Frank Pittman Quotes

The crazy thing is a lot of people - a lot of men, if I'm just speaking for myself - don't really start thinking about the effect of hyper-masculinity and false definitions of what it means to be a man until you get married or until you have kids. Because then, all of sudden, you have something to protect.

As a guy develops and practices his masculinity, he is accompanied by an invisible male chorus of all the other guys, who hiss orcheer as he attempts to approximate the masculine ideal, who push him to sacrifice more of his humanity for the sake of his masculinity, and who ridicule him when he holds back. The chorus is made up of all the guy's comrades and rivals, his buddies and bosses, his male ancestors and his male cultural heroes--and above all, his father, who may have been a real person in his life, or may have existed only as the myth of the man who got away.

Not only is it harder to be a man, it is also harder to become one.

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

Our father has an even more important function than modeling manhood for us. He is also the authority to let us relax the requirements of the masculine model: if our father accepts us, then that declares us masculine enough to join the company of men. We, in effect, have our diploma in masculinity and can go on to develop other skills.

How can I be a man if there is no role model?

I hate men who are in touch with their feminine side.

I love watching Marty Scorsese's films, but they always make me feel terrible about being a man.

When I'm talking to groups that are all men, we talk about how the masculine role limits them. They often want to talk about how they missed having real fathers, real loving, present fathers, because of the way that they tried to fit the picture of masculinity.

There are alternate definitions of manhood in the West.

Boys are so much drama.

It's upsetting to be a man in our society.

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

When you're a man you try and be macho.

I'm a country boy, and we're the product of our upbringing. As a boy, I was told that men don't cry.

Manhood coerced into sensitivity is no manhood at all.

So much of Hollywood is this kind of overly machismo, nonsensical view of masculinity, which I just don't find honest. I think it's this idea of - you know, we're told, well, 'Be a man, be a man.' But what does that mean, exactly? Does that mean you can't carry yourself with any fear? That you can't acknowledge that you're scared?

Boys want to grow up to be like their male role models. And boys who grow up in homes with absent fathers search the hardest to figure out what it means to be male.

Guess in my brain I have a figurative 'man card' that's got certain punches that need to be punched.

Masculine ideals have become very confused in the modern world.

It's good to see a man who isn't afraid to live out his masculinity.

I'm not a bro.

I don't know enough about manliness to define it.

I want my sons to escape the pressure to be a particular kind of masculine that is so damaging to men and to the people around them.

No, I don't have a feminine side. I've never been in touch with it. And the day I get in touch with my feminine side is the day I retire.