#stereotypes

In reaction against the age-old slogan, "woman is the weaker vessel," or the still more offensive, "woman is a divine creature," we have, I think, allowed ourselves to drift into asserting that "a woman is as good as a man," without always pausing to think what exactly we mean by that. What, I feel, we ought to mean is something so obvious that it is apt to escape attention altogether, viz: (...) that a woman is just as much an ordinary human being as a man, with the same individual preferences, and with just as much right to the tastes and preferences of an individual. What is repugnant to every human being is to be reckoned always as a member of a class and not as an individual person. ↗

— Dorothy L. Sayers

#clichés #dignity #discrimination #double-standards #empowerment

Is it possible to say "It was a beautiful morning at the end of November" without feeling like Snoopy? ↗

— Umberto Eco

#originality #stereotypes #writing #beauty

Physically she was like a swan among more humble fowl – tall, willowy, and exceptionally pretty with fair skin and golden hair, whereas the Chardins were plain and dark, stocky and short. ↗

— Francine Pascal

#snobbery #stereotypes #superficiality #sweet-valley #beauty

There is a time in a boy’s life when the sweetness is pounded out of him; and tenderness, and the ability to show what he feels, is gone. ↗

— Norah Vincent

#gender-stereotypes #loss #maleness #masculinity #tenderness

Why is it that all cars are women?" he asked. "Because they're fussy and demanding," answered Zee. "Because if they were men, they'd sit around and complain instead of getting the job done," I told him. ↗

— Patricia Briggs

#gender-stereotypes #humor #women #humor

...One of the reasons so many women say "I'm not a feminist but..." (and then put forward a feminist position), is that in addition to being stereotyped as man-hating Amazons, feminists have also been cast as antifamily and antimotherhood. ↗

— Susan J. Douglas

#motherhood #stereotypes

The difference between the love of a man and the love of a woman is that a man will always give reasons for loving, but a woman gives no reasons for loving. ↗

— Fulton J. Sheen

#love #men-and-women #reasons #life

I even tried to usher her into this century by explaining that wearing rainbows didn’t automatically mean a person was gay. The Lucky Charms leprechaun was not necessarily a homosexual. The Care Bear with the rainbow on his tummy did not have a life partner. He didn’t even have genitals. (6) ↗

— Elna Baker

#homosexuality #life

Generalization is a natural human mental process, and many generalizations are true—in average. What often does promote evil behavior is the lazy, nasty habit of believing that generalizations have anything at all to do with individuals. ↗

— David Brin

#evil #generalization #generalizations #individual #individuals

Anything may happen when womanhood has ceased to be a protected occupation. ↗

— Virginia Woolf

#dignity #double-standards #empowerment #feminism #gender