Top 100 Valenti Quotes
#1. In a sometimes unreasonable business, Jack Valenti was a giant voice of reason. He was the greatest ambassador Hollywood has ever known and I will value his wisdom and friendship for all time.
Jack Valenti
#2. I have not lived for millennia to be bested by a half-blood whore and her puppet prince." ~ Valenti
Pippa DaCosta
#3. I enjoyed 'Roswell' a lot, and I had a lot of fun playing Jim Valenti. I had never done a show that lasted as long as that - that one lasted three years.
William Sadler
#4. Left to their own devices, Valenti and his son Kyle tended to live like a couple of undergrads in some low-rent fraternity house.
Andy Mangels
#5. Making women the sexual gatekeepers and telling men they just can't help themselves not only drives home the point that women's sexuality is unnatural, but also sets up a disturbing dynamic in which women are expected to be responsible for men's sexual behavior.
Jessica Valenti
#6. As much as I disagree with Sarah Palin, there's no denying that she was the victim of sexism.
Jessica Valenti
#7. I'm really aware of how feminism and feminist rhetoric has been appropriated by the right.
Jessica Valenti
#8. I think that blogging and the Internet has completely changed feminism for ever, I think.
Jessica Valenti
#9. Every parent in America has the total power to control all television programming that is dispatched to their home today.
Jack Valenti
#11. The truth about parenting is that the reality of our lives needs to be enough.
Jessica Valenti
#12. People say that your life flashes before your eyes before you die, but they're wrong. It's not your life that passes before you, it's the regrets that do.
Elise Valenti
#13. While boys are taught that the things that make them men
good men
are universally accepted ethical ideals, women are led to believe that our moral compass lies somewhere between our legs. Literally.
Jessica Valenti
#14. Still, somehow, inexplicably, "man-hater" is a word tossed around with insouciance as if this was a real thing that did harm. Meanwhile we have no real word for men who kill women. Is the word just "men"?
Jessica Valenti
#15. In 'The Purity Myth,' I not only discuss what the purity myth is and reveal its consequences for women, but also outline a new way for us to think about young women as moral actors, one that doesn't include their bodies.
Jessica Valenti
#16. I think virginity is fine, just as I think having sex is fine. I don't really care what women do sexually, and neither should you. In fact, that's the point. I believe that a young woman's decision to have sex, or not, shouldn't impact how she's seen as a moral actor.
Jessica Valenti
#17. There is something to be said for the power of figureheads. After Hillary Clinton became secretary of state, a record number of countries posted female ambassadors to the U.S. - some of whom have dubbed this 'the Hillary effect.'
Jessica Valenti
#18. but there is a difference between loving someone and having the ability to feel that love.
Jessica Valenti
#19. When you ask most American parents why they want to have kids, it's to bring more joy into their lives. So, when you don't feel that all-encompassing joy, it must be that something is wrong with you. I think it's dissatisfaction that the expectation was different than the reality.
Jessica Valenti
#20. There isn't anything in the world that can't be made better.
Jack Valenti
#21. When abstinence curricula contain information about sexual abuse or assault (though they often don't), the message is similar: The onus of preventing sexual assault is on girls, not on men.
Jessica Valenti
#22. There is no public space for women; the whole world is a prison where you have to be constantly aware at all times that you're a potential victim. What's more terrifying is that it's not necessarily preventative.
Jessica Valenti
#23. Bra-burning never happened. It was completely made up by the media. A couple of women protesting a Miss America pageant threw some bras into a garbage can, and somehow that became this longstanding idea of feminists as bra-burners.
Jessica Valenti
#24. The VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston Strangler is to the woman alone.
Jack Valenti
#25. When I started blogging in 2004, I responded to every comment no matter how nasty the reader was. I was generally polite, believing that these critics would be so charmed by my professionalism that they would see the error of their misogynist ways and swiftly run out to read a bell hooks book. Ha!
Jessica Valenti
#26. Whether it's repro rights, violence against women, or just plain old vanilla sexism, most issues affecting women have one thing in common - they exist to keep women 'in their place.' To make sure that we're acting 'appropriately,' whatever that means.
