“
Leo: Rainbows. Very macho.
Annabeth: Butch is our best equestrian, he gets along great with the pegasi.
Leo: Rainbows, ponies...
Butch: I'm gonna toss you off this chariot.
”
”
Rick Riordan (The Lost Hero (The Heroes of Olympus, #1))
“
You'd think people had better things to gossip about," said Ginny as she sat on the common room floor, leaning against Harry’s legs and reading the Daily Prophet. "Three Dementor attacks in a week, and all Romilda Vane does is ask me if it’s true you’ve got a Hippogriff tattooed across your chest."
Ron and Hermione both roared with laughter. Harry ignored them.
What did you tell her?"
I told her it's a Hungarian Horntail," said Ginny, turning a page of the newspaper idly. "Much more macho."
Thanks," said Harry, grinning. "And what did you tell her Ron’s got?"
A Pygmy Puff, but I didn’t say where.
”
”
J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter, #6))
“
I knew I was different. I thought that I might be gay or something because I couldn't identify with any of the guys at all. None of them liked art or music. They just wanted to fight and get laid. It was many years ago but it gave me this real hatred for the average American macho male.
”
”
Kurt Cobain
“
A lot of men wouldn't like being called a romantic. It's not macho enough.'
Quite often men are fools.
”
”
P.C. Cast (Goddess of Light (Goddess Summoning, #3))
“
No, no,” Leo said. “Rainbows. Very macho.
”
”
Rick Riordan (The Lost Hero (The Heroes of Olympus, #1))
“
Your mom is a rainbow goddess?"
"You got a problem with that?"
"No, no. Rainbows. Very macho.
”
”
Rick Riordan (The Lost Hero (The Heroes of Olympus, #1))
“
Rainbows. Very Macho! ~Leo Valdez
”
”
Rick Riordan (The Lost Hero (The Heroes of Olympus, #1))
“
He's going macho again," Dev says, totally nonchalantly, while he unlocks the door.
He's always going macho," Is adds. "It must be the wolf thing."
I am not going macho. I am always macho," Nick says.
”
”
Carrie Jones (Captivate (Need, #2))
“
It was the wife, John thought. And she was giving this tough guy a tongue-lashing. And the man was taking it.
"Okay. I love you. Bye." Tohrment flipped the phone closed and put it in his pocket. When he focused on John again, he clearly respected his wife enough not to roll his eyes and make some macho, shithead comment about pesky women.
”
”
J.R. Ward (Lover Eternal (Black Dagger Brotherhood, #2))
“
My dick is a macho shithead but the rest of me is a sensitive, caring and gentle guy.
”
”
Henry Rollins (Eye Scream (Henry Rollins))
“
Leo choked. "Your mom is a rainbow goddess?"
"Got a problem with that?" Butch said.
"No, no," Leo said. "Rainbows, very macho."
"Butch is our best equestrian," Annabeth said. "He gets along great with the pegasi."
"Rainbows, ponies," Leo muttered.
"I'm gonna toss you off this chariot," Butch warned.
”
”
Rick Riordan (The Lost Hero (The Heroes of Olympus, #1))
“
Alright, macho babe boy, I'm not some little ditz to bat my eyelashes at the buff stud in black leather. Don't try your he-man tactics with me. I'll have you know, in my office, I'm known as the ball-breaker. (Amanda)
”
”
Sherrilyn Kenyon (Night Pleasures (Dark-Hunter #1))
“
Hay criminales que proclaman tan campantes ‘la maté porque era mía’, así no más, como si fuera cosa de sentido común y justo de toda justicia y derecho de propiedad privada, que hace al hombre dueño de la mujer. Pero ninguno, ninguno, ni el más macho de los supermachos tiene la valentía de confesar ‘la maté por miedo’, porque al fin y al cabo el miedo de la mujer a la violencia del hombre es el espejo del miedo del hombre a la mujer sin miedo.
”
”
Eduardo Galeano
“
Macho does not prove mucho.
”
”
Zsa Zsa Gabor
“
Then I realized that most of the world's problems stemmed from macho dickheadism, and if I cold defeat that I could save the world.
”
”
Carrie Vaughn
“
Looks like macho boy's cool just melted like a Slush Puppie in August.
”
”
Darynda Jones (Death and the Girl Next Door (Darklight, #1))
“
The macho values that are found today in many Asian and African countries, these are not Asian values, or African values. They are not Muslim values. They are not Eastern values. They are patriarchal values like those found in Sweden only 60 years ago, and with social and economic progress they will vanish, just as they did in Sweden. They are not unchangeable.
”
”
Hans Rosling (Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About The World - And Why Things Are Better Than You Think)
“
Really? Well, you'd definitely be interested in the fact that I just read To Kill A Mockingbird."
I smiled and elbowed him. "Everyone's read that."
I've read it five times."
Nu-uh."
Yep. I can even quote parts of it."
That's bullpoopie."
And then Stark, my big, bad, macho Warrior raised his voice, put on a little girl's Southern drawl, and said, "'Uncle Jack? What's a whore-lady?'"
I do not think that's the most important quote from that book," I said, but laughed anyway.
Okay, how about: 'Ain't no snot-nosed slut of a schoolteacher ever born c'n make me do nothin.!' That one's really my favorite."
You got a twisted mind, James Stark.
”
”
Kristin Cast (Tempted (House of Night, #6))
“
Epic sex?" I sputtered. "By what standards, precisely, is sex judged to be epic?"
"And tons and tons of mortal simps like you used as pawns." Bob sighed happily, ignoring my question. "There are no words. It was like the Lord of the Rings and All My Children made a baby with the Macho Man Randy Savage and a Whac-A-Mole machine.
”
”
Jim Butcher (Ghost Story (The Dresden Files, #13))
“
That macho protective bullshit is just some asshat man pissing on his territory so the other dogs will stay away.
”
”
Tammara Webber (Where You Are (Between the Lines, #2))
“
When men feel the wound that cannot heal, they either bury themselves in woman's arms and ask her for healing, which she cannot provide, or they hide themselves in macho pride and enforced loneliness.
”
”
James Hollis (Under Saturn's Shadow: The Wounding and Healing of Men)
“
What’re you doing? Collecting the straight, super-macho Village People?
”
”
Kristen Ashley (Rock Chick (Rock Chick, #1))
“
I didn’t speak macho alpha , therefore could not communicate telepathically, via chin lifts or through actions to other macho alphas,
”
”
Kristen Ashley (Rock Chick Revolution (Rock Chick, #8))
“
...You could be a member of a special, macho, elite force, protecting mankind from insidios evil in all forms, including the triple-decker bacon cheeseburger."
"I can saftly say I've never battled a cheeseburger.
”
”
Kerrelyn Sparks (The Vampire and the Virgin (Love at Stake, #8))
“
Just so you know, I speak English. You don’t have to macho-speak with shit like ‘you with me’ after you macho-speak with a bunch of bossing me around. I get you. I’m with you. Or if I’m not, I’ll tell you.”
“Noted,” he muttered but sounded like he was smiling.
I made the diplomatic decision not to look.
”
”
Kristen Ashley (Creed (Unfinished Hero, #2))
“
Can you stand? (Aimee)
I’m not helpless. (Fang)
Oh, look! Mr. Macho is back in all his glory. Hello, Mr. Macho, it’s so not good to see you again. But you know, Mr. Macho, that you’ve been bedridden to the point that your legs aren’t used to carrying your weight and you’re not really human. So if you want to get up and fall, gods forbid I do anything to stop it. After all, I live for America’s Funniest Home Videos. Should I fetch a camcorder now? (Aimee)
”
”
Sherrilyn Kenyon (Bad Moon Rising (Dark-Hunter, #18; Were-Hunter, #4; Hellchaser, #2))
“
The central attitudes driving Mr. Sensitive are:
I’m against the macho men, so I couldn’t be abusive.
As long as I use a lot of “psychobabble,” no one is going to believe that I am mistreating you.
I can control you by analyzing how your mind and emotions work, and what your issues are from childhood.
I can get inside your head whether you want me there or not.
Nothing in the world is more important than my feelings.
Women should be grateful to me for not being like those other men.
”
”
Lundy Bancroft (Why Does He Do That? Inside the Minds of Angry and Controlling Men)
“
I started a new page and wrote a title at the top: "Ten
Ways to Defeat Macho Dickheadism." Then I realized that most of the world's problems stemmed from macho dickheadism, and if I could defeat that I could save the world.
”
”
Carrie Vaughn (Kitty Takes a Holiday (Kitty Norville, #3))
“
No haré nada hasta que me lo pida —confesé—. No quiero cagarla de nuevo.
—¡Oh, joder! ¡Estás enamorado, tío! ¡Qué fuerte, macho! —exclamó Mauro tan alucinado como yo de que aquellas palabras estuvieran ligadas a mí.
«Maldición, lo sabía. Sabía que esa niña terminaría volviéndome loco.»
”
”
Alessandra Neymar (Mírame y dispara)
“
I draw a line down the middle of a chalkboard, sketching a male symbol on one side and a female symbol on the other. Then I ask just the men: What steps do you guys take, on a daily basis, to prevent yourselves from being sexually assaulted? At first there is a kind of awkward silence as the men try to figure out if they've been asked a trick question. The silence gives way to a smattering of nervous laughter. Occasionally, a young a guy will raise his hand and say, 'I stay out of prison.' This is typically followed by another moment of laughter, before someone finally raises his hand and soberly states, 'Nothing. I don't think about it.' Then I ask women the same question. What steps do you take on a daily basis to prevent yourselves from being sexually assaulted? Women throughout the audience immediately start raising their hands. As the men sit in stunned silence, the women recount safety precautions they take as part of their daily routine. Here are some of their answers: Hold my keys as a potential weapon. Look in the back seat of the car before getting in. Carry a cell phone. Don't go jogging at night. Lock all the windows when I sleep, even on hot summer nights. Be careful not to drink too much. Don't put my drink down and come back to it; make sure I see it being poured. Own a big dog. Carry Mace or pepper spray. Have an unlisted phone number. Have a man's voice on my answering machine. Park in well-lit areas. Don't use parking garages. Don't get on elevators with only one man, or with a group of men. Vary my route home from work. Watch what I wear. Don't use highway rest areas. Use a home alarm system. Don't wear headphones when jogging. Avoid forests or wooded areas, even in the daytime. Don't take a first-floor apartment. Go out in groups. Own a firearm. Meet men on first dates in public places. Make sure to have a car or cab fare. Don't make eye contact with men on the street. Make assertive eye contact with men on the street.
”
”
Jackson Katz (The Macho Paradox: Why Some Men Hurt Women and How All Men Can Help)
“
ABUSIVE MEN COME in every personality type, arise from good childhoods and bad ones, are macho men or gentle, “liberated” men. No psychological test can distinguish an abusive man from a respectful one. Abusiveness is not a product of a man’s emotional injuries or of deficits in his skills. In reality, abuse springs from a man’s early cultural training, his key male role models, and his peer influences. In other words, abuse is a problem of values, not of psychology. When someone challenges an abuser’s attitudes and beliefs, he tends to reveal the contemptuous and insulting personality that normally stays hidden, reserved for private attacks on his partner. An abuser tries to keep everybody—his partner, his therapist, his friends and relatives—focused on how he feels, so that they won’t focus on how he thinks, perhaps because on some level he is aware that if you grasp the true nature of his problem, you will begin to escape his domination.
”
”
Lundy Bancroft (Why Does He Do That? Inside the Minds of Angry and Controlling Men)
“
My notepad resting on my lap takes the scribbles of unspoken truth: effeminate men are very witty, whereas macho men are duller than death.
”
”
Morrissey (Autobiography)
“
Women have been the most intelligent, peaceful and positive influences in my life, I don't want to generalize too much, but definitely in my experience, I've found the whole macho world of male aggression and insecurity to be a lot more difficult to exist in.
”
”
Zayn Malik (Zayn)
“
And as for you Agent Pallas – man-to-man, if you ever insult my girl on national television again, I’ll…” he stopped.
Everyone in the room waited, hanging. Jack raised an eyebrow. “Yes?”
Collin turned to Cameron with a look of astonishment. “I’ve got nothing. I had this whole exit speech going and I was gonna end with some big macho threat but when I got there, it was like – bleh – nothing. That’s a pisser.” He appeared disgusted with himself, then shrugged it off. “Oh well. Catch you guys later.”
He strode out without a second glance.
”
”
Julie James (Something About You (FBI/US Attorney, #1))
“
If you live in a society that wishes you didn't exist, anything you do to make yourself happy disrupts its attempts to wipe you out, or at the very least, make you invisible.
”
”
Patrick Califia (Macho Sluts: Erotic Fiction)
“
I took my .38 out and looked to see that there were bullets in all the proper places. I knew there would be, but it did no harm to be careful. And I'd seen Clint Eastwood do it once in the movies.
