Masculine Ideals Quotes

I'm just glad that the whole John Wayne persona of a man is sort of old school now, because I'd never be able to do that. If that was the going rate today, I wouldn't be working.

My definition of a man's man is a man who knows gun safety, and we all did.

From the days of biplanes and silk scarves, the aviator has been the archetype of masculine glamour. Aviators have personified national ideals, from French elan to Soviet party discipline. They've inspired lust and admiration. They've turned sunglasses and short, utilitarian leather jackets into fashion statements.

These manly sentiments, in private life, make good citizens; in public life, the patriot and the hero.

The man loves danger and sport. That is why he loves woman, the most dangerous of all sports.

Most women seem to be required to pit themselves against men in dramatic situations, and the men got to pit themselves against ideas or God.

I don't look like a leading man, whatever they look like. It's changing a little.

Every manly icon the West has ever admired has embodied the very spirit of American independence.

I identify with the Clint Eastwoods and Harrison Fords. Those are my heroes.

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

I was also an only child and my father really wanted a son - he's from that generation - it was always about kung-fu theater on Sundays and boxing games on the weekend.

Men, also, have in them enormous capacities that they have to repress and fear in themselves, living up to this obsolete and brutal man-eating, bear-killing, Ernest Hemingway, crewcut Prussian sadistic, napalm all the children in Vietnam, bang-bang you're dead, image of masculinity, the image of all powerful masculine superiority that is absolute.

Our society constantly promotes role models for masculinity, from superheroes to politicians, where the concept of being a 'man' is based in their ability to be tough, dominant - and even violent when required.

And the other was this: the doctor did want to take off my leg because he thought it was necessary. But you must remember boys in those days were raised for two things: work, and then they made their play; and if you couldn't play baseball and box and play football, why, your life was ended. That was in our boyish minds.

Literature is the most noble of professions. In fact, it is about the only one fit for a man.

No need to continually insist upon your unshakable masculinity.

I think the word 'twink' is pejorative. There's something endemic about the gay community where we praise masculinity more than anything else.

Every masculine hero narrative I could find I wanted to steal for myself and twist to my size.

So the kind of boy I was, or that I was told to be, you were kind of this like half-gladiator, half-dude who, you know, was supposed to have as many girls as possible and work until your heart exploded, have no fear, you know.

...In every realm of male expression and action, violence is experienced and articulated as love and freedom.

The chase is among the best of all national pastimes; it cultivates that vigorous manliness for the lack of which in a nation, as in an individual, the possession of no other qualities can possibly atone.

David Ayer is one of the best directors I've ever worked with. He's a true man's man.

As a man, you think, 'Hey, man, I want to be like Bond or Tintin.'

Growing up I was a total movie-holic, but I always wanted to play the role that Clark Gable was playing or Spencer Tracy was playing. I was really never interested in the parts that women were playing. I found the parts that guys were playing were so much more interesting.

I want to do it all. I want to climb mountains, go through jungles, fight wars in space, get the girl, shoot the bad-guy full of lead, have all the zippy one liners, bulge muscles out of a singlet, drip sweat and blood on screen, all of that.