Jessica Valenti
#27. Women who are harassed, at work, on the street, or even online, are subject to the same rigid purity standards as women who are sexually assaulted, Just by virtue of being out in public, we're overstepping certain boundaries.
Jessica Valenti
#28. Wedding fever is one of the scariest diseases I have ever seen.
Jessica Valenti
#29. The truth is that we don't need everyone to like us; we need a few people to love us. Because what's better than being roundly liked is being fully known - an impossibility both professionally and personally if you're so busy being likable that you forget to be yourself.
Jessica Valenti
#30. Whether it appears in a story about a man killing his girlfriend while calling her a whore or in trying to battle conservative claims that emergency contraception or the HPV vaccine will make girls promiscuous, the purity myth in America underlies more misogyny than most people would like to admit
Jessica Valenti
#31. According to pop culture, women are either searching for a man, with a man, or getting over one.
Jessica Valenti
#32. Sex for pleasure, for fun, or even for building relationships is completely absent from our national conversation. Yet taking the joy out of sexuality is a surefire way to ensure not that young women won't have sex, but rather that they'll have it without pleasure.
Jessica Valenti
#33. There is no fair use to take something that doesn't belong to you. That's not fair use.
Jack Valenti
#34. When are we going to realize that hating other women - no matter how much money they have or how far they've fallen - is just as bad for ourselves as it is for anyone else?
Jessica Valenti
#35. In addition to shaming sexual-assault victims, positioning abstinence as women's domain further promotes the notion that it's women's morality that's on the line when it comes to sex, men just can't help themselves, so their ethics are safe from criticism.
Jessica Valenti
#36. I sleep each night a little better, a little more confidently, because Lyndon Johnson is my president.
Jack Valenti
#37. You come to a point where you give up on holding yourself to a perfect feminist ideal - it just feels stifling.
Jessica Valenti
#38. There's nothing revolutionary about reinforcing the virgin/whore dichotomy.
Jessica Valenti
#39. As I grew up and began identifying myself as a feminist, there were plenty of issues that continued to make me question marriage: the father 'giving' the bride away, women taking their husband's last name, the white dress, the vows promising to 'obey' the groom. And that only covers the wedding.
Jessica Valenti
#40. A huge part of keeping women in their place has to do with creating a really limited definition of what a 'real' woman is like. And a ton of that what-makes-a-woman nonsense is attached to motherhood. Apparently, by virtue of having ovaries and a uterus, women are automatic mommies or mommies-to-be.
Jessica Valenti
#41. And really, how insulting is it that to suggest that the best thing women can do is raise other people to do incredible things? I'm betting some of those women would like to do great things of their own.
Jessica Valenti
#42. People seem to think, because of the way that the media has appropriated third-wave feminism or young feminism, that all young feminists are about is like pole dancing and girls gone wild and how empowering it is. Like they'll start calling anything feminist.
Jessica Valenti
#43. I don't get much career advice at all, and I would like some.
Jessica Valenti
#44. I think that almost all traditional institutions are sexist, and they're probably racist and homophobic, and they're all of these things. But a lot of them, like marriage, are too embedded into the culture to give up.
Jessica Valenti
#46. Something I say a lot when it comes to anti-feminist stereotypes is that they exist for a reason.
Jessica Valenti
#47. After all, a right that can't be exercised is not very useful to anyone.
Jessica Valenti
#48. The biggest thinker that's influenced my feminism is definitely Bell Hooks, who's a feminist cultural critic, because of her accessibility but also just because she's a genius.
Jessica Valenti
#49. Beautiful' is bullshit, a standard created to make women into good consumers, too busy wallowing in self-loathing to notice that we're second-class citizens.
Jessica Valenti
#50. I grew up definitely a feminist, but I didn't call myself a feminist until I took my first women's studies class in college.
