"I still consider myself a feminist"
About this Quote
A small sentence that carries the fatigue of having to keep reintroducing yourself. When Suzanne Vega says, "I still consider myself a feminist", the keyword is still: a quiet signal that the label has been treated as something you outgrow, apologize for, or retire when the cultural weather shifts. It reads less like a manifesto than a refusal to be bullied by trend cycles.
Vega comes out of an era when women singer-songwriters were routinely flattened into categories: confessional, fragile, "girl with a guitar". Her work has always been sharper than that, full of city detail and moral attention. In that context, feminism isn’t a brand flourish; it’s a way of insisting on full authorship - over the songs, the voice, the story, the body attached to it. The line also nods to the long-running bait-and-switch of pop culture, where people praise empowered women while rolling their eyes at the word that names the politics.
The subtext is defensive without sounding defensive: a preemptive answer to the interviewer’s implied question, the one that asks whether feminism has become embarrassing, too angry, too "second-wave", too online. Vega’s tone, as phrased here, is deliberately plain. No hashtag pep, no scolding. Just continuity. In a moment when feminism gets repackaged into aesthetics or reduced to outrage, her insistence lands as something sturdier: an identity you maintain, not a pose you perform.
Vega comes out of an era when women singer-songwriters were routinely flattened into categories: confessional, fragile, "girl with a guitar". Her work has always been sharper than that, full of city detail and moral attention. In that context, feminism isn’t a brand flourish; it’s a way of insisting on full authorship - over the songs, the voice, the story, the body attached to it. The line also nods to the long-running bait-and-switch of pop culture, where people praise empowered women while rolling their eyes at the word that names the politics.
The subtext is defensive without sounding defensive: a preemptive answer to the interviewer’s implied question, the one that asks whether feminism has become embarrassing, too angry, too "second-wave", too online. Vega’s tone, as phrased here, is deliberately plain. No hashtag pep, no scolding. Just continuity. In a moment when feminism gets repackaged into aesthetics or reduced to outrage, her insistence lands as something sturdier: an identity you maintain, not a pose you perform.
Quote Details
| Topic | Equality |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Vega, Suzanne. (2026, January 16). I still consider myself a feminist. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-still-consider-myself-a-feminist-107193/
Chicago Style
Vega, Suzanne. "I still consider myself a feminist." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-still-consider-myself-a-feminist-107193/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I still consider myself a feminist." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-still-consider-myself-a-feminist-107193/. Accessed 19 Feb. 2026.
More Quotes by Suzanne
Add to List

