Manda

“When you cherish someone for how amazing they are, you don’t pluck them from their roots just to watch them wither in your hands. You help them bloom into the incredible thing they’re really meant to be.”
― Xiran Jay Zhao, Iron Widow

“Female. That label has never done anything for me except dictate what I can or cannot do. No going anywhere without permission. No showing too much skin. No speaking too loudly or unkindly, or at all, if the men are talking. No living my life without being constantly aware of how pleasing I am to the eye. No future except pushing out son after son for a husband”
― Xiran Jay Zhao, Iron Widow

“You know what I think?” I say. “I think this whole concept of women being docile and obedient is nothing but wishful thinking. Or why would you put so much effort into lying to us? Into crippling our bodies? Into coercing us with made-up morals you claim are sacred? You insecure men, you’re afraid. You can force us into compliance, but, deep down, you know you can’t force us to truly love and respect you. And without love and respect, there will always be a seed of hatred and resistance. Growing. Festering. Waiting.”
― Xiran Jay Zhao, Iron Widow

“How many aspects of the piloting system - and the world in general - are based on sterile facts, and how many are just illusions? Illusions that reinforce themselves generation after generation, because people don't question the convenient boxes they're penned into, the arbitrary rules they live by?”
― Xiran Jay Zhao, Iron Widow