Taika Waititi Quotes

When you're a man you try and be macho.

There aren't a whole lot of people in culture that are unapologetically masculine.

Masculinity is kind of a toxic curse, isn't it? The expectations of it were hard on me.

There's so much toxic masculinity out there. I grew up with the notion that the more masculine you are and the less you show emotion, the more of a man you are.

I think a man is a man, and a man has a hairy chest, so let that be!

Not only is it harder to be a man, it is also harder to become one.

If you're a man, you don't have to worry about your manliness.

I'm not macho, I'm not a Mel Gibson sort of person.

I don't really relate to certain blokey men who just want to talk about blokey things. I never really know what to say and I always feel I have to act blokey in order to have them not say, 'You're a weirdo.'

I'm just glad that the whole John Wayne persona of a man is sort of old school now, because I'd never be able to do that. If that was the going rate today, I wouldn't be working.

John Wayne treated me fine, but that macho stuff turns me off. It's not real.

Guess in my brain I have a figurative 'man card' that's got certain punches that need to be punched.

The tragedy of machismo is that a man is never quite man enough.

I'm not a bro.

I want my sons to escape the pressure to be a particular kind of masculine that is so damaging to men and to the people around them.

Our society constantly promotes role models for masculinity, from superheroes to politicians, where the concept of being a 'man' is based in their ability to be tough, dominant - and even violent when required.

In thinking about male identities, I'm struck by the inadequacy of the terms we use. The notion that men should be distant, domineering and self-seeking is often described as toxic masculinity, but this serves only to alienate those who might need most help.

I don't think men were meant to be interviewed.

I hate men who are in touch with their feminine side.

There are alternate definitions of manhood in the West.

I don't burn any calories trying to be masculine; I just happen to be from that world.

So the kind of boy I was, or that I was told to be, you were kind of this like half-gladiator, half-dude who, you know, was supposed to have as many girls as possible and work until your heart exploded, have no fear, you know.

I'm trying to illuminate how perilously narrow we draw the concepts of masculinity and sexuality in our male culture - particularly in black male culture - and to help people to see that there's room enough for everyone.

Male bonobos really don't fit the human male ideal.

Men weren't really the enemy - they were fellow victims suffering from an outmoded masculine mystique that made them feel unnecessarily inadequate when there were no bears to kill.