Daniel Thurston

“We believe women are suffering not only because of the ways beauty is being defined; we are suffering because we are being defined by beauty. We are burdened with the task of looking beautiful and feeling beautiful (to others as well as to ourselves) because we live in a world that defines our value in terms of our physical appeal to others and defines our body image in terms of our physical appeal to ourselves. Being viewed as objects is the real root of our problem, not which beauty ideals are in vogue for female objects.”
― Lexie Kite, More Than A Body: Your Body Is an Instrument, Not an Ornament – A Research-Backed Health and Wellness Guide for Empowerment and Confidence

“Girls learn the most important thing about them is how they look. Boys learn the most important thing about girls is how they look. Girls look at themselves. Boys look at girls. Girls are held responsible for boys looking at them. Girls change how they look. Boys keep looking. The problem isn’t how girls look. The problem is how everyone looks at girls.”
― Lexie Kite, More Than A Body: Your Body Is an Instrument, Not an Ornament – A Research-Backed Health and Wellness Guide for Empowerment and Confidence

“Oh apologies,” Merlin’s face blotched with red. “I, um, come from a society with a history of gender assumptions based on physical markers, aesthetics…et cetera.”
Ew,” Ari said.
“That’s wicked sad,” Kay added.
Merlin, at least, looked deeply ashamed. “You’ve no idea.”
― Cori McCarthy & Amy Rose Capetta, Once & Future

“He’d accepted long ago that some people, no matter how good their heart was or how much love they had to give, would always be alone. It was their lot in life, and Linus had figured out, at the age of twenty-seven, that it seemed to be that way for him.”
― T.J. Klune, The House in the Cerulean Sea