Masculinity

"In our culture, boys and men are not, nor have they ever been, raised to be intimate."

– bell hooks, The Will to Change

"Boys are not seen as lovable in patriarchal culture."

– Bell hooks, The Will to Change

"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

"Males are not allowed simply to be who they are and to glory in their unique identity. Their value is always determined by what they do."

– Bell Hooks, The Will to Change

"Little boys are the only males in our culture who are allowed to be fully, wholly in touch with their feelings, allowed moments when they can express without shame their desire to love and be loved."

– Bell Hooks, The Will to Change

"The way some men tend to bottle up their feelings has been observed by researchers. It's called emotional restrictivity, and it's something that is learned, not innate to their biology."

– 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

"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

"Patriarchal assault on the emotional life of boys begins at the moment of their birth."

– Bell Hooks, The Will to Change