WIST Quotations

Ehrenreich, Barbara -- “Hers” column, New York Times (1985-02-07)

Dave — Wed, 13 Dec 2023 23:11:50 +0000

We are talking about a nine-month bout of symptoms of varying severity, often including nausea, skin discolorations, extreme bloating and swelling, insomnia, narcolepsy, hair loss, varicose veins, hemorrhoids, indigestion, and irreversible weight gain, and culminating in a physiological crisis which is occasionally fatal and almost always excruciatingly painful. If men were equally at risk from this condition — if they knew their bellies might swell as if they were suffering from end-stage cirrhosis, that they would have to go nearly a year without a stiff drink, a cigarette, or even an aspirin, that they would be subject to fainting spells and unable to fight their way onto commuter trains — then I am sure that pregnancy would be classified as a sexually transmitted disease and abortions would be no more controversial than emergency appendectomies.

Barbara Ehrenreich (1941-2022) American feminist, journalist, political activist
“Hers” column, New York Times (1985-02-07)
(Source)

Reprinted as "Their Dilemma and Mine," The Worst Years of Our Lives (1990)

Tutu, Desmond -- (Attributed)

Dave — Tue, 04 Jan 2022 18:55:36 +0000

There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.

Desmond Tutu (1931-2021) South African cleric, Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Nobel Laureate
(Attributed)

Butcher, Jim -- The Aeronaut’s Windlass (2015)

Dave — Thu, 23 Feb 2017 16:01:15 +0000

“In my experience, the worst madmen don’t seem odd at all,” Grimm said. “They appear to be quite calm and rational, in fact. Until the screaming starts.”

Jim Butcher (b. 1971) American author
The Aeronaut’s Windlass (2015)