Pollitt, Katha -- Reasonable Creatures: Essays on Women and Feminism, Introduction (1994)

Dave — Wed, 05 May 2010 15:04:22 +0000

For me, to be a feminist is to answer the question: “Are women human?” with a yes. It is not about whether women are better than, worse than, or identical with men. It’s certainly not about trading personal liberty — abortion, divorce, sexual self-expression — for social protection as wives and mothers, as pro-life feminists propose. It’s about justice, fairness and access to the broad range of human experience. It’s about women consulting their own well-being and being judged as individuals rather than as members of a class with one personality, one social function, one road to happiness. It’s about women having intrinsic value as persons rather than contingent value as a means to an end for others: fetuses, children, “the family,” men.

Katha Pollitt (b. 1949) American poet, feminist, essayist, critic
Reasonable Creatures: Essays on Women and Feminism, Introduction (1994)

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Pollitt, Katha -- Reasonable Creatures: Essays on Women and Feminism, Introduction (1994)