Jessica Kirkland

First of all, as a card-carrying feminist, I am a BIG feminist, anytime I see women being stars – the stars that they should be, and being featured, and being highlighted, it makes my heart happy. Because it’s long overdue.

Woman is the dominant sex. Men have to do all sorts of stuff to prove they are worthy of a woman’s attention.

My first instinct is great pride for all of us as women who are finding our voices.

Little girls think it’s necessary to put all their business on MySpace and Facebook, and I think it’s a shame… I’m all about mystery.

The sadness of the women’s movement is that they don’t allow the necessity of love. See, I don’t personally trust any revolution where love is not allowed.

I’m usually good about my temper, but all these men trying to control women’s bodies are really beginning to piss me off.

There needs to be more variety on television so young girls growing up don’t feel pressured to look one specific way. Tall, thin, curvy, short, whatever you are, you are beautiful.

[on her mother] she’s a very smart, independent woman who was kind of coming into her own in the feminist movement of the 70s and 80s

Being a strong woman is very important to me. But doing it all on my own is not.

The fact that the adult American Negro female emerges a formidable character is often met with amazement, distaste and even belligerance. It is seldom accepted as an inevitable outcome of the struggle won by survivors, and deserves respect if not enthusiastic acceptance.

Our first job in life as women, I think, is to get to know ourselves. And I think a lot of times we don’t do that. We spend our time pleasing, satisfying, looking out into the world to define who we are – listening to the messages, the images, the limited definitions that people have of who we are.

The argument that ‘boys will be boys’ actually carries the profoundly anti-male implication that we should expect bad behaviors from boys and men. The assumption is that they are somehow not capable of acting appropriately, or treating girls and women with respect.

[Feminism] means that you believe in the equality of the sexes in every way.

If we are going to see real development in the world then our best investment is women.

I wish that girls could fail as bad as men do and be okay.