”
”
Robert B. Parker (Small Vices (Spenser, #24))
“
Cal shrugged. "That's one word for it. I'm not all that thrilled with it either."
I pushed the covers off and got out of bed, making sure my nightshirt didn't ride up. "Cal, I already have to deal with an angry dad today. Please don't pull some macho "bethrothed" thing on top of it, okay?"
He caught my wrirst. "I'm not. And it's not you I'm pissed at. It's them. They shouldn't have taken you there."
His hand was warm on my skin.
”
”
Rachel Hawkins (Demonglass (Hex Hall, #2))
“
I have often wondered why people never want to put a stone monument of the Eight Beatitudes on a courthouse lawn. Then I realize that the Eight Beatitudes of Jesus would probably not be very good for any war, any macho worldview, the wealthy, or our consumer economy.
”
”
Richard Rohr (Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life)
“
That teeters over the edge of macho crazy, Knight," I informed him.
"Yeah," he was completely not offended, "Head's up, babe, get used to that.
”
”
Kristen Ashley (Knight (Unfinished Hero, #1))
“
Rainbows, very macho -Leo
”
”
Rick Riordan (The Lost Hero (The Heroes of Olympus, #1))
“
Look, I know you’re a guy—” “Damn straight.” “And there’s some man rule that you’ve got to be all macho—” “Rule number three, actually.” Both of her eyebrows shot up. “Would you just let me finish before I make you cry and break rule number three.
”
”
Cindi Madsen (Falling for Her Fiance (Accidentally in Love, #1))
“
My first female lover was a Jewish woman. She was butch, but not in a swaggering macho way- she could pass as a yeshiva boy, pale and intense. Small, almost fragile, she exuded a powerful sense of herself. She had not been to a synagogue in years, but kept the law of kashrut, and taught me my first prayers in Hebrew. She cooked, she read, she ironed her dress shirts and polished her boots meticulously, and admired femme women enormously. She was also the first person ever- including myself- to bring me to multiple orgasms. She taught me to ask for what I wanted in bed, then encouraged me to expect it from her and future lovers. She taught me to get her off with fingers, tongue, lips, sex toys, and my voice. She showed me how to masturbate in different positions, and fisted me during my menstrual cramps to provide an internal massage- and to demonstrate that a sexual act without orgasm was also an acceptable, intimate act. She never separated sexuality from the rest of her life; it was as integral to her as her Judaism.
This was how I wanted to be. Not just sexually, although certainly that way too. This is how I wanted to move through the world.
-- Karen Taylor (from "Daughters of Zelophehad")
”
”
Lawrence Schimel (First Person Queer: Who We Are (So Far))
“
Finally, the optimist’s impatience with or condemnation of pessimism often has a smug macho tone to it (although males have no monopoly of it). There is a scorn for the perceived weakness of the pessimist who should instead ‘grin and bear it’. This view is defective for the same reason that macho views about other kinds of suffering are defective. It is an indifference to or inappropriate denial of suffering, whether one’s own or that of others. The injunction to ‘look on the bright side’ should be greeted with a large dose of both scepticism and cynicism. To insist that the bright side is always the right side is to put ideology before the evidence. Every cloud, to change metaphors, may have a silver lining, but it may very often be the cloud rather than the lining on which one should focus if one is to avoid being drenched by self-deception. Cheery optimists have a much less realistic view of themselves than do those who are depressed.
”
”
David Benatar (Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming into Existence)
“
The road climbed into the mountains, Jonah taking the hairpin curves as fast as he dared.
"You look so macho clutching the door handle that way," he said to Hamilton.
"Just...be...careful," Hamilton said through clenched teeth.
”
”
Jude Watson (A King's Ransom (The 39 Clues: Cahills vs. Vespers, #2))
“
There never were any women who liked to cook for men everyday. There were only women who cooked for survival and pretended to like it. And now there are men who cook for survival. Like you. Think of this as survivalist training. Very macho.
”
”
Jennifer Crusie (Getting Rid of Bradley)
“
It's not macho to read? Nonsense. Reading is a stouthearted activity, disporting courage, keenness, stick-to-itness. It is also, in my experience, one of the most thrilling and enduring delights of life, equal to a home run, a slamdunk, or breaking the four-minute mile.
”
”
Irving Stone
“
People even said I was a racist because I shot black bank robbers at the beginning of Dirty Harry. So, first I’m labeled right-wing. Then I’m a racist. Now it’s macho or male chauvinism. It’s a whole number nowadays to make people feel guilty on different levels. It doesn’t bother me because I know where the fuck I am on the planet and I don’t give a shit.
”
”
Clint Eastwood (Clint Eastwood: Interviews)
“
Grace...you don't understand...kissing is not just principle thing with Ryker. It's not a macho...Heman woman hater thing to him...or a way to avoid commitment. It's a defense or him.
”
”
Sarah Brocious (Provocation: a lesson in trust)
“
The Lazio fans always stop [at the bakery] on their way home from the stadium to stand in the street for hours, leaning up against their motorcycles, talking about the game, looking macho as anything, and eating cream puffs.
I love Italy.
”
”
Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love)
“
It’s all society is, the repressed sex drives of men, the objectification of women, their paranoia, the posturing, the macho stances, the beauty standard, it’s all just one charade masking a never ending hard on.
”
”
Trevor D. Richardson (Dystopia Boy: The Unauthorized Files)
“
Not all dogs are perfect dogs, but all dogs are inherently good. Like people, we are affected by environment and circumstance. Some breeds get a bad rap because sometimes humans breed them to be a certain way, like overly macho or protective. In our life on earth we are dependent on humans for everything, including our breeding. We can be bred for aggression or we can be bred for peace.
”
”
Kate McGahan (JACK McAFGHAN: Reflections on Life with my Master)
“
Sadie, I'm not fragile," he complained. " I don't need a protector."
"Rubinho," I said. " That's macho bluster, and all boys like to be mothered.
”
”
Rick Riordan (The Throne of Fire (The Kane Chronicles, #2))
“
There's something really the matter with most people who wear tattoos. There's at least some terrible story. I know from experience that there's always something terribly flawed about people who are tattooed, above some little something that Johnny had done in the Navy, even though that's a bad sign...It's terrible. Psychologically it's crazy. Most people who are tattooed, it's the sign of some feeling of inferiority, they're trying to establish some macho identification for themselves.
”
”
Truman Capote (Conversations with Capote)
“
Some of the proudest moments in the history of this country are grounded in the principle that members of dominant groups have a critical role to play in the struggle for equality.
”
”
Jackson Katz (The Macho Paradox: Why Some Men Hurt Women and How All Men Can Help)
“
Your mom is a rainbow goddess?” “Got a problem with that?” Butch said. “No, no,” Leo said. “Rainbows. Very macho.
”
”
Rick Riordan (The Lost Hero (The Heroes of Olympus, #1))
“
There’s a beat, and then Garrett surprises me by hauling me in for a hug. Not a macho side hug or quick chest bump, but a real hug, with both his arms around me, gripping me tight.
I hug him back. “I’m sorry, man. About the house. The drinking. Just everything.”
“I know,” he says for the third time.
A door creaks open. “Is this a private homoerotic moment? Or can anyone join in?”
I laugh weakly as Logan lumbers toward us. Garrett releases me, and Logan takes his place. His hug is briefer, but no less comforting.
”
”
Elle Kennedy (The Score (Off-Campus, #3))
“
[I]t is something that comes up as a struggle in me. It especially came up when I was about 16 or 17. In high school people think you have to be so macho. People get attacked just because someone insinuates something about their sexuality. I think that’s gruesome.
”
”
Billie Joe Armstrong
“
I’d lived through six of these and had intimate details. No way that shit was happening with me. Some over-the-top macho guy forcing his way into my life, taking it over and bossing me around?
Unh-unh.
I didn’t care if it came with regular orgasms. That shit was not for me.
”
”
Kristen Ashley (Rock Chick Revolution (Rock Chick, #8))
“
We hugged, and my dad cried a little. I don't have a macho-type dad, who hunts and fishes and collects guns. He's sensitive and caring. He drives me crazy most of the time, but I do admire that he's not afraid to show his "feminine side.
”
”
Bill Konigsberg (Openly Straight (Openly Straight, #1))
“
-¿Sale a cenar con muchos hombres?
Aquella pregunta me sorprende. Pero ¿este tío se cree el único espécimen macho del mundo? Así que respiro hondo y procuro no soltarle un borderío de los míos.
-Siempre que me apetece –le aclaro.
Alzo mi barbilla con altanería y, cuando creo que no voy a decir ni una palabra más, le suelto:
-Lo que no entiendo es qué hago aquí, en su coche, con usted y dirigiéndome a cenar. Eso es lo que todavía no logro entender.
Él no responde. Sólo me mira… me mira… me mira y me pone histérica con su mirada.
-¿Va usted a hablar o pretende estar el resto del viaje mirándome?
-Mirarla es muy agradable, señorita Flores.
”
”
Megan Maxwell (Pídeme lo que quieras (Pídeme lo que quieras, #1))
“
Las Vegas. Madhali umeona tunafanya nini katika maisha, fumba macho kwa kuyakodoa. Wanaosema hawajui wanaojua hawasemi. Siri ni siri milele. Kinachofanyika hapa hubakia hapa.
”
”
Enock Maregesi
“
There are no words. It was like The Lord of the Rings and All My Children made a baby with the Macho Man Randy Savage and a Whac-A-Mole machine.
”
”
Jim Butcher (Ghost Story (The Dresden Files, #13))
“
The nerd flavor of masculinity has overwhelmed the macho kind in real-life power dynamics, and therefore in popular culture.
”
”
Jaron Lanier
“
As feministas querem reduzir a mulher a um macho mal-acabado.
”
”
Nelson Rodrigues (Flor de obsessão: As 1000 melhores frases de Nelson Rodrigues)
“
You are the machos, the life, the future of our families. You are all that's left, so you must protect our mothers and grow and do good and have families of your own. I love you. I do. I do.
”
”
Victor Villaseñor (Rain of Gold)
“
Is this going to be a thing?” I ask, my arms wound around his broad shoulders. “You carrying me around like a sack of potatoes?” “It makes me feel macho bein’ able to lift all this weight—ow!
”
”
J.T. Geissinger (Wicked Intentions (Wicked Games #3))
“
Cesaron los estertores y sacudidas del viejo alce. La luna, que ascendía por el firmamento, se reflejó en sus ojos, negros y sin vida. Sólo entonces soltó a su presa el macho dominante. Sentado en sus cuartos traseros, apuntó al cielo con su hocico empapado de sangre y aulló. Todos los miembros de su familia levantaron la cabeza y le imitaron, tanto los protagonistas de la caza como sus espectadores. La muerte había ocupado el lugar de la vida; y así, a través de la muerte, la vida veía garantizada su continuidad. En aquel todo sangriento, vivos y muertos quedaban unidos por un ciclo tan antiguo e inmutable como la luna que describía su órbita por encima de sus cabezas.
”
”
Nicholas Evans (The Loop)
“
You think I don't know what you're doing? This is a typical guy stunt. Protect the helpless female, lead the bad guy away and send her scurrying for help." He put a hand on her cheek. "If he caught up to us and something happened to you… I don't know what I'd do." Her lips trembled, though she tried to look angry. "Macho garbage.
”
”
Maggie Shayne (Colder than Ice (Mordecai Young, #2))
“
The male tax?”
“Yeah. The tax that men have to pay for not having to menstruate every month. Or risk getting pregnant. Or deal with the physically stronger sex in a macho world… Women have to put up with all that stuff, so the least we men can do is pay the male tax and get the tab.
”
”
Zack Love (Sex in the Title: A Comedy about Dating, Sex, and Romance in NYC (Back When Phones Weren't So Smart))
“
This week my son thinks he's the Supremes.All of them. So we can scratch "straight"off the list. At least I hope we can. As a gay kid he'll be a natural leader. Put him in a macho bullshit environment and he's going to have a hard time. I don't want that to happen. (Let's also not forget Wei's immortal words to him nine minutes after he was born, when she first stared into those big brown eyes: "Oh, honey. Promose me you'll grow up to like boys. Because I don't want any other woman in your life except me.")
”
”
Steve Kluger (My Most Excellent Year)
“
Josh was beginning to believe the whole thing was like professional wrestling: the superpowers put on their masks and stomped around, roaring threats and swinging wildly at each other, but it was a game of macho, strutting bluff.
”
”
Robert McCammon (Swan Song)
“
He was some sort of boxing champion," she told me the night she took me out to celebrate my graduation. "He was always punching someone in the nose."
"Macho," I said.
"No," she said. "It was the clarity of expression that appealed to him.
”
”
Melissa Bank (The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing)
“
Macho and manly and stern and, oh man. Sam sighed. Guys like this were never gay. They were always the ones chasing the homos.
”
”
Anne Tenino (Too Stupid to Live (Romancelandia, #1))
“
Somewhere down the road...I hope you find [that girls] don't all have the same thing between their ears. The good ones don't put up with macho mind games.
