Oriol Lladó

“Working-class women might not be fighting for a cause with words, time, and money they don’t have, but they possess an unsurpassed wisdom about the way gender works in the world. Take, for example, the concept of intersectionality. A working-class woman of color might not know that word, but she knows better than anyone how her race, gender, and economic struggles intertwine.

There is, then, intellectual knowledge—the stuff of research studies and think pieces—and there is experiential knowing. Both are important, and women from all backgrounds might possess both. But we rarely exalt the knowing, which is the only kind of feminism many working women have.”
― Sarah Smarsh, She Come By It Natural: Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs

“Oh, I’m a female and I believe that everybody should definitely have their rights,” she said. “I don’t care if you’re Black, white, straight, gay, women, men, whatever. I think everybody that has something to offer should be allowed to give it and be paid for it. But, no, I don’t consider myself a feminist, not in the term that some people do, because I just think we all should be treated with respect.”

Her answer might break your heart if, like me, you speak the language of college-educated activists. But I speak another language, too —poor country— and can attest that as an independent teenager in small-town Kansas who believed women and men should receive equal treatment, I might have given a similar answer. So much of what ails our country now, politically, is that we do not share a common set of definitions.

In the context of her native class, Parton’s gift to young women is not a statement but an example. One wishes for both from a hero. But, if I could only have one of the two, I’d pick the latter.”
― Sarah Smarsh, She Come By It Natural: Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs

“Feminism and all movements for social progress inevitably contain a gap between what’s on paper and what’s really going on: between the feminism proclaimed and the feminism enacted, the women’s rights legislated and the women’s rights enforced, the progress in policy and the progress in culture.

Women of Generation X, of which I represent the youngest contingent, had more freedom than their mothers in meaningful ways. We were the first full beneficiaries of Title IX protections guaranteeing access to education and outlawing sexual discrimination in the workplace. We were entering our first romantic partnerships as the Violence Against Women Act became law. But the cultural cues we received growing up were full of gaps and dissonance.”
― Sarah Smarsh, She Come By It Natural: Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs

“Crec que no és gaire lluny del que Weil volia trobar a la fàbrica, la possibilitat en forma d’autorització moral per donar testimoni, per poder parlar-ne. A mi em passa una cosa molt similar amb els amics, la família i les situacions que viuen: com pots parlar de la guerra, mantenint aquesta distància variable? No sé si estic legitimat per fer-ho, d’aquí, suposo, l’acumulació d’hores de voluntariat, la quantitat de documents que busco o la cerca en el record dels Monegres, com si hagués de menester tots aquests comprovants per tenir alguna cosa a dir, per poder fer creure al lector que el meu relat té alguna importància. Necessito tenir un tiquet, el comprovant de l’experiència. No tinc una síndrome de l’impostor, vés, l’acceptació que no es pot ser mai una altra cosa, que el que explico sempre tindrà una aproximació imperfecta. «Todo lo que tengo traigo», que deia la iaia María.”
― Francesc Serés, El món interior