activists-from-california

"No, I was really excited about doing the stunts. I had never done an action film before and so, that was really exciting and appealing to me. And not to say that it was very easy, right? We definitely got banged up but it’s this sort of gratifying feeling of going home at the end of night and being like ‘I worked hard and look at that big bruise!’"

"One thing I really prioritize is sleep, and it has changed my life genuinely. Another is focusing on how I can nurture and help my self-talk. When I notice negative self-talk hap­pening, how I can sit with it and be friends with it instead of constantly feeling I'm in this rat race of not good enough, not this enough. Becoming a witness to it instead of a victim to it has also dramatically improved my health. Plus, I use astrology: It's simply a tool to give ourselves permission, to accept ourselves and understand ourselves more. The minute I understand that I was built to think this way, instead of judging myself for it, I have acceptance for myself. It's an allowance to have more self-compassion."

"For me, nudity in any film is a matter of what is realistic and authentic, not exploitative or unnecessary. These are the questions that I always ask myself when there is a love scene or a meditation scene on a ship [like in the film Adrift]. What I love about this film is that we explore sensuality in so many moments without needing any sexuality at all. The more we're able to capture sensual moments on screen the more we can start changing our view when it comes to our personal sexualities and sensualities. In a personal way, I find less to be more in most cases and I think leaving things up to the imagination leaves a little mystery when it comes to nudity or sex. It only intrigues the audience more."

"It was so much fun. Everyone was freaked out because I’m nude, but in real life, when I have sex, I’m naked. I don’t have a bra on, and I don’t usually have panties on. So let’s make a real movie! Let’s bring truth to the scene! I didn’t want to be exploited, but this girl—like most girls when they first have sex—doesn’t know what she’s doing. I wanted their first kiss to be sloppy, teenagerish making out. When you’re younger, you think you know what to do, but you really don’t."

"She's a very gentle and grounded person, so I suppose I could say that I'm not worried about her. She knows the industry extremely well. She has a really wonderful family, too. Yeah, of course we talked about it. Of course we do. It's a great privilege to be able to share the experiences I have had with her. Am I going to be specific about what we shared? No [laughs]. But she's going to be just fine. She's a really great human being. She's going to be tremendous actually."

"stop transing kids, because you're going to hell for that."

"That's her gimmick. Being "one of the good ones" and "a credit to her people" and assuring those in power that our group's struggle for proper treatment is a ridiculous and absurd concept. She tells transphobes that it's okay to make fun of trans women who don't "pass". That any social concessions we demand, to increase our physical safety or mental well-being, are selfish. That our desire for anything more than baseline survival is laughable and ought to be rejected outright."

"I think that if we dropped the kids transitioning thing, which they would never do, but I think if they did, that would be a huge win for us. I also think that dropping the trans women in sports thing, huge win. The idea that not dating trans people makes you like bigoted... Like just stop fucking saying that."

"[About Call of Duty displaying the rainbow flag in Western versions of the game but not in the Middle East:] They only support LGBT people based on profitability. How people don't see through that is amazing to me. How about, Call of Duty, if you actually gave a singular shit about LGBT people, stand on that where it counts. [...] Guess what we don't need in America, is more shoving of the pride flag down everyone's throats. Guess where we might need a little bit of pride flag showing up. The Middle East."

"Blaire White: I don't know how much you know about me, but I'm probably the most vocal anti-children transitioning person on the Internet. Lauren Witzke: Good! Blaire: Well, I— Lauren: Great! The best thing you can do for us is grow out your mustache and tell people not to live like you."

"I truly to my core, and anybody who knows me knows this, there is not one bit of my soul that cares who likes, dislikes, rejects, accepts, enjoys, hates the fact that I'm a transsexual. There is not one bit of me that cares who's okay with me or not. [...] Seeking external validation, which seems to be a huge part of the community these days [...], that is a fruitless endeavor that will lead you to a life of loneliness, emptiness, soullessness, Because you will never ever get everyone to like you."

"I'll go on any leftist podcast. Young Turks, hit me up! [...] Left-wing podcats, have me on! It doesn't even have to be a debate; we can just have a conversation."

"I don't do groups; I do Blair."

"I personally believe that the best possible thing that could happen for the LGBT community in acceptance in general right now is for everyone to shut the fuck up for a while. To stop showing their asses, figuratively and literally."

"And I can't get you out of my head And I know I can't pretend That I won't die if you decide You won't see me again If I never feel you in my arms again If I never feel your tender kiss again"

"My skin as an African American tends to be a little drier, since I’m getting up there, just going outside in the sun, and all the years of the things that I’ve done to my body being in the entertainment business. For me, it was having hyperpigmentation or sometimes you get light spots. I wanted to do something that represented me. I wanted something that I knew really worked."