”
”
Alex Flinn (Breathing Underwater (Breathing Underwater, #1))
“
effeminate men are very witty, whereas macho men are duller than death.
”
”
Morrissey (Autobiography)
“
I'm not your knight in shining armor. I'm just a man who stands between you and hell.
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Alessa Kelly (Her Unbreakable Protector (Red Mark Rescue & Protect #1))
“
I loved our mutual corny sense of humor. Underneath all his macho bravado, he was a dork. Just like me.
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Kate Rockland (Falling Is Like This)
“
Enough already with your macho bullcrap. I am sick to death of men telling me how to run my life. In case you didn’t notice, I have a whole bevy of men downstairs just dying to tell me how I don’t measure up. The last thing I need is another one.
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Sherrilyn Kenyon (Bad Moon Rising (Dark-Hunter, #18; Were-Hunter, #4; Hellchaser, #2))
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Instead of the macho, trigger-happy man our culture has perversely wanted him to be, the cowboy is more apt to be convivial, quirky, and softhearted. To be "tough" on a ranch has nothing to do with conquests and displays of power. More often than not, circumstances - like the colt he's riding or an unexpected blizzard - are overpowering him. It's not toughness but "toughing it out" that counts. In other words, this macho, cultural artifact the cowboy has become is simply a man who possesses resilience, patience, and an instinct for survival. "Cowboys are just like a pile of rocks - everything happens to them. They get climbed on, kicked, rained and snowed on, scuffed up by wind. Their job is 'just to take it,' " one old-timer told me.
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Gretel Ehrlich (The Solace of Open Spaces)
“
..ser una mujer es tener piel de mujer, dos cromosomas X y la capacidad de concebir y alimentar a las crías que engendra el macho de la especia. Y nada más, porque todo lo demás es cultura.
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Almudena Grandes (Malena es un nombre de tango)
“
[Author's Note:] When I was sixteen, two of my cousins were brutally raped by four strangers and thrown off a bridge in St. Louis, Missouri. My brother was beaten and also forced off the bridge. I wrote about that horrible crime in my first book, my memoir, A Rip in Heaven. Because that crime and the subsequent writing of the book were both formative experience in my life, I became a person who is always, automatically, more interested in stories about victims than perpetrators. I'm interested in characters who suffer inconceivable hardship, in people who manage to triumph over extraordinary trauma. Characters like Lydia and Soledad. I'm less interested in the violent, macho stories of gangsters and law enforcement. Or in any case, I think the world has enough stories like those. Some fiction set in the world of the cartels and narcotraficantes is compelling and important - I read much of it during my early research. Those novels provide readers with an understanding of the origins of the some of the violence to our south. But the depiction of that violence can feed into some of the worst stereotypes about Mexico. So I saw an opening for a novel that would press a little more intimately into those stories, to imagine people on the flip side of that prevailing narrative. Regular people like me. How would I manage if I lived in a place that began to collapse around me? If my children were in danger, how far would I go to save them? I wanted to write about women, whose stories are often overlooked.
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Jeanine Cummins (American Dirt)
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Most authors liken the struggle of writing to something mighty and macho, like wrestling a bear. Writing a book is nothing like that. It is a small, slow crawl to the finish line. Honestly, I have moments when I don’t even care if anyone reads this book. I just want to finish it.
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Amy Poehler (Yes Please)
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We all have our demons. But men? They have them much worse. The world tells them that they are the leaders and great and macho and have to be big and brave and make a lot of money and lead these glamorous lives. But they don’t, do they? Look at the men in this neighborhood. They all worked too many hours. They came home to noisy, demanding homes. Something was always broken they needed to fix. They were always behind on the house payments. Women, we get it. Life is about a certain kind of drudgery. We are taught not to hope or want too much. Men? They never get that.
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Harlan Coben (Missing You)
“
He didn’t get it—guys like that never flirted with men like him.
In spite of the fact he was a cop, which he liked to hope had given
him a little bit of visible macho cool after eight years on the job,
his sister still said his looks and style were “nerd meets librarian,”
which to him meant he was about as bland as they came. Not
exactly a balm to his ego. The man sprawled out in the chair over
his right shoulder, however, didn’t have a bland bone in his comeon-
baby-you-know-you-want-to-fuck-me body.
”
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M.L. Rhodes (Bring The Heat)
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No wonder then that men who cared, who were open to change, often just gave up, falling back on the patriarchal masculinity they found so problematic. The individual men who did take on the mantle of a feminist notion of male liberation did so only to find that few women respected this shift. Once the 'new man' that is the man changed by feminism was represented as a wimp, as overcooked broccoli dominated by powerful females who were secretly longing for his macho counterpart, masses of men lost interest.
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bell hooks
“
Porque não contestam as mulheres a soberania do macho? Nenhum sujeito se coloca imediata e espontaneamente como não essencial; não é o Outro que, definindo-se como Outro, define o Um; ele é posto como Outro pelo Um definindo-se como Um. Mas para que o Outro não se transforme no Um é preciso que se sujeite a esse ponto de vista alheio. De onde vem essa submissão na mulher?
”
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Simone de Beauvoir
“
I have often been criticized for being an 'emotional' leader, for not being macho enough, but even during this early stage in my career, I believed that the magic of command lies in openness, in being both sympathetic to the troops and at the same time being apart, in always projecting supreme confidence in my own ability and in theirs to accomplish whatever task is set for us.
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Roméo Dallaire (Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda)
“
I didn't speak macho alpha, therefore could not communicate telepathically , via chin lifts or through actions to other macho alphas, so I felt it prudent to agree verbally. I did this by mumbling, "Okeydokey."
Ally Nightingale
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Kristen Ashley
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I watch him go through the preflight checks with a deep sense of awe. I thought he was pretty macho before, but this… Well, this wins the macho war. My ovaries are screaming in glee like a bunch of playground kids on sugar highs.
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J.T. Geissinger (Carnal Urges (Queens & Monsters, #2))
“
Are you trying to tell me—in your own typically macho way—that you want to make love again?”
He glanced at her. “I’m not trying to tell you anything. I want you. You want me. Someone is going to end up wearing nothing but a satisfied smile on her lips.”
“I don’t know, Nick, I might talk afterward. Do you think you can handle it?”
“I can handle anything you can think up, and a few things you’ve probably
never even thought of.”
“Do I have a choice?”
“Sure, wild thing. I have four bedrooms. You can choose which one we use first.
”
”
Rachel Gibson
“
Flotaba en el agua cuando le pregunté:
-Entonces, ese tatuaje de tu hombro, ¿Qué significa?
-Todos los machos se hacen un tatuaje cuando están listos para declarársele a la chica que han elegido para ser su pareja. El tatuaje representa el nombre de ella escrito en la lengua antigua de nuestra especie.
-¿Y a quien has elegido tú?
Él me miro como preguntándome si de verdad era tan tonta.
-¡Ah!
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Rachel Hawthorne (Moonlight (Dark Guardian, #1))
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I’ve been raised by a father who is the consummate macho man. He has a face carved of stone and wouldn’t give anyone the chance to believe that he might have any feelings of pain or sadness. He brought me and my there brothers up not to cry.
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Michael Zboray (Teenagers War: Vietnam 1969)
“
No matter that information abounds that lets the public know that gay males come from two-parent homes and can be macho and women-hating, misguided assumptions about what makes a male gay still flourish. Every day boys who express feelings are psychologically terrorized, and in extreme cases brutally beaten, by parents who fear that a man of feeling must be homosexual. Gay men share with straight men the same notions about acceptable masculinity.
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bell hooks (The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love)
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My favorite, and all macho alpha men like you have a secret softer side and a sweet tooth. It’s part of the breed.
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Lisa Renee Jones (The Master Undone (Inside Out, #2.5))
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There are no words. It was like The Lord of the Rings and All My Children made a baby with the Macho Man Randy Savage and a Whac-A-Mole machine.” Butters sputtered
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Jim Butcher (Ghost Story (The Dresden Files, #13))
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You're so arrogant, you're almost macho.
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Peggy Webb (Hallie's Destiny (Donovans of the Delta #3))
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Put two macho groups together and give the first desperation and numbers, and the second truncheons and protective clothing, and the result is like a laboratory civil war.
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Alexander Masters (Stuart: A Life Backwards)
“
The nerd flavor of masculinity has overwhelmed the macho kind in real-life power dynamics, and therefore in popular culture.
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Ellen Ullman (Close to the Machine: Technophilia and Its Discontents)
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As you're well aware, this is a macho country full of faggots. The history of Mexico wouldn't make sense otherwise.
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Roberto Bolaño (2666)
“
they assume that the overly macho demeanor of the Super Thug is a true representation of a real man. The
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Tariq Nasheed (The Mack Within: The Holy Book of Game)
“
That both Riley and Warren are attracted to independent young women is an interesting contradiction that serves to valorize the agency of the "girls" and to underline the static macho masculinity of those guys- they cannot or will not change, therefore they cannot keep the girl.
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Lorna Jowett (Sex and the Slayer: A Gender Studies Primer for the Buffy Fan)
“
Los dos machos eran altos, las alas plegadas sobre cuerpos poderosos, musculosos, cubierto de cuero oscuro, armaduras que me recordaron las escamas de algunas bestias con formas de serpientes. Los dos llevaban espadas largas idénticas, con hojas simples y muy bellas tal vez no debería haberme por la ropa elegante después de todo.
El que era tan solo un poco más grande, la cara en sombras, soltó una risita y dijo:
—Vamos, Feyre, no mordemos. A menos que nos pidas que lo hagamos, claro.
”
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Sarah J. Maas (A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #2))
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We have to accept the possibility that the true radiant energy in the male does not hide in, reside in, or wait for us in the feminine realm, nor in the macho/John Wayne realm, but in the magnetic field of the deep masculine.
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Robert Bly (Iron John: A Book about Men)
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To declare enthusiasm for feminist ideals is almost a new mode of macho, a way to flaunt an invulnerable virility. Many will dismiss feminism as merely a matter of domestic logistics. . . . Mention procreation, and they talk about the population explosion. They believe it is just as well that many women indicate disinterest in having children.
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George Gilder (Men and Marriage)
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Machismo itself had turned against the machos, made man a prisoner of himself, obliged not to cry, not to fail to get it up, not to give in, not to say uncle…. Fear, your name is macho, something the Bard never said, but that I do. How many women have screwed the man they wanted, simply because he couldn’t refuse a woman?”
[House of the Fortunate Buddha]
”
”
João Ubaldo Ribeiro
“
Those macho attitudes include many admirable things: a genuine love of courage, a surprising readiness to celebrate failure if it is bought with bravery, an unsparing sense of the fatality of human existence, a love of the small pleasures that ennoble it.
”
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Adam Gopnik
“
I can’t win. Love is Russian roulette for me. No one loves the real me inside. they're all in love with my fame, my stardom. I fall in love far too quickly and end up getting hurt all the time. I've got scars all over. But I can't help myself because basically I'm a softie I have this hard, macho shell — which I project on stage but there's a much softer side. too, which melts like butter.
”
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Freddie Mercury
“
When no one is watching Mother Earth, and most of the time no one is, she sings softly to herself.
Certainly no one is watching after her, to the point where she's now calling herself M. Earth, using her first initial only, like the early women writers who did not want their work to be automatically dismissed because of their gender disadvantage. Though she is grand, M. Earth is feeling, perhaps, overly feminine, and therefore vulnerable. Don't even mention the word Gaia; it's such a projection! She thinks she could benefit from a more macho profile, a little kick-ass to make her point. Perhaps a little masculine detachment would be helpful, or a thicker skin. Because, frankly, she's been trampled, poisoned, stripped bare, robbed blind, and blamed for just about everything that's come down the pike. And like all mothers, everyone just assumes she'll always be there for them with open, loving arms, and a cup of hot cocoa. That it will be her pleasure to feed them, lick their wounds, and clean a load or two of their dirty laundry. She's looking for a little more respect.
”
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Sharon Weil (Donny and Ursula Save the World)
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Men are biological. Women are biological. We pretend our minds are in control, but that’s a very tenuous control at best, and a civilized society can’t be built on uncontrolled biology. I see it in my work: intelligence betrayed by lust, by jealousy, by macho ownership; otherwise trustworthy men who can’t be trusted at all around women, or vice versa. Hell, look at Congress. Well-intentioned, progressive, admired law-makers who end up losing it all because they can’t control how they react to women! And I certainly don’t trust most women around men
”
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Sheri S. Tepper (The Family Tree)
“
A famous cigarette billboard pictures a curly-headed, bronze-faced, muscular macho with a cigarette hanging out the side of his mouth. The sign reads 'Where a man belongs.' That is a lie. Where a man belongs is at the bedside of his children, leading in devotion and prayer. Where a man belongs is leading his family to the house of God. Where a man belongs is up early and alone with God seeking vision and direction for the family.
