George Tillman Jr. Quotes

I grew up around lots of men - my father, my brothers, my uncles - so I wasn't intimidated by them.

My dad's a beautiful man, but like a lot of Mexican men, or men in general, a lot of men have a problem with the balance of masculinity and femininity - intuition and compassion and tenderness - and get overboard with the macho thing. It took him a while to become more, I would say, conscious, evolved.

I considered myself one of the boys. My brothers didn't spoil me at all, not at all. I was very tomboyish. It wasn't as if I was like a princess or anything like that.

Your family is unavoidable. You cannot escape them or trade them in for another family. You also can't change them... but you can change your response to them.

Well, I think it's because I'm an only daughter. I have four brothers, a bunch of guy cousins, and so it's like I was raised amongst men. So I've always gotten along really well with men.

My mother was a sociologist and an intellectual, and my father was an industrialist with a business in copper and aluminum wire. He was very strict and he wanted me to work in the family business - for him, the worst thing was having a daughter who worked in fashion.

Most men are not that evolved.

I grew up around a lot of feminine energy.

Every male chauvinist was some woman's son.

I have never met a feminist who didn't have a father.

Nobody wants a bad relationship with their parents, but at the same time we are all dealt a hand in this life and it's all about what you do with that.

I'm comfortable around girls because I grew up with two sisters and a single mom. I feel very lucky for all they have taught me. They tell me to be myself, have fun, and focus on eye expressions.

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.

Masculinity is a terrible problem, as we construe it and shape it.

It is better for a woman to compete impersonally in society, as men do, than to compete for dominance in her own home with her husband, compete with her neighbors for empty status, and so smother her son that he cannot compete at all.

This part of being a man, changing the way we parent, happens only when we want it to. It changes because we are determined for it to change; and the motive for changing often comes out of wanting to be the kind of parent we didn't have.

Sometimes I think women are lucky because they can develop in ways men can't. The old-boy network may be oppressive to women, but it actually stunts men in terms of personal growth.

You know, I grew up with brothers so I'm used to being the only girl.

I think we're socialized out of being women, and then we have to find our way back to it. That's hard to do.

Tim on the show does a lot of that posturing, of course, and feels sort of threatened by women. But even at that, you do see him cooking, and ultimately he's a good father because he spends a lot of time with the boys.

I try to listen to my children. I try to change with my children.

When I hear traditional family values raised, I hear that effort once again to re-establish the man as head and master of his family. Who had the, not only the right, but the obligation to discipline his wife and children to keep them in line?

My father always defined my gender to my brothers. He'd say, 'This is your sister; you must take care of her.'

I grew up in an all-female family - two sisters and a mostly single mother - and we often bonded, in part, by disparaging men and feeling superior to them.

Men have the influence and power in business and politics. It is the mother who can make the child's bedtime earlier, take away desserts or ground the child.