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“Stand outside the rare movie with a strong and daring female protagonist, and watch women emerging with higher heads, stronger walks, and greater confidence. Consider the importance of a sports champion who comes from a group that has been made to feel it can’t win, a popular movie in which American Indians are finally the “good guys,” a violinist whose music soars while he sits onstage in leg braces, a deaf actress who introduces millions of moviegoers to the expressiveness of sign language, and even one woman who remains joyous, free, sexual, and good at her work after sixty or seventy. The images of power, grace, and competence that these people convey have a life-giving impact—just as trivialized, stereotyped, degrading, subservient, and pornographic images of bodies that look like ours do the opposite, as though we absorb that denigration or respect through our nerve endings. Wherever negative physical imagery has been part of low self-esteem, a counterpoint of positive imagery can be part of raising it.”
― Gloria Steinem, Revolution from Within: A Book of Self-Esteem

“Looking at Barbados and Australia as relatively positive examples, one societal hallmark of self-esteem seems to be an ability to both give and demand fairness, an expectation that extends from the personal to the political.”
― Gloria Steinem, Revolution from Within: A Book of Self-Esteem

“All books about all revolutions begin with a chapter that describes the decay of tottering authority or the misery and sufferings of the people," Kapuscinski writes. "They should begin with a psychological chapter – one that shows how a harassed, terrified man suddenly breaks his terror, stops being afraid. This unusual process – sometimes accomplished in an instant, like a shock – demands to be illustrated. Man gets rid of fear and feels free. Without that, there would be no revolution.”
― Gloria Steinem, Revolution from Within: A Book of Self-Esteem

“Since studies show that low self-esteem correlates with both prejudice and violence – that people who have a negative view of themselves also tend to view other people and the world negatively – representatives were interested in introducing self-esteem programs in schools.”
― Gloria Steinem, Revolution from Within: A Book of Self-Esteem