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John Piper (Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist)
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The liberal state has no view on whether witchcraft is more valuable than all-in wrestling. Like a tactful publican, it has as few opinions as possible. Many liberals suspect passionate convictions are latently authoritarian. But liberalism should surely be a passionate conviction. Liberals are not necessarily lukewarm. Only the more macho leftist suspects that they have no balls. You can be ardently neutral, and fiercely indifferent.
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Terry Eagleton
“
Unlike the Marines, who are given macho monikers like “jarheads,” the Coast Guard had long been denigrated in military circles as fey “puddle jumpers.” But just as 9/11 brought a newfound respect to firemen, Katrina did the same for the reputation of the Coast Guard. At the peak of rescue operations they had 62 aircraft, 30 cutters, and 111 small boats stepping up in rescue and recovery operations. They did it all one person at a time.
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Douglas Brinkley (The Great Deluge)
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Trust me. What a phrase. Is it a phrase or an idiom? I was never a wordsmith and I was too far along in life to even attempt to tackle a problem as complicated as words. Do writers struggle as much with words as a painter does with his paint and his brush?
“Okay,” it is impossible not to trust a beautiful woman. Even macho noir anti-heroes who talk about staying out of trouble and doin’ nothin’ for nobody always get sucked into intricate snares set for them by beautiful women… I would not be an exception.
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Bruce Crown (How Dim the Promised Land)
“
TV guy and sometimes cooker Gordon Ramsay can get pretty macho with baby animals when doing publicity for something he’s selling, but you’ll never see a puppy peeking out of one of his pots. And though he once said he’d electrocute his children if they became vegetarian, I wonder what his response would be if they poached the family pooch.
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Jonathan Safran Foer (Eating Animals)
“
Rumors went round that I might be gay. In some ways, I was happy w/ this. Larry Rivers proved to me that a gay man could be wild, attractive, and courageous; in any case one's sexuality was becoming less of an issue every day. One of the great things about the British Mod movement was that being macho was no longer the only measure of manhood.
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Pete Townshend
“
No se nace mujer: se llega a serlo. Ningún destino biológico, económico, define la imagen que reviste en el seno de la sociedad la hembra humana; el conjunto de la civilización elabora este producto intermedio entre el macho y el castrado que se suele calificar de femenino. Sólo la intermediación ajena puede convertir un individuo en "alteridad".
”
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Simone de Beauvoir (El segundo sexo. Lectura crítica de la Introducción y la Conclusión)
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Better a trickster than a martyr be."
What's the difference between a martyr and a trickster, you ask?
Here's a quick primer.
Martyr energy is dark, solemn, macho, hierarchical, fundamentalist, austere, unforgiving, and profoundly rigid.
Trickster energy is light, sly, transgender, transgressive, animist, seditious, primal, and endlessly shape-shifting.
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Elizabeth Gilbert (Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear)
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Most likely, they were writing the same type of macho bullshit that I wrote, trying to sound tough with their words in case words were all that made it home.
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Clint Van Winkle (Soft Spots: A Marine's Memoir of Combat and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder)
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En la Naturaleza, nada está nunca completamente claro: los tipos, macho y hembra, no siempre se distinguen con nitidez.
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Simone de Beauvoir (Le deuxième sexe, I)
“
El macho de la especie nace sabiendo todo lo que es malo
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V.C. Andrews (Flowers in the Attic (Dollanganger, #1))
“
a la prepotencia del macho se sumaba el abuso de clase.
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Isabel Allende (Paula)
“
Hearing old macho men, our uncles, calling themselves "Bra". Like women underwear.
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Zukiswa Wanner (London - Cape Town - Joburg)
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Bobbie ignored the macho posturing. Everyone dealt with pre-combat jitters in their own way. Bobbie preferred obsessive list making. But flexing and threats were good too.
”
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James S.A. Corey (Caliban's War (Expanse, #2))
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...big, strapping macho guys were like liquid diets--they were great for emergencies, but she wouldn't want to be on one all the time.
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Stephanie Bond (Whole Lotta Trouble)
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She knew for a fact that being left-handed automatically made you special.
Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, Linus Pauling, and Albert Schweitzer were all left-handed. Of course, no believable scientific theory could rest on such a small group of people. When Lindsay probed further, however, more proof emerged. Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, M.C. Escher, Mark Twain, Hans Christian Andersen, Lewis Carrol, H.G. Wells, Eudora Welty, and Jessamyn West- all lefties. The lack of women in her research had initially bothered her until she mentioned it to Allegra. "Chalk that up to male chauvinism," she said. "Lots of left-handed women were geniuses. Janis Joplin was. All it means is that the macho-man researchers didn't bother asking.
”
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Jo-Ann Mapson (The Owl & Moon Cafe)
“
The first step off this downward spiral is to acknowledge these bad feelings as natural. When women feel this way, our society has sympathy, and Oprah gives them cars. But when men feel this way, our society demonizes these feelings as signs of weakness, amplifying the shame and self-judgment, repeating the macho advice to “suck it up” and “get over it.” This bullshit makes the problem worse. It’s impossible to pull yourself out of depression by your bootstraps when all you want to do is hang yourself with them. Bad advice can’t fix bad feelings, and neither can ignoring those feelings. Don’t try to push them away or pretend they’re not there. These feelings evolved to protect us from harm, like our fight-or-flight responses.
”
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Tucker Max (Mate: Become the Man Women Want)
“
Che freddo. Sono raffreddato. Del resto lo sapevo.
Si è fermata da me per la notte, e ho voluto dormire nudo, perché mettere
la maglietta mi sembrava poco macho. Pensare che lo so che se non mi metto la magliettina poi prendo freddo. Ma a volte mi piace fare il figo,
mi piace fingere di essere quello che non sono. Faccio il duro a torso nudo
e la mattina mi dico: "Babba bia che freddo". Ma mi sa che questa
è stata l'ultima volta.
Qualcosa è cambiato.
Mi sa che l'amo. Mi sa che per la prima volta sono innamorato.
Intendo dire innamorato veramente.
”
”
Fabio Volo (È una vita che ti aspetto)
“
Entre las aves, la contienda es con frecuencia de carácter más pacífico, pues hay gran rivalidad entre los machos de muchas especies para atraer a las hembras, por el canto; o despliegan hermosos plumajes para verse de la mejor manera posible. También hacen extrañas y grotescas figuras, y luego las hembras espectadoras escogen al compañero que más atractivos les ofrece.
”
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Charles Darwin (El Origen de las Especies)
“
When our citizens are determined to openly wear pistols on their belts to go shopping at Walmart, that signifies to me a failure on the part of the macho ideal. Ostensibly, the handgun is displayed to let evildoers know, in no uncertain terms, that this is not a person with whom to trifle. It then follows that the wearing of the pistol presumes a situation in which the bearer will need to shoot someone, rendering the brandishing of the weapon a badge of fear, does it not? It occurs to me that if we keep on turning to such “masculine” methodology to solve our conflicts, the only inevitable ending is a bunch of somebody’s family lying in a bloody schoolhouse, movie theater, or smoking Japanese city. I guess we just hope it’s not our family? I don’t like the odds.
”
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Nick Offerman (Gumption: Relighting the Torch of Freedom with America's Gutsiest Troublemakers)
“
Getting shot should be an experience from which you can draw some small pride. I don't mean the macho stuff. All I mean is that you should be able to talk about it: the stiff thump of the bullet, like a fist, the way it knocks the air out of you and makes you cough, how the sound of the gunshot arrives about ten years later, and the dizzy feeling, the smell of yourself, the things you think about and say and do right afterward, the way your eyes focus on a tiny white pebble or a blade of grass and how you start thinking, Oh man, that's the last thing I'll ever see, that pebble, that blade of grass, which makes you want to cry.
Pride isn't the right word. I don't know the right word. All I know is, you shouldn't feel embarrassed. Humiliation shouldn't be part of it.
”
”
Tim O'Brien (The Things They Carried)
“
En la tienda de mascotas eligió dos tortugas pintadas, cada una de ellas del ancho aproximado de la tapa de un frasco de mayonesa. Compró para ellas una bandeja grande en forma de riñón que tenía su propio islote, una palmera de plástico, algunas plantas acuáticas y un caracol. El caracol servía presumiblemente para reforzar la autoestima de las tortugas: "¿Nosotras te parecemos lentas? Pues fíjate en ese tipo". Del mismo modo, para apuntalar la moral del caracol, había una roca. Todos somos más felices si tenemos a alguien a quien mirar por encima del hombro, y a alguien a quien admirar; sobre todo, si estamos resentidos con ambos. Esa no es solo la estrategia del macho beta para sobrevivir, sino también la esencia del capitalismo, de la democracia y de la mayoría de las religiones.
”
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Christopher Moore (A Dirty Job (Grim Reaper, #1))
“
[Habla la estulticia]: Los estoicos se creen casi dioses; pues bien dadme uno de ellos que sea tres, o cuatro y hasta seiscientas veces más estoico que los demás, e incluso a éste le haré abandonar, si no la barba, signo de sabiduría, común por cierto con los machos cabríos, por lo menos el entrecejo fruncido; le haré desarrugar la frente, dejar a un lado sus dogmas diamantinos y hasta tontear y delirar un poquito.
”
”
Erasmus (Elogio de la locura)
“
Istanbul was an illusion. A magician’s trick gone wrong. Istanbul was a dream that existed solely in the minds of hashish eaters. In truth, there was no Istanbul. There were multiple Istanbuls – struggling, competing, clashing, each perceiving that, in the end, only one could survive. There was, for instance, an ancient Istanbul designed to be crossed on foot or by boat – the city of itinerant dervishes, fortune-tellers, matchmakers, seafarers, cotton fluffers, rug beaters and porters with wicker baskets on their backs … There was modern Istanbul – an urban sprawl overrun with cars and motorcycles whizzing back and forth, construction trucks laden with building materials for more shopping centres, skyscrapers, industrial sites … Imperial Istanbul versus plebeian Istanbul; global Istanbul versus parochial Istanbul; cosmopolitan Istanbul versus philistine Istanbul; heretical Istanbul versus pious Istanbul; macho Istanbul versus a feminine Istanbul that adopted Aphrodite – goddess of desire and also of strife – as its symbol and protector … Then there was the Istanbul of those who had left long ago, sailing to faraway ports. For them this city would always be a metropolis made of memories, myths and messianic longings, forever elusive like a lover’s face receding in the mist.
”
”
Elif Shafak (10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World)
“
The first school shooting that attracted the attention of a horrified nation occurred on March 24, 1998, in Jonesboro, Arkansas. Two boys opened fire on a schoolyard full of girls, killing four and one female teacher. In the wake of what came to be called the Jonesboro massacre, violence experts in media and academia sought to explain what others called “inexplicable.” For example, in a front-page Boston Globe story three days after the tragedy, David Kennedy from Harvard University was quoted as saying that these were “peculiar, horrible acts that can’t easily be explained.” Perhaps not. But there is a framework of explanation that goes much further than most of those routinely offered. It does not involve some incomprehensible, mysterious force. It is so straightforward that some might (incorrectly) dismiss it as unworthy of mention. Even after a string of school shootings by (mostly white) boys over the past decade, few Americans seem willing to face the fact that interpersonal violence—whether the victims are female or male—is a deeply gendered phenomenon. Obviously both sexes are victimized. But one sex is the perpetrator in the overwhelming majority of cases. So while the mainstream media provided us with tortured explanations for the Jonesboro tragedy that ranged from supernatural “evil” to the presence of guns in the southern tradition, arguably the most important story was overlooked. The Jonesboro massacre was in fact a gender crime. The shooters were boys, the victims girls. With the exception of a handful of op-ed pieces and a smattering of quotes from feminist academics in mainstream publications, most of the coverage of Jonesboro omitted in-depth discussion of one of the crucial facts of the tragedy. The older of the two boys reportedly acknowledged that the killings were an act of revenge he had dreamed up after having been rejected by a girl. This is the prototypical reason why adult men murder their wives. If a woman is going to be murdered by her male partner, the time she is most vulnerable is after she leaves him. Why wasn’t all of this widely discussed on television and in print in the days and weeks after the horrific shooting? The gender crime aspect of the Jonesboro tragedy was discussed in feminist publications and on the Internet, but was largely absent from mainstream media conversation. If it had been part of the discussion, average Americans might have been forced to acknowledge what people in the battered women’s movement have known for years—that our high rates of domestic and sexual violence are caused not by something in the water (or the gene pool), but by some of the contradictory and dysfunctional ways our culture defines “manhood.” For decades, battered women’s advocates and people who work with men who batter have warned us about the alarming number of boys who continue to use controlling and abusive behaviors in their relations with girls and women. Jonesboro was not so much a radical deviation from the norm—although the shooters were very young—as it was melodramatic evidence of the depth of the problem. It was not something about being kids in today’s society that caused a couple of young teenagers to put on camouflage outfits, go into the woods with loaded .22 rifles, pull a fire alarm, and then open fire on a crowd of helpless girls (and a few boys) who came running out into the playground. This was an act of premeditated mass murder. Kids didn’t do it. Boys did.
