A culture fixation on female thinness is not an obsession about female beauty but an obsession about female obedience. Dieting is the most potent political sedative in womenβs history; a quietly mad population is a tractable one.
Naomi WolfRead
When I was a baby feminist, leading feminist thinkers were insisting that if women ran the world, there would be no sadism or war.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that women in leadership could eradicate social issues like violence and war.
Naomi Wolf reflects on her early beliefs in feminism, highlighting a common notion among feminist thinkers that if women held the reins of power, societal issues such as sadism and war would diminish. This sentiment touches on the hope that women's leadership would foster empathy and compassion, contrasting with traditional male-dominated power structures often associated with violence and conflict.
Themes
FeminismLeadershipWomenSocietyPeace
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about gender equality, I might refer to this quote to emphasize the potential of women's leadership.
More from Naomi Wolf
All quotes βLooking back on 200 years of feminist agitation in this country, we've got to get it that the moral high ground doesn't get us anything. Pleading with powerful men never gets us what we need. Talking doesn't do it. Being right doesn't do it. Hardball politics does it ... and a political strategy.
Naomi WolfRead
The more legal and material hindrances women have broken through, the more strictly and heavily and cruelly images of female beauty have come to weigh upon them.
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The woman wins who calls herself beautiful, and challenges the world to change to fit her vision.
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The beauty myth moves for men as a mirage; its power lies in its ever-receding nature. When the gap is closed, the lover embraces only his own disillusion.
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Our society does reward beauty on the outside over health on the inside. Women must not be blamed for choosing short-term beauty "fixes" that harm our long-term health, since our life spans are inverted under the beauty myth, and there is no great social or economic incentive for women to live a long time.
Naomi WolfRead
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