Feminists From The United States

"People need to know that being abroad does not necessarily mean greener pastures, but she explained. It could be a potential trap to human trafficking or domestic abuse."

"She found her fellow survivors, “energetic, intelligent, resilient, and very engaging. Meeting them felt like meeting missing or separated siblings. We all connected because we had all survived one form of torture or the other as a result of various forms of human trafficking.”"

"“As a victim of labor trafficking, I have survived all odds in an unknown land to be able to lend a voice to the voiceless, advocate for other victims, and empower survivors.”"

"Every community has its own challenges, but when people are able to see the potentials they have, it makes the problem of economic hardship to be half solved."

"I believe that helping the youth in the community identify their potential with helping them to maximize such potential in their own local community."

"Now I know the signs of an abuser and a trafficker. If I had known the signs, I wouldn’t have fallen a victim or stayed in slavery for two years."

"I think especially television is a conversation between the writer and the audience, and they're bringing all of their humanity to it. The actors are really just this conduit in the middle, who everybody kind of thinks of like the player, but no, we're really the instrument."

"To me, Joe is this work in progress in dismantling and dissecting the myriad privileges that a young, attractive, white man carries with him. I’m not suggesting that the rest of the world shouldn’t have these so-called privileges. But I think when only one group has them, it’s actually a horrific blindness when it comes to being in touch with humanity. I think it’s material privilege but it’s not emotional or psychological or spiritual privilege, and it seems that that can be a great bondage."

"It doesn't matter who you are as an actor; that's really always in the script. It wouldn't make sense a lot of times to drastically change things. It would threaten to change the story arc and all that kind of stuff. I think really what an actor does is an instrument, not a player."

"It's not entirely fair to put that on the viewer because we're purposefully creating a device that is meant to be provocative—and hopefully thought-provoking—but not just titillating."

"Honestly, for me, acting is just a very spiritual thing where I’m just present with the words I read on the screen, and when it’s awful and it kind of makes your skin crawl, then that’s what comes up and that’s what I do."

"I will say that honestly, as an actor ... As a person, I intellectualize plenty before and after, right? But really, as an actor during, I don't need to apply that same intellectual process because, first of all, when you play a character for this long, you just kind of know... It's very intuitive."

"There are so many facets to the ways we learn about ourselves, and then therefore treat ourselves and others; the stories that young boys and girls learn about themselves, and the way that that translates into the ways they treat each other. We learn these lessons at home, we learn them on television and in movies and books."

"I certainly had the great bounty of drawing on my own experience, becoming a new biological parent, and that was quite natural."

"I’m just thinking of the ways the political discourse would look if women had been present and influential in it since its inception. What kind of time would be taken for any kind of discourse or debate? It might seem like a kind of silly, esoteric idea, but there’s so much about the way that our thoughts are allowed to even form and progress in a social structure that is so intensely male dominant and has been for so long."

"I think anybody who gets to that stage in reality is so beyond self-loathing. If you hate yourself, well, then you're going to turn some of that hatred on the world around you."

"In medieval times, opportunities to rape and loot were among the few advantages open to...soldiers, who were paid with great irregularity by their leaders...When the city of Constantinople was sacked in 1204, rape and plunder went hand in hand, as in the sack of almost every ancient city....Down through the ages, triumph over women by rape became a way to measure victory, part of a soldier's proof of masculinity and success, a tangible reward for services rendered...[and] an actual reward of war."

"[R]ape by a conqueror is compelling evidence of the conquered's status of masculine impotence. Defense of women has long been a hallmark of masculine success. Rape by a conquering soldier destroys all remaining illusions of power and property for men of the defeated side. The body of a raped woman becomes a ceremonial battlefield, a parade ground for the victor's trooping of the colors. The act that is played out upon her is a message passed between men - vivid proof of victory for one and loss and defeat for the other."

"Man's discovery that his genitalia could serve as a weapon to generate fear must rank as one of the most important discoveries of prehistoric times, along with the use of fire and the first crude stone axe. From prehistoric times to the present, I believe, rape has played a critical function. It is nothing more or less than a conscious process of intimidation by which all men keep all women in a state of fear."

