16 Quotes by Andi Zeisler

A big tent is great and all, but there has to be a line in the sand, and I’m pretty sure the desire to legislate other women’s bodies is it.

Equality makes way for an increased number of free, considered choices, and an increased number of people with access to them. But choice itself isn’t the same as equality...

Advertising and marketing philosophies that thrive on emphasizing ‘natural’ differences don’t stay in the realm of advertising and marketing – they spill into how we justify sexism and racism at every life stage.

Treating feminism like it’s a personal accessory that just isn’t appropriate anymore obscures the places where feminism hasn’t made strides for people who still need it.

American culture, perhaps more than any other, prizes individualism. Our narratives of art, politics, and business idolize the person who triumphs against the odds, with only himself or herself to answer to. The lone wolf. The stranger in town. The maverick. The plucky kid. The Final Girl. You’ve only got yourself, in the end. It’s all up to you.

The rise of feminist underpants is a weird twist on Karl Marx’s theory of commodity fetishism, wherein consumer products once divorced from inherent use value are imbued with all sorts of meaning. To brand something as feminist doesn’t involve ideology, or labor, or policy, or specific actions or processes. It’s just a matter of saying, ‘This is feminist because we say it is.

The diversity of voices, issues, approaches, and processes required to make feminism work as an inclusive social movement is precisely the kind of knotty, unruly insurrection that just can’t be smoothed into a neat brand.