For women, the need and desire to nurture each other is not pathological but redemptive, and it is within that knowledge that our real power is rediscovered. It is this real connection, which is so feared by a patriarchal world.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of women's nurturing connections, framing them as a source of strength rather than a weakness.
Audre Lorde captures the essence of women's relationships, highlighting that the desire to nurture and support one another is a powerful and redeeming quality. In a society that often fears and devalues these connections, Lorde suggests that recognizing and embracing this nurturing instinct can lead to the rediscovery of true power and identity among women, which stands in contrast to patriarchal values that may seek to undermine it.
In practice
Using this quote in a women's empowerment seminar to highlight the strength of female bonds.
The fact that we are here and that I speak these words is an attempt to break that silence and bridge some of those differences between us, for it is not difference which immobilizes us, but silence. And there are so many silences to be broken.
There is no thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.
There are no new ideas. There are only new ways of making them felt.
I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.
I am deliberate and afraid of nothing.
There's always someone asking you to underline one piece of yourself - whether it's Black, woman, mother, dyke, teacher, etc. - because that's the piece that they need to key in to. They want to dismiss everything else.
I'd like people to think of me as someone who cares about them.
Many women cut back what had to be done at home by redefining what the house, the marriage and, sometimes, what the child needs. One woman described a fairly common pattern: I do my half. I do half of his half, and the rest doesn't get done.
You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.
By the time you swear you're his, Shivering and sighing. And he vows his passion is, Infinite, undying. Lady make note of this -- One of you is lying.
Men always want to be a woman's first love - women like to be a man's last romance.
If you're walking with your lady on the sidewalk, I still like to see a man walking street-side, to protect the lady from traffic. I grew up with that, and I hate to see something like that get lost. I still like to see that a man opens the door. I like those touches of chivalry that are fast disappearing.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.