"Jewish women in second-wave feminism helped to provide the theoretical underpinnings and models for radical action that were seized on and imitated throughout the United States and abroad. Their articles and books became classics of the movement and led the way into new arenas of cultural and political understanding in academe, politics, and grassroots organizing. Even a partial honor roll of Jewish women's liberation pioneers must include such figures as Shulamith Firestone, Ellen Willis, Robin Morgan, Alix Kates Shulman, Naomi Weisstein, Heather Booth, Susan Brownmiller, Marilyn Webb, Meredith Tax, Andrea Dworkin, Linda Gordon, Ellen DuBois, Ann Snitow, Marge Piercy, Letty Cottin Pogrebin, and Vivian Gornick. Despite historians' acknowledgment of the salience of Jewish women in earlier social movements, their prominence within radical feminism failed to attract much attention."

"The master-slave relationship is the most popular fantasy perversion in the literature of pornography. The image of a scantly clothed slave girl, always nubile, always beautiful, always docile, who sinks to her knees gracefully and dutifully before her master, who stands with or without boots, with or without whip, is commonly accepted as a scene of titillating sexuality. From the slave harems of the Orient potentate, celebrated in poetry and dance, to the breathless description of light-skinned fancy women, de rigeur in [[a particular genre of pulp historical fiction, the glorification of forced sex under slavery, institutional rape, has been a part of our cultural heritage, feeding the egos of men while subverting the egos of women- and doing irreparable damaage to the healthy sexual process. The very word "slave girl" impart to many a vision of voluptuous sexuality redolent of perfumes gardens and soft music strummed on a lyre. Such is the legacy of male-controlled sexuality under which we struggle."

"Pornography has been so thickly glossed over with the patina of chic these days in the name of verbal freedom and sophisication… Part of the problem is that those who traditionally have been the most vigorous opponents of porn are often those same people who shudder at the explicit mention of any sexual subject… There can be no equality in porn, no female equivalent, no turning of the tables in the name of bawdy fun. Pornography, like rape, is a male invention, desgined to dehumanize women… Pornography is the undiluted essence of anti-female propoganda."

"200,000, 300,000 or possibly 400,000 women (three sets of statistics have been variously quoted) were raped. Eighty percent of the raped women were Moslems, reflecting the population of Bangladesh, but Hindu and Christian women were not exempt. ... Hit-and-run rape of large numbers of Bengali women was brutally simple in terms of logistics as the Pakistani regulars swept through and occupied the tiny, populous land ... Rape in Bangladesh had hardly been restricted to beauty... Girls of eight and grandmothers of seventy-five had been sexually assaulted ... Pakistani soldiers had not only violated Bengali women on the spot; they abducted tens of hundreds and held them by force in their military barracks for nightly use."

"The story of Bangladesh was unique in one respect. For the first time in history the rape of women in war, and the compex aftermath of mass assault, received serious international attention. The desperate need of Sheik Mujibur Rahman's government for international sympathy and financial aid was part of the reason; a new feminist consciousness that encompassed rape as a political issue and a growing, practical acceptance of abortion as a solution to unwanted pregnancy were contributing factors of critical importance. And so an obscure war in an obscure corner of the globe, to Western eyes, provided the setting for an examination of the “unspeakable” crime. For once, the particular terror of unarmed women facing armed men had full hearing."

"War provides men with the perfect psychological backdrop to give vent to their contempt for women. The maleness of the military—the brute power of weaponry exclusive to their hands, the spiritual bonding of men at arms, the manly discipline of orders given and orders obeyed, the simple logic of the hierarchical command—confirms for men what they long suspect—that women are peripheral to the world that counts"

"It is a lake in width, it is enclosed in masonry, and it measures about three miles around! Superb! Few architects think in measurements as big as that... Any architect would thrill at the harmony of the facade, an unbroken stretch of repeated pillars leading from the far angles of the structure to the central opening, which is dominated, by three imposing towers with broken summits... The Vat rises in fair majesty against the heavens... All the ancient power of the temple and its gods is puissant still. It surrounds those who look upon the wonder. The eyes sweep upwards over the rising storeys, up, up, to the mounting towers, to the pure firmament, and pause subdued. It is ever thus. Some power overcomes, some mysterious spell is caste, one never look upon the ensemble of the Vat without a thrill, a pause, a feeling of being caught up into the heavens. Perhaps it is the most impressive sight in the world of edifices. The whole place is covered, once you open your eyes to it, columns, lintels, surbases, panels, pediments, jambs of doors and windows. One says that this holy sanctuary contained a wondorus statue of God Vishnu carved from precious stone... The portico is magnificent in a way not unfamiliar. One is at once in harmony with the plan. Nothing exotic about it, nothing that shocks Western traditions, simply grandeur and dignified beauty as we know it in our own architecture.""