"So I try to relish in that moment and try to smile about it and just be grateful for the time you have and you have to always remember to be kind to one another."

"It's just another sad love song Rackin' my brain like crazy Guess I'm all torn up Be it fast or slow It doesn't let go Or shake me And it's all because of you"

"Holiday time makes me feel happy and festive and excited. I got a three-picture deal at Lifetime and I thought a Christmas movie would be the perfect way to come out and introduce it."

"I would say, ‘One day I’ll be really famous.'"

"If something in our culture that is advocating oppression is unable to be criticized, evaluated and changed, this is wrong."

"The roots of the psyche of la Chicana lies deep within the colonial period in Mexico."

"In her effort to convince critics of the differences between Chicana and white feminists, NietoGomez produces a monolithic vision of Anglo women."

"Some of the women who led the movement in its early days were Dolores Huerta of the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee, Alicia Escalante with the Welfare Rights Organization, and Gracia Molina de Pick and Anna Nieto-Gómez with feminist activities. Women politicians like Virginia Muzquiz of Crystal City, Texas, Mariana Hernández, and Grace Davies put Chicanas in the political forum. Like these women, there have been hundreds of others who, in the late 1960s and 1970s, have proved that Chicanas have come of age politically in this country."

"The Chicana feminist culture is still in development. There are stories of "men's work" yet to tell: of men creating a cultural forum to challenge male roles. It is the story of the democratic challenge to the authoritarian values that depend on the sexual inequality of women and violence."

"The veneration of the Virgin Mary defined the woman's identity as a virgin, as a saintly mother, as a wife-sex object, as a martyr."

"When was the last time you heard Gloria Steinem or Betty Friedan talk about welfare rights?"

"Here's the double standard: "If I have a meeting, you stay at the house and take care of the kids. If you have a meeting, have it at the house and take care of the kids at the same time." Male privilege is, "Let's fight for equal pay for me, and maybe later on for you." Male privilege sometimes makes the Chicano movement just like a male liberation movement."

"Rape is an act of violent aggression, and it's something we have the right to defend ourselves against."

"In the middle class, the employment issue is social mobility, it's promotion, tenure. Women with Ph.D's don't want to be secretaries. The issue for the Chicana is just employment. "Give me a job. Give me a good-paying job. Let me have access to training." Again, pure class difference."

"According to movement feminist Anna NietoGomez, Chicanas in search of a new identity or new role in society were accused of being engaged in an "Anglo bourgeois trip" and not to be trusted."

"Oral history was an important method because it created a body of knowledge about different types of Chicanas. Oral histories of Chicana leaders and their organizations illustrated the diverse political ideas Chicanas had about social change."

"The popular image of Mexican woman is as somber-clad, long-suffering females praying in dimly-lit colonial churches. Church teachings have directed women to identify with the emotional suffering of the pure, passive bystander: the Virgin Mary."

"Stopping and taking a moment to realize how blessed you are changes everything."

"The way I interact with the world—my work, interacting with people, decision-making—comes from a place of love and light. Especially when it comes to talking about politics, current events, and social justice. I speak out in a positive way out of a place of love to bring people together in discussing important issues without hatred."

"In a poem "Youth Mirror," Ana Nieto Gómez reminded Chicanas of Mexican women warriors, Juana Gallo and Petra Ruiz, revolutionary commanders who had led both men and women. Nieto Gómez endeavored to link historical action with Chicana liberation."

"Conflicts over gender or race, personal liberation or family first, did not stop the development of Chicana feminism. Caught between "maternal" and "paternal" movements, Ana Nieto Gómez declared: The Chicana feminist has been cautioned to wait to fight for her cause at a later time for fearing of dividing the Chicano movement. Also it has been recommended that she must melt into the melting pot of femaleness rather than divide the women's movement. At first these attitudes divided Chicanas themselves into two camps: feminists and loyalists. The loyalists believed that one should "stand by your man" and "have babies por la causa." They argued that Chicanas who needed "an identity" were "vendidas" or "falsas." Firing back, Nieto Gómez laid out the following scenario. "A girl may find that an open avenue to temporary status and distinction is to sleep with a noted 'Heavy.'... This is the traditional 'back door' open to all ambitious women.""

"I could not be more ecstatic. I say it over and over, but it really is such a surreal feeling, especially with such an iconic brand, that I have looked up to for such a long time. Also, it’s great because they already have such a diverse roster of faces. You have the Kerry Washingtons, the Jennifer Garners … so to become one of those faces and be part of a company that not only embraces diversity but also embraces powerful women who use their voice, which is something that I try to exercise whenever I possibly can, it’s a beautiful feeling."

"Now, in the acting world, you see a lot more of the "all ethnicities" roles out there. I see more of my fellow Latinas rising up, and that makes me very proud. There are not as many Hispanic leading ladies out there as I would like, but I want to help change that in the future. I am blessed with the opportunities I have been given and I am extremely proud of where I come from. I would not have it any other way."

