Bell Hooks Quotes

Masculine ideals have become very confused in the modern world.

I think we still live in this era of hyper-masculinity.

We're living at a time when people are questioning what it means to be male in modern society, and I'm finding it very helpful to explore it through these roles.

I would never sign on to a project that was male-bashing, because first and foremost I'm a man... what guy would sign on for that?

The word 'excess' has no meaning for a male.

A lot of women - not all of them, a lot of them - feel insecure about men being men.

'Man up' is a sexist term that should be retired along with all the other gender-based imperious imperatives.

It's upsetting to be a man in our society.

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

Men are irrelevant.

Woman governs America because America is the land of boys who refuse to grow up.

I think its feminism. If it’s tied to the last 50 years—the average size of a male’s member is 10 percent smaller than 50 years ago—it has to be the feminazis, the chickafication, and everything else.

I think if we took away that toxic masculinity then the world would be a much better place.

I've always thought feminism had a lot to say about both genders, as it is hard to talk about one without the other. I think men and women alike would benefit from men having a more fluid idea of what being a man is.

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.

It's without doubt my main subject. The way masculinity can go wrong. And I'm something of a gynocrat in a utopian kind of way.

The power of patriarchy has been to make maleness feared and to make men feel that it is better to be feared that to be loved. Whether they can confess this or not, men know that just is not true.

I haven't the faintest notion what possible revolutionary role white hetero- sexual men could fulfill, since they are the very embodiment of reactionary- vested-interest-power. But then, I have great difficulty examining what men in general could possibly do about all this. In addition to doing the shitwork that women have been doing for generations, possibly not exist? No, I really don't mean that. Yes, I really do.

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

I don't think women are better than men, I think men are a lot worse than women.

Once boys' and men's challenges are clear, the question 'why now' quickly becomes 'why didn't we see this sooner?' The answer? Virtually every society that survived did so by socializing its sons to be disposable.

It's a man's world, and you men can have it.

I actually don't think there is machismo in America, unless it's the cowboy type - the silent, smoking brooder.

Sexism is not the fault of women - kill your fathers, not your mothers.

Woman is the dominant sex. Men have to do all sorts of stuff to prove that they are worthy of woman's attention.