To act in a way both sexist and racist, to maintain one's class privilege, it is only necessary to act in the customary, ordinary, usual, even polite manner. Joanna Russ More Quotes by Joanna Russ More Quotes From Joanna Russ I once asked a young dissertation writer whether her suddenly grayed hair was due to ill health or personal tragedy; she answered: “It was the footnotes”. Joanna Russ ill-healthtragedyhair There are plenty of images of women in science fiction. There are hardly any women. Joanna Russ women-in-sciencescience-fictionfiction I think we ought to decide that man-hating is not only respectable but honorable. To be a misandrist a woman needs considerable ingenuity, originality, and resilience. A misogynist requires no such resources. Joanna Russ hatementhinking To die on a dying Earth - I'd live, if only to weep Joanna Russ diesdyingearth When the memory of one's predecessors is buried, the assumption persists that there were none and each generation of women believes itself to be faced with the burden of doing everything for the first time. And if no one ever did it beforewhy do we think we can succeed now? Joanna Russ memoriesbelievethinking I didn’t and don’t want to be a ‘feminine’ version or a diluted version or a special version or a subsidiary version or an ancillary version, or an adapted version of the heroes I admire. I want to be the heroes themselves. Joanna Russ specialherowant Ignorance is not bad faith. But persistence in ignorance is. Joanna Russ persistenceignorance As my mother once said: The boys throw stones at the frog in jest. But the frogs die in earnest. Joanna Russ motherstonesboys Minority art, vernacular art, is marginal art. Only on the margins does growth occur. Joanna Russ growthdoeart Long before I became a feminist in any explicit way, I had turned from writing love stories about women in which women were losers, and adventure stories about men in which the men were winners, to writing adventure stories about a woman in which the woman won. It was one of the hardest things I ever did in my life. Joanna Russ writingadventuremen I'm not a girl. I'm a genius. Joanna Russ geniusgirl The trouble with men is that they have limited minds. That's the trouble with women, too. Joanna Russ troublemindmen Science fiction, as I mentioned before, writes about what is neither impossible nor possible; the fact is that, when the question of possibility comes up in science fiction, the author can only reply that nobody knows. We haven't been there yet. We haven't discovered that yet. Science fiction hasn't happened. Joanna Russ writingfactsfiction [T]here is one and only one way to possess that in which we are defective, therefore that which we need, therefore that which we want. Become it. Joanna Russ wantwayneeds ....thinking you are attacking society when you condemn or ravage the hypothetical Nice Girl Next Door is the exact equivalent of thinking that stealing from the local supermarket makes you a Communist. Joanna Russ nicegirlthinking Anyway everyboy (sorry) knows that what women have done that is really important is not to constitute a great, cheap labor force that you can zip in when you're at war and zip out again afterwards but to Be Mothers, to form the coming generation, to give birth to them, to nurse them, to mop floors for them, to love them, cook for them, clean for them, change their diapers, pick up after them, and mainly sacrifice themselves for them. This is the most important job in the world. That's why they don't pay you for it. Joanna Russ mothersorryjobs Leaning her silly, beautiful, drunken head on my shoulder, she said, "Oh, Esther, I don't want to be a feminist. I don't enjoy it. It's no fun." "I know," I said. "I don't either." People think you decide to be a "radical," for God's sake, like deciding to be a librarian or a ship's chandler. You "make up your mind," you "commit yourself" (sounds like a mental hospital, doesn't it?). I said Don't worry, we could be buried together and have engraved on our tombstone the awful truth, which some day somebody will understand: WE WUZ PUSHED. Joanna Russ tombstonefunbeautiful Sit a man on his ass with nothing to do but eat and the first thing that goes is his mind. It never fails. Joanna Russ mindmenfirsts How withered away one can be from a life of unremitting toil. Joanna Russ witheredtoil Privileged groups, like everyone else, want to think well of themselves and to believe that they are acting generously and justly. Joanna Russ actingbelievethinking
