Top 100 Jessica Valenti Quotes (2024 Update)
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51. “I always go with the dictionary definition of feminism, which is just social, political and economic equality for women.”

— Jessica Valenti

52. “Americans believe it’s best for kids to be with their parents as much as possible; the truth is, however, that our kids do better when they have a lot of people invested in their growth and development – not just their parents, and not just their mothers.”

— Jessica Valenti

53. “People are not going to give up marriage. But we can try to make it more fair. We can try to change that institution and make it more equal.”

— Jessica Valenti

54. “The biggest thinker that’s influenced my feminism is definitely Bell Hooks, who’s a feminist cultural critic, because of her accessibility but also just because she’s a genius.”

— Jessica Valenti

55. “I think feminism has always been global. I think there’s feminism everywhere throughout the world.”

— Jessica Valenti

56. “That public spaces are not really public for you, but a series of surprise private moments that you can’t prevent or erase. And so you put your headphones on and look straight ahead and don’t smile even when they tell you to and just keep walking.”

— Jessica Valenti

57. “At the end of the day, though, the entire basis for consent laws doesn’t make sense. We’re not old enough to decide if we don’t want a baby, but we are old enough to have one?”

— Jessica Valenti

58. “The truth about parenting is that the reality of our lives needs to be enough.”

— Jessica Valenti

59. “Because while my daughter lives in a world that knows what happens to women is wrong, it has also accepted this wrongness as inevitable.”

— Jessica Valenti

60. “It’s time to teach our daughters that their ability to be good people depends on their being good people, not on whether or not they’re sexually active.”

— Jessica Valenti

61. “If we have no place to go where we can escape that reaction to our bodies, where is it that we’re not forced? The idea that these crimes are escapable is the blind optimism of men who don’t understand what it means to live in a body that attracts a particular kind of attention with magnetic force.”

— Jessica Valenti

62. “When it comes to people who are saying really extreme things online, we have the tendency to think that they are just kooks, or that you shouldn’t pay attention to them, you shouldn’t take them seriously.”

— Jessica Valenti

63. “If you don’t identify as a feminist, you’re missing out on this whole community that’s out there that could really help you with your work, help you with your personal life, and just give you support.”

— Jessica Valenti

64. “I’ve been thinking a lot about Lady Gaga and what she means for feminism. I think – I find her completely fascinating, and I really like what she has to say.”

— Jessica Valenti

65. “Women who are harassed, at work, on the street, or even online, are subject to the same rigid purity standards as women who are sexually assaulted, Just by virtue of being out in public, we’re overstepping certain boundaries.”

— Jessica Valenti

66. “Something you hear a lot is that feminism dead. But if feminism is dead, why do people try so hard to kill it?”

— Jessica Valenti

67. “What other movement has ensured that young women have the rights that they have today? Feminism is responsable not only for the decline in violence against women over the last decade, but also for equal pay and rights legislation, reproductive justice, and the list goes on. So I’m more than a little suspicious of those who see women’s advancement as a bad thing.”

— Jessica Valenti

68. “There’s a reason why the assumed goal for women in virginity-movement screeds is marriage and motherhood only: The movement only believes that’s the only thing women are meant for.”

— Jessica Valenti

69. “Whether people identify as feminists or not, if they’re doing work that furthers a feminist cause, I think that’s wonderful, like if it works for me, right, it works for the movement.”

— Jessica Valenti

70. “According to pop culture, women are either searching for a man, with a man, or getting over one.”

— Jessica Valenti

71. “I don’t find the wave model very productive, because I think it kind of serves to fan the flames of generational tension, or make it seem like there’s more generational tension than there actually is.”

— Jessica Valenti

72. “When you look hard enough and long enough at your own face, everything about it starts to seem hideous.”

— Jessica Valenti

73. “Another abstinence book claims, “A woman is far more attracted by a man’s personality, while a man is stimulated by sight. A man is usually less discriminating about those to whom he is physically attracted.”

— Jessica Valenti

74. “While boys are taught that the things that make them men – good men – are universally accepted ethical ideals, women are led to believe that our moral compass lies somewhere between our legs. Literally.”

— Jessica Valenti

75. “I think people resist feminism because they’re scared. I think for women, they’re scared of being picked on or of being called out.”