"The beauty of being a Catholic is, this is not the last time I will ever see my mother, we will be together again, there’s just this period where she’s not here, and so it’s not the most desperate feeling. It’s pretty bad, but it’s not the worst."

"There’s a misconception that romance you had when first married is supposed to be there all the time, or that’s a sign the marriage is over or that you no longer love each other. When things get tough, you have to be able to withstand the pressure. I’m a big proponent of marriage counseling. You have to know yourself and how you respond to things, and that’s where therapy really helps. If you can’t afford therapy, there are plenty of excellent books that tell you many of the same things."

"You try to be a model of kindness and love and forgiveness to all those around you, because you have received kindness and love and forgiveness from God through Christ. That's what Christianity is. You don't see that too much. Sometimes that has been the fault of the Christian community, or the ignorance of the secular community."

"Cori Bush, a prominent Black Lives Matter activist in Missouri, defeated 20-year incumbent Rep. William Lacy Clay Jr. in a tight Democratic primary race on Tuesday. Bush, 44, celebrated her victory against Clay Jr., saying her win was a sign that Missouri residents are ready for change. If elected in November, Bush, a former nurse and pastor, will become the first Black woman to represent the state of Missouri in Congress. In the wake of George Floyd's killing, Bush has been outspoken in calling for racial justice. She has been a prominent voice in the BLM movement for years, becoming a protest leader in Ferguson in the wake of Michael Brown's death in 2014... Like Ocasio-Cortez, Bush has earned the praise of former Democratic presidential candidate Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who endorsed the activist in her 2020 bid."

"Congratulations to @CoriBush on her primary victory tonight! She is a true progressive who stands with working people and will take on the corporate elite of this country when she gets to Congress."

"Tell me what you think you would fix it."

"We can have a difference of opinion. The rhetoric around here has gotten so harsh and so toxic that you can't agree to disagree anymore."

"It's always a justice party when Cori Bush has the mic."

"When the raid on the Capitol erupted on January 6, I sent Bush a text, telling her to be safe. I wondered about her two babies who were sleeping in the car with her years ago, and how they were experiencing the events of that day. Now fresh adults at 19 and 20, Bush’s children are no strangers to the violence of daily life in the United States. They have seen everything, she says. “The brutality, losing my home, and so many things. They watched me go through the violent sexual assault that happened after my very first race, when I ran for U.S. Senate. They watched me go through four months where I was not myself, where I couldn't even cook a meal. I couldn't step outside of my home. They watched that.” For years, they also witnessed law enforcement launch authorized attacks on the people of Ferguson, their mom included. “Because I was gone so much during Ferguson, I would ask them before going back out into the streets, ‘Hey, has mama been gone too much? Do you want me to stay home tonight?’" Bush says. "And they would say, ‘No, mom. We know what you're doing. You out trying to save the world, mama. Go. And it's still that way now.”"

"I would just say the congresswoman doesn't know me."

"We are not alone. Our stories are not anomalies. (page xvii)"

"I think my daddy bought every Black history book he could find. When we were growing up, he wanted us to know about people like Rosa Parks, Shirley Chisholm, Fannie Lou Hamer, W. E. B. Du Bois, Frederick Douglass, Marcus Garvey, Harriet Tubman, and Sojourner Truth. He believed he couldn't leave it to anyone else to teach us these things. And if we didn't know our own history, we would lose ground, he told us. We would fall back into the oppressive conditions that our ancestors had worked hard to change but many of which remain with us today. When we watched television with my dad, it was Eyes on the Prize, Roots, Shaka Zulu, or A Raisin in the Sun. These were difficult to watch oftentimes. I couldn't make sense of why the white people on the TV were angry and violent toward Black people. But I did know, even as a child, that I was going to fight back. (p 11)"

"It is crucial that we give individuals the skills they need to form healthy relationships. To support healthy families and communities, we need to create an antiracist society. We need reparations, distributed both as cash and as resources that can help serve Black and Indigenous students and students of color. We need to close the racial wage gap and the gender pay gap. We need to pay a living wage. During my years at Lighthouse, minimum wage was not enough. No one who is educating children should go to work worried that her electricity is going to be cut off at home. We need access to quality health care. No one should have to live through prenatal, birth, and postpartum experiences like the ones I endured. The men in my life have presented real challenges. But so has the pressure of living in a hateful society. I wish my young adulthood and my children's early years could have taken place in a different America, a better America. That's the structural change I've been working to bring about. (p 108)"

"the lessons I learned from my clients deepened my understanding of humanity and how I could best be of service. (p 136)"

