The media and the rest of popular culture weren't recording people's reactions to 9/11; they were forcing made-up reactions down people's throats.
Susan FaludiRead
Feminism's agenda is basic: it asks that women not be forced to "choose" between public justice and private happiness. It asks that women be free to define themselves-instead of having their identity defined for them, time and again, by their culture and their men.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes that feminism seeks to empower women to define their own identities and balance personal happiness with societal expectations.
Susan Faludi's quote highlights the fundamental aim of feminism, which advocates for women's autonomy and the freedom to define their own lives. It challenges the societal pressures that force women to make difficult choices between their personal fulfillment and the roles imposed by a patriarchal culture, emphasizing the importance of individual identity over collective definitions shaped by society or men.
Themes
FeminismIdentityWomenAutonomyHappiness
In practice
Example use cases
In a talk about gender equality, one might use this quote to highlight the importance of women defining their own paths.
More from Susan Faludi
All quotes →The women's movement hit my neighborhood like a freight train. Everybody got divorced. You wonder what would have happened to women if the suburbs hadn't been built.
Susan FaludiRead
The system of heroism depends on women to be weak so men can be strong.
Susan FaludiRead
As it turns out, social scientists have established only one fact about single women's mental health: employment improves it.
Susan FaludiRead
When the enemy has no face, society will invent one.
Susan FaludiRead
Feminism's agenda is basic: It asks that women not be forced to 'choose' between public justice and private happiness.
Susan FaludiRead
Similar quotes
I think the history of western feminism is one that is fraught with racism, and I think it's important to acknowledge that and, at the same time, to say that feminism is not the western invention, that my great-grandmother in what is now south-western Nigeria is feminist.
Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieRead
Beyonce is not above critique. As a feminist herself, I hope Beyonce would welcome it.
Roxane GayRead
Sexual harassment law is very important. But I think it would be a mistake if the sexual harassment law movement is the only way in which feminism is known in the media.
Judith ButlerRead
Using pseudonyms was such a part of the early feminist movement. We didn't want to have this star system. We wanted attention on the ideas, not the persona of the writer.
Bell HooksRead
When women can support themselves, have entry to all the trades and professions, with a house of their own over their heads and a bank account, they will own their bodies and be dictators in the social realm.
Elizabeth Cady StantonRead
A movie about a weak, vulnerable woman can be feminist if it shows a real person that we can empathize with.
Natalie PortmanRead