Jessica Valenti
#51. Women politicians have definitely been known to fuck over other women. Democratic Louisiana
Jessica Valenti
#52. Men in their hearts hate women. It doesn't matter how much we love them. They hate us
Jessica Valenti
#53. The only group in America that deserves to scrutinize what we are doing ... are parents.
Jack Valenti
#54. So remember, this is definitely a screwed-if-you-do, screwed-if-you-don't situation. You just remember to say, Screw them.
Jessica Valenti
#55. No matter the content, the message is clear: we are here for their enjoyment and little else. We have to walk through the rest of our day knowing that our discomfort gave someone a hard-on.
Jessica Valenti
#56. I think feminism has always been global. I think there's feminism everywhere throughout the world.
Jessica Valenti
#57. Social expectations about what constitutes a good or a bad mother haunt every decision, and the rise of the parental advice industry ensures that moms and dads feel inadequate at every turn.
Jessica Valenti
#58. I've seen straight, partnered women explain their decision to stay at home by noting that childcare would have taken too much out of their paycheck - as if this cost was just theirs to bear!
Jessica Valenti
#59. A huge parasite in the marketplace, feeding and fattening itself off of local television stations and copyright owners of copyrighted material. We do not like it because we think it wrong and unfair.
Jack Valenti
#60. It's not always easy being a full-time feminist - especially as a young woman - when you're constantly being told that what you do is irrelevant. I'm on the defense all the time.
Jessica Valenti
#61. In 2008, I was one of the young feminist whippersnappers who voted for Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries - or as many of my older counterparts called me at the time, a traitor.
Jessica Valenti
#62. What is closer to the truth is that when confronted with the love you deserve, it is easier to mock it than accept it. Especially when everything else you have experienced of love and connection is based on something more like control or disdain.
Jessica Valenti
#63. Women are brought up to believe you are going to be the better parent and you know what's best. I don't think that's necessarily true. As much as we have to ask men to step it up, we have to take a look at ourselves and be willing to give up some of that parental power.
Jessica Valenti
#64. The studies about differences between the sexes that you see kind of get propped up in the media are more often than not denigrating women in some way, saying that women really don't have any spatial understanding, and that's why they can't park.
Jessica Valenti
#65. A public domain work is an orphan. No one is responsible for its life. But everyone exploits its use, until that time certain when it becomes soiled and haggard, barren of its previous virtues. How does the consumer benefit from the steady decline of a film's quality?
Jack Valenti
#66. Dismissing socialization and gender roles as piddling compared to this amorphous idea of 'maternal imperative' is part of the reason progress is stalled for family-friendly policies.
Jessica Valenti
#67. People are not going to give up marriage. But we can try to make it more fair. We can try to change that institution and make it more equal.
Jessica Valenti
#68. The widely held belief that the heterosexual nuclear family is best for children has long been used as a smoke screen for homophobia and as a talking point to quash marriage-equality efforts.
Jessica Valenti
#69. There's a reason why the assumed goal for women in virginity-movement screeds is marriage and motherhood only: The movement only believes that's the only thing women are meant for.
Jessica Valenti
#70. All women live in objectification the way fish live in water. - Catharine A. MacKinnon WHEN
Jessica Valenti
#71. Foreign capital to build new cinemas will help modernize China's aging cinema infrastructure, attract Chinese consumers back into cinemas, and increase demand for U.S. films.
Jack Valenti
#72. I've thought often about why - why?! - anyone, especially other women, would try to disrupt feminist work that combats violence. What in the world could be the point of that? The only reason I've come up with, and I think it makes sense, is fear of becoming that "impure" woman.
Jessica Valenti
#73. I don't find the wave model very productive, because I think it kind of serves to fan the flames of generational tension, or make it seem like there's more generational tension than there actually is.
Jessica Valenti
#74. The purpose of the word "slut" is: controlling women through shame and humiliation. Women's bodies are always the ones that are being vied over for control - whether it's rape, reproductive rights, or violence against women, it's our bodies that are the battleground, not men's.
Jessica Valenti
#75. There's something really terrible about having your BlackBerry next to your bed or having your laptop in the living room when you're talking to someone. The biggest source of stress in my life is the screen, the blogging.
