The premise of most media is that only conflict is newsworthy. And that's just not true. I think for a lot of men, too - certainly for most women - there's enough real conflict without manufacturing it. The media formula is always to have a pro and con, to say there are two sides to any issue, when in fact there may be ten sides.
Gloria SteinemI think if we could raise one generation of kids without violence and shaming, we don't know what might be possible.
Gloria SteinemIt's going to take a while because for the last 500 years patriarchal societies have been devoted to controlling reproduction and that means controlling women. So we got into this masculine/feminine, dominant/passive paradigm, and it's going to take a while to get out.
Gloria SteinemWorry less about solutions from the top or the idea that there is a solution, but try to do whatever you can and instill in each action the values that you want to result.
Gloria SteinemWe need to return and go forward to the understanding that there is God in all living things, not more in men than women, and not more in humans than in nature. To believe otherwise is only an excuse for dominating women and nature.
Gloria SteinemNo wonder male religious leaders so often say that humans were born in sinโbecause we were born to female creatures. Only by obeying the rules of the patriarchy can we be reborn through men. No wonder priests and ministers in skirts sprinkle imitation birth fluid over our heads, give us new names, and promise rebirth into everlasting life.
Gloria Steinem