Nasty Women Quotes

“The fact that gendered violence is overwhelmingly enacted by men on women* is not because women* are incapable of fucking up; a lot of it’s because we’re not brought up to feel that we’re entitled to other people’s bodies. Sometimes we barely feel entitled to our own.”
― 404 Ink, Nasty Women

“My personal experiences of openly declaring myself a survivor taught me that if you want to tell someone that their friend or acquaintance raped you, you must be prepared for an intense examination of your every mistake, accidental dishonesty or white lie. If they can find anything (which they will, because we are human) it may well be enough for them to discredit you in their own minds, because that is easier than accepting rapists live among us. They are not scary monsters hiding in the dark, they are part of our society, our colleagues and our friends. If”
― 404 Ink, Nasty Women

“I was not the perfect survivor, which to them meant I must be the other option – a liar.”
― 404 Ink, Nasty Women

“I am aware, as I sort herbs or learn about mushrooms, or read a friend’s tarot, that perhaps what I am primarily interested in is power. Power against the constant, disempowering experience of being a woman.”
― 404 Ink, Nasty Women

“Take a moment and ask yourself who are the real nasty women? Those of us who struggle to empower all women or those of us who empower men who ensure we remain second-class citizens? When”
― 404 Ink, Nasty Women

“Feminist' gets misrepresented as a dirty word, echoing throughout the timeline of experiences of activists in the women's movement since the 70's and longer; we've been seen as the radical feminists who want women to leave their husbands, become lesbians, dye their hair green. If wanting a woman to be able to own her own sexuality, to be able to live life with freedom and dignity and find and make her own choices are these things, then yes, we are nasty women - the nastiest around.”
― Laura Jones, Nasty Women

“It occurred to me that my disability wasn’t something to overcome, that it instead had intrinsically shaped the person I was. It was me and when people rejected that, it felt like they wanted it to go away. They wanted a part of me to go away.”
― 404 Ink, Nasty Women

“Take a moment and ask yourself who are the real nasty women? Those of us who struggle to empower all women or those of us who empower men who ensure we remain second-class citizens?”
― 404 Ink, Nasty Women

“Our whole cultural perception of sexism, as the context in which the majority of gendered violence happens, seems to be understood in the same binary terms. We say ‘you are sexist’ not ‘what you’ve done is sexist.’ It’s as though sexism is some inherent quality that you either are or are not, rather than this whole structure or culture that we’re socialised into, and that we are all capable of perpetuating.”
― 404 Ink, Nasty Women

“Being able to be myself was like being able to exhale for the first time after holding my breath for years. It’s only when you taste freedom that you can see how tight your bonds were. I”
― 404 Ink, Nasty Women

“There are so many rules that come with being a girl that you forget sometimes that these rules are fictitious patriarchal bullshit. You’re so intent on being the good girl everyone wants you to be that you forget to be yourself. I”
― 404 Ink, Nasty Women

“But I don’t believe that this endemic problem is solvable by polite conversations and structured lessons because that feeds into the myth that rape is an accident caused by miscommunication rather than a conscious, violent and devastating choice. I”
― 404 Ink, Nasty Women

“This isn’t because I am under the impression that all women share the same needs, values, beliefs, or experiences, but because the survivor I am wanted to believe that the majority of the population believe sexual assault is reprehensible. It is clear that I was wrong, and I am terrified by how so many people normalised this behaviour and made it acceptable by voting it into my country’s highest political office. It”
― 404 Ink, Nasty Women

“I am not beautiful, quiet and devastated in my pain like a heroine in a Shakespearean drama; I am no Ophelia quietly lying down in the river with my pain, there is no bravery or greater symbolism to the hardships I experience. My existence as a survivor is inconvenient at best and a constant act of defiance at worst because I reject the two choices I am given by society; the ‘perfect survivor’ and the ‘bad survivor’. Neither choice is real although it is instilled in us from an early age that they are, but it is useful to apply these labels as a way to describe this dichotomy. The term ‘victim’ is not one I apply to myself, as many other survivors of sexual assault do not. We see ourselves and choose to describe ourselves as survivors. The”
― 404 Ink, Nasty Women

“I have been forced to live with something awful, and I will never be grateful for the personal development I have had to endure to survive it. Acknowledging”
― 404 Ink, Nasty Women

“These binaries, these needs to define things as one or the other, leave no space for possibility or change.”
― 404 Ink, Nasty Women

“I feel so much rage now when I look back at all the ridiculous rules I was meant to respect. It”
― 404 Ink, Nasty Women

“That is why I am proudly and vocally a nasty woman; tired of making excuses, of letting politeness stop me from defending myself. I lost too much when I was silent, nice and accommodating and I met someone who chose to take advantage of that.”
― 404 Ink, Nasty Women