Joanna Russ - The Female Man (1975)

11 Sourced Quotes

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Dismissing the whole thing as the world's aberration and not mine, I went back to bed.

Joanna Russ
Remember, I don't threaten. I don't play. I always carry firearms. The truly violent are never without them.

Joanna Russ
Anyway everyboy (sorry) knows that what women have done that is really important is not to constitute a great, cheap labor force that you can zip in when you're at war and zip out again afterwards but to Be Mothers, to form the coming generation, to give birth to them, to nurse them, to mop floors for them, to love them, cook for them, clean for them, change their diapers, pick up after them, and mainly sacrifice themselves for them. This is the most important job in the world. That's why they don't pay you for it.

Joanna Russ
There are more whooping cranes in the United States of America than there are women in Congress.

Joanna Russ
As my mother once said: The boys throw stones at the frogs in jest.
But the frogs die in earnest.

Joanna Russ
How withered away one can be from a life of unremitting toil.

Joanna Russ
Well, hell, said Jael more genuinely, the war. If there isn't one, there just was one, and if there wasn't one, there soon will be one. Eh? The war between Us and Them.

Joanna Russ
If you want to be an assassin, remember that you must decline all challenges. Showing off is not your job.
If you are insulted, smile meekly. Don't break your cover.
Be afraid. This is information about the world.
You are valuable. Push yourself.
Take the easiest way out whenever possible. Resist curiosity, pride, and the temptation to defy limits. You are not your own woman and must be built to last.
Indulge hatred. Action comes from the heart.
Pray often. How else can you quarrel with God?

Joanna Russ
I told him to open his eyes, that I didn't want to kill him with his eyes shut, for God's sake.

Joanna Russ
Fucking, if you will forgive the pun, is an anti-climax.

Joanna Russ
Remember: I didn't and don't want to be a feminine version or a diluted version or a special version or a subsidiary version or an ancillary version, or an adapted version of the heroes I admire. I want to be the heroes themselves.
What future is there for a female child who aspires to being Humphrey Bogart?

Joanna Russ