p3 For women who are struggling to keep themselves housed, fed and clothed, it’s not a question of working hard enough… They need feminism to recognise that everything that affects women is a feminist issue, whether it be food insecurity or access to transit, schools or a living wage…the languagr surrounding whatever issues feminists choose to focus on should reflect an understanding of how the issue’s impact varies for women in different socioeconomic positions. ,,, We can’t let respectabilirt politics … create an idea that only some women are worthy of respect and protection. Respectability narratives discourage us from addressing thr needs of sex workers, incracerated women or anyone else who has had to face hard life choices.”
p. 9 There is a tendency to debate who is a ‘real’ feminist based on political leanings, background, actions, or even the kinds of media created and consumed. It’s the kind of debate that blasts Beyonce and Nicki Minaj for their attire and stage shows not being feminist enough, while celebrating Katie Perry for being empowering – via the fetishization and appropriation of cultures and bodies of colour. Real feminism |(if such a thing can be defined) isn’t going to be found in replicating racist, transphobic, homophobic, ableist or classist norms. But we are all human, all flawed in our own ways, and perhaps most important, none of us are immune to the environment that surrounds us.”
p. 95 the people most addicted to maintaining the status quo are those who reap the greatest rewards. It’s not that there is no bigotry in the hood, but much of it comes in from institutions and ends up being transmitted in media. Churches, politicians, even some educational intitutions teach hate and normalize it long before it ends up in a song lyric or being parroted in an interview by a newly famouse 26-year-old”.
p 174 Povert is an apocalypse in slow motion, inexorable and generational. Sometimes a personal apocalypse, sometimes one that ruins a whole community. It isn’t a single event of biblical proportions, but it is a series of encounters with one or more of the fabled Four Horesmen.”
p. 214 “Being a marginalized parent is an emotional and social tightrope over a hard floor without a net.”
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