Unbreakable: they alive, damn it!
June 16, 2015 12:02 PM   Subscribe

I'm having a poster made for my wall at work. I want it to be an "inspirational" quote of some sort. I was originally going to have "Females are strong as hell" but I decided that one is probably better for the house.

I've been collecting quotes since I was 14, but suddenly now I can't think of anything to put on a poster. I've been Googling and Googling but not coming up with anything. My office is relatively liberal (political extremely left-leaning, and within a week of starting work I was drinking with my boss in the office), but like, it's still an office. What quote should I put on my wall? I want something funny, or feminist, or topical or all three (hence "Females are strong as hell" as my initial choice). I love Thomas Sankara, but his quotes aren't funny at all, but something as politically radical as his quotes interest me. Please, no Amy Schumer or Sarah Silverman.

With whose words should I adorn my wall?
posted by Enchanting Grasshopper to Grab Bag (31 answers total) 19 users marked this as a favorite
 
"Clever Girl"
posted by sebastienbailard at 12:19 PM on June 16, 2015


Bitches get stuff done!
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 12:20 PM on June 16, 2015


How long do you want it? I've always liked Alice Duer Miller's work, particularly her short poem Chivalry:

It's treating a woman politely
As long as she isn't a fright:
It's guarding the girls who act rightly,
If you can be judge of what's right;
It's being—not just, but so pleasant;
It's tipping while wages are low;
It's making a beautiful present,
And failing to pay what you owe.
posted by sciatrix at 12:20 PM on June 16, 2015 [14 favorites]


"Well-behaved women seldom make history." Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, if Wikipedia hasn't failed me.
posted by Bunny Boneyology at 12:22 PM on June 16, 2015 [4 favorites]


What kind of work does your office do? Perhaps quotations from great/notable women in your field (or something close to it) would be a good place to start. I'm in IT, and I've seen a bunch of great feminist women-in-tech memes in the last year (like this one, or this one), many of which would be easy to adapt to posters. YMMV depending on your field, but image memes seem to be a rich source for this sort of thing.
posted by Strange Interlude at 12:23 PM on June 16, 2015 [1 favorite]


"Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living." -- Mother Jones
posted by MonkeyToes at 12:45 PM on June 16, 2015 [5 favorites]


I have this Barack Obama quote about shattering glass ceilings on my cubicle wall. Doesn't look like it's for sale anymore but it would probably be cheaper to make your own poster anyway.

(Sorry about the Pinterest link, it looks like it was taken down completely from his website.)
posted by possibilityleft at 1:00 PM on June 16, 2015


"You remind me of my mother."

-- John Connor
posted by Michele in California at 1:00 PM on June 16, 2015


AGENT CARTER SPOILER ALERT!

If you watch Agent Carter, what about a picture of Dottie with the phrase "I want that?" Something like this . She is one of my feminist heroes because she sees something she wants and just effing takes it.
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 1:03 PM on June 16, 2015 [2 favorites]


"With brave wings, she flies"

"And though she be but little, she is fierce"
posted by Sassyfras at 1:08 PM on June 16, 2015


Ron Swanson, Parks and Recreation, "Never half-ass two things, whole-ass one thing."
Full disclosure, I made that quote as a poster on my Etsy but it's quite popular.
posted by Crystalinne at 1:18 PM on June 16, 2015 [7 favorites]


Tina Fey has dropped some pearls of wisdom, like “You can’t be that kid standing at the top of the waterslide, overthinking it. You have to go down the chute.”

Or:

“MAKE STATEMENTS also applies to us women: Speak in statements instead of apologetic questions. No one wants to go to a doctor who says, “I’m going to be your surgeon? I’m here to talk to you about your procedure? I was first in my class at Johns Hopkins, so?” Make statements, with your actions and your voice.”
posted by craven_morhead at 1:37 PM on June 16, 2015 [5 favorites]


Left and funny are kind of a tough combination. From a t-shirt that Red and Black Books in Seattle used to sell, a quote from Eugene Debs: “While there is a lower class, I am in it, while there is a criminal element, I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.”
or, if your office can take the cynicism from Walker Percy:
"[We] live in a deranged age, more deranged than usual, because in spite of great scientific and technological advances, man has not the faintest idea of who he is or what he is doing."
posted by mmiddle at 1:41 PM on June 16, 2015


or Emma Goldman: "If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution."
posted by mmiddle at 1:49 PM on June 16, 2015 [5 favorites]


