List of Shulamith Firestone Quotes

...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.

The Bar Is The Male Kingdom. For Centuries It Was The Bastion Of Male Privilege, The Gathering Place For Men Away From Their Women, A Place Where Men Could Go To Freely Indulge In The Bull Session.

The 'natural' Is Not Necessarily A 'human' Value.

It Is Only After We Have Integrated The Dark Side Of The Moon Into Our World View That We Can Begin To Talk Seriously Of Universal Culture.

The Division Yin And Yang Pervades All Culture, History, Economics, Nature Itself; Modern Western Versions Of Sex Discrimination Are Only The Most Recent Layer.

The Myth Of Childhood Happiness Flourishes So Wildly Not Because It Satisfies The Needs Of Children But Because It Satisfies The Needs Of Adults. In A Culture Of Alienated People, The Belief That Everyone Has At Least One Good Period In Life Free Of Care And Drudgery Dies Hard. And Obviously You Can't Expect It In Your Old Age. So It Must Be You've Already Had It.

Emancipated' Women Found Out That The Honesty, Generosity, And Camaraderie Of Men Was A Lie.

The Classic Trap For Any Revolutionary Is Always, 'what's Your Alternative?

A Revolutionary In Every Bedroom Cannot Fail To Shake Up The Status Quo. And If It Is Your Wife That Is Revolting, You Can't Just Split To The Suburbs. Feminism, When It Truly Achieves It's Goals, Will Crack Through The Most Basic Structures Of Our Society.

No Matter How Many Levels Of Consciousness One Reaches, The Problem Always Goes Deeper.

...love Is Essentially A Much Simpler Phenomenon--it Becomes Complicated, Corrupted Or Obstructed By An Unequal Balance Of Power.

But In Psychoanalysis There Are No Unimportant Thoughts; There Are Only Thoughts That Pretend To Be Unimportant In Order To Not Be Told.

Women And Love Are Underpinnings. Examine Them And You Threaten The Very Structure Of Culture.

[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.

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.

The Best Way To Raise A Child Is To Lay Off!

A Fair And Generous Woman Is (at Best) Respected, But Seldom Loved.

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.

The Separation Of Sex From Emotion Is At The Very Foundations Of Western Culture And Civilization.

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.

To Be Worshiped Is Not Freedom.

The Personal Is Political.

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.

He Has Let Her In Not Because He Genuinely Loved Her, But Only Because She Played So Well Into His Preconceived Fantasies.