There is the vanity training, the obedience training, the self-effacement training, the deference training, the dependency training, the passivity training, the rivalry training, the stupidity training, the placation training. How am I to put this together with my human life, my intellectual life, my solitude, my transcendence, my brains, and my fearful, fearful ambition? I failed miserably and thought it was my own fault. You can't unite woman and human any more than you can unite matter and anti-matter; they are designed to not to be stable together and they make just as big an explosion inside the head of the unfortunate girl who believes in both. Joanna Russ
About This Quote

The person who said this quote was a female philosopher and she was referencing the way that women were seen as nothing but a collection of traits and abilities to be trained and used by men. This statement will sound familiar to many women, as it echoes many of the sexist views that have been promoted throughout history. The idea that women are nothing more than a collection of traits and abilities to be trained and used by men is still held today, as women are told to be sweet or intimidating, compliant or independent, able or incapable, submissive or domineering. In this quote, the author refers to these traits as “vanity training” which implies that they are not real qualities but rather a way to make a woman appear more attractive/feminine/attractive.

Source: The Female Man

Some Similar Quotes
  1. A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment. - Jane Austen
  2. I would always rather be happy than dignified. - Unknown
  3. Well, it seems to me that the best relationships - the ones that last - are frequently the ones that are rooted in friendship. You know, one day you look at the person and you see something more than you did the night before. Like... - Gillian Anderson
  4. It’s probably not just by chance that I’m alone. It would be very hard for a man to live with me, unless he’s terribly strong. And if he’s stronger than I, I’m the one who can’t live with him. … I’m neither smart nor stupid,... - Coco Chanel
  5. I am not an angel, ' I asserted; 'and I will not be one till I die: I will be myself. Mr. Rochester, you must neither expect nor exact anything celestial of me - for you will not get it, any more than I shall... - Unknown
More Quotes By Joanna Russ
  1. (Ezekial saw the wheel( Way up in the middle of the air --(O Ezekial saw the wheel( Way in the middle of the air! ( Now the big wheel runs by faith( And the little wheel runs by the grace of God --(The above made...
  2. Long before I became a feminist in any explicit way, I had turned from writing love stories about women in which women were losers, and adventure stories about men in which the men were winners, to writing adventure stories about a woman in which the...
  3. And middle-class women, although taught to value established forms, are in the same position as the working class: neither can use established forms to express what the forms were never intended to express (and may very well operate to conceal).
  4. I know you're competent and your thesis advisor knows you're competent. The question in our minds is are you really serious about what you're doing?" This was said to a young woman who had already spent five years and over $10, 000 getting to that...
  5. Civilization must be preserved, ' says he.' Civilization's doing fine, ' I said. 'We just don't happen to be where it is.
Related Topics