Grrrl Power!

Let’s honor the strong women in our collection! We have roughly 10 titles for your borrowing needs that celebrate brave, independent, and strong women. Some of these women wield their power subtly, others subversively, and yet others with confident grace. Enjoy the following quotes of these amazing fictional and real ladies.

[Dr. Thomas] Mrs. Jessup is my patient and you’ve no business handing out questionable home remedies to her. Especially the kind that send her husband to my door, ready to have my head. I think I should warn you, Mrs. Bigelow, that any  means of preventing conception…is illegal…  [Mrs. Bigelow] And the secrets a woman chooses to keep between her sheets are not your business.  (pgs 232-233)

 

 

The truth is that many female clerks now do as much work, if not more, and do it well, if not better for $900 per annum, than some of the male clerks are able to do who receive a yearly salary of twice that amount. [General Francis Spinner, U.S. Treasurer 1861-1875]  (pg 209)

 

 

[Abileen] What if-what if you don’t like what I got to say? I mean, about white peoples.  [Skeeter] I – I…this isn’t about my opinion. It doesn’t matter how I feel.  [Abileen] But how I know you ain’t gone get mad, turn around on me?  [Skeeter] I don’t…I guess you’ll just have to…trust me.  I hold my breath, hoping, waiting. There is a long pause. [Abileen] Law have mercy. I reckon I’m on do it. (pg 142)

 

[Katniss] When they televise the replay of the reapings tonight, everyone will make note of my tears, and I’ll be marked as an easy target. A weakling. I will give no one that satisfaction. (pg 23)

 

 

There’s a tapa I want to rewrite…Tapae are the centuries-old collected wisdom of our society; you don’t change them. “If the men cannot win the battle, O my country, Then the women will come forth and win you an honor.” I wanted to change it to: “Whether the men are winning or losing the battle, O my country, The women are coming and the women will win you an honor.” (pg 296)

 

 

I have something to talk about now, Henrietta Lacks…how my mother went through all the pain all by her self with those cold hearted doctor…she was robbed of her cells…They say donated..No No No Robbed Self. [Deborah Lack’s journal entry] (pg 195)

 

 

7 copies [15 Things I Learned From My Mother] 11) Respect isn’t something you command through intimidation and intellectual bullying. It’s something you build through a long life of treating people how you want to be treated and focusing on your mission. (pg 108)

 

 

One of the things that made her proud of Randolph-Macon [women’s college] ever after was the faculty’s firm refusal to grant the students’ annual petition for classes in home economy (“the theory was and I think it entirely correct, that any educated woman can read a cookbook or follow a dress pattern” [Pearl Buck]). (pg 73)

 

 

I couldn’t believe-still can’t-how angry I could become…everything from the verbal assault on the street, to a “well-meant” sexist joke your husband tells, to the lower pay you get at work (for doing the same job a man would be paid more for), to television commercials, to rock song lyrics… [Robin Morgan] (pg 189)

 

 

I decided early on it [my currency] was not going to be my looks…decide what your currency is early. Let go of what you will never have. People who do this are happier and sexier. (pg 21) Women are mighty…doing something together is often more fun than doing it alone. (pg 165)

 

 

NO MORE BEAUTY STANDARDS – EVERYONE IS BEAUTIFUL! – 1960s Women’s Movement sign. [When Everything Changed]