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Michela Marzano
60 quotes
“In the case of abortion, every woman knows that the problem is not only about her body, but also about an “impossible relationship” with a child that, for often different reasons, she does not want or is unable to have. I defend it above all because the legalisation of abortion is the only possibility that exists, in a civilised state, to guarantee respect for women. Not only because the life of a woman – who exists, lives, suffers, acts – is infinitely more precious than that of a being who is not yet born, but also because I am convinced that it is not enough to live for one's life to have meaning.”
Michela Marzano (born 1970) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Motherhood is neither a necessity nor a curse. It is an extraordinary experience that allows a woman, when she decides to become a mother, to reconcile the famous division between body and soul, without this meaning that female desire is identified with the desire for motherhood. During pregnancy, biological time imposes itself on biographical time, but never completely erases it. A woman's body becomes a space in which the mother and her unborn child enter into a relationship. Women have the opportunity to experience a very special condition: on the one hand, they identify with their changing bodies; on the other, they distance themselves from them, sometimes to the point of estrangement. The internal movements are no longer just their own. They belong to another creature that is beginning to live. It is the very boundaries of the maternal body that open up.”
Michela Marzano (born 1970) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The vicious circle in which many women find themselves today is always the same: they find it difficult to assert themselves to others, both in their personal and professional lives, but they are very good at blaming themselves and becoming discouraged when they encounter difficulties or are criticised. [...] If men stopped criticising and started encouraging women, however, they would lose some of the power they try so hard to maintain and would therefore, at least from their point of view, be “shooting themselves in the foot”. It is up to us women to learn to do without men's recognition and to help each other to begin to recognise the value of what we do and who we are.”
Michela Marzano (born 1970) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Unlike girls, who quickly find themselves confronted with a particular aspect of their femininity when they start menstruating, boys find it more difficult to understand what it means to become men. The construction of “masculinity” depends greatly on the cultural and social environment to which young people belong. In some environments, for example, boys learn that to become men, they must display arrogance, violence and contempt for women. Masculinity then becomes a precious commodity that must be protected against all attacks that may come from the weak, from “sissies” and from homosexuals. Masculinity, a distinctive sign of manhood only when it demonstrates the inferiority of women, drives these young men in disarray to lash out against all those who “waste” it. It is no coincidence that the most violent attacks against homosexuals come precisely from those who despise women and consider them inferior to men.”
Michela Marzano (born 1970) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The problem for women suffering from anorexia is not hunger. Because in reality, anorexics [...] are always hungry. They have an enormous appetite. A hunger that constantly haunts them, precisely because they “cannot” and “must not” eat. The real problem with anorexia is the feeling of omnipotence that arises when you feel you can control everything, even hunger. In their emaciated bodies, anorexics defy death, even as they carry it around like a medal to show off; they defy desires, denying the body's basic needs, even as desire can no longer emerge; they defy social norms in order to feel free, even as they construct for themselves a system of uncompromising laws that they can never transgress.”
Michela Marzano (born 1970) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The problem of insults, so-called “hate speech”, is complex. The phenomenon has been analysed by some American feminists who, by deconstructing the mechanisms of male domination, have pointed the finger at the vicious circle of “hate speech” that assigns women a well-defined role from which they can no longer escape. All those who dare to loudly claim equal civil rights are not taken seriously: their claims are immediately discredited and, instead of arguments, the insidious weapon of insults is used against them to silence them. [...] When you shout at a woman that she is a “slut”, at a homosexual that he is a “faggot” or at a black person that he is a “dirty nigger”, you do so because the other person cannot respond. What matters is not the argument you use. There is no argument, no idea, no rationality in the insult. The aim is always the same: to hurt the other person so that they remain silent.”
Michela Marzano (born 1970) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The possibility of breaking the “glass ceiling” is linked to the need for women to learn to “network”. We must gradually build a system of female relationships that becomes a resource for all. A system that allows us to break out of the “invisible cage” in which many of us still find ourselves, because the tendency to give in to social pressures is still strong. [...] As long as women accept as a given that they have to work a “double shift” and do not fight, by “networking”, to change the mentality of men, no law will ever be able to rid them of the “glass ceiling” that continues to discriminate against them. The freedom won in the 1960s and 1970s is no longer enough. To make it effective and achieve equality, we need to rediscover the value of solidarity.”
Michela Marzano (born 1970) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Being on the side of women does not mean dreaming of a world in which the power relations can finally be reversed so that men suffer what women have suffered for centuries. Being on the side of women means fighting to build an egalitarian society in which being a man or a woman is “irrelevant”, has no significance. Not because being a man or a woman is the same thing, but because both men and women are human beings who share the best and worst of the human condition. The goal of women is not to dominate men, after having been dominated for centuries, but to fight to gradually move away from this logic of domination, without forgetting that, despite everything, human beings are (and will always remain) deeply ambivalent.”
Michela Marzano (born 1970) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are two values I am not willing to give up: freedom and equality. No one can impose their conception of life, their ideas or their beliefs on others. Even if freedom is never absolute [...], everyone must be able to choose how to live their life, without coercion or intimidation. Only when we are free can we take responsibility for our choices, our actions and their consequences: freedom is the cornerstone of personal autonomy; it is what allows each person to become the protagonist of their own life. At the same time, however, in order for freedom not to remain an abstract value, it is necessary to organise the conditions conducive to its exercise, first and foremost among which is equality. If I do not have the same rights as others and if I do not have the material means to assert them, I cannot automatically be free to choose what I want to do or to achieve what I desire.”
Michela Marzano (born 1970) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“By concealing what it covers, the veil, by definition, manages to both “show” and “avert the gaze”. From this point of view, it is generally used to protect oneself from the gaze of others, to escape the logic of shame. To show oneself and be seen, one must want to do so: to allow the gaze of others to rest on us without hurting us. The veil can then be a shelter for the woman who wears it, provided, however, that she never closes herself off completely. If it serves to protect the mystery of the body, it must also allow something to be glimpsed: the eyes, an ankle, a strand of hair. Otherwise, there is a risk of it becoming a “shroud”.”
Michela Marzano (born 1970) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source