My reaction to porno films is as follows: After the first ten minutes, I want to go home and screw. After the first twenty minutes, I never want to screw again as long as I live.
Erica JongRead
Growing up female in America. What a liability! You grew up with your ears full of cosmetic ads, love songs, advice columns, whoreoscopes, Hollywood gossip, and moral dilemmas on the level of TV soap operas. What litanies the advertisers of the good life chanted at you! What curious catechisms!
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the challenges and societal pressures faced by women growing up in America, influenced by various media and cultural narratives.
Erica Jong's quote reflects the complex experience of growing up female in America, where young girls are bombarded with messages from advertisements, music, and popular culture that often shape their perceptions of worth and identity. She critiques the unrealistic expectations set by society and underscores the moral dilemmas faced by women, suggesting that these influences can be burdensome and limiting, making the journey towards self-acceptance and empowerment feel like a liability.
Themes
FemaleSocietyAdvertisingIdentityPressureMedia
In practice
Example use cases
During a panel discussion on women's issues, this quote could be used to illustrate the pressures young girls face today.
More from Erica Jong
All quotes →I have accepted fear as a part of life - specifically the fear of change... I have gone ahead despite the pounding in the heart that says: turn back.
Erica JongRead
No one ever found wisdom without also being a fool. Writers, alas, have to be fools in public, while the rest of the human race can cover its tracks.
Erica JongRead
My generation was not only maligned in book reviews and attacked in graduate school but we lived to see our adored and adorable daughters wonder why feminism had become a dirty word.
Erica JongRead
Do you want me to tell you something really subversive? Love is everything it's cracked up to be. That's why people are so cynical about it. It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more.
Erica JongRead
I believe that women should live for love, for motherhood and for intellect, and I believe we shouldn't have to choose. And I believe that's always been difficult for women, to express themselves intellectually, maternally, and passionately.
Erica JongRead
Similar quotes
The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says, 'It's a girl.'
Shirley ChisholmRead
Men are boys for such a long time and really don't start getting the great roles until they're in their mid-thirties. But then they've got a long time to do them, whereas for women, it's all about playing younger and younger and younger.
Cate BlanchettRead
Like it or not, women are always subject to criticism if they show too much feeling in public.
Hillary ClintonRead
What works for a man, still does not work for a woman - both in terms of how they see themselves and how we see them.
Madeleine M. KuninRead
If you're a girl and you don't fit the very specific vision of what a girl should be, which is always from a man's perspective, then you're a little bit at a loss.
Ellen PageRead
Woman" in the abstract is young, and, we assume, charming. As they get older they pass off the stage, somehow, into private ownership mostly, or out of it altogether.
Charlotte Perkins GilmanRead