“Grown-ups and children are not readily encouraged to unearth the power of words. Adults are repeatedly assured a picture is worth a thousand of them, while the playground response to almost any verbal taunt is ‘Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.’ I don’t beg so much as command to differ.”
— Inga Muscio
“Yesterday I felt like shit, so I rode my bike around town and repeatedly grafittied “The revolution is not being televised” in paint pen. It was a “pointless” action, but it nonetheless healed me to do this. It was an act of love for that “hooligan” Arundhati Roy. It was an act of self-love. I don’t expect it to change the world, but on the other hand, I know it will.”
— Inga Muscio
“Women of color have no call to trust white women until white women take a gander at the world around them, investigate, learn and annihilate ignorance founded in being white in a society where the perspective and voice presented to the general public is white.”
— Inga Muscio
“Iranian women are very consciously aware of gender-explicit oppression. Therefore: with so much more at stake, Iranian women have each other’s back: on the street, in stores, at celebrations, everywhere.”
— Inga Muscio
“It’s like suddenly in the Middle Ages, people figured men should be in charge of women’s bodies since they were in charge of pretty much everything else”
— Inga Muscio
“Moving from phonetics to etymology, ‘vagina’ originates from a word meaning sheath for a sword. Ain’t got no vagina.”
— Inga Muscio
“Men who refuse to use condoms do not deserve to be fucked by anyone but other men who refuse to use condoms.”
— Inga Muscio
“It takes a lot of time, focus and energy to realize the enormity of being the ocean with your very own tide every month. However, by honoring the demands of bleeding, our blood gives something in return. The crazed bitch from irritation hell recedes. In her place arises a side of ourselves with whom we may not—at first—be comfortable. She is a vulnerable, highly perceptive genius who can ponder a given issue and take her world by storm. When we’re quiet and bleeding, we stumble upon the solutions to dilemmas that’ve been bugging us all month. Inspiration hits and moments of epiphany rumba ‘across de tundra of our senses. In this mode of existence one does not feel antipathy towards a bodily ritual so profoundly and routinely reinforces our cuntpower.”
— Inga Muscio
“What if one out of every three multinational corporation CEO’s were raped every year? Don’t you think that would raise a kind of ruckus?”
— Inga Muscio
“But people are not butterflies, right.People are, well, more important than butterflies.We have opposable thumbs, hello.You can’t possibly compare the sanctity of a human’s life with that of a butterfly. In our culture you can and, indeed, must quantify sanctity, and butterflies have less than people.”
— Inga Muscio
“Any rapist would feel pretty dang upset to see his car packed full with rotting fish heads and limburger cheese…Also, if the 542 women responsible were crowded onto the street where he lived, insisting that he move himself and his stinky car to another locale.Nobody likes to be pelted with 2060 bloody tampons.”
— Inga Muscio
“..by honouring the demands of our bleeding, our blood gives us something in return. The crazed bitch from irritation hell recedes. In her place arises a side of ourselves with whom we may not-at first- be comfortable. She is a vulnerable, highly perceptive genius who can ponder a given issue and take her world by storm. When we’re quiet and bleeding, we stumble upon solutions to dilemmas that’ve been bugging us all month. Inspiration hits and moments of epiphany rumba ‘cross de tundra of our senses. In this mode of existence one does not feel antipathy towards a bodily ritual that so profoundly and reinforces our cuntpower.”
— Inga Muscio
“As ever, the original inhabitants of Turtle Island are entirely overlooked. Mysteriously, the only time indigenous people are guaranteed a mainstream Amerikkan mention is on Thanksgiving. Again, to contextualize, this would be be kinda like someone busting into your house and robbing you blind, then sending you postcards once a year to remind you how much they are enjoying all of your stuff, and getting annoyed with you if you don’t respond with appreciation for their thoughtfulness.”
— Inga Muscio
“Do not, under any circumstances, put this book down and turn on the teevee.The teevee debilitates our culture.”
— Inga Muscio
“What happens to people living in a society where everyone in power is lying, stealing, cheating and killing, and in our hearts we all know this, but the consequences of facing all these lies are so monstrous, we keep on hoping that maybe the corporate government administration and media are on the level with us this time.Americans remind me of survivors of domestic abuse.This is always the hope that this is the very, very, very last time one’s ribs get re-broken again.”
— Inga Muscio