'Scales fall from our eyes. We are no longer required to struggle against unreal enemies, to put other's interests ahead of our own, or to hate ourselves. We begin to understand why we have such depreciated images of ourselves and why so many of us are lacking in any genuine conviction of personal worth.
Understanding, or even beginning to understand this, makes it possible to change. No longer do we have to practice upon ourselves that mutilation of intellect and personality required of individuals who, caught up in an irrational and destructive system, are nevertheless not allowed to regard it as anything but sane, preogressive and normal. Moreover, that feeling of alienation from established society which is so prominent a feature of feminist experience, may be counterbalanced by a new indentification with women of all conditions and a growing sense of solidarity with other feminists.
- Sandra Lee Bartky, Femininity and Oppression, page 21.
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