”
”
Jackson Katz (The Macho Paradox: Why Some Men Hurt Women and How All Men Can Help (How to End Domestic Violence, Mental and Emotional Abuse, and Sexual Harassment))
“
They were more than happy when feminist thinkers told them that they did not need to be macho men. But the only alternative to not turning into a conventional macho man was to not become a man at all, to remain a boy.
”
”
bell hooks (All About Love: New Visions)
“
Jesus Christ. Men looking for ways to seem more macho. That’s like ninety-eight percent of the world’s problems.”“I know. But should we be saying that, since we’re guys?”Seb shrugged. “No matter. World’s kinda fucked anyways.
”
”
Andrea Speed (Epitaph (Infected, #8))
“
GOLDSTEIN: I suspect most gay people have fantasies about genocide.
BALDWIN: Well, it's not a fantasy exactly since the society makes its will toward you very, very clear. Especially the police, for example, or truck drivers. I know from my own experience that the macho men - truck drivers, cops, football players - these people are far more complex than they want to realize. That's why I call them infantile. They have needs which, for them, are literally inexpressible. They don't dare look into the mirror. And that is why they need faggots. They've created faggots in order to act out a sexual fantasy on the body of another man and not take any responsibility for it. Do you see what I mean? I think it's very important for the male homosexual to recognize that he is a sexual target for other men, and that is why he is despised, and why he is called a faggot. He is called a faggot because other males need him.
”
”
James Baldwin (James Baldwin: The Last Interview and Other Conversations)
“
monotonía, las colas: todo o nada: ¿conocen mi albur?, ¿lo entienden?: todo o nada, todo al negro o todo al rojo, con güevos, ¿eh?, con güevos, jugándosela, rompiéndose la madre, exponiéndose a ser fusilado por los de arriba o por los de abajo; eso es ser hombre, como yo lo he sido, no como ustedes hubieran querido, hombre a medias, hombre de berrinchitos, hombre de gritos destemplados, hombre de burdeles y cantinas, macho de tarjeta postal, ¡ah, no, yo, no!,
”
”
Carlos Fuentes (La muerte de Artemio Cruz)
“
Men were stupid. Instead of talking shit behind each other’s backs like normal people, they talked shit to the person they were insulting. Then they had the audacity to get butt hurt when the person got pissed. It was like when they were growing up, they were so busy trying to be all macho and strong that they never learned how to gossip effectively. A critical life skill. They wouldn’t survive a single day with teenage girls. They’d be torn to shreds. Eviscerated.
”
”
Jasmine Mas (Psycho Academy (Cruel Shifterverse, #4))
“
Pero ¿qué hay del amor?, preguntaréis. ¿Dónde está el amor en esta ecuación? Sé que él me amaba apasionadamente. Me amaba como el cuchillo ama a la herida que hace, como la tarántula hembra ama al macho cuya cabeza engulle, como el lactante ama el pezón que toma entre los dientes y mordisquea hasta que chorrea sangre con la leche.
No tenía intención de ser cruel. Era sencillamente su naturaleza, como la del escorpión que pica al caballo sobre el que cruza el riachuelo.
”
”
Erica Jong (Any Woman's Blues)
“
la admiración por el Padre, símbolo de lo cerrado y agresivo, capaz de chingar y abrir, se transparenta en una expresión que empleamos cuando queremos imponer a otro nuestra superioridad: "Yo soy tu padre" […] No es el fundador de un pueblo; no es el patriarca que ejerce la patria protestad; no es rey, juez, jefe de clan. Es el poder, aislado en su misma potencia, sin relación ni compromiso con el mundo exterior. Es la incomunicación pura, la soledad que se devora a sí misma y devora lo que toca. No pertenece a nuestro mundo; no es de nuestra ciudad; no vive en nuestro barrio. Viene de lejos, está lejos siempre. Es el extraño. Es imposible no advertir la semejanza que guarda la figura del "macho" con la del conquistador español. Ése es el modelo –más mítico que real– que rige las representaciones que el pueblo mexicano se ha hecho de los poderosos: caciques, señores feudales, hacendados, políticos, generales, capitanes de industria. Todos ellos son "machos, "chingones".
”
”
Octavio Paz (The Labyrinth of Solitude and Other Writings)
“
Women have complained, justly, about the behavior of “macho” men. But despite their he-man pretensions and their captivation by masculine heroes of sports, war, and the Old West, most men are now entirely accustomed to obeying and currying the favor of their bosses. Because of this, of course, they hate their jobs — they mutter, “Thank God it’s Friday” and “Pretty good for Monday”— but they do as they are told. They are more compliant than most housewives have been. Their characters combine feudal submissiveness with modern helplessness. They have accepted almost without protest, and often with relief, their dispossession of any usable property and, with that, their loss of economic independence and their consequent subordination to bosses. They have submitted to the destruction of the household economy and thus of the household, to the loss of home employment and self-employment, to the disintegration of their families and communities, to the desecration and pillage of their country, and they have continued abjectly to believe, obey, and vote for the people who have most eagerly abetted this ruin and who have most profited from it. These men, moreover, are helpless to do anything for themselves or anyone else without money, and so for money they do whatever they are told.
”
”
Wendell Berry (The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays of Wendell Berry)
“
The Mafia’s involvement with gay bars is ironic on so many levels. Macho guys ruled gangland but supported a subculture for nelly queens. Most mobsters were evil sociopaths motivated only by financial self-interest but nevertheless were doing a good thing in providing social spaces for the gay community. The mob was on the wrong side of the liquor laws by serving gay folk but on the right side of the 14th Amendment in arguing for equal protection. The Mafia exploited an oppressed community but advanced the gay cause.
”
”
Phillip Crawford Jr. (The Mafia and the Gays)
“
Admit it. You just had sex,” Alice hissed.
Cali’s jaw dropped open. “That’s none of your business,” she replied in outrage, “and how the hell did you know?”
Alice shook her head “You’re glowing orgasmically. It’s disgustingly sweet. And Kent looks ridiculously relaxed and possessive.”
Brushing her best friend away and flushing a little, Cali pretended to look for her salad tongs. “Mind your own business.”
“Fine,” Alice grumbled. “Don’t tell me all the dirty details.” She paused for a beat. Then added, “It was rear entry, wasn’t it?”
Cali almost strangled on her shock and indignation. “It was not.”
Alice chuckled maliciously. “Don’t lie to me. He has that macho glint in his eyes. I’d know that look anywhere. I’m an anthropologist, remember? And mating rituals are one of my specialties.
”
”
Zannie Adams (Renaissance)
“
A razão e o sentimento vivem em ti em quartos separados. Mas têm decerto uma porta de comunicação. Qual deles é o primeiro a transpô-la? A razão é do género feminino e o sentimento do género macho. Qual deles para o outro lado? (Vira a página da alma e vê a resposta).
”
”
Vergílio Ferreira (Pensar)
“
Hey girls, did you hear the news? It's just been scientifically proven that barrettes are dangerous! So are bracelets and bric-a-brac. It's a fact. And don't be fooled by thick-necked macho men who pretend that "girl stuff" is boring or frivolous, because that's just an act. Because as soon as you ask that guy to hold your purse for a minute, he will start to squirm, as if your handbag were full of worms, as he holds it as far away from his rugged body as possible. Because "girl stuff" is made with the gender equivalent of Kryptonite!
”
”
Julia Serano (Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity)
“
Zarina gave her a sad smile. “I wish it could be. But, like Spencer, Tanner is constantly worried about hurting me or someone else who’s important to him. That’s why he’s been living here on his own for the past two months. He thinks that’s the only way to keep people safe.”
Lillie let out a sound of frustration. “What is it with guys? Spencer’s has said the exact same thing to me a dozen times. He thinks it’d be better for everyone if he goes to Alaska and lives alone in the wilderness. Are all men born with the same macho crap in their DNA?
”
”
Paige Tyler (X-Ops Exposed (X-Ops #8))
“
Vic, of course, clasped Max’s hand, obviously sizing him up, doing that macho squeeze thing that drove Gina nuts. “He’s younger than I remember,” he said to Gina. Perfect. Thank you so much, Victor. Then, back to Max, “We met—very briefly—a few years ago. Looks like being shot has agreed with you.”
“That is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard you say,” Gina told the man who had just moved into first place as the most stupid of her three very stupid brothers.
“What?” Vic shrugged as he dragged over a chair. “I’m just saying—Max looks good. You know, for an older guy. What’d, ya lose weight while you were in the hospital?”
“Yes, Victor,” Gina said. “They call it the Almost Dying Diet.” She turned to Max. “My brother is an idiot.”
“It’s all right,” he said, flexing his fingers—no doubt checking to make sure Victor hadn’t broken his hand.
”
”
Suzanne Brockmann (Breaking Point (Troubleshooters, #9))
“
I was a little afraid you might get all macho about not exposing your wife to danger.
I am. I wouldn't want you to accidentally suffer any harm while beating the shit out of me for trying to keep you out of the party. You could forget and hit me on the head, and hurt your knuckles.
”
”
Spider Robinson (Lady Slings the Booze (Lady Sally's, #2; Callahan's, #5))
“
Si los políticos ugandeses creen que el poder que creó el cosmos, las galaxias y los agujeros negros se disgusta enormemente siempre que dos machos de Homo sapiens se divierten un poco juntos, la ciencia puede ayudar a abrirles los ojos con respecto a esta idea más bien estrafalaria.
”
”
Yuval Noah Harari (Homo Deus: Breve historia del mañana)
“
I was just thinking, when I first met you, you seemed really... obvious. And you're not. Not just how you are in bed," she said, rambling. "On the outside you're like uber-macho, Mr. Toolbelt-and-Boxing Gloves with your bossy accent and your attitude and your...tallness."
"My tallness?"
"And your body and everything. But you're really something else on the inside. Sorry," she said. "That sounded was more squishy than I meant it to. Should I insult you, to take the edge off all that squishiness?"
"Nah. I'll just take it out on you next time."
She smiled to herself. "I'm sure you will.
”
”
Cara McKenna (Willing Victim (Flynn and Laurel, #1))
“
I am grateful that the images of masculinity as a child were varied. I knew that lots of men were “macho” like my dad, but I also knew there were men like my granddad— calm, gentle, and kind. These diverse images shaped my perspective. In my childhood there were men who were not ashamed to express their love of God openly and to shed ecstatic tears. These men were renegades, rebelling against the patriarchal norm. And they were the men I was destined to love, the sensitive, soulful, shy men who were looked down upon by the patriarchy. The men who inhabited my dreams were men of feeling.
”
”
bell hooks (Communion: The Female Search for Love (Love Song to the Nation, #2))
“
Grabbing Jeremy's lapels, Nick pulled him closer, grasping him not with fingers but with claws. His face inches away from Jeremy's, his eyes burning red, his fangs sharp and gleaming, he screamed, "BECAUSE YOU'RE MINE! NO ONE THREATENS WHAT'S MINE AND WALKS AWAY!" His growl rumbled through the room, ratcheting down into the subsonic. "I WILL BURN DOWN WHOLE ARMIES BEFORE I LET THEM TAKE YOU FROM ME!"...
"Jesus, big brother," said Toby. "I know vampires are territorial when it comes to their mates, but you're way out in front for the possessive macho bullshit award."
Nick sighed. "I know. I've got to work on that.
”
”
Arshad Ahsanuddin (Sunset (Pact Arcanum, #1))
“
- Por que a gente não teria o direito de criticar, de achar certas pessoas babacas e fracas, sob pretexto de que teríamos um clima pesado e ciumento? Todo o mundo se comporta como se fôssemos todos iguais, como se fôssemos todos ricos, educados, poderosos, brancos, jovens, belos, machos, felizes, como se todos estivéssemos com boa saúde, como se todos tivéssemos um carrão... Mas isso, obviamente, não é verdade. Por isso, tenho o direito de gritar, de estar de mau humor, de não sorrir idiotamente todo o tempo, de dar a minha opinião quando vejo coisas não-normais e injustas, e até de insultar pessoas. Tenho o direito de protestar.
”
”
Martin Page (How I Became Stupid)
“
The executives that ran Lehman Bros. into the ground several years ago had a macho culture that abhorred personal time. One executive was pressured to go to the office while his wife was actually delivering a baby.[18] Whether such assiduity resulted in a better work product has now been pretty definitively ascertained.
”
”
Stanley Bing (Board Room Babies (Kindle Single))
“
There was a whole generation of American boys who were dissatisfied with the model of masculinity they had been expected to conform to and that was irrelevant and totally out of date. They saw in the British bands a way of being that was anti-macho and pro-androgyny, where the question of whether you were gay or straight didn’t matter at all.
