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.
Naomi WolfRead
The woman wins who calls herself beautiful, and challenges the world to change to fit her vision.
Naomi WolfRead
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.
Naomi WolfRead
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
Similar quotes
Using pseudonyms was such a part of the early feminist movement. We didn't want to have this star system. We wanted attention on the ideas, not the persona of the writer.
Bell HooksRead
Being a housewife is an illegitimate profession... The choice to serve and be protected and plan towards being a family-maker is a choice that shouldn't be. The heart of radical feminism is to change that
Vivian GornickRead
Sexual harassment law is very important. But I think it would be a mistake if the sexual harassment law movement is the only way in which feminism is known in the media.
Judith ButlerRead
Feminists are asking the practical questions about how you want to live your life.
Naomi AldermanRead
I think the history of western feminism is one that is fraught with racism, and I think it's important to acknowledge that and, at the same time, to say that feminism is not the western invention, that my great-grandmother in what is now south-western Nigeria is feminist.
Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieRead
People call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute.
Rebecca WestRead