It’s hard to be told to lighten up because if you lighten up any more, you’re going to float the fuck away. The problem is not that one of these things is happening, it’s that they are all happening, concurrently and constantly.
These are just songs. They are just jokes. They are just movies. It’s just a hug. They’re just breasts. Smile, you’re beautiful. Can’t a man pay you a compliment? In truth, this is all a symptom of a much more virulent cultural sickness—one where women exist to satisfy the whims of men, one where a woman’s worth is consistently diminished or entirely ignored.
—Roxane Gay, “What Men Want, America Delivers,” Salon

So rather than hear about the stigma men feel in terms of taking care of kids, I’d like for men to think more about the stigma that women feel when they’re trying to build a career and a family. And then measure whatever angst they’re feeling against the real systemic forces that devalue the labor of women. I think that’s what’s at the root of much of this: When some people do certain work we cheer. When others do it we yawn.
—Ta-Nehisi Coates, “Why I’m Against ‘Daddy Days’,” The Atlantic

• We need feminism because after marriage, the woman is expected to take the man's last name and move into his house.

• We need feminism because along with clothes and toys, even chocolates like 'kinder joy' come in boy and girl flavour. 

• We need feminism because female foeticide is still practiced in parts of the world today. 

• We need feminism because majority of building companies appoint men as labours expecting women to be weak at the job, thereby reducing job opportunity and increasing unemployment. 

• We need feminism because marital rape is not rape and any kind of rape criminal can walk free in our country and most of the time, the victim is blamed.

• We need feminism because alcohol excuses a man's actions and condemn's the woman's. 

• We need feminism because the woman is asked to wear un-exposing clothes instead of the man being taught to stop staring.

• We need feminism because in remote areas widows are still obligated to burn themselves to be with their husband while the widower can re-marry.

• We need feminism because women need to carry pepper spray to feel safe on the streets at night.

Feminism is a fight, not fought by the entire population of angry young feminists enraged with the functioning of the world or bored college girls looking for a group activity or women who wish to be upgraded to a level regarded greater than that of men but a rigorous fight faught by the ones who believe in gender equality in every aspect what so ever and want to share that fact with the entirety of the world.

And I want to try and convey to you, broadly, how you are hurting women and hurting your own art form, and how easy it would be to stop. Because right now you’re coming across like a bunch of entitled babies terrified of a few girls in your clubhouse—demanding that women be thick-skinned about their own rapes while you’re too thin-skinned to handle even mild criticism. It’s embarrassing.

—Lindy West, “An Open Letter to White Male Comedians,” Jezebel