People who have come of age from the '80s on have experienced a form of activism that's very sterile and annoying. It's not that much fun to be an activist. That's partly by design. They are sterile protests and anonymous e-mail activism - not the kind of thing where people fall in love, form friendships for life, and see the change they make right in front of them. I've seen that, when people start to experience doing these things together and the power that it has.
Naomi WolfIt is foolish for people to think they can align themselves and be safe in a police state.
Naomi WolfCosmetic surgery and the ideology of self-improvement may have made women's hope for legal recourse to justice obsolete.
Naomi WolfAging in women is 'unbeautiful' since women grow more powerful with time, and since the links between generations of women must always be broken.
Naomi WolfToday, women have access to the technological capacity to do anything to our bodies in the struggle for "beauty", but we have yet to evolve a mentality beyond the old rules, to let them imagine that this combat among women is not inevitable. Surgeons can now do anything. We have not yet reached the age in which we can defend ourselves with an unwillingness to have "anything" done. This is a dangerous time. New possibilities for women quickly become new obligations.
Naomi Wolf