”
”
Johnny Marr (Set the Boy Free)
“
[When asked about the dangers of Internet trolls being able to say whatever they want because of false profiles]
What interests me (if you ask me) in phenomenon – not only Facebook, but generally, this, let's call them 'staged identities' [...] – is how there can be more truth in the mask that you adopt than in your real, inner self. I always believed in masks; I never believed in the emancipatory potential of this gesture of 'let's tear off the masks.' [...] Let me give you a simple example. Let us say that I'm in reality a shy, impotent, stupid person, afraid...but then, in Internet reaction, I adopt a screen persona of a brutal, racist guy who humiliates people, beats women and so on...It's too easy to say, 'Oh, I'm really a coward, but there I imagined to be a powerful macho.' What if it's the opposite? What if I really am that brutal guy – but in real life, because of social pressure and so on, I oppress it...so that the true mask is my authentic, real self? And the truth comes out precisely in the guise of a fiction.
”
”
Slavoj Žižek
“
One problem was that we were now attracting the same people who used to kick our asses in high school for being different, who called us “faggots” and “queers” for the clothes we wore and the music we listened to. Our fanbase was changing to include macho monster-truck homophobes and meathead jocks whose worlds revolved around beer and football
”
”
Dave Grohl (The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music)
“
When a pregnant woman experiences stress, the brain of a female fetus will become more male and vice versa. This also appears to be an adaptive response. A girl will be able to cope better in later life if she’s robust and competitive, while a boy who isn’t macho is less likely to get into conflict with alpha males in that stressful environment.
”
”
D.F. Swaab (We Are Our Brains: A Neurobiography of the Brain, from the Womb to Alzheimer's)
“
A cowboy is someone who loves his work. Since the hours are long—ten to fifteen hours a day—and the pay is $30 he has to.
What's required of him is an odd mixture of physical vigor and maternalism. His part of the beef-raising industry is to birth and
nurture calves and take care of their mothers. For the most part his work is done on horseback and in a lifetime he sees and comes to know more animals than people. The iconic myth surrounding him is built on American notions of heroism: the index of a man's value as measured in physical courage. Such ideas have perverted manliness into a self-absorbed race for cheap thrills. In a rancher's world, courage has less to do with facing danger than with acting
spontaneously—usually on behalf of an animal or another rider. If a cow is stuck in a bog hole he throws a loop around her neck,
takes his dally (a half hitch around the saddle horn), and pulls her out with horsepower. If a calf is born sick, he may take her home,
warm her in front of the kitchen fire, and massage her legs until dawn. One friend, whose favorite horse was trying to swim a lake with hobbles on, dove under water and cut her legs loose with a knife, then swam her to shore, his arm around her neck lifeguard-style, and saved her from drowning. Because these incidents are usually linked to someone or something outside himself, the westerner's courage is selfless, a form of compassion.
”
”
Gretel Ehrlich (The Solace of Open Spaces)
“
Vice President Gore, Richard Clarke, and Madeleine Albright were “strong support[ers]” of the program, joining in President Clinton’s “intense” interest in it.5 Egypt’s most famous terrorist, Talaat Fouad Qassem, was “seized in Croatia, flown to the USS Adriatic, a navy warship, interrogated, then flown to Egypt for [torture and] execution.”6 Egypt’s secret police, the Gihaz al-Mukhabarat al-Amma, is widely known for its brutal torture regime, “real Macho interrogation . . . enhanced interrogation techniques on steroids” and was used by both Presidents Bush and Clinton.7 Congress attempted to end this program in 1998. The Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act slipped in a passage making it the policy of the United States not to “expel, extradite, or otherwise effect the involuntary return of any person to a country in which there are substantial grounds for believing the person would be in danger of being subjected to torture, regardless of whether the person is physically present in the United States.”8 Clinton vetoed the bill in late October,
”
”
Andrew P. Napolitano (Suicide Pact: The Radical Expansion of Presidential Powers and the Lethal Threat to American Liberty)
“
The language of patriarchy is always a noble or macho language of patriotism and freedom. Men (and their female echoes) are always speaking it, but the amazing thing is that anyone is still willing to believe it. But fortunately the poor, the oppressed and marginalized, and especially women are beginning to trust their natural and truly religious instincts.
”
”
Richard Rohr (Simplicity: The Freedom of Letting Go)
“
Why do modern humans love sweets so much? Not because in the early twenty-first century we must gorge on ice cream and chocolate in order to survive. Rather, it is because when our Stone Age ancestors came across sweet fruit or honey, the most sensible thing to do was to eat as much of it as quickly as possible. Why do young men drive recklessly, get involved in violent arguments and hack confidential Internet sites? Because they are following ancient genetic decrees that might be useless and even counterproductive today, but that made good evolutionary sense 70,000 years ago. A young hunter who risked his life chasing a mammoth outshone all his competitors and won the hand of the local beauty, and we are now stuck with his macho genes.
”
”
Yuval Noah Harari (Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow)
“
El nubarrón de moscas, euménides zumbonas que improvisaban
un halo furioso sobre la gran cabeza. La Madre y doña Chon
miraron la cara babosa y el baberio y la dormidera boba con lagartijo
muerto en la mano: El Nene mordía la cabeza del lagartijo hasta
que el rabo descansaba la guardia, el mismo rabo que trampado en
la garganta convidaba al vómito. La Madre y doña Chon miraron el
vómito: archipiélago de miserias, islas sanguinolientas, collares de
vómito, vómito como caldo de sopa china, espesos cristales, sopa china
de huevo, convención de todos los amarillos en el vómito, amarillos
tatuados por jugos de china, amarillos soliviantados por la
transparencia sucia de la baba, cristales espesos por granos de arroz:
un vómito como Dios manda
”
”
Luis Rafael Sánchez (La guaracha del Macho Camacho)
“
La parentela.
Somos familia de todo lo que brota, crece, madura, se cansa, muere y renace.
Cada niño tiene muchos padres, tíos, hermanos, abuelos. Abuelos son los muertos y los cerros. Hijos de la tierra y del sol, regados por las lluvias hembras y las lluvias machos, somos todos parientes de las semillas, de los maíces, de los ríos y de los zorros que aúllan anunciando como viene el año. Las piedras son parientes de las culebras y de las lagartijas. El maíz y el frijol, hermanos entre sí, crecen juntos sin pegarse. Las papas son hijas y madres de quien las planta, porque quien crea es creado.
Todo es sagrado, y nosotros también. A veces nosotros somos dioses y los dioses son, a veces, personitas nomás.
Así dicen, así saben, los indígenas de los Andes.
”
”
Eduardo Galeano
“
In my own life, I must confess that I had never felt “manly” until I got married. I was a nerd before it was fashionable, playing trumpet in the marching band and staying in the Boy Scouts through high school. Good things, no doubt, but not cool or macho. I was often mocked and excluded, especially during high school, for my uncoolness. But Kathy looked at me like her knight in shining armor. She has always told me, and continues to tell me, that though all the world may look at me and see Clark Kent, she knows that underneath I have on blue underwear. She has always been very quick to point out and celebrate anything I have done that is courageous. Over the years, bit by bit, it has sunk in. To my wife, I’m Superman, and it makes me feel like a man in a way nothing else could.
”
”
Timothy J. Keller (The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God)
“
Olhai ao vosso redor! O sintoma externo da brutalidade cada vez mais crescente pode até mesmo ser reconhecido como o elemento que constantemente a acompanha — a barba longa, esse distintivo sexual em meio ao rosto, dizendo-nos que à humanidade prefere-se a masculinidade. Esta nos coloca em pé de igualdade com os animais, uma vez que leva o indivíduo a querer ser antes de tudo um macho, mas, e somente depois um homem.
”
”
Arthur Schopenhauer (L'arte di insultare)
“
Her fingertip traced his smile. “I’m sorry I was so crazy about the healer giving me blood, but I really can’t stand it yet, even thinking about it. When we’re together, it seems different, something beautiful and natural, but the thought of anyone else—” Her stomach lurched, and she broke off.
Jacques’ mouth skimmed her face, settled on her lips for a brief, disturbing moment. “I understand. I am stronger now, little red hair. I can care for you properly.”
Her eyebrows shot up, and she frowned. “That isn’t exactly what I meant. Don’t go all macho on me. That would make me sicker than finding some cute human male to feed off.”
She was teasing him. Intellectually he knew it, but for a moment a red haze of jealousy clouded his mind. Rage welled up, and he forced it under control. He knew immediately that he was lucky she didn’t want to take sustenance from another man. Something in his fragmented mind, or perhaps it was his possessive nature, would not stand for it. No man, human or Carpathian, was going to be completely safe until he learned to control his fear of losing her. Jacques raked a hand through his hair. “I have a long way to go before I will be normal again.”
She burst out laughing. “No one has said you ever were normal, Jacques.
”
”
Christine Feehan (Dark Desire (Dark, #2))
“
Why do young men drive recklessly, get involved in violent arguments and hack confidential Internet sites? Because they are following ancient genetic decrees that might be useless and even counterproductive today, but that made good evolutionary sense 70,000 years ago. A young hunter who risked his life chasing a mammoth outshone all his competitors and won the hand of the local beauty; and we are now stuck with his macho genes.
”
”
Yuval Noah Harari (Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow)
“
Now try these Drivetime talismans on for size: organized chaos … wild discipline … reverent blasphemy … self-effacing grandiosity … fanatic moderation … selfish gifts … twisted calm … garish elegance … insane poise … ironic sincerity … blasphemous prayers … orgiastic lucidity … aggressive sensitivity … convoluted simplicity … macho feminism. Homework Discuss what is wetter than water, stronger than love, and more exotic than trust.
”
”
Rob Brezsny (The Televisionary Oracle)
“
Y me puse, para pasar el rato, a esbozar un plano del alma según el cual en cada uno de nosotros presiden dos poderes, uno macho y otro hembra; y en el cerebro del hombre predomina el hombre sobre la mujer y en el cerebro de la mujer predomina la mujer sobre el hombre. El estado de ser normal y confortable es aquel en que los dos viven juntos en armonía, cooperando espiritualmente. Si se es hombre, la parte femenina del cerebro no deja de obrar; y la mujer también tiene contacto con el hombre que hay en ella. Quizá Coleridge se refería a esto cuando dijo que las grandes mentes son andróginas. Cuando se efectúa esta fusión es cuando la mente queda fertilizada por completo y utiliza todas sus facultades. Quizás una mente puramente masculina no pueda crear, pensé, ni tampoco una mente puramente femenina. Pero convenía averiguar qué entendía uno por 'hombre con algo de mujer' y por 'mujer con algo de hombre' hojeando un par de libros.
”
”
Virginia Woolf (A Room Of One's Own)
“
On a hike in East Africa 2 million years ago, you might well have encountered a familiar cast of human characters: anxious mothers cuddling their babies and clutches of carefree children playing in the mud; temperamental youths chafing against the dictates of society and weary elders who just wanted to be left in peace; chest-thumping machos trying to impress the local beauty and wise old matriarchs who had already seen it all. These archaic humans loved, played, formed close friendships and competed for status and power – but so did chimpanzees, baboons and elephants. There was nothing special about humans. Nobody, least of all humans themselves, had any inkling that their descendants would one day walk on the moon, split the atom, fathom the genetic code and write history books. The most important thing to know about prehistoric humans is that they were insignificant animals with no more impact on their environment than gorillas, fireflies or jellyfish.
”
”
Yuval Noah Harari (Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind)
“
From Woody's Restaurant, Middlebury"
Today, noon, a young macho friendly waiter and three diners,
business types—two males, one female—
are in a quandary about the name of the duck paddling
Otter Creek,
the duck being brown, but too large to be a female mallard.
They really want to know, and I'm the human-watcher behind the nook
of my table,
camouflaged by my stillness and nonchalant plumage.
They really want to know.
This sighting I record in the back of my Field Guide to People.
”
”
Greg Delanty
“
On the sofa, a huge orange tabby cat regarded me with characteristic feline apathy before hopping down and stalking to the door.
“This is Francis.” Lucas opened the door and the tom wandered lazily outside, stopping on the landing to clean a paw.
I laughed, moving to the center of the room. “Francis? He looks more like a… Max. Or maybe a King.”
He shut and locked the door, his ghost smile turning his mouth up on one side. “Trust me, he’s superior enough without a macho name to back it up
”
”
Tammara Webber (Easy (Contours of the Heart, #1))
“
Perhaps the best known of these films were the three that Clint Eastwood starred in for director Sergio Leone: A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, in which he played a gunslinger or bounty hunter wandering the countryside and settling scores for a price. Eastwood’s character took the law into his own hands, but he was essentially on the side of good and order. While Eastwood’s character, a dark hero type, employed unusual means to bring about justice, viewers found him irresistible because he was inscrutable, macho, and capable. While his motives were questionable, he brings his own kind of order out of chaos—actions that readers and film viewers always appreciate. In fact, he was a man of action, was extremely self-reliant, and just didn’t give a damn—all qualities that have universal appeal. His character’s darkness was a departure from the usual heroes starring in traditional Westerns, and this stirred the viewers’ imaginations.
