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The biggest thinker that's influenced my feminism is definitely Bell Hooks, who's a feminist cultural critic, because of her accessibility but also just because she's a genius.

Jessica Valenti

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Jessica Valenti
Age: 46
Born: 1978
Born: November 1
Author
Journalist
Writer
New York City
New York
Critics
Critic
Biggest
Hook
Definitely
Bells
Genius
Influenced
Also
Thinker
Feminism
Accessibility
Cultural
Hooks
Feminist
Bell

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I think that online harassment has become so ubiquitous on the Internet that a lot of women do feel safer, whatever that means, in spaces where they know like people are not going to bother them in that kind of way.
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[Virginity is] a cultural ideology that conflates passivity - the act of not having sex - with superior morality.
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If you go to places like YouTube, it's a cesspool, and a lot of the comments are really horrifying and misogynist and harassing.
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I grew up definitely a feminist, but I didn't call myself a feminist until I took my first women's studies class in college.
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Life is messy, and it's okay if you are too! We all screw up, that doesn't have to define us.
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Child-rearing can be a tedious and thankless undertaking.
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Yes, the more successful you are—or the stronger, the more opinionated—the less you will be generally liked. All of a sudden people will think you’re too braggy, too loud, too something. But the trade-off is undoubtedly worth it. Power and authenticity are worth it.
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I'm glad that we have a history at all and that we can talk about feminist history. But I do think that it doesn't really pay attention to the complexity and the nuance that is feminist thought.
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According to the virginity movement, men have no self-control when it comes to anything sexual.
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You're not too fat. You're not too loud. You're not too smart. You're not unladylike. There is nothing wrong with you.
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I think that blogging and the Internet has completely changed feminism for ever, I think.
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Hearing the Beastie Boys speak out against sexism made me feel like if these men who had once sung about getting girls to 'do the laundry' and 'clean up my room' could understand, maybe the rest of the world would follow suit. It made me hopeful in the best way.
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If you're fighting to limit other women's rights, then you can't really call yourself a feminist.
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The stereotypes of feminists as ugly, or man-haters, or hairy, or whatever it is - that's really strategic. That's a really smart way to keep young women away from feminism, is to kind of put out this idea that all feminists hate men, or all feminists are ugly and that they really come from a place of fear.
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It used to be that if someone was to get involved in feminism, it was probably because they were already interested. They were already interested in feminism they were already interested in being an activist, and they found their way to like a NOW meeting or to a consciousness-raising group or something like that.
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Something I say a lot when it comes to anti-feminist stereotypes is that they exist for a reason.
Jessica Valenti
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I think people resist feminism because they're scared. I think for women, they're scared of being picked on or of being called out.
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Present-day American society-whether through pop culture, religion, or institutions-conflates sexuality and morality constantly. Idolizing virginity as a stand-in for women’s morality means that nothing else matters-not what we accomplish, not what we think, not what we care about and work for. Just if/how/whom we have sex with. That’s all.
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As I grew up and began identifying myself as a feminist, there were plenty of issues that continued to make me question marriage: the father giving the bride away, women taking their husband's last name, the white dress, the vows promising to obey the groom. And that only covers the wedding.
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I think feminism has always been global. I think there's feminism everywhere throughout the world.
Jessica Valenti