"two years into the Trump administration it was obvious to people why we needed unapologetic progressives in the House. The vile, white supremacist, sexist, bigoted Trump administration spewed lies, targeted Black and brown women elected officials, made a mockery of our democracy, and emboldened fascists. (p 227)"

"I would not be the leader I am if it were not for the challenges I've faced to be where I am, and today, I work to make that path easier for others. This is not your typical political memoir. I have no problem challenging our notions of what is proper or what is respectable. I have no problem being vulnerable and sharing episodes from my life that might make some readers uncomfortable. I know that for every reader who can't relate to the struggles I've been through, there are at least two more who have lived through something similar. Not everyone is able to tell their story. If my telling mine helps others and makes them feel seen, then my own self-exposure will be worth it. If telling my story helps others in positions of power better understand how their decision making affects regular, everyday people, people like me, then my own self-exposure is worth it. When people in power can claim that they don't know the truth of our experiences, they can continue building a world in which there's no room for us to thrive. I want to put an end to that. (page xvi)"

"I wanted it to be known that you can be a regular, everyday person and do what others deem impossible. Past traumas don't have to hold you back from achieving your goals in life. Victims and survivors of assault, low-wage workers, single parents, people living with disabilities, folks who are unhoused or transient, people on EBT, WIC, or any other form of state assistance, people with credit issues, those who are incarcerated or were formerly incarcerated, those who are LGBTQIA+, and members of every marginalized group. We must not allow people to put us in the box that they put their own selves into due to insecurities, fear, envy, or their own shortcomings. Let them address those limitations in their lives, if they choose. (p 242)"

"As someone who has been either uninsured or underinsured for most of my adult life, I know what it's like to be burdened by thousands of dollars in medical debt and to have to seek out routine medical care in an emergency room rather than with a primary care doctor. And as a nurse, I've seen too many patients forgo mental health services or be forced to ration their insulin because they couldn't afford the cost of treatment or medication. It's also why I fight for Medicare for All, including for easy access to comprehensive mental health services and affordable prescription drugs, because health care is a human right and must be guaranteed for everyone. (page xv)"

"In the pages that follow, I recount other times I've been brutalized. These are a part of my story and who I have become. They are a part of why I fight for the rights of all of my people-no matter who they are or what the circumstances of their lives are like. I know what it's like to struggle to live after a sexual assault. I know what it's like to not be believed, to be told to be quiet, to move on and get over it. I fight for the rights and dignity of victims and survivors of sexual assault the way that I do partly because I've been there myself. (page xv)"

"As an organizer and activist in the movement working to save Black lives, I've seen too many Black children die at the hands of police officers. I've personally been brutalized and assaulted by law enforcement officers during protests and have watched other activists' rights violated while protesting for justice. It is why I hold fast when I fight to fundamentally transform our approach to public safety in our country, so we can save lives and finally achieve true justice and accountability. And as someone who has been evicted, has been unhoused, and has worked low-wage jobs, I know what it's like to struggle to pay rent, keep the heat on, and put food on the kitchen table. In part, it's why I fight so hard for a social safety net that actually meets the needs of those most marginalized by our society so we no longer have to just survive, but so we can thrive. I fight so hard for transformational change because it's right and it's necessary, but also because I've lived through the harms and devastation of police violence, and I know that with more people in positions of power who have an understanding, personally or not, of what it's like to struggle to survive, we can build a more just and equitable world that meets the needs of regular, everyday people like me. (page xvi)"

"For me, reproductive justice isn't abstract. As someone who has had to end pregnancies, I know what a difference it would have made to have been met with quality, compassionate, culturally responsive care when I decided to terminate. It's part of the reason why I fight so hard for comprehensive reproductive health care, including family planning and abortion care, because I believe the right of a person to make their own decision should be protected for everyone. As a mother of two, I know what it's like to endure health complications during childbirth, to deliver a baby four months premature and watch him spend the first months of his life in the neonatal intensive care unit. It's one reason I fight so hard to end the Black maternal health crisis in our country that kills too many Black women and birthing people. (page xv)"

"Senator Manchin must support the Build Back Better Act"

"Joe Manchin's opposition to the Build Back Better Act is anti-Black, anti-child, anti-woman and anti-immigrant"

"It really bothers me that people will look at me and say, 'Oh, my gosh, your story is amazing and I really support you and look how far you've come. Look at all the adversity you've overcome. This is amazing! I love you.. And then when they hear somebody say something that they don't have full information on, then it's like, 'Oh, my gosh, she's being co-opted. Oh yeah, I knew it wasn't real."