I like Emily McDowell Studios: from Little Women to Mohadesa Najumi to Shakespeare.
posted by hmo at 2:08 PM on June 16, 2015


WE OUT HERE
posted by functionequalsform at 2:10 PM on June 16, 2015


"Evil begins when you begin to treat people as things." - Terry Pratchett I Shall Wear Midnight
posted by teleri025 at 2:23 PM on June 16, 2015 [1 favorite]


This makes me want to kick someone's ass:

“I don't run away from a challenge because I am afraid. Instead, I run toward it because the only way to escape fear is to trample it beneath your feet.”
―Nadia Comaneci

Source: http://izquotes.com/quote/40757
posted by 1smartcookie at 2:51 PM on June 16, 2015 [2 favorites]


"Children must be taught how to think, not what to think." - Margaret Mead

"There is a special place in hell for women who do not help other women." - Madeline Albright

"I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only now that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiment..." - Rebecca West

"Creativity is a wild mind and a disciplined eye." - Dorothy Parker

"Speak the truth, even if your voice shakes." - Maggie Kuhn
posted by cleroy at 4:08 PM on June 16, 2015 [5 favorites]


"Smooth seas do not make a skilled sailor"

Or
"They sicken of the calm, those who knew the storm" from Dorothy Parker
posted by Suffocating Kitty at 5:32 PM on June 16, 2015 [1 favorite]


I like just having "Bread and Roses" in a nice typeface against a beautiful image as a reminder. I've got a still of Kimmy in her yellow sweater that you can track down pretty high-res versions of from publicity stills that looks great blown up. I also have "You can do anything but not everything". Etsy has a lot of the quotes listed above as good posters that can be bought as digital downloads.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 5:57 PM on June 16, 2015


"A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are made for."
- John Shedd
posted by mmiddle at 6:35 PM on June 16, 2015 [5 favorites]


Sorrow be damned & all your plans. Fuck the faithful, fuck the committed, the dedicated, the true believers; fuck all the sure & certain people prepared to maim & kill whoever got in their way; fuck every cause that ended in murder & a child crying.
-Iain Banks, Against a Dark Background

You may need to bowdlerize it, depending on the office.
posted by Lemurrhea at 6:40 PM on June 16, 2015 [1 favorite]


"Other people will call me a rebel, but I just feel like I'm living my life and doing what I want to do. Sometimes people call that rebellion, especially when you're a woman."

"People don't want to see women doing things they don't think women should do."

"I grew up in a world that told girls they couldn't play rock 'n' roll."


- Joan Jett
posted by 4ster at 6:54 PM on June 16, 2015


I know I run like a girl ...try to keep up.
posted by BoscosMom at 7:06 PM on June 16, 2015 [1 favorite]


"Vasquez, have you ever been mistaken for a man?
"No. Have you?"
posted by ostranenie at 7:14 PM on June 16, 2015 [1 favorite]


"Great people do things before they're ready." -Amy Poehler
posted by a.steele at 7:21 PM on June 16, 2015 [2 favorites]


Also, "Make 'no' a complete sentence." Actually, Amy Poehler has a lot of them!
posted by a.steele at 7:26 PM on June 16, 2015 [1 favorite]


Best answer: “I'm tough, I'm ambitious, and I know exactly what I want. If that makes me a bitch, okay.”
― Madonna

“You must give everything to make your life as beautiful as the dreams that dance in your imagination.”
― Roman Payne

“Whisky, gambling and Ferraris are better than housework.”
― Françoise Sagan

“Never did the world make a queen of a girl who hides in houses and dreams without traveling.”
― Roman Payne

“The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house”
― Audre Lorde
posted by edgeways at 7:59 PM on June 16, 2015


For an office, I like some of the original Demotivational posters. I would totally hang them in my office if I had one.

There's always the classic

I am woman, hear me roar. -- Helen Reddy
posted by patheral at 10:28 AM on June 17, 2015


Response by poster: Thanks for all the suggestions. Audre Lorde for the win.
posted by Enchanting Grasshopper at 11:45 AM on June 17, 2015


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