”
”
Jessica Page Morrell (Bullies, Bastards And Bitches: How To Write The Bad Guys Of Fiction)
“
Băi, eu sunt invidioasă pe bărbați. Mi-e ciudă când îi văd că se trezesc dimineața și-n 5 minute sunt gata de plecare pentru că ei nu trebuie să se spoiască cu fond de ten Lumiere Active Rejuvenesse Hybrid SPF 16 Matifiant Hidratant Colorant Exasperant Iritant Deloc-important, să-și facă genele ( apropo, voi ați observat ce gene lungi și întoarse au ăștia??? Mizeriile!!!), să își pudreze nasul, să își pună protej-slip cu aromă de ocean în spume și levănțică proaspăt culeasă din Etiopia și nici să-și repare cearcănele cât găleata cu un șpaclu de concealer.
Îi invidiez că umblă cu păr pe piept și pe spinare și lumea zice că-s macho, iar noi dacă uităm să ne epilăm pe mâini strigă toți în cor ”Uite-o pe sor-sa lu' King Kong!”. Mă oftic de numa' când văd ce parcări imposibile fac din 3 mișcări, iar nouă ne tremură gladiolele când dăm cu spatele 5 metri. Mă enervează la culme că ei arată bine într-un tricou lăbărțat și o pereche de jeanși, iar noi trebuie să ne coțopenim pe tocuri cât macaraua, care ne rup de incomode ce sunt!
”
”
Diana Sorescu (Diana cu Vanilie)
“
Reflexioné entonces en la cada vez más complicada relación entre los hombres y los animales. En las premisas actuales. En los deberes que se tienen que cumplir en estos tiempos. En preceptos que algunos años atrás nos hubieran parecido inimaginables.
Por ejemplo, en el hecho de adoptar animales y no comprarlos como era lo habitual. El de esterilizar tanto a las hembras como a los machos. Olvidar por completo mutilarlos inútilmente —orejas, colas— o hacerles cortes de pelo en virtud de determinados cánones de belleza.
”
”
Mario Bellatin (Gallinas de madera)
“
Your Inner Critic thinks that pushing and judging you will protect you from hurt and pain. It thinks that if it can get you to be a certain way—perfect, successful, cautious, nice, slim, outgoing, intellectual, macho, and so on—then you won’t be shamed or rejected, and you might even get approval from people who are important to you. It tries to get you to fit in by prescribing rules and then attacking you if you violate them. Even though attacking you actually backfires and causes you more suffering, your Inner Critic is doing what it thinks is best for you.
”
”
Jay Earley (Freedom from Your Inner Critic: A Self-Therapy Approach)
“
It is often said that what most immediately sets English apart from other languages is the richness of its vocabulary. Webster’s Third New International Dictionary lists 450,000 words, and the revised Oxford English Dictionary has 615,000, but that is only part of the total. Technical and scientific terms would add millions more. Altogether, about 200,000 English words are in common use, more than in German (184,000) and far more than in French (a mere 100,000). The richness of the English vocabulary, and the wealth of available synonyms, means that English speakers can often draw shades of distinction unavailable to non-English speakers. The French, for instance, cannot distinguish between house and home, between mind and brain, between man and gentleman, between “I wrote” and “I have written.” The Spanish cannot differentiate a chairman from a president, and the Italians have no equivalent of wishful thinking. In Russia there are no native words for efficiency, challenge, engagement ring, have fun, or take care [all cited in The New York Times, June 18, 1989]. English, as Charlton Laird has noted, is the only language that has, or needs, books of synonyms like Roget’s Thesaurus. “Most speakers of other languages are not aware that such books exist” [The Miracle of Language, page 54]. On the other hand, other languages have facilities we lack. Both French and German can distinguish between knowledge that results from recognition (respectively connaître and kennen) and knowledge that results from understanding (savoir and wissen). Portuguese has words that differentiate between an interior angle and an exterior one. All the Romance languages can distinguish between something that leaks into and something that leaks out of. The Italians even have a word for the mark left on a table by a moist glass (culacino) while the Gaelic speakers of Scotland, not to be outdone, have a word for the itchiness that overcomes the upper lip just before taking a sip of whiskey. (Wouldn’t they just?) It’s sgriob. And we have nothing in English to match the Danish hygge (meaning “instantly satisfying and cozy”), the French sang-froid, the Russian glasnost, or the Spanish macho, so we must borrow the term from them or do without the sentiment. At the same time, some languages have words that we may be pleased to do without. The existence in German of a word like schadenfreude (taking delight in the misfortune of others) perhaps tells us as much about Teutonic sensitivity as it does about their neologistic versatility. Much the same could be said about the curious and monumentally unpronounceable Highland Scottish word sgiomlaireachd, which means “the habit of dropping in at mealtimes.” That surely conveys a world of information about the hazards of Highland life—not to mention the hazards of Highland orthography. Of
”
”
Bill Bryson (The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got that Way)
“
Nuestras abuelas admiten que aguantaron demasiado, “pero vosotras no aguantáis ná”. La mujer posmoderna es exigente porque desea un hombre que cumpla sus expectativas: un hombre que no sea machista, que no nos sustituya por su madre, que no nos huya como a las esposas, que sea capaz de relacionarse libre e igualitariamente con nosotras. Queremos hombres seguros de sí mismos, inteligentes, con sentido del humor, independientes, guapos y con habilidades sociales, y huimos del macho ibérico de doble moral, que va perdiendo poco a poco su atractivo. Queremos demasiado, quizás
”
”
Anonymous
“
I thought of the long-ago afternoon when we first met, a boy and a girl in a crowded plaza. Even then he was an ingrained macho, able to direct his destiny; in contrast, he believed that because I had been born a girl I was at a disadvantage, I should accept my limitations and entrust myself to others’ care. In his eyes, I would never be independent. Huberto had thought that way since he could think at all; it was not likely that the Revolution was going to change those attitudes. I realized that our problems were not related in any way to the fortunes of the guerillas; even if he achieved his dream, there would be no equality for me. For Naranjo, and others like him, “the people” seemed to be composed exclusively of men; we women should contribute to the struggle but were excluded from decision-making and power. His revolution would not change my fate in any fundamental way; under any circumstances, as long as I lived I would still have to make my own way. Perhaps it was at that moment I realized that mine is a war with no end in view; I might as well fight it cheerfully or I would spend my life waiting for some distant victory in order to be happy.
”
”
Isabel Allende (Eva Luna)
“
And Vicky also told her sister that all girls at the Health Centre considered that men were born crazy, if not down-right stupid.They were prepared to do crazy things & pay high prices just to prove how "macho" they were, when it came to young pretty girls. And the sisters tittered with laughter at the thought of the old men who enjoyed drinking Phyllis` urine & the young men who ate cucumber sandwiches filled with her excrement. And thus Vicky told Phyllis that although one should not take candy off children, it was quite in order to take money off crazy & stupid rich men.[MMT]
”
”
Nicholas Chong
“
Recordó la vez que pescó a la hembra de una pareja de peces espada. El macho siempre deja que la hembra coma primero, y ella, al morder el anzuelo, se debatió en una batalla salvaje, desesperada y llena de pánico que pronto la agotó. Todo el tiempo el macho se quedó con ella, cruzando el sedal y haciendo círculos en torno de su pareja en la superficie. Se hallaba tan próximo que el viejo había tenido temor de que cortara la cuerda con la cola, que era afilada como guadaña y casi de esa forma y tamaño. El viejo le metió el garfio, le dio golpes, la prendió de la espada, de borde como lija y la aporreó en la punta de la cabeza hasta que su color se volvió casi como el del respaldo de un espejo, y entonces, con la ayuda del muchacho, la elevó para ponerla a bordo. El macho se quedó a un costado del bote. Después, cuando el viejo limpiaba los cordeles y preparaba el arpón, el macho saltó muy alto en el aire, junto al bote, para ver dónde había quedado su pareja, y finalmente se sumergió en lo más profundo, con las alas azul-rojizas, que eran sus aletas pectorales, desplegadas a lo ancho y con todas las franjas del mismo color a la vista. "Era hermoso-recordó el viejo- y se quedó hasta el final".
”
”
Ernest Hemingway (The Old Man and the Sea)
“
Ribs hurting?" When he only shrugged, she shook her head. "Let me take a look."
"She barely caught me."
"Oh,for heaven's sake." Impatient, Keeley did what she would have done with one of her brothers: She tugged Brian's T-shirt out of his jeans.
"Well,darling,if I'd known you were so anxious to get me undressed,I'd have cooperated fully,and in private."
"Shut up.God, Brian, you said it was nothing."
"It's not much."
His definition of not much was a softball-size bruise the ribs in a burst of ugly red and black. "Macho is tedious, so just shut up."
He started to grin,then yelped when she pressed her fingers to the bruise. "Hell, woman,if that's your idea of tender mercies, keep them."
"You could have a cracked rib. You need an X ray."
"I don't need a damned-ouch! Bollocks and bloody hell, stop poking." He tried to pull his shirt down, but she simply yanked it up again.
"Stand still,and don't be a baby."
"A minute ago it was don't be macho, now it's don't be a baby. What do you want?"
"For you to behave sensibly."
"It's difficult for a man to behave sensibly when a woman's taking his clothes off in broad daylight. If you're going to kiss it and make it better, I've several other bruises. I've a dandy one on my ass as it happens."
"I'm sure that's terribly amusing.One of the men can drive you to the emergency room"
"No one's driving me anywhere. I'd know if my ribs are cracked as I've had a few in my time.It's a bruise, and it's throbbing like a bitch now that you've been playing with it."
She spotted another, riding high on his hip,and gave that a poke. This time he groaned.
"Keeley,you're torturing me here."
"Im just trying..." She trailed off as she lifted her head and saw his eyes. It wasn't pain or annoyance in them now. It was heat,and it was frustration. And it was surprisingly gratifying. "Really?"
It was wrong,and it was foolish, but a sip of power was a heady thing.She trailed her fingers along his hip, up his ribs and down again, and felt his mucles quiver. "Why don't you stop me?"
His throat hurt. "You make my head swim. And you know it."
"Maybe I do.Now.Maybe I like it." She'd never been deliberately provocative before. Had never wanted to be. And she'd never known the thrill of having a strong man turn to putty under her hands. "Maybe I've thought about you, Brian,the way you said I would."
"You pick a fine time to tell me when there's people everywhere, and your father one of them.
”
”
Nora Roberts (Irish Rebel (Irish Hearts, #3))
“
Le da la sensación de estar rodeado de libertad, de oxígeno. Tothero es como un remolino de aire, y el edificio en el que se encuentra, las calles del pueblo, no son más que escaleras y pasadizos del espacio. Es tan perfecta y coherente la libertad en que se ha convertido el desorden del mundo gracias al simple estallido de su decisión, que todos los caminos parecen buenos, todos los movimientos serán caricias para su piel, y ni un solo átomo de su felicidad se alteraría si Tothero le dijera que en lugar de ir a una cita con dos chicas iban a reunirse con dos machos cabríos, o que no iban a Brewer sino al Tíbet".
”
”
John Updike (Rabbit, Run (Rabbit Angstrom, #1))
“
gender benders I’m only guessing, of course, as usual but here goes: when the ladies gather over cocktails they talk about how their husbands tend to stifle them, smother their creative instinct, their natural joy, their ultimate female selves. without their husbands they would float free and thrive and grow without limit as they were meant to do. but ladies, I will tell you this: when men gather they never talk about their wives. we discuss the Dallas Cowboys or the new barmaid at The Bat Cove Tavern or about how Tyson would kick Holyfield’s ass … unconcerned with petty argument we have floated free … giant macho soaring balloons! WHEE!
”
”
Charles Bukowski (Come On In!: New Poems)
“
Some guys will say all kinds of things to look macho and save face,” Max said. “Guys are jerks sometimes. But in his heart, a man loves his wife or girlfriend for so many reasons besides her outward appearance. Think of it - as a couple they’ve probably been through a lot together. Unless their sex life is trashed or they can’t trust each other or they’re fighting all the time, there’s so much more to a relationship than just looks.
And you have to understand, when a guy really loves a woman, he can’t imagine his life without her. Even if she isn’t the most beautiful woman in the world anymore, she’s still the woman who captured his heart.
”
”
Jenell Hollett (What I learned from men)
“
Esto demoró algún tiempo, digamos cuatro o cinco horas, porque él creía que la entrega corresponde a la hembra y la dominación al macho, así lo había visto en los animales y aprendido en su oficio de soldado, pero no en vano Juan de Málaga había pasado años enseñándome a conocer mi cuerpo y el de los hombres. No sostengo que todos sean iguales, pero se parecen bastante, y con un mínimo de intuición cualquier mujer puede darles contento. A la inversa no es lo mismo; pocos hombres saben satisfacer a una mujer y aún menos son los que están interesados en hacerlo. Pedro tuvo la inteligencia de dejar su espada al otro lado de la puerta y rendirse ante mí.