— Jessica Valenti

76. “I don’t get much career advice at all, and I would like some.”

— Jessica Valenti

77. “You just remember to say “Screw them.”

— Jessica Valenti

78. “People seem to think, because of the way that the media has appropriated third-wave feminism or young feminism, that all young feminists are about is like pole dancing and girls gone wild and how empowering it is. Like they’ll start calling anything feminist.”

— Jessica Valenti

79. “I grew up definitely a feminist, but I didn’t call myself a feminist until I took my first women’s studies class in college.”

— Jessica Valenti

80. “If you want what’s best for your kids, one surefire way to provide them with a healthy, happy home is to make sure they have lesbian parents. In the longest-running study of lesbian families to date,2 zero percent of children reported physical or sexual abuse – not a one. In the general population, 26 percent of children report physical abuse and 8.3 percent report sexual abuse.”

— Jessica Valenti

81. “Something I say a lot when it comes to anti-feminist stereotypes is that they exist for a reason.”

— Jessica Valenti

82. “Whether it’s repro rights, violence against women, or just plain old vanilla sexism, most issues affecting women have one thing in common – they exist to keep women ‘in their place.’ To make sure that we’re acting ‘appropriately,’ whatever that means.”

— Jessica Valenti

83. “It’s become impossible to enjoy most quality television shows because the hurt or endangered women device is so frequently used.”

— Jessica Valenti

84. “I think that the ideal of parenting can make people unhappy. It’s that this lie that they’re being told by society that parenting is one thing – and when parenting is something completely different – that’s what makes them unhappy.”

— Jessica Valenti

85. “I think that almost all traditional institutions are sexist, and they’re probably racist and homophobic, and they’re all of these things. But a lot of them, like marriage, are too embedded into the culture to give up.”

— Jessica Valenti

86. “As much as I disagree with Sarah Palin, there’s no denying that she was the victim of sexism.”

— Jessica Valenti

87. “And there’s an argument to be made that if intentional and thoughtful parenthood is an indicator of parental and family happiness, then having gay parents – parents who weren’t able to “accidentally” have a child – may be, in fact, among the better circumstances there are for a child.”

— Jessica Valenti

88. “I think feminism is taking off. It’s just not visible in the way that we would like it to be.”

— Jessica Valenti

89. “I’m glad that we have a history at all and that we can talk about feminist history. But I do think that it doesn’t really pay attention to the complexity and the nuance that is feminist thought.”

— Jessica Valenti

90. “I think that blogging and the Internet has completely changed feminism for ever, I think.”

— Jessica Valenti

91. “No matter the content, the message is clear: we are here for their enjoyment and little else. We have to walk through the rest of our day knowing that our discomfort gave someone a hard-on.”

— Jessica Valenti

92. “Instead of focusing on men and focusing on what we can do to prop them up, people seem really incredibly focused on the fact that women are doing well and maybe that’s not such a good thing.”

— Jessica Valenti

93. “I certainly wouldn’t be writing books if it hadn’t been for the feminist blogosphere, and I think that’s a really amazing thing.”

— Jessica Valenti

94. “The studies about differences between the sexes that you see kind of get propped up in the media are more often than not denigrating women in some way, saying that women really don’t have any spatial understanding, and that’s why they can’t park.”

— Jessica Valenti

95. “Antifeminists are the only ones who benefit from their version of working on women’s behalf; in reality, they put other women at risk and fail to solve any larger problems.”

— Jessica Valenti

96. “Small blogs are starting up big campaigns.”

— Jessica Valenti

97. “In 2008, I was one of the young feminist whippersnappers who voted for Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries – or as many of my older counterparts called me at the time, a traitor.”

— Jessica Valenti

98. “It seems odd that we continue to worry about the reputations of men who are accused of sexual wrong-doings.”

— Jessica Valenti

99. “I do think that there is a real crisis of masculinity that’s happening in America. I think the problem is – the way it’s being framed is that there’s a problem with masculinity because women are too powerful, or women are taking up too much space.”

— Jessica Valenti

100. “I hear from a lot of young women, you know, I don’t want to call myself a feminist because I don’t want to get in an argument with someone. And it’s just not cool; like it’s not a cool thing to be associated with.”

— Jessica Valenti