17 Feminist Quotes From Male Celebrities That Will Make You Love Them Even More

Meyers, who just got married to human rights lawyer Alexi Ashe, knows what it’s like to work with strong women:

“When you work with the sort of really strong women that I work with, the idea that anyone would want to make decisions for them is hard to wrap your head around.”

Gordon-Levitt went on Ellen and discussed feminism. No wonder moms everywhere love him.

“My mom brought me up to be a feminist. She would always point out to my brother and me that our culture does often portray women like objects. For example, we would always watch Lakers games as a family, but my mom would always point out every time the cheerleaders come on, ‘OK, so look, here’s the story that gets told: The men get to be the heroic skilled athletes and the women just get to be pretty.’ She didn’t mean any offense to any individual woman who was working as a cheerleader, but she wanted me and my brother to be aware of it because we see these images on TV, in the movies, and on magazines all the time. And if you don’t stop and think about it, it just sort of seeps into your brain and that becomes the way you perceive reality. I do call myself a feminist. Absolutely! It’s worth paying attention to the roles that are sort of dictated to us and that we don’t have to fit into those roles. We can be anybody we wanna be.”

On the One Billion Rising To Stop Violence Against Women campaign:

“I feel that all revolutionary causes should start with addressing misogyny.”

Whedon’s Equality Now speech answered why he creates such strong female characters:

“[My mother] really was an extraordinary, inspirational, tough, cool, sexy, funny woman. And that’s the kind of woman I’ve always surrounded myself with, my friends and particularly my wife, who is not only smarter than and stronger than I am, but occasionally taller too. I think it also goes back to my father and my stepfather, because they prized wit and resolve in the women they were with above all things and they were among the rare men who understood that recognizing someone else’s power doesn’t diminish your own.”

Baruchel vented to Vulture about female characters in comedy:

“I have a little sister, and I’m constantly annoyed [by] how terribly written most females are in most everything — and especially in comedy. Their anatomy seems to be the only defining aspect of their character, and I just find that untruthful and it straight-up offends me.”

Kutcher was quoted as saying this during a press run for his film No Strings Attached, when asked about a scene showing female sexual pleasure:

“I think there’s so much that’s not said about sex in our country, even from an educational level… the one thing they teach about is how to get pregnant or how to not get pregnant, but they don’t really talk about sex as a point of pleasure for women. That creates a place where women aren’t empowered around their own sexuality and their own sexual selves.”

Smith told Parade in 2010 that he wants his daughter to feel in control of her body:

“[My wife and I] let Willow cut her hair. When you have a little girl, it’s like, how can you teach her that you’re in control of her body? If I teach her that I’m in charge of whether or not she can touch her hair, she’s going to replace me with some other man when she goes out in the world. She can’t cut my hair, but that’s her hair. She has got to have command of her body. So when she goes out into the world, she’s going out with a command that is hers. She is used to making those decisions herself. We try to keep giving them those decisions until they can hold the full weight of their lives.”

Gosling explained to the Telegraph why he chooses the films he does and it was fantastic.

“I’m attracted to films that have strong female characters because there are strong female characters in my life.”

The former Harry Potter star sat down with Buzzfeed Brews to discuss modern dating:

“Have you ever heard a girl say she’s in the friend zone? It’s a thing I think men need to be really careful about using… Do I think men and women can be friends? Yes, absolutely. Do I think men and women who are sexually attracted to each other can just be friends? Eh, it will probably become an issue at some point whether you deal with it, and talk about it and just move on, but it will always sort of get dealt with eventually… I definitely think the idea of friend zone is just men going, ‘This woman won’t have sex with me.’”

The Pearl Jam guitarist allegedly told this to a crowd at one of his concerts in 1994.

“I’m usually good about my temper, but all these men trying to control women’s bodies are really beginning to piss me off. They’re talking from a bubble. They’re not talking from the street, and they’re not in touch with what’s real.”

The former NFL player and proud feminist wrote this in an op-ed piece for CNN:

”Men do not just need to stop being violent. The vast majority of men are not violent. But men do need to stop being silent. Calling violence against women, whether street harassment or sexual harassment or rape or murder, a ‘women’s issue’ allows men to ignore it as if we have no responsibility for it or stake in ending it. We all have grandmothers, mothers, sisters, daughters and female friends and colleagues. Our lives are inextricably interwoven; women’s issues of safety and equality directly affect our lives as men. Beyond that, women are humans, with the same rights to safety and freedom as men. It is therefore our moral responsibility to not remain silent or passively on the sidelines, but to be actively engaged in confronting this problem in every corner of homes, communities, and societies.”

Marianne Schnall interviewed several celebrities on their stance on abortion in 1992. Here’s what Underwood said on the subject:

“[Y]ou can’t live in this world, obviously, without coming into contact with women. I mean, a woman is my mother, gave me life, gave me sisters. I have a girlfriend I love dearly. All of that comes into play. It’s not about abortion being right or wrong. It’s about having that choice to decide what a person should do with their own body.”

Actor Mark Ruffalo sent this speech in to be read at an abortion rights rally in Mississippi in 2013:

“My own mother fought to make herself more than a possession; she lived her life as a mother who chose when she would have children, and a wife who could earn a living if she so chose. I want my daughters to enjoy that same choice. I don’t want to turn back the hands of time to when women shuttled across state lines in the thick of night to resolve an unwanted pregnancy, in a cheap hotel room just south of the state line. Where a transaction of $600 cash becomes the worth of a young woman’s life.”

The iconic Iggy Pop had this to say when asked about why he chose to wear women’s clothing:

“I’m not ashamed to dress ‘like a woman’ because I don’t think it’s shameful to be a woman.”

Craig talked about equality in a video for International Women’s Day:

“Women are responsible for two-thirds of the work done worldwide, yet earn only 10 percent of the total income and own 1 percent of the property… So, are we equals? Until the answer is yes, we must never stop asking.”

Vampire Diaries star Somerhalder participated in the Real Man campaign, which spreads awareness about abuse against women:

“[I]t’s so easy to forget the many women who live their lives in fear because of domestic violence. Men have an important role to play in sending out the message that real men do not hurt or abuse their partners.”