Try any goddam thing you like, no matter how boringly normal or outrageous. If it works, fine. If it doesn't, toss it. Toss it even if you love it.
Stephen KingRead
Women's lib, Frannie had decided, was nothing more nor less than an outgrowth of the technological society. Women were at the mercy of their bodies. They were smaller. They tended to be weaker. A man couldn't get with child, but a woman could---every four-year-old knows it. And a pregnant woman is a vulnerable human being. Civilization had provided an umbrella of sanity that both sexes could stand beneath.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the challenges women face in a technological society, emphasizing their biological vulnerabilities and societal roles.
In this quote, Stephen King discusses the implications of women's liberation within the context of a technologically advanced society. He suggests that women's biological differences, such as pregnancy and physical strength, place them in a position of vulnerability, contrasting this with the societal structures that provide stability. The quote hints at the complex interplay between gender, technology, and societal roles, suggesting that while women's liberation is essential, it is also deeply influenced by their biological realities.
Themes
WomenTechnologyVulnerabilitySocietyLiberationGender
In practice
Example use cases
During a panel discussion on gender equality, one might quote this to highlight the importance of understanding biological differences in the fight for women's rights.
More from Stephen King
All quotes →Eddie discovered one of his childhood's great truths. Grownups are the real monsters, he thought.
Stephen KingRead
Hairstyles change, and skirt lengths, and slang, but high school administrations? Never.
Stephen KingRead
Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s.
Stephen KingRead
That's the day's business. Thinking. Thinking and isolation, because it doesn't matter if you pass the time of day with someone or not; in the end, you're alone. He seemed to have put in as many miles in his brain as he had with his feet. The thoughts kept coming and there was no way to deny them.
Stephen KingRead
Late last night and the night before, tommyknockers, tommyknockers knocking on my door. I wanna go out, don't know if I can 'cuz I'm so afraid of the tommyknocker man.
Stephen KingRead
Similar quotes
Only when a woman decides not to have children, can a woman live like a man. That's what I've done.
Katharine HepburnRead
...a box where she was expected to be sweet and sensitive (but not oversensitive); a box for young and pretty girls who were not as bright or powerful as their boyfriends. A box for people who were not forces to be reckoned with.
E. LockhartRead
One of the things we learn in movies directed by men is what the 'fantasy woman' is. What we learn in movies directed by women is what real women are about. I don't think that men see things wrong and women right, just that we do see things differently.
Jane CampionRead
Gender-dominated environments are not good... particularly in the financial sector where there are too few women. In gender-dominated environments, men have a tendency to... show how hairy chested they are, compared with the man who's sitting next to them. I honestly think that there should never be too much testosterone in one room.
Christine LagardeRead
Women must pay for everything. They do get more glory than men for comparable feats, but, they also get more notoriety when they crash.
Amelia EarhartRead
Patriarchy appears to be everywhere. Even outer space and the future have been colonized. As a rule, even the more imaginative science-fiction writers (allegedly the most foretelling futurists) cannot/will not create a space and time in which women get far beyond the role of space stewardess.
Mary DalyRead