Quotes from The Revolution Cannot Triumph Without the Emancipation of Women (2)
“In order to fight and win, women must identify with the oppressed layers and classes of society, such as workers and peasants, etc. The man, however; no matter how oppressed he is, has another human being to oppress: his wife.”
“At this moment, we have little choice but to recognize that masculine behavior comprises vanity, irresponsibility, arrogance, and violence of all kinds toward women. This kind of behavior can hardly lead to coordinated action against women’s oppression. And we must say frankly that such attitudes, which can sink to the level of sheer stupidity, are in reality nothing but a safety valve for the oppressed male, who, through brutalizing his wife, hopes to regain some of the human dignity denied him by the system of exploitation. This masculine foolishness is called sexism or machismo.”
“And there is no lack of examples of men, otherwise progressive, who live cheerfully in adultery, but who are prepared to murder their wives on the merest suspicion of infidelity … And what should we think of those little men, also progressive, who get together in sleazy places to talk about the women they have taken advantage of? They think this is the way they will be able to measure up to other men and even humiliate some of them, by having seduced their wives. In reality, such men are pitiful and insignificant.”
“And, finally, what should we make of remarks about women made by all kinds of activists, the one more revolutionary than the next, remarks such as "women are despicably materialist,” “manipulators,” “clowns,” “liars,” “gossips,” “schemers,” “jealous,” and so on? Maybe this is all true of women. But surely it is equally true of men. Could our society be any less perverse than this when it systematically burdens women down, keeps them away from anything that is supposed to be serious and of consequence, and excludes them from anything other than the most petty and minor activities! When you are condemned, as women are, to wait for your lord and master at home in order to feed him and receive his permission to speak or just to be alive, what else do you have to keep you occupied and to give you at least the illusion of being useful other than meaningful glances, gossip, chatter, furtive envious glances at others, and the bad-mouthing of their flirtations and private lives? The same attitudes are found among men put in the same situation.“
”There is also a whole bevy of men who, publicly at least and in “proper” company, subject women to public humiliation because of some grudge they have not had the strength of character to surmount, thus losing confidence in all women, who become from then on “tools of the devil.” Or else they do so out of hypocrisy, proclaiming their contempt for the female sex too often and categorically, a contempt that they strive to assume in the eyes of the public from which they have extorted admiration through false pretenses. All these men end up night after night in brothels until occasionally their hypocrisy is discovered.“
- Thomas Sankara, Marxist president of Burkina Faso who implemented sweeping initiatives for the rights of women, including banning forced marriages and FGM and promoting female literacy and representation in government, until his murder in a French-backed coup in October 1987 that led to an utter reversal of his policies
Quotes from his March 8, 1987 Women’s Day speech 7 months before he was killed (highly recommend reading the full version, because GOD DAMN. GO OFF, COMRADE)
