Shulamith Firestone Quotes

Quotes about:

• Just as the end goal of socialist revolution was not only the elimination of the economic class privilege but of the economic class distinction itself, so the end goal of feminist revolution must be, ... not just the elimination of the male privilege, but of the sex distinction itself; genital differences between human beings would no longer matter culturally.

  Shulamith Firestone

  Sex, Class, Differences

  SHULAMITH FIRESTONE (1970). “THE DIALECTIC OF SEX: THE CASE FOR FEMINIST REVOLUTION”

  42 Copy quote

• Women were the slave class that maintained the species in order to free the other half for the business of the world.

  Shulamith Firestone

  Women, Order, Class

  SHULAMITH FIRESTONE (1970). “THE DIALECTIC OF SEX”

  46 Copy quote

• Power, however it has evolved, whatever its origins, will not be given up without a struggle.

  Shulamith Firestone

  Struggle, Given, Given Up

  SHULAMITH FIRESTONE (1970). “THE DIALECTIC OF SEX”

  62 Copy quote

• In my own case, I had to train myself out of that phony smile, which is like a nervous tic on every teenage girl. And this meant that I smiled rarely, for in truth, when it came down to real smiling, I had less to smile about. My 'dream' action for the women's liberation movement: a smile boycott, at which declaration all women would instantly abandon their 'pleasing' smiles, henceforth smiling only when something pleased them.

  Shulamith Firestone

  Smile, Girl, Dream

  SHULAMITH FIRESTONE (1970). “THE DIALECTIC OF SEX: THE CASE FOR FEMINIST REVOLUTION”

  64 Copy quote

• Romanticism is a cultural tool of male power to keep women from knowing their conditions.

  Shulamith Firestone

  Knowing, Males, Tools

  SHULAMITH FIRESTONE (1970). “THE DIALECTIC OF SEX: THE CASE FOR FEMINIST REVOLUTION”

  42 Copy quote

• Feminism, when it truly achieves its goals, will crack through the most basic structures of our society.

  Shulamith Firestone

  Goal, Feminism, Our Society

  Shulamith Firestone (2003). “The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution”, p.61, Macmillan

  30 Copy quote

• Men are thinking, writing, and creating, because women were pouring their energy into those men; women are not creating culture because they are occupied with love.

  Shulamith Firestone

  Writing, Men, Thinking

  SHULAMITH FIRESTONE (1970). “THE DIALECTIC OF SEX”

  33 Copy quote

• (Male) culture was (and is) parasitical, feeding on the emotional strength of women without reciprocity.

  Shulamith Firestone

  Emotional, Culture, Males

  24 Copy quote

• Feminists have to question, not just all of Western culture, but the organization of culture itself, and further, even the very organization of nature. Many women give up in despair: if that's how deep it goes they don't want to know.

  Shulamith Firestone

  Giving Up, Organization, Feminist

  SHULAMITH FIRESTONE (1970). “THE DIALECTIC OF SEX: THE CASE FOR FEMINIST REVOLUTION”

  22 Copy quote

• All men are selfish, brutal and inconsiderate--and I wish I could find one.

  Shulamith Firestone

  Selfish, Men, Wish

  SHULAMITH FIRESTONE (1970). “THE DIALECTIC OF SEX”

  25 Copy quote

• If women are differentiated only by superficial physical attributes, men appear more individual and irreplaceable than they really are.

  Shulamith Firestone

  Men, Individual, Superficial

  31 Copy quote

• To be worshiped is not freedom.

  Shulamith Firestone

  SHULAMITH FIRESTONE (1970). “THE DIALECTIC OF SEX”

  17 Copy quote

• The 'natural' is not necessarily a 'human' value. Humanity has begun to transcend nature: we can no longer justify the maintenance of a discriminatory sex class system on grounds of its origins in nature. Indeed, for pragmatic reasons alone it is beginning to look as if we must get rid of it.

  Shulamith Firestone

  Sex, Class, Humanity

  "Shulamith Firestone obituary" by Julie Bindel, www.theguardian.com. September 6, 2012.

  16 Copy quote

• The classic trap for any revolutionary is always, “What's your alternative?” But even if you could provide the interrogator with a blueprint, this does not mean he would use it: in most cases he is not sincere in wanting to know. In fact this is a common offensive, a technique to reflect revolutionary anger and turn it against itself. Moreover, the oppressed have no job to convince all people. All they need know is that the present system is destroying them.

  Shulamith Firestone

  Jobs, Mean, People

  15 Copy quote

• The personal is political.

  Shulamith Firestone

  Political, Feminism, Politics

  7 Copy quote

• Thus her whole identity hangs in the balance of her love life. She is allowed to love herself only if a man finds her worthy of love.

  Shulamith Firestone

  Love Life, Men, Identity

  23 Copy quote

• He has let her in not because he genuinely loved her, but only because she played so well into his preconceived fantasies.

  Shulamith Firestone

  Fantasy, Wells

  Shulamith Firestone (1970). “The dialectic of sex: the case for feminist revolution”

  30 Copy quote

• The separation of sex from emotion is at the very foundations of Western culture and civilization.

  Shulamith Firestone

  Sex, Civilization, Culture

  25 Copy quote

• A fair and generous woman is (at best) respected, but seldom loved.

  Shulamith Firestone

  Fairs, Generous

  SHULAMITH FIRESTONE (1970). “THE DIALECTIC OF SEX”

  10 Copy quote

• [U]nless oppressed groups stick together, and on alliances of self interest rather than do-goodism; nothing can be accomplished in the long run to dismantle the apparatus of oppression.

  Shulamith Firestone

  Running, Self, Long

  16 Copy quote

• We should keep in mind that Revolutions anywhere are always glad to use any help they can get, even from women. But unless women also use the Revolution to further their own interests as well as everyone else's, unless they make it consistently clear that all help given now is expected to be returned, both now and after the Revolution, they will be sold out again and again.

  Shulamith Firestone

  Mind, Use, Revolution

  18 Copy quote

• The best way to raise a child is to LAY OFF!

  Shulamith Firestone

  Children, Way, Raises

  SHULAMITH FIRESTONE (1970). “THE DIALECTIC OF SEX”

  10 Copy quote

• No matter how many levels of consciousness one reaches, the problem always goes deeper.

  Shulamith Firestone

  Levels, Matter, Problem

  Shulamith Firestone (2003). “The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution”, p.10, Macmillan

  13 Copy quote

• Women and love are underpinnings. Examine them and you threaten the very structure of culture.

  Shulamith Firestone

  And Love, Culture, Structure

  SHULAMITH FIRESTONE (1970). “THE DIALECTIC OF SEX”

  12 Copy quote

• ...he will go to his grave feeling cheated, never realizing that there isn't much difference between one woman and the other, that it is the loving that creates the difference.

  Shulamith Firestone

  Differences, Feelings, Realizing

  11 Copy quote

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