My reaction to porno films is as follows: After the first ten minutes, I want to go home and screw. After the first twenty minutes, I never want to screw again as long as I live.
Erica JongRead
Women are the only exploited group in history to have been idealized into powerlessness.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Women have been both idealized and oppressed throughout history, leading to a perception of powerlessness.
Erica Jong's quote highlights a significant contradiction in societal views of women; while they have often been romanticized and elevated to an ideal, this idolization has paradoxically resulted in their oppression and marginalization. Instead of empowering women, this idealization can enforce a narrative that ultimately strips them of agency and reinforces systemic inequalities.
Themes
WomenPowerExploitationIdealizationHistory
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion on women's rights and empowerment.
More from Erica Jong
All quotes βI have accepted fear as a part of life - specifically the fear of change... I have gone ahead despite the pounding in the heart that says: turn back.
Erica JongRead
No one ever found wisdom without also being a fool. Writers, alas, have to be fools in public, while the rest of the human race can cover its tracks.
Erica JongRead
My generation was not only maligned in book reviews and attacked in graduate school but we lived to see our adored and adorable daughters wonder why feminism had become a dirty word.
Erica JongRead
Do you want me to tell you something really subversive? Love is everything it's cracked up to be. That's why people are so cynical about it. It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more.
Erica JongRead
I believe that women should live for love, for motherhood and for intellect, and I believe we shouldn't have to choose. And I believe that's always been difficult for women, to express themselves intellectually, maternally, and passionately.
Erica JongRead
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If women are supposed to be less rational and more emotional at the beginning of our menstrual cycle when the female hormone is at its lowest level, then why isn't it logical to say that, in those few days, women behave the most like the way men behave all month long?
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There's an unconscious bias in our society: girls are wonderful; boys are terrible. And to be a boy, or young man, growing up, having to listen to all this, it must be painful.
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Women must pay for everything. They do get more glory than men for comparable feats, but, they also get more notoriety when they crash.
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Men are boys for such a long time and really don't start getting the great roles until they're in their mid-thirties. But then they've got a long time to do them, whereas for women, it's all about playing younger and younger and younger.
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We know in our society, women are valued for their sexual desirability and not necessarily for what they have to say.
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Girls are taught to view their bodies as unending projects to work on, whereas boys from a young age, are taught to view their bodies as tools to master their environment
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