Gender Identity

Any woman who chooses to behave like a full human being should be warned that the armies of the status quo will treat her as something of a dirty joke. That’s their natural and first weapon. She will need her sisterhood.

There are times when a woman reading Playboy feels a little like a Jew reading a Nazi manual.

It’s usually pointed out that women are not fit for political power, and ought not to be trusted with a vote because they are politically ignorant, socially prejudiced, narrow-minded, and selfish. True enough, but precisely the same is true of men!

Aristotle maintained that women have fewer teeth than men; although he was twice married, it never occurred to him to verify this statement by examining his wives’ mouths.

The psychology of adultery has been falsified by conventional morals, which assume, in monogamous countries, that attraction to one person cannot coexist with a serious affection for another. Everybody knows that this is untrue.

A woman will always have to be better than a man in any job she undertakes.

You will find that [as the First Lady] you are no longer clothing yourself, you are dressing a public monument.

Split at the root, neither Gentile nor Jew,

When a man goes out of the room, he leaves everything in it behind. . . . When a woman goes out she carries everything that happened in the room along with her.

Dancing is wonderful training for girls, it’s the first way you learn to guess what a man is going to do before he does it.

A man is called a good fellow for doing things which, if done by a woman, would land her in a lunatic asylum.

Because of their age-long training in human relations—for that is what feminine intuition really is—women have a special contribution to make to any group enterprise, and I feel it is up to them to contribute the kinds of awareness that relatively few men . . . have incorporated through their education.

Female animals defending their young are notoriously ferocious and lack the playful delight in combat which characterizes the mock combats of males of the same species. There seems very little ground for claiming that the mother of young children is more peaceful, more responsible, and more thoughtful for the welfare of the human race than is her husband or brother.

We know of no culture that has said, articulately, that there is no difference between men and women except in the way they contribute to the creation of the next generation.

Historically our own culture has relied for the creation of rich and contrasting values upon many artificial distinctions, the most striking of which is sex. . . . If we are to achieve a richer culture, rich in contrasting values, we must recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities, and so weave a less arbitrary social fabric, one in which each diverse human gift will find a fitting place.

Men have always detested women's gossip because they suspect the truth: their measurements are being taken and compared.

A woman, especially if she have the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can.

To be happy with a man you must understand him a lot and love him a little. To be happy with a woman you must love her a lot and not try to understand her at all.

Show me a woman who doesn't feel guilty and I'll show you a man.

Women are the only exploited group in history to have been idealized into powerlessness.

A liberated woman is one who has sex before marriage and a job after.

Every man I meet wants to protect me. I can't figure out what from.

Being a woman is a terribly difficult task, since it consists principally in dealing with men.

There are no good girls gone wrong - just bad girls found out.