Adelaide (LiterallyAdele)

“At the time I am writing this, one of the definitions of vagina from TheFreeDictionary.com’s medical glossary reads, “An organ of copulation that receives the penis during sexual intercourse.” This is not a political view of the vagina, it’s a medical one. And yet, I would invite a doctor to try telling a lesbian that her vagina is “an organ that receives the penis.” See how well that goes. (258)”
― Amanda Montell, Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language

“But my main interest has always been in how tales worked as stories. All I set out to do in this book was tell the best and most interesting of them, clearing out of the way anything that would prevent them from running freely. I didn’t want to put them in modern settings, or produce personal interpretations or compose poetic variations on the originals; I just wanted to produce a version that was clear as water. My guiding question has been: ‘How would I tell this story myself, if I’d heard it told by someone else and wanted to pass it on?’ Any changes I’ve made have been for the purpose of helping the story emerge more naturally in my voice. If, as happened occasionally, I thought an improvement was possible, I’ve either made a small change or two in the text itself or suggested a larger one in the note that follows the story.”
― Philip Pullman, Philip Pullman's Grimm Tales

“Overall it’s really clear that the way we talk about genitals is a super concentrated representation of how we thing about sex and gender,” he [Lal Zimman] tells me. “The research that people have done on heteronormative gender naming really shows that our worst cultural values are reflected in the ways we talk about genitals. Like penises are always weapons that exist for penetrating, sex is always violence, and women and vaginas are passive and absence, just a place to put a penis.”
― Amanda Montell, Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language

“Anytime language reform happens, it has to happen in the context of social change,” he [Lal Zimmerman] says. “You can’t have just the linguistic change first and then expect people to get on board with the cultural stuff.”
― Amanda Montell, Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language