Ann Nocenti Quotes

My mother says ladies perspire and men sweat. Clearly, I am more of a man.

I was used to Essex boys growing up. Russian boys are a lot more gentlemanly and thoughtful. They will express their emotions a bit more.

Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I believe when a woman enters a room, men should stand up - and gay men should stand up at least halfway.

I wouldn't want a manicure. I'm a man's man!

That's something the head scarf, in a symbolic way, is meant to do in Arabic culture: it defines your relationship to your husband and the men of your family differently than your relationship to the average guy on the street you've never met.

Women have to be pure and respectful.

The French are a feminine race, not manly like the Anglo-Saxons or Teutons.

I think every culture - you can call it an American Ronin, a medieval knight errant, you could talk about 'Shane.' There is an archetype that I think is actually common to a lot of cultures, and even the Clint Eastwood stuff was probably as influenced by the Japanese stuff, and yet done by an Italian.

Down South, there was the old 'ladies-don't-do-such-things' way of thinking. You couldn't be a lady and a good athlete at the same time.

I went to an all-boys school, where I played rugby, so ballet wasn't the coolest thing to do.

When I was a young kid, girls were taught that their role in life was to get married and have children. It was the 1950s. Those were the rules.

Women shouldn't be expected to only play nurturing, kind caretakers.

I do tons of feminine things.

When I came to America, there were two kinds of women: women who looked serious and who didn't wear color and print, and women who looked girly and feminine and like second wives.

I'm very often referred to as 'Sir' in elevators and such. I think it has to do with being this tall and not wearing much lipstick. I think people just can't imagine I'd be a woman if I look like this.

I look for a man who respects my womanhood and doesn't make me feel like I have to be a stereotype. Like a housewife.

There's almost a Rorschach-test quality about writing about 'Playboy'. What comes out in the press is not so much about me as it is about society.

What we're doing is we're chipping away at what it is to be a woman and to be feminine. And what it is to be a man and be masculine. We're chipping away at that. I wish we could go back to 'Mad Men' days. I love those days. Men were men. And I love them.

I believe women should be feminine.

The number one taboo for boys is to be feminine, so for someone to not only override their internal directive but society's directive is mind-boggling and heroic. It's courageous.

The archetype of male hero is so boring. And the pretty, boobed woman is so... boring.

An African man should not do anything called housework or cooking.

Men and women are different: we have different tendencies, skills, and behaviors. This should be accepted and fostered, not demonized. Because the end result is simply more effeminate men and more masculine women. Who wants that?

I believe that if a guy doesn't offer to pay the whole thing when he asks you on a date, he wasn't taught right. But I also believe if a woman on a date allows him to pay for the whole thing without at least offering to pay half, she wasn't taught right.

I hate to say it, but one of the worst things you could be called when I was younger was unfeminine.