Masculinity

Achillean refers to a man or man-aligned individual who is attracted to other men and man-aligned people.[1][2][3][note 1] It is similar to and sometimes known as men loving men (MLM).[1][2]

Achillean describes all sexual orientations in which a man or a non-binary person who identifies with manhood is attracted to men or men-aligned people, whether

“It reveals itself in the way we're more comfortable with the image of a boy playing with a toy gun rather than a boy playing with a toy doll, because we're more comfortable seeing a boy hold something that kills rather than something that cries.”
― Liz Plank, For the Love of Men: A New Vision for Mindful Masculinity

“In this culture we celebrate boys through the lexicon of violence. ‘You're killing it,’ 'you’re making a killing,’ ‘smash them,’ ‘blow them up,’ ‘you went into that game guns blazing,’ and I think it’s worth it to ask the question what happens to our men and boys when the only way they can valuate themselves is through the lexicon of death and

"Rescue is possible, but only when the man feels the stirrings of the boy in him who once was spontaneous and physically expressive."

– Jean Shinoda Bolen, Gods in Every Man

"To create loving men, we must love males. Loving maleness is different from praising and rewarding males for living up to sexist-defined notions of male identity."

– bell hooks, The Will to Change

"Homophobia happened... Showing affection toward another man became a feared label rather than an innocent action."

– Liz Plank, For the Love of Men

"If you look through nineteenth-century photos of men, you'll notice right away that male friendship has undergone a massive transformation. It used to be common for men to seek a photographer's services to capture them holding hands, sitting on each other's laps and being physically intimate."

– Liz Plank, For the Love of Men

"If you want to get men to talk about masculinity, ask them about urinals... Men described a whole host of rules about the process of urinating... Any eye contact was a huge faux pas."

– Liz Plank, For the Love of Men