ranetree:

I am an intelligent, eloquent, well-mannered young woman who just so happens to say “fuck” a lot.

"Great people do things before they’re ready. They do things before they know they can do it. And by doing it, they’re proven right. Because, I think there’s something inside of you—and inside of all of us—when we see something and we think, “I think I can do it, I think I can do it. But I’m afraid to.” Bridging that gap, doing what you’re afraid of, getting out of your comfort zone, taking risks like that—THAT is what life is. And I think you might be really good. You might find out something about yourself that’s special. And if you’re not good, who cares? You tried something. Now you know something about yourself. Now you know. A mystery is solved. So, I think you should just give it a try. Just inch yourself out of that back line. Step into life. Courage. Risks. Yes. Go. Now."

"Regardless of individual men’s behavior, the facts of patriarchy give women ample reason to resent men collectively simply because “male” is a privileged social category in relation to which women experience oppression. This is quite different, however, from holding individual men accountable for the existence of patriarchy and blaming them simply for being men.

In other words, when a woman says, “I hate men,” this doesn’t necessarily mean she hates me, Allan. But, living in a society dominated by individualistic thinking makes it easy to lose sight of the crucial distinction between men as individuals and men as a category of people.
[…]
Women’s anger is an important engine for change, and if women have to tiptoe around worrying about whether it might hurt a man’s feelings, they’re going to be silenced."

Zoe Saldana for C Magazine

tyleroakley:

Standardized reality check.