During the fifties, for example, the American character appeared with some consistency that became a model of manhood adopted by m...any men: the Fifties male. He got to work early, labored responsibly, supported his wife and children and admired discipline. Reagan is a sort of mummified version of this dogged type. This sort of man didn't see women's souls well, but he appreciated their bodies; and his view of culture and America's part in it was boyish and optimistic. Many of his qualities were strong and positive, but underneath the charm and bluff there was, and there remains, much isolation, deprivation, and passivity. Unless he has an enemy, he isn't sure that he is alive. The Fifties man was supposed to like football, be aggressive, stick up for the United States, never cry, and always provide.... During the sixties, another sort of man appeared. The waste and violence of the Vietnam war made men question whether they knew what an adult male really was. If manhood meant Vietnam, did they want any part of it? Meanwhile, the feminist movement encouraged men to actually look at women, forcing them to become conscious of concerns and sufferings that the Fifties male labored to avoid.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Men are all right for friends, but as soon as you marry them they turn into cranky old fathers, even the wild ones. They begin to ...tell you what's sensible and what's foolish, and want you to stick at home all the time. I prefer to be foolish when I feel like it, and be accountable to nobody.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It is commonly said ... that ridicule is the best test of truth; for that it will not stick where it is not just. I deny it. A tru...th learned in a certain light, and attacked in certain words, by men of wit and humour, may, and often doth, become ridiculous, at least so far, that the truth is only remembered and repeated for the sake of the ridicule.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It is commonly said, and more particularly by Lord Shaftesbury, that ridicule is the best test of truth; for that it will not stic...k where it is not just. I deny it. A truth learned in a certain light, and attacked in certain words, by men of wit and humour, may, and often doth, become ridiculous, at least so far, that the truth is only remembered and repeated for the sake of the ridicule.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Our party to the diplomatic corps was all that could be desired.... The exclusion of wine from the list of refreshments has turned... out exceedingly well. There is a good deal of dissipation here. At the receptions of the British Minister, and at that of the Mexican Minister, disgraceful things were done by young men made reckless by too much wine. Hence the necessity for our course is obvious, and is commended in unexpected quarters. Many of the foreign gentlemen speak of it with approval. We shall stick to it.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
... So damn your food and damn your wines, Your twisted loaves and twisting vines,... Your table d'hôte, your à la carte, . . . . From now on you can keep the lot. Take every single thing you've got, Your land, your wealth, your men, your dames, Your dream of independent power, And dear old Konrad Adenauer, And stick them up your Eiffel Tower.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
To the small naked children, running lightly in the sun beneath the palm-trees, the little girl's sex membership is as clear as he...r brother's, but there is less that she can do with it. When she trips and falls, she clutches at her head, or tries to fold her arms across her chest. Her femininity is concealed deep within her, nothing that she can touch and see, depend upon or flaunt. In those societies where children's sex membership is recognized by adults, in which the men treat the little girls with flirtatious attention and the women tease and challenge the small boys, the little girls respond with movements of the entire body, which undulates and postures in delicious indulgence of feminine response. The small boy struts, sometimes with emphasis on his penis, more often carrying hatchet, knife, stick, pole, in upward positions as he marches, parries, performs. His behaviour, however symbolic, is to the extent that it is male a concentrated phallic exaggeration, while his sister's is more diffuse and involves the whole body. The little boy is sure about his specific maleness, but seems not to be so sure of his adequacy to operate it. He supplements with various symbolic objects. Very often he shouts, adding the vigour of his voice to the vigour of his posturing.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
... any men who would give up the law-making power to women in order to remedy existing evils, would surely be those most ready to... enact the needful laws themselves.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Young men all of us--we've got to be. You know why? I'll give you two good reasons. We jump out of planes, and guys shoot at us.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »