Wyndham Lewis Quotes

One is not born a woman, but becomes one.

Nature makes woman to be won and men to win.

In our civilization, men are afraid that they will not be men enough and women are afraid that they might be considered only women.

You would never say to a man, 'do you like playing strong men?' You just wouldn't say that.

But alas, I'd have to find a way to be opinionated without being too opinionated, authoritative without being a bitch about it, smart without being elitist, fair without being a pushover. If the boyfriends of my youth found me too authoritative when I should have been cheering on the sidelines as they kicked and tossed and smacked balls toward the vanguard, the male colleagues of my adulthood kept reminding me of my lack of authority as they unconsciously displayed theirs. I was always failing someone's standards of legitimacy, as a girlfriend, as a producer of opinions. It was an eternal no-win.

The demands of having to be 'masculine' are as damaging to men as the demands of having to be 'feminine' are to women. I wish we could all agree just to wash it all away. Begin again.

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

One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.

I think the fallacy is to think that Women's Liberation meant that men and women would become interchangeable. That has not happened, and most men and women would not want it to happen.

Really, in a way, I took over the male role.

Men aren't the way they are because they want to drive women crazy; they've been trained to be that way for thousands of years. And that training makes it very difficult for men to be intimate.

Society says that men need to be bigger and stronger, and they must protect their women and so on.

Once upon a time, growing up male gave little boys a sense of certainty about the natural order of things. We had short hair, wore pants, and played baseball. Girls had long hair, wore skirts, and, no matter how hard they tried, always threw a baseball just like a girl.

I have no objection to a man being a man, however masculine that may be.

I think human beings have a really broad spectrum of traits, and I almost feel implicated when we say, 'Men are like this, women are like this.' Nobody was telling me, 'Don't get dirty, don't play in the mud, girls don't do that.'

Men are every bit as gendered as women.

Manhood coerced into sensitivity is no manhood at all.

Men think about women. Women think about what men think about them.

For men, being too put-together implies femininity.

I spent my whole life trying to play the games males play.

Most men are very attached to the idea of being male, and usually experience a lot of fear and insecurity around the idea of being a man. Most women are very identified with their gender, and also experience a tremendous amount of fear and insecurity.

Men are recognizing that they have been forced to conform to a very narrow and rather two-dimensional picture of maleness and manhood that they have never had the freedom to question.

Emasculation does seem to be a theme in the roles that I choose.

I don't think I could keep my position as a well-standing man in the world if I thought there were roles for men and women.

I've probably understood men too well. I realise they are predatory by nature, and I have a certain acceptance of the male animal.