Quotes from Robert Jensen

The world does not need white people to civilize others. The real White People's Burden is to civilize ourselves.

But too often men react to women in positions of power with misogyny, often in sexualized terms. I have heard men in such situations talk about how "I'd like to fuck that bitch and teach her a lesson," for example. That kind of reaction demonstrates that no matter what the class position of a man and woman, men can use the weapon of sexualized violence to attempt to assert their dominance.

Mainstream politicians will continue to protect existing systems of power, corporate executives will continue to maximize profit without concern, and the majority of people will continue to avoid these questions. It's the job of people with critical sensibilities—those who consistently speak out for justice and sustainability, even when it's difficult—not to back away just because the world has grown more ominous.

I could settle for being a man, or I could struggle to become a human being.

The United States is a society in which people not only can get by without knowing much about the wider world but are systematically encouraged not to think independently or critically, and instead to accept the mythology of the United States as a benevolent, misunderstood giant as it lumbers around the world trying to do good.

Whiteness–the whole constellation of practices, beliefs, attitudes, emotions that are mixed up in being white–is the problem. Whiteness is degraded and depraved[…] To the degree that we accept any of the meaning that the dominant society gives to whiteness, we white people are degraded and depraved.

A sensible way to begin a discussion of that greater good is to focus on the current conditions within the human family and on the state of the larger living world.

Feminism remains a crucial element of any program for social justice today, which is why patriarchal forces attempt to eliminate or marginalize feminist ideas.

Those four effects described above—shaping a male-dominant view of sexuality, initiating victims, contributing to difficulty in separating sexual fantasy and reality, and providing a training manual for abusers—are at work just as much with men who have not engaged in activities that meet the legal definition of rape. Here we have to let go of a comforting illusion—that there is some clear line between men who rape and men who don't, between the bad guys and the good guys.

It may be that in the long run, patriarchy has not been a successful adaptation and will lead to the extinction of the species. As we look around the world at the threats to the ecosphere from unsustainable human systems deeply rooted in patriarchy's domination/subordination dynamic, that's not only plausible but increasingly likely. That suggests that patriarchy is an evolutionary dead-end. Human

We live in an industrial world with a globalized capitalist economy organized politically around nation-states . Finding a willing audience for even a mild critique of any of these foundational systems is not easy; suggesting that all three systems should be rethought in fundamental ways seems crazy.

What made Jim truly mystical was his ability to live fully conscious of how, every day, a bit more of the sacred becomes desecrated. Still, Jim's awareness of how much had been lost didn't stop him from appreciating what remained.

Our goal should not be to reshape masculinity but to eliminate it. The goal is liberation from the masculinity trap.

Jokes are funny only in context. There is no such thing as abstract clever word play. Words have meaning in the world in which we live, not in the abstract. Take away the politics, and there is no joke. The joke wouldn't make any sense. if the joke is funny, it's funny precisely because it's racist and sexist.

MacKinnon captures this is in her succinct lesson on the grammar of pornography and male dominance: 'Man fucks woman; subject verb object.

Our goal should be not to redefine masculinity, but to abolish it.

the difficult question these feminists raised: In women's experience, how much consensual sex is consented to but not wanted? How much consensual sex is consented to out of fear? Out of insecurity? How much consensual sex is consented to simply because the woman finds it easier to have sex than to try to communicate with the man about her emotional state at the moment?

The various inequalities that define the contemporary world—imposed through white supremacy, imperialism, capitalism—all are based on this central feature of patriarchy, an attempt to make the domination/subordination dynamic appear to be a natural, and hence inevitable, feature of human societies.

The system of patriarchy is a historic construct; it has a beginning; it will have an end. Its time seems to have nearly run its course—it no longer serves the needs of men or women and in its inextricable linkage to militarism, hierarchy, and racism it threatens the very existence of life on earth.5

The radical feminists I have worked with do not limit their critique to patriarchy. To emphasize the radical potential of radical feminism: Beyond the sex/gender system, radical feminism's understanding of the way in which patriarchy normalizes hierarchy leads not just to a focus on men's domination of women but also to a deeper critique of power systems more generally.

In the 200,000 years of the species Homo sapiens, patriarchy accounts for less than 5% of our evolutionary history. If we consider the 2.5 million years of the Homo genus, our direct ancestors, patriarchy is less than 0.5% of our history.

Toxic masculinity hurts men, but there's a big difference between women dealing with the constant threat of being raped, beaten, and killed by the men in their lives, and men not being able to cry.