“The fear of rape puts many women in their place - indoors, intimidated, dependent yet again on material barriers and protectors... I was advised to stay indoors at night, to wear baggy clothes, to cover or cut my hair, to try to look like a man, to move someplace more expensive, to take taxis, to buy a car, to move in groups, to get a man to escort me—all modern versions of Greek walls and Assyrian veils, all asserting it was my responsibility to control my own and men's behavior rather than society's to ensure my freedom. I realized that many women had been so successfully socialized to know their place that they had chosen more conservative, gregarious lives without realizing why. The very desire to walk alone had been extinguished in them—but it had not in me.”

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About Rebecca Solnit

American writer and activist

Rebecca Solnit is an American writer and activist. She writes about feminism, the environment, politics, place, and art. Her work ranges across essays and commentary on public life, with recurring attention to how people move through the world and how ideas shape it. She is also known for writing on land, landscape, and culture, bringing together personal observation and social critique.

More from Rebecca Solnit (189 quotes) →

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Books by Rebecca Solnit

Men Explain Things To Me

2014

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Wanderlust

2000

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Hope in the Dark

2004

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The Mother of all Questions

2017

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Whose Story Is This?

2019

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