"I delete Instagram from my phone probably twice a week. I try to stay away from it as much as possible, but it's hard because now it's how young people connect. The important thing to remember is that social media isn't real and so much of what is being advertised isn't authentic or necessarily the best for your well-being, so you have to take social media with a grain of salt."

"At the 1972 conference, Marianna Hernandez spoke about the Chicana movement. She reassured Chicanas that they were doing the right thing. She asked Chicanas not to be taken aback at name-calling strategies, acknowledging that efforts to label the Chicana movement a "white women's movement" were attempts to discredit and stop the people who were organizing a new movement. She offered that one of the tasks of a new movement is to explain itself and that organizing Chicana conferences and publishing new ideas was an important way for the Chicana movement to do this."

"Marianismo forced Spanish women into acceptable sexual and social roles. The three basic images were of woman as virgin, woman as wife and woman as mother, all of which reinforced social, psychological and economic dependency for women."

"Anna Nieto-Gómez is a pioneer in today's Chicana feminism."

"Because culture is a remnant which mirrors people's accumulative economic adaptations in history, the social-psychological roles of Mexican men and women are the products of the economic and class conditions of 300 years of oppression."

"Articles from Chicana print media and the development and publication of oral histories played a vital role in the development of the Chicana studies curriculum. The Chicana press included Francisca Flores's Regeneración, a magazine published in Los Angeles; Chicana newspapers such as Hijas de Cuauhtémoc and Pepita Martinez's El Grito del Norte from New Mexico; and journals such as Encuentro Femenil, a Chicana feminist journal from Long Beach, and San Francisco's Dorinda Moreno's La Mestiza. In addition, there were special edition community newspapers from all parts of the nation."

"picking up the pen for Chicanas became a "political act." ...Women also founded and edited newspapers-El Grito (Betita Martinez); Encuentro Feminil (Adelaida del Castillo and Anna Nieto-Gómez); Regeneracion (Francisca Flores); and El Chicano (Gloria Macias Harrison). Through their writings, Chicanas problematized and challenged prescribed gender roles at home (familial oligarchy); at school (the home economics track); and at meetings (the clean-up committee),"

"I've never played such an iconic character who's someone that I grew up respecting so much. So I think, when you respect someone so much, you just want to do right by them and right by everybody else who fell in love with her for a very good reason."

"I actually almost stopped acting to pursue soccer instead."

"It is women's work to define what these feminist values are. What are these values? They are democratic values. Women and men are equally valued. Respect is not dependent on gender. Women are the decision makers of their individual lives. Women and children have the right to live in a violence-free environment."

"One of the most renowned feminist of the past is well known throughout the world, though she is not well known by Chicanas. Her name is Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, and she has been called one of the first feminists of the Americas (which is incorrect, because there were many pre-Columbian feminists). Several of the North American Indian societies were matriarchal and advocated the non-oppression of women-the non-oppression of anybody. Sor Juana was a seventeenth century genius. She was a genius who happened to be a woman and who therefore had only two alternatives: to marry, or to join the convent and marry God. She chose the latter because she felt it would offer her more flexibility and more opportunity to study. And she did study-she studied very hard. She was enthusiastic, to say the least, about learning. She spoke about women's hair-how the hair was a symbol of women's beauty, but if it covered an empty mind, it was nothing but a mask. She said that not until a woman's mind was equal in beauty to her long hair should she have her long hair, so in three months she would plan to read a certain amount, and if she hadn't she would cut off her hair. In three more months, if she hadn't achieved her goal of, say, three volumes, the hair was to go right back until the goal was reached. Sor Juana is famous for Respuesta, a letter to the bishop addressing itself to a letter he sent her praising Sor Juana for her brilliance but telling her that her duty was not to be brilliant but to serve God. The role of women was to be silent, not heard. Sor Juana very politely wrote back, "Surely you must know more than I; however, as I recall, Jesus did not say that women should be silent and not heard. You forget that the temple was a place of learning and discussion, and that women were preaching and talking to their people there, not just bowing their heads in silent prayer or absent-mindedly planning their week's activities. Jesus came into the temple and addressed himself to the people there, those who were speaking there, and those people were the women. Yes, it's my duty to be a servant of God, but how can I understand theology"-theology was a high point of learning in Mexico and in fact it still is-"how can I understand that, if I can't understand biology, geology, psychology? If the world's supposed to be a manifestation of God's great goodness, how can I understand that if I don't know anything about it? These are the prerequisites for my understanding of His great and beautiful powers." So she advocated that women have the right to education But women did not have this right until after the Revolution. During the eighteenth century they did open some convents where women could go and get educated, but the education was primarily in religious studies."