“I am here. Solid, steadily moving through the world. I can be alone. I can be a force. I don't need half-love, half-life, half is not enough. I can be whole with nothing. I came from nothing. I came from nowhere. I can be anywhere now, without. Here I am without. But here I am. Flying”
― Rest and Be Thankful
― Rest and Be Thankful
“It is essential [...] that discipline should not be practiced like a rule imposed on oneself from the outside, but that it becomes an expression of one's own will; that it is felt as pleasant, and that one slowly accustoms oneself to a kind of behavior which one would eventually miss, if one stopped practicing it.”
― The Art of Loving
― The Art of Loving
“Solitude: it's become my trade. As it requires a certain discipline, it's a condition I try to perfect. And yet it plagues me, it weighs on me in spite of my knowing it so well.”
― Whereabouts
― Whereabouts
“slut is a word that men invented, like witch, to maintain power over women and to keep them in service to men.”
― Girlhood
― Girlhood
“In Samuel Johnson's 1755 dictionary (the precursor to the Oxford English) a slut is simply a dirty woman, without any sexual connotation. In the nineteenth century, a slut also becomes a female dog, and a rag dipped in lard to light in place of a candle. Though in the twentieth century its meaning solidifies as an immoral woman, "a woman who enjoys sex in a degree considered shamefully excessive."
It is a brilliant linguistic trajectory. Make the bad housekeeper a woman of poor morals. Make her maid service to men a moral duty, and every other act becomes a potentially immoral one. Make her a bitch, a dog, a pig, any kind of subservient or inferior beast. Create one word for them all. Make sex a moral duty, too, but pleasure in it a crime. This way you can punish her for anything. You can make her humanity monstrous. Now you can do anything you want to her.”
― Girlhood
It is a brilliant linguistic trajectory. Make the bad housekeeper a woman of poor morals. Make her maid service to men a moral duty, and every other act becomes a potentially immoral one. Make her a bitch, a dog, a pig, any kind of subservient or inferior beast. Create one word for them all. Make sex a moral duty, too, but pleasure in it a crime. This way you can punish her for anything. You can make her humanity monstrous. Now you can do anything you want to her.”
― Girlhood
Read Women
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A group for readers of all genders to discover and share their passion for books by women authors. We enjoy monthly book discussions, challenges, budd ...more
Latvija
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Lasītāji no Latvijas pievienojieties! Interesanti būtu uzzināt, cik daudz mūsu šeit ir.
Sasha’s 2025 Year in Books
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