Betty Friedan Quotes

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.

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

Women want mediocre men, and men are working to be as mediocre as possible.

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.

Manhood coerced into sensitivity is no manhood at all.

Masculine ideals have become very confused in the modern world.

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.

We rarely see cisgender heterosexual men in positions where they're nurturers. We only paint femmes, trans women, and cis women as nurturers, and because of toxic masculinity, men are taught not to be that way.

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

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

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

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

When I'm talking to groups that are all men, we talk about how the masculine role limits them. They often want to talk about how they missed having real fathers, real loving, present fathers, because of the way that they tried to fit the picture of masculinity.

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.'

Men that aren't threatened by opinionated, faintly aggressive women are in a minority.

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

I think there are a lot of men who feel they're being emasculated by having the woman be in charge; I've never had that problem.

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

Men seem unable to feel equal to women: they must be superior or they are inferior.

Most men are not that evolved.

It seems like women don't want men to be men anymore. They want men to be women. But they really don't want what they say they want. It's very weird.

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.

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