"I consider myself to be a feminist."- JK Rowling
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As Women’s History Month draws to a close, here are some quotes from female leaders to leave you feeling inspired.
"- –Olivia Wilde crushing it when she talks about women in Hollywood.I don’t know if some of you have been to these live reads at LACMA, where a classic film is read live on stage by actors who just sit and read the script. We did one recently of American Pie, but we reversed the gender roles. All the women played men; all the men played women. And it was so fascinating to be a part of this because, as the women took on these central roles — they had all the good lines, they had all the good laughs, all the great moments — the men who joined us to sit on stage started squirming rather uncomfortably and got really bored because they weren’t used to being the supporting cast.
It was fascinating to feel their discomfort [and] to discuss it with them afterward, when they said, “It’s boring to play the girl role!” And I said, “Yeah. Yeah. You think? Welcome to our world!
"
"More than half the questions I am asked are about the politics of the way I look. What it feels like to be not skinny/dark-skinned/a minority/not conventionally pretty/female/etc. It’s not very interesting to me, but I know it’s interesting to people reading an interview. Sometimes I get jealous of white male showrunners when 90 percent of their questions are about characters, story structure, creative inspiration, or, hell, even the business of getting a show on the air. Because as a result, the interview of me reads like I’m interested only in talking about my outward appearance and the politics of being a minority and how I fit into Hollywood, blah blah blah. I want to shout, “Those were the only questions they asked!”"-
Mindy Kaling on institutionalized misogyny
Could we love this woman anymore?
"I felt it was too beautiful. I felt my skin looked too perfect, and my hair looked too soft. This is not usually how I dress or how I carry myself. I believe my true mission is to inspire young people to fight back against forces that make them feel like they’re not beautiful or important. I do not look like this when I wake up in the morning."-
Lady Gaga on her cover shot for Glamour Magazine
In related news: Read our interview with the founders of Verily, the first ‘no photoshop’ magazine.
"You name me movies where the woman’s part isn’t narrower than the man’s and they will be the exceptions – not the norm. We still have characters who are defined by physical attractiveness. I try to search for roles where the character is not dependent on how she looks."-
Actress Amber Heard on the lack of fleshed-out roles for actresses
Get it, girl.
On this day in history, November 12, 1815, feminist and suffragette Elizabeth Cady Stanton was born!
"People feel removed from sexism. ‘I’m not a sexist, but I’m not a feminist.’ They think there’s this fuzzy middle ground. There’s no fuzzy middle ground. You either believe that women are people or you don’t. It’s that simple."-
- Joss Whedon, in a gripping, insightful exploration of the word “feminist”
(via stuffmomnevertoldyou)
"Women are underrepresented in [STEM] fields so [Marvel] is trying to encourage girls to study them more, because obviously there’s no reason why they shouldn’t be. And that’s really exciting because that’s exactly what you want with these kinds of movies. They’re big and they’re fun and if you can have a little bit of impact on a young girl seeing them and saying ‘wait, that’s possible too,’ then that would be really cool."-
Natalie Portman speaking about her role as Jane Foster in Thor: The Dark World
(CNN)
"I wouldn’t say [I’m a] feminist, that’s too strong. I think when people hear feminist it’s just like, ‘Get out of my way I don’t need anyone,’” she says. “I love that I’m being taken care of, and I have a man that’s an actual leader. I’m not a feminist in that sense … but I’ve worked really hard since I was 19, when I first auditioned for Idol."-
Kelly Clarkson
sigh.
(TIME)
On This Day in History: Violet Palmer, along with Denise Kantner, became the first woman to referee a regular season game for any all-male professional sports league.
In 2006, Palmer broke another record by becoming the first woman to referee an NBA playoff game.
You go girl! Let’s keep kicking down doors!
Maggie Q (Nikita) at the Women Who Kick Ass Panel, SDCC 2013 (x)
(via becauseiamawoman)
"I believe women need to take charge. I don’t know if it’s unique to women or not, but I do know that women think that they join a company, and the company will take care of them, as opposed to taking charge."-
Campbell Soup’s President and CEO Denise Morrison
Happy birthday Gertrude Ederle, the first woman to swim the English Channel in 1926!