How we cite our quotes: (Sentence)
Quote #1
Well, we're already foreigners. Women as women are largely excluded from, alien to, the self-declared male norms of this society, where human beings are called Man, the only respectable god is male, the only direction is up. (40-41)
Language is a powerful tool, and when you use the word "man" to describe all of humanity, it's pretty exclusionary, isn't it? Have you ever thought of it in that way? Sometimes even things that seem innocuous (like using a gendered word for encapsulating a group) can, over time, become harmful with a pervasive message about acceptance.
Quote #2
If we want to live as women, some separatism is forced upon us: Mills College is a wise embodiment of that separatism. The war-games world wasn't made by us or for us; we can't even breathe the air there without masks. And if you put the mask on you'll have a hard time getting it off. (45-47)
Do you think Le Guin is exaggerating the differences between men and women, here? Can women succeed in a man's world without losing the traits that make them feminine?
Quote #3
So how about going on doing things our own way, as to some extent you did here at Mills? Not for men and the male power hierarchy—that's their game. Not against men, either—that's still playing by their rules. But with any men who are with us: that's our game. Why should a free woman with a college education either fight Machoman or serve him? Why should she live her life on his terms? (48-53)
Basically, Le Guin is saying that women need to develop their own set of rules by which to gauge the measures of success. That way, they'd be playing their own game, on their own terms. Do you think women have managed to do that—to any degree—since she gave this speech in '83?
Quote #4
In our society, women have lived, and have been despised for living, the whole side of life that includes and takes responsibility for helplessness, weakness, and illness, for the irrational and the irreparable, for all that is obscure, passive, uncontrolled, animal, unclean – the valley of the shadow, the deep, the depths of life. (56)
That's a rather poetic way of saying that women feel all the feels. What makes that a bad thing? Why would men despise women for living that side of life?
Quote #5
All that the Warrior denies and refuses is left to us and the men who share it with us and therefore, like us, can't play doctor, only nurse, can't be warriors, only civilians, can't be chiefs, only Indians. (57)
Do you think this is still true? Are some careers—especially those imbued with power—unofficially off-limits to women? What effect do you think this has, for both men and women? Or, are women drawn to those jobs because they're better suited to their nature?