Jessica Valenti
#76. I certainly wouldn't be writing books if it hadn't been for the feminist blogosphere, and I think that's a really amazing thing.
Jessica Valenti
#77. I grew up in Long Island City. When I was growing up, my parents owned a women's clothing store in Queens. It was for older women. I got my bras there, until I realized I didn't want those huge, taupe bras. Everything was beige, with massive amounts of hooks.
Jessica Valenti
#78. Ignoring men, whether romantically or rhetorically, is existential violence to them.
Jessica Valenti
#79. I revisit old favorites like 'Buffy' and 'Battlestar Galactica' when I'm bored. I am obsessed with 'Scandal.' I love TV.
Jessica Valenti
#80. I always go with the dictionary definition of feminism, which is just social, political and economic equality for women.
Jessica Valenti
#81. For women especially, virginity has become the easy answer- the morality quick fix. You can be vapid, stupid, and unethical, but so long as you've never had sex, you're a "good" (i.e. "moral) girl and therefore worthy of praise.
Jessica Valenti
#82. Yes, the more successful you are - or the stronger, the more opinionated - the less you will be generally liked. All of a sudden people will think you're too braggy, too loud, too something. But the trade-off is undoubtedly worth it. Power and authenticity are worth it.
Jessica Valenti
#83. The public's nerves are raw and edgy. You have to be discreet and understanding about the films you are showing.
Jack Valenti
#84. One of the difficult things, especially about blogging, is that you put all of your personal out there, into the political. And what's been difficult, for me at least, is trying to keep some of the personal for myself.
Jessica Valenti
#85. Antifeminists are the only ones who benefit from their version of working on women's behalf; in reality, they put other women at risk and fail to solve any larger problems.
Jessica Valenti
#86. People aren't comfortable thinking of women as people. Like we're not people, we're women, and that means something completely different, especially when you have power.
Jessica Valenti
#87. Another abstinence book claims, A woman is far more attracted by a man's personality, while a man is stimulated by sight. A man is usually less discriminating about those to whom he is physically attracted.
Jessica Valenti
#88. I found the most convincing part to be the working stiffs, the guys who have a modest home and kids who go to public schools. They make $75,000 to $100,000 a year. That's not much to live on. I don't have to tell you that.
Jack Valenti
#89. If you go to places like YouTube, it's a cesspool, and a lot of the comments are really horrifying and misogynist and harassing.
Jessica Valenti
#90. Social media is not just another way to connect feminist and activist voices - it amplifies our messages as well.
Jessica Valenti
#91. As a kid, I wasn't sure that I would ever get married - I was not the kind of little girl who played at being a bride.
Jessica Valenti
#92. I do think that we have this incredible opportunity because being on-line - the Internet is a relatively new space - we do have this incredible opportunity to change that dynamic, to make sure that women are present in all sorts of spaces, not just women-only spaces.
Jessica Valenti
#93. It seems odd that we continue to worry about the reputations of men who are accused of sexual wrong-doings.
Jessica Valenti
#94. Because even subversive sarcasm adds a cool-girl nonchalance, an updated, sharper version of the expectation that women be forever pleasant, even as we're eating shit.
Jessica Valenti
#95. When you look hard enough and long enough at your own face, everything about it starts to seem hideous.
Jessica Valenti
#96. It's time to teach our daughters that their ability to be good people depends on their being good people, not on whether or not they're sexually active.
Jessica Valenti
#97. How insulting is it to suggest the best thing women can do is raise other people to do incredible things?
Jessica Valenti
#98. While falling in love is fun, it's not everything, and it's not the antidote to an unfulfilled life, despite what Reese Witherspoon movies may tell you.
Jessica Valenti
#99. If you buy a DVD you have a copy. If you want a backup copy you buy another one.
Jack Valenti
#100. My father took me aside one day soon after and told me this: The things you do in your twenties are just things you do. But as you approach thirty what you do starts to become who you are. And there are some things you do not want to be forever.
Jessica Valenti
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