Jessica Valenti Quote

As bell hooks wrote in a 1998 essay, Naked Without Shame, about black women's bodies and politics, Marked by shame, projected as inherent and therefore precluding any possibility of innocence, the black female body was beyond redemption. She points out that since the time of U.S. slavery, men have benefited from positioning black women as naturally promiscuous because it absolves them of guilt when they sexually assault and rape women of color. [I]t was impossible to ruin that which was received as inherently unworthy, tainted, and soiled, hooks wrote. Women of color, low-income women, immigrant women- these are the women who are not seen as worthy of being placed on a pedestal. It's only our perfect virgins who are valuable, worthy of discourse and worship.

Jessica Valenti

As bell hooks wrote in a 1998 essay, Naked Without Shame, about black women's bodies and politics, Marked by shame, projected as inherent and therefore precluding any possibility of innocence, the black female body was beyond redemption. She points out that since the time of U.S. slavery, men have benefited from positioning black women as naturally promiscuous because it absolves them of guilt when they sexually assault and rape women of color. [I]t was impossible to ruin that which was received as inherently unworthy, tainted, and soiled, hooks wrote. Women of color, low-income women, immigrant women- these are the women who are not seen as worthy of being placed on a pedestal. It's only our perfect virgins who are valuable, worthy of discourse and worship.

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About Jessica Valenti

Jessica Valenti (; born November 1, 1978) is an American feminist writer. She was the co-founder of the blog Feministing, which she wrote for from 2004 to 2011. Valenti is the author of five books: Full Frontal Feminism (2007), He's a Stud, She's a Slut (2008), The Purity Myth (2009), Why Have Kids? (2012), and Sex Object: A Memoir (2016). She also co-edited the books Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and A World Without Rape (2008), and Believe Me: How Trusting Women Can Change the World (2020). Between 2014 and 2018, Valenti was a columnist for The Guardian. She currently runs the Abortion, Every Day newsletter on Substack. The Washington Post described her as "one of the most successful and visible feminists of her generation".