“The myth of childhood has an even greater parallel in the myth of Femininity. Both women and children were considered asexual and thus"purer" than man. Their inferior status was ill-concealed under an elaborate "respect."”

—  Shulamith Firestone, book The Dialectic of Sex

One didn't discuss serious matters nor did one curse in from of women and children; one didn't openly degrade them, one did it behind their backs.

Chapter Four
The Dialectic of Sex (1970)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update April 28, 2022. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The myth of childhood has an even greater parallel in the myth of Femininity. Both women and children were considered a…" by Shulamith Firestone?
Shulamith Firestone photo
Shulamith Firestone20
Feminist 1945–2012

Related quotes

Neil Gaiman photo

“I liked myths. They weren’t adult stories and they weren’t children’s stories. They were better than that. They just were.”

Neil Gaiman book The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Source: The Ocean at the End of the Lane (2013), Chapter 6 (p. 69)

Joseph Campbell photo

“Dream is personalized myth, myth is depersonalized dream; both myth and dream are symbolic”

Joseph Campbell book The Hero with a Thousand Faces

Source: The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), Chapter 1
Context: Dream is personalized myth, myth is depersonalized dream; both myth and dream are symbolic in the same general way of the dynamics of the psyche. But in the dream the forms are quirked by the peculiar troubles of the dreamer, whereas in myth the problem and solutions shown are directly valid for all mankind.

Arthur C. Clarke photo

“What is becoming more interesting than the myths themselves has been the study of how the myths were constructed from sparse or unpromising facts—indeed, sometimes from no facts—in a kind of mute conspiracy of longing, very rarely under anybody’s conscious control.”

Arthur C. Clarke book The Light of Other Days

Source: The Light of Other Days (2000), Chapter 19

“Any man who outgrows the myths of childhood is ninety-nine percent aware and convinced of his own mortality.”

John D. MacDonald (1916–1986) writer from the United States

Travis McGee series, Dress Her in Indigo (1969)
Context: Any man who outgrows the myths of childhood is ninety-nine percent aware and convinced of his own mortality. But then comes the chilly breath on the nape of the neck, a stirring of the air by the wings of the bleak angel. When a man becomes one hundred percent certain of his inevitable death, he gets The Look.

P. L. Travers photo

“The true fairytales … come straight out of myth; they are, as it were, minuscule reaffirmation of myths, or perhaps the myth made accessible to the local folky mind. One might say that fairytales are the myths falling into time and locality … is the same stuff, all the essentials are there, it is small, but perfect. Not minimized, not to be made digestible for children.”

P. L. Travers (1899–1996) Australian-British novelist, actress and journalist

Source: Myth, Symbol, and Meaning in Mary Poppins (2007), Ch. 2, p. 39

Christopher Hitchens photo

“To terrify children with the image of hell, to consider women an inferior creation—is that good for the world?”

Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) British American author and journalist

Paulo Freire photo

“It is accomplished by the oppressors depositing myths indispensable to the preservation of the status quo.”

Paulo Freire (1921–1997) educator and philosopher

Source: Pedagogia do oprimido (Pedagogy of the Oppressed) (1968, English trans. 1970), Chapter 4, Conquest

Michael Moorcock photo

“Better the myth of happiness, than the myth of despair.”

Michael Moorcock The Cornelius Quartet

The Cornelius Quartet, The Condition of Muzak (1977)
Source: The Mirror; or, Harlequin Everywhere (p. 786)

Phyllis Schlafly photo

“Every country that has experimented with women in actual combat has abandoned the idea, and the notion that Israel uses women in combat is a feminist myth.”

Phyllis Schlafly (1924–2016) American activist

Women Don't Belong In Ground Combat, Phyllis Schlafly Columns, 2007-03-30, Schlafly, Phyllis, 2005-06-01 http://www.eagleforum.org/column/2005/june05/05-06-01.html,

P. L. Travers photo

“The true fairytales … come straight out of myth; they are, as it were, minuscule reaffirmation of myths, or perhaps the myth made accessible to the local folky mind.”

P. L. Travers (1899–1996) Australian-British novelist, actress and journalist

Source: Myth, Symbol, and Meaning in Mary Poppins (2007), Ch. 2, p. 39
Context: The true fairytales … come straight out of myth; they are, as it were, minuscule reaffirmation of myths, or perhaps the myth made accessible to the local folky mind. One might say that fairytales are the myths falling into time and locality … is the same stuff, all the essentials are there, it is small, but perfect. Not minimized, not to be made digestible for children.

Related topics