful activities freely and in a safe environment, embodying the spirit of feminism.
Caitlin Moran emphasizes that feminism is rooted in the freedom for women to pursue joy and express themselves in a safe and supportive environment. By highlighting a simple act like dancing to a favorite song, she illustrates how such freedoms are central to the feminist movement, advocating for women's rights to enjoy life on their own terms without societal constraints.
Themes
FeminismJoyFreedomExpressionSafety
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about women’s empowerment, I would use this quote to emphasize the importance of joy and self-expression.
More from Caitlin Moran
All quotes →People get really scared when women reclaim words, talk about themselves honestly and also make jokes because it's a really unstoppable combination.
Caitlin MoranRead
For throughout history, you can read the stories of women who - against all the odds - got being a woman right, but ended up being compromised, unhappy, hobbled or ruined, because all around them, society was still wrong. Show a girl a pioneering hero - Sylvia Plath, Dorothy Parker, Frida Kahlo, Cleopatra, Boudicca, Joan of Arc - and you also, more often than not, show a girl a woman who was eventually crushed.
Caitlin MoranRead
If every woman who's had an abortion took tomorrow off in protest, America would grind to a halt. And that would be symbolic: because women grind to a halt if they are not in control of their fertility.
Caitlin MoranRead
I don't think there should be anything that women are embarrassed to talk about in the 21st century, because for the last 100,000 years, men have said everything that's on their minds and described everything they have done.
Caitlin MoranRead
A library in the middle of a community is a cross between an emergency exit, a life raft and a festival. They are cathedrals of the mind; hospitals of the soul; theme parks of the imagination. On a cold, rainy island, they are the only sheltered public spaces where you are not a consumer, but a citizen, instead.
Caitlin MoranRead
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Girls are taught to sing high and pretty, like Antony, not low and from the guts like Nina Simone. But we're slowly trying to change that. There are so many things we're not told growing up, and it's our true feminist responsibility to take the truth to the people who need to hear it.
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There will be no mass-based feminist movement as long as feminist ideas are understood only by a well-educated few.
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Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender.
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