Feminist Theory Quotes

• But one did not do feminist theory, as such, in those days, not only because male academic discourse did not recognize such a term, but especially because the womens movement did not either.

  Teresa de Lauretis

  Feminist, Males, Movement

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• Postmodernism is an academic theory, originating in academia with an academic elite, not in the world of women and men, where feminist theory is rooted.

  Catharine MacKinnon

  Men, Feminist, Academia

  Catharine A. MacKinnon (2007). “Are Women Human?”, p.62, Harvard University Press

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• Feminist education — the feminist classroom — is and should be a place where there is a sense of struggle, where there is visible acknowledgment of the union of theory and practice, where we work together as teachers and students to overcome the estrangement and alienation that have become so much the norm in the contemporary university.

  Bell Hooks

  Teacher, Struggle, Practice

  bell hooks (2014). “Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black”, p.63, Routledge

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• If white American feminist theory need not deal with the differences between us, and the resulting difference in our oppressions, then how do you deal with the fact that the women who clean your houses and tend your children while you attend conferences on feminist theory are, for the most part, poor women and women of Color? What is the theory behind racist feminism?

  Audre Lorde

  Children, Color, White

  Audre Lorde (2012). “Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches”, p.112, Crossing Press

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• [T]he most viciously intolerant campus I ever visited as a lecturer was Brown, where the humanities program has been gutted by a jejune brand of feminist theory and cultural and media studies.

  Camille Paglia

  Media, Feminist, Humanity

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• Feminist theory has left an indelible mark on my own critical—and creative—thinking . . . For me, everything I questioned about what it meant to be a man – and how much my sexuality would perpetually challenge those meanings—could be found in arguments posed by feminists. What can I say? I identified.

  Todd Haynes

  Men, Thinking, Feminist

  Todd Haynes (2007). “Far From Heaven, Safe, and Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story: Three Screenplays”, p.8, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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• Naturally my stories are about women - I'm a woman. I don't know what the term is for men who write mostly about men. I'm not always sure what is meant by "feminist." In the beginning I used to say, well, of course I'm a feminist. But if it means that I follow a kind of feminist theory, or know anything about it, then I'm not. I think I'm a feminist as far as thinking that the experience of women is important. That is really the basis of feminism.

  Alice Munro

  Mean, Writing, Men

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• Radical militant feminist believes that women of color and Black women in particular have written the cutting edge theory and really were the individuals who exploded feminist theory into the directions that has made it more powerful. So I see us as the leaders not just of Black people and Black women in terms of feminism but in terms of the movement as a whole.

  Bell Hooks

  Powerful, Believe, Cutting

  "October 2006 Interview: Bell Hooks". Interview with Pierce Freelon, blackademics.org. October 2006.

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• I am attempting to move away from the exclusionary practices of feminist theory, particularly anti-pornography rhetoric, in order to amplify the discussion about the complexity of pleasure for women.

  Barbara Degenevieve

  Moving, Order, Practice

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• I remain interested in the potential of art, except I've always been more struck by applied modernism than high modernism. It's partly because of feminist theory and being brought up in the '70s, with questioning who is speaking, and why, and what authority they're carrying.

  Liam Gillick

  Art, Feminist, Authority

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• The great tragedy in the new feminist theory in America is the loss of a sense of public commitment.... Hungry women are not fed by this, battered women are not sheltered by it, raped women do not find justice in it, gays and lesbians do not achieve legal protections through it.

  Martha C. Nussbaum

  Commitment, Gay, Loss

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• Through luminous and erudite readings of the texts, Hasana Sharp shows us how profound and radical is Spinoza's conception of nature and his claim that humans always remain part of nature, acting solely according to the same rules. She demonstrates the political consequences of adopting this perspective through a provocative intervention in contemporary feminist theory, while along the way opening promising avenues for future work in a variety of other fields, such as animal studies and ecology. This is a challenging and important book.

  Michael Hardt

  Book, Reading, Animal

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