the heart of the backlash argument: women are better off 'protected' than equal.

The demand that women "return to femininity" is a demand that the cultural gears shift into reverse, that we back up to a fabled time when everyone was richer, younger, more powerful.

Self-esteem is the basis for feminism because self-esteem is based on defining yourself and believing in that definition. Self-esteem is regarding yourself as a grown-up.

My goal is to be accused of being strident.

When the enemy has no face, society will invent one.

It's fine to dress in polka dots and pink crinoline if you want. What I recoil from is the idea that that alone is the only way to be female.

The piles of makeup and the insistence on frills and ribbons and bows was not at all attuned to my feminist views.