Shulamith Firestone Quotes

Shulamith Firestone delivers bold, revolutionary arguments about feminism and society.

17 quotes

  1. In the radical feminist view, the new feminism is not just the revival of a serious political movement for social equality. It is the second wave of the most important revolution in history.

  2. Freudianism has become, with its confessionals and penance, its proselytes and converts, with the millions spent on its upkeep, our modern Church.

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

  4. The end goal of the feminist revolution is the elimination of the sex distinction itself.

  5. Pregnancy is barbaric, and childbirth hurts... like shitting a pumpkin.

  6. [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.

  7. 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.

  8. Emancipated' women found out that the honesty, generosity, and camaraderie of men was a lie.

  9. the 'natural' is not necessarily a 'human' value.

  10. 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.

  11. 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.

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

  13. The personal is political.

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

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

  16. But in psychoanalysis there are no unimportant thoughts; there are only thoughts that pretend to be unimportant in order to not be told.

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