“Behind every well-respected man, there’s a woman who probably does his washing [laundry].” p103
“Why is it that men who prioritise adventure and independence over family are called ‘committed bachelors’ and ‘wanderers’ who just can’t be tied down, but women who similarly pursue a life free form burdens are called ‘spinsters’ and ‘cat ladies’ and are viewed as pitiful cautionary tales? It’s because men are given the complexity to be fully rounded individuals while women are still treated like plants in need of a man’s attention to fully bloom.” p103
“The state cannot and should not be able to force anyone to give their body over to medicine for any purpose—just as a person cannot be forced to donate a kidney to someone who will otherwise die, nor should a woman be forced to provide nine months of shared living space to a foetus she does not want to keep or care for.” p117
“All of a sudden, they can’t rely on being rewarded just for turning up. And instead of sitting down for a moment and thinking about what that means, most of them lash out …” p145
“Do feminists hate men? When you consider the level of hostility women are subjected to just for standing up for ourselves, surely the better query is why do so many men seem to hate women so fiercely, so aggressively, so violently, and so passionately?” p152
“Almost two women in this country [UK] are murdered weekly by aggrieved partners or ex-partners, and the all-too-common response is ‘Well, why didn’t she leave?’ instead of ‘Why did he kill her?'” p153
“If safety [is] such an important consideration for girls, [why don’t their parents] talk to their brothers about not hurting women?” p158
Indeed.
“The abuse received after exposing abuse proves how very prevalent this problem is.” p177
Must read the entire previous page.
“While women complain about the abuse we receive, we’re told to ‘get over it’ or ‘harden up’, two pieces of advice that completely miss the irony of the fact that the most thin-skinned, sensitive and retaliatory people online are white men aged between fifteen and thirty-five.” p179
Brilliant observation.
re her Facebook ban – “To be clear, all I had done was post images of the messages and comments sent to me that had been declared fine by Facebook’s standards.” p183
So “while it was evidently acceptable for these men to send these messages in the first place, it suddenly became an act of hostility for me to make an example of them.” p183
“He’s probably married and has daughters, and he uses this fact to establish himself as some kind of common sense expert and champion for women’s rights.” p235
p237. just—p237
perhaps a good summary of which would be
“Why do you hate men? You’re a fucking cunt, you know that?”
“The reality of rape is that it’s overwhelmingly more likely than not to be ‘unplanned and spontaneous’ and for a judge to decide that this makes it somehow ‘not threatening or violent’ is absurd.” p250
Yes! The fact that it can happen anywhere, anytime, to anyone, willy nilly, is what makes it MORE threatening.
re his son “didn’t deserve to be punished for ‘twenty minutes of action’ – p251 – a gunshot takes 2 seconds – so no deserving to be punished in that case either? wtf kind of logic is that?
“But shades of grey about consent can be very easily resolved by establishing whether or not your sexual partner is present in the situation, enjoying themselves, and being afforded a dignity that recognizes and respects their humanity.” p255
I’d just stop at “enjoying themselves”. I mean, seriously, how hard can that be? To determine.
And earlier comment by a woman who was gang-raped: “They never spoke to me, they spoke just to themselves, amongst themselves, laughing and thinking it was really funny. When you have sex with someone, it’s nice and you talk and you touch and this was awful. This was nothing like that.” p255
Yes, well those men had probably never had sex with someone.
“Why are you so angry? I’m angry that this is even a question, because implicit in it is the suggestion that women have nothing to be angry about. …” p266
and just carry on and read the whole paragraph. the whole chapter.
“What happened to you that made you so fucking bitter and angry? [A lifetime in] a society that not only freezes us out of its core operations unit but seizes every opportunity to hurt and demean us.” p271
“We should be angry. Because if we aren’t, we aren’t paying enough attention.” p271
