Leslie Jordan Quotes

Masculine ideals have become very confused in the modern world.

I have never felt oppressed by women or that feminism is a problem. I do think boys find it hard to like things seen as feminine. I want my son not to feel self-conscious he likes ballet and my daughter to carry on playing Han Solo; that's all.

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.

I have always disliked being a man. The whole idea of manhood in America is pitiful, in my opinion. This version of masculinity is a little like having to wear an ill-fitting coat for one's entire life (by contrast, I imagine femininity to be an oppressive sense of nakedness).

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

No matter how many feminist tracts you read, you never forget what boys like.

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

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.'

I'm very empathic to the construction of masculinity within our culture and how we build these identities up.

Many societies have educated their male children on the simple device of teaching them not to be women.

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

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

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

Boys will be boys. And even that wouldn't matter if only we could prevent girls from being girls.

What I do know is that traditional gender roles are very real and flipping the norm is difficult for even the strongest, funniest, smartest men.

Men weren't really the enemy - they were fellow victims suffering from an outmoded masculine mystique that made them feel unnecessarily inadequate when there were no bears to kill.

I definitely feel closer to the feminine side of the human being than I do the male - or the American idea of what a male is supposed to be. Just watch a beer commercial and you'll see what I mean.

I don't think most men do hate women at all - I think most men are trying their best and facing a culturation into masculine behaviour that forces them to deny their own humanity and to exaggerate distance from the world of women.

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

No, feminism isn't 'over.' We need it not only to challenge injustice but because the whole gender expectations thing is bad for men, too.

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

When childhood ended, I had to suppress feminine characteristics and try and be a boy. I didn't want to grow up at all because it meant becoming someone else.

Sometimes, how you ingest this idea of masculinity as projected onto you by the world could be the difference of life and death.

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.

We're really taught to be followers from a very young age - men lead and women follow.