Social Judgement Quotes

There is a court to which I shall appeal: the court of public opinion.

“Right” is such an obnoxious expression.

It is possible to be a fan of reality TV, talent shows and bubblegum pop and still have a brain. You will also see that a great many people know perfectly well how silly and camp and trivial their fandom is. They do not check in their minds when they enter a fan site. Judgement is not necessarily fled to brutish beasts, and men have not quite lost their reason. Which is all a way of questioning whether pop-culture hero worship is really so psychically damaging, so erosive of cognitive faculties, so corrupting of the soul of mankind as we are so often told.

I've no idea what they make of me. People usually don't recognise themselves in an impression.

I feel a lot of pressure when I'm writing because I know, you know, if they looked at a synopsis of the book, what they read could only confirm all the stereotypes that they have about us and about people like us.

It was not easy to go into a subway in 1955 at eight o'clock in the morning smelling nice and hanging on the rails with white make-up. I could see people nudging each other saying, 'What is that?'

The way I grew up, I had hippie parents, and we would run around the garden with no shoes on, very close to nature. So I never wore little princess dresses. I still have this feeling whenever I wear a very formal dress; I always have this slight fear that people will point their fingers at me and laugh: 'Vicky is trying to look like a lady.'

Public opinion is a second conscience.

At a certain age you're always uncertain how other people will take you.

The attentions of others matter to us because we are afflicted by a congenital uncertainty as to our own value, as a result of which affliction we tend to allow others' appraisals to play a determining role in how we see ourselves. Our sense of identity is held captive by the judgements of those we live among.

Hair matters. This is a life lesson Wellesley and Yale Law School failed to instil. Your hair will send significant messages to those around you.

Sometimes I feel limited by people's perceptions of what I can and cannot do, or what I do or don't look like.

I don't mind being ridiculed - well, I guess I would mind a little, but it would only last a few minutes - it's all very ephemeral; it doesn't really matter what people think of me.

The judges of normality are present everywhere. We are in the society of the teacher-judge, the doctor-judge, the educator-judge, the social worker-judge.

I feel like people expect a lot out of girls, like you're supposed to know who you are and what you want out of life right now. Some girls know. I did. But lots of people don't know. You have to try a lot of things and not worry about what people are thinking.

I'm from a small town so, like, everyone's married with children or about to have children. So it's a little hard when you go home and people are like - and that's why people think I'm gay - because they're like 'Why aren't you married?' And I'm like, 'it doesn't happen for everyone right off the bat.'

Never go to your high school reunion pregnant or they will think that is all you have done since you graduated.

Men always want and love when women wear tight and fitted clothing, right? And you're like, 'Wow, she looks so beautiful.' And then you have men who dress like slobs, and you're like, 'What's the deal with these big and baggy suits.' It's pretty ridiculous.

From the age of 12 when I decided to dance in high school, everyone was saying, 'Oh, you're a dancer,' and there was that kind of stigma about it.