”
”
Isabel Allende (Inés of My Soul)
“
—[...] No creo que sea de la incumbencia de mis pacientes si soy o no la reencarnación de la Virgen. Y con respecto a la Era de la Electrónica, no quiero tener una relación con algo que funciona a pilas y viene acompañado de una etiqueta con advertencias.
Selena soltó un bufido.
—Ya, bueno, pues déjame decirte una cosa: la mayoría de los hombres tendrían que venir acompañados de una etiqueta con advertencias. —Alzó las manos para enmarcar la siguiente afirmación—: «Atención, por favor, Alerta Psicótica. Yo, macho-man, soy propenso a sufrir horribles cambios de humor y a poner caras largas; además, poseo la habilidad de decir la verdad a una mujer sobre su peso sin previo aviso».
”
”
Sherrilyn Kenyon (Fantasy Lover (Hunter Legends, #1))
“
En un pergamino de una vara de alto el bufon mojando su pluma de pavo real en purpurina escribio el dodecalogo de la ley de venus que se fue inventando poco a poco en sus ratos libres
i) la procreacion no es un instinto
ii) la procreacion es la consecuencia
ii a) ni siquiera obligada
ii b) casi siempre temida
ii c) con frecuencia evitada
iii) la procreacion puede ser un anhelo
iii a) de orden intelectual
iii b) no intuitivo
iv) la copula se realiza no pensando en el posible hijo por venir sino en
iv a) la complacencia del amante
iv b) la satisfaccion de la libido
ya que
v) innumeros gestos sexuales no son fecundos
vi) la copula se perfecciona en si misma no en ningun otro fin ulterior y distinto
vii) en la sola idea contraria duerme el huevo de los metodos que evitan el fruto
vii a) tangible
vii b) no espiritual huidizo amoroso
viii) el hijo puede desearse pero su presencia
viii a) acontece al margen del instinto sexual
e incluso
viii b) puede llegar a ser su precio
ix) la naturaleza en su sabiduria
ix a) brinda al hijo como premio que se otorga a ella misma
ix b) encela al macho y a la hembra con el señuelo del deleite sexual
x) el instinto sexual
x a) no cesa con la noticia del embarazo
x b) salta todas las barreras
x c) vive y muere con el individuo y en el
xi) el amor es un sentimiento bravo
xii) el cariño es un sentimiento manso y bonancible
”
”
Camilo José Cela (Oficio de tinieblas 5)
“
Coming up behind me, Jack touched my shoulders with his palms and let them coast down my upper arms, the warmth of his hands making the cool skin prickle pleasantly. He took one of my hands in his. Folding my icy fingers more tightly in his, Jack lowered his mouth to the vulnerable curve of my neck. There was a sensual promise in the way his lips grazed my skin. He continued to kiss me there, searching for the most acute place, and when he found it, I backed up against him reflexively.
“Jack . . . You’re not still mad because Dane slept over, are you?”
His hand wandered along my front, charting every curve and plane, pausing at every flicker of response. My body caught a tense, pleasured arch.
Dimly I realized he was gathering information, softly winnowing out the pulses and twitches from all the places I was most vulnerable.
“Actually, Ella . . . every time I think about it, I want to bend a crowbar in half.”
“But nothing happened,” I protested.
“That’s the only reason I haven’t hunted him down and dropped him.”
I couldn’t tell how much of the macho bravado was for show, or how much Jack actually meant.
I strove for a reasonable, ironic tone, which was difficult as I felt his fingers slip beneath the edge of my neckline. “You’re not going to take it out on me, are you?”
“Afraid so.” His breath fractured as he discovered I wasn’t wearing a bra. “Tonight you’re in for it, blue eyes.
”
”
Lisa Kleypas (Smooth Talking Stranger (Travises, #3))
“
In addition to withholding love and attention and thereby frustrating her son, a cold, rejecting mother will often punish him for his normal needs of her. From this he gets the message that his neediness is unacceptable and shameful. He may begin trying to cover up his vulnerability whenever he can. Many misogynists use bullying and macho behavior toward women to defend against these unacceptable feelings of vulnerability. The unfortunate logic that follows from this is that if the misogynist's needs are unacceptable, so are his partner's needs. They remind him too sharply of his own. Therefore, he must deny them. This explains in part why many misogynists are so insensitive to their partners' emotional and even physical suffering.
”
”
Susan Forward (Men Who Hate Women and the Women Who Love Them: When Loving Hurts and You Don't Know Why)
“
Una vez, un elefante macho al que llamaban «el elefante que siempre anda solo» mató a un nayaka. Los nayakas se negaron a ayudar a los funcionarios del departamento forestal indio a capturarlo. Explicaron a Naveh que ese elefante había estado muy apegado a otro elefante macho, con el que siempre deambulaba. Un día, el departamento forestal capturó al segundo elefante, y desde entonces «el elefante que siempre anda solo» se había vuelto irascible y violento. «¿Cómo te habrías sentido tú si te hubieran quitado a tu esposa? Así es exactamente como se sentía ese elefante. A veces, esos dos elefantes se separaban de noche y cada uno seguía su camino…, pero por la mañana siempre volvían a reunirse. Aquel día, el elefante vio caer a su compañero, lo vio tendido en el suelo. Si dos siempre van juntos y disparas a uno, ¿cómo se sentirá el otro?»[8]
”
”
Yuval Noah Harari (Homo Deus: Breve historia del mañana)
“
Mujer negra
Todavía huelo la espuma del mar que me hicieron atravesar.
La noche, no puedo recordarla.
Ni el mismo océano podría recordarla.
Pero no olvido el primer alcatraz que divisé.
Altas, las nubes, como inocentes testigos presenciales.
Acaso no he olvidado ni mi costa perdida, ni mi lengua ancestral
Me dejaron aquí y aquí he vivido.
Y porque trabajé como una bestia,
aquí volví a nacer.
A cuanta epopeya mandinga intenté recurrir.
Me rebelé.
Su Merced me compró en una plaza.
Bordé la casaca de su Merced y un hijo macho le parí.
Mi hijo no tuvo nombre.
Y su Merced murió a manos de un impecable lord inglés.
Anduve.
Esta es la tierra donde padecí bocabajos y azotes.
Bogué a lo largo de todos sus ríos.
Bajo su sol sembré, recolecté y las cosechas no comí.
Por casa tuve un barracón.
Yo misma traje piedras para edificarlo,
pero canté al natural compás de los pájaros nacionales.
Me sublevé.
En esta tierra toqué la sangre húmeda
y los huesos podridos de muchos otros,
traídos a ella, o no, igual que yo.
Ya nunca más imaginé el camin a Guinea.
¿Era a Guinea? ¿A Benín? ¿Era a
Madagascar? ¿O a Cabo Verde?
Trabajé mucho más.
Fundé mejor mi canto milenario y mi esperanza.
Aquí construí mi mundo.
Me fui al monte.
Mi real independencia fue el palenque
y cabalgué entre las tropas de Maceo.
Sólo un siglo más tarde,
junto a mis descendientes,
desde una azul montaña.
Bajé de la Sierra
Para acabar con capitales y usureros,
con generales y burgueses.
Ahora soy: sólo hoy tenemos y creamos.
Nada nos es ajeno.
Nuestra la tierra.
Nuestros el mar y el cielo.
Nuestras la magia y la quimera.
Iguales míos, aquí los veo bailar
alrededor del árbol que plantamos para el comunismo.
Su pródiga madera ya resuena.
”
”
Nancy Morejón
“
el gran macho cabrío.
¡Salve, demonio mudo!
Eres el más
intenso animal.
Místico eterno
del infierno
carnal…
¡Cuántos encantos
tiene tu barba,
tu frente ancha,
rudo Don Juan!
¡Qué gran acento el de tu mirada
mefistofélica
y pasional!
Vas por los campos
con tu manada,
hecho un eunuco
¡siendo un sultán!
Tu sed de sexo
nunca se apaga;
¡bien aprendiste
del padre Pan!
La cabra
lenta te va siguiendo,
enamorada con humildad;
mas tus pasiones son insaciables;
Grecia vieja
te comprenderá.
¡Oh ser de hondas leyendas santas
de ascetas flacos y Satanás,
con piedras negras y cruces toscas,
con fieras mansas y cuevas hondas,
donde te vieron entre la sombra
soplar la llama
de lo sexual!
¡Machos cornudos
de bravas barbas!
...
¡Machos cabríos!
Sois metamorfosis
de viejos sátiros
perdidos ya.
Vais derramando lujuria virgen
como no tuvo otro animal.
¡Iluminados del Mediodía!
”
”
Federico García Lorca
“
Um deus macho cria o mundo sozinho.” Até o caráter sagrado relativo ao poder de trazer vida ao mundo foi retirado das mulheres. No mito de Adão e Eva, a mulher foi criada da costela do homem. Na mitologia grega, Atenas, a deusa da sabedoria, nasceu da cabeça de Zeus.
Mais adiante na história, temos a caça às bruxas, o período trevoso que ocorreu principalmente entre os séculos XV e XVIII. Este é um radical exemplo de como as mulheres foram caçadas, torturadas e mortas por não se conformarem com as imposições sociais de submissão e domesticidade, o que refletia e reforçava a dominação patriarcal da sociedade na qual o poder masculino era central e qualquer forma de ameaçar esse poder deveria ser impedida. As mulheres que exerciam autonomia ou desafiavam as normas estabelecidas eram frequentemente vistas como uma ameaça e eram alvo de atroz perseguição.
As acusações de bruxaria também estavam muito ligadas à sexualidade das mulheres. A caça às bruxas foi usada como uma forma de controlar e reprimir a sexualidade feminina, particularmente aquela que estava fora dos limites do casamento e da procriação. Mulheres solteiras ou viúvas que eram sexualmente ativas podiam ser acusadas de bruxaria como uma forma de puni-las e controlá-las.
”
”
Ingrid Gerolimich (Para revolucionar o amor: A crise do amor romântico e o poder da amizade entre mulheres)
“
In Woolrich's crime fiction there is a gradual development from pulp to noir. The earlier a story, the more likely it stresses pulp elements: one-dimensional macho protagonists, preposterous methods of murder, hordes of cardboard gangsters, dialogue full of whiny insults, blistering fast action. But even in some of his earliest crime stories one finds aspects of noir, and over time the stream works itself pure.
In mature Woolrich the world is an incomprehensible place where beams happen to fall, and are predestined to fall, and are toppled over by malevolent powers; a world ruled by chance, fate and God the malign thug. But the everyday life he portrays is just as terrifying and treacherous. The dominant economic reality is the Depression, which for Woolrich usually means a frightened little guy in a rundown apartment with a hungry wife and children, no money, no job, and desperation eating him like a cancer. The dominant political reality is a police force made up of a few decent cops and a horde of sociopaths licensed to torture and kill, whose outrages are casually accepted by all concerned, not least by the victims. The prevailing emotional states are loneliness and fear. Events take place in darkness, menace breathes out of every corner of the night, the bleak cityscape comes alive on the page and in our hearts.
("Introduction")
”
”
Francis M. Nevins Jr. (Night and Fear: A Centenary Collection of Stories by Cornell Woolrich (Otto Penzler Book))
“
My interest in comics was scribbled over with a revived, energized passion for clothes, records, and music. I'd wandered in late to the punk party in 1978, when it was already over and the Sex Pistols were history.
I'd kept my distance during the first flush of the new paradigm, when the walls of the sixth-form common room shed their suburban-surreal Roger Dean Yes album covers and grew a fresh new skin of Sex Pistols pictures, Blondie pinups, Buzzcocks collages, Clash radical chic. As a committed outsider, I refused to jump on the bandwagon of this new musical fad,
which I'd written off as some kind of Nazi thing after seeing a photograph of Sid Vicious sporting a swastika armband. I hated the boys who'd cut their long hair and binned their crappy prog albums in an attempt to join in. I hated pretty much everybody without discrimination, in one way or another, and punk rockers were just something else to add to the shit list.
But as we all know, it's zealots who make the best converts. One Thursday night, I was sprawled on the settee with Top of the Pops on the telly when Poly Styrene and her band X-Ray Spex turned up to play their latest single: an exhilarating sherbet storm of raw punk psychedelia entitled "The Day the World Turned Day-Glo" By the time the last incandescent chorus played out, I was a punk. I had always been a punk. I would always be a punk. Punk brought it all together in one place for me: Michael Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius novels were punk. Peter Barnes's The Ruling Class, Dennis Potter, and The Prisoner were punk too. A Clockwork Orange was punk. Lindsay Anderson's If ... was punk. Monty Python was punk. Photographer Bob Carlos Clarke's fetish girls were punk. Comics were punk. Even Richmal Crompton's William books were punk. In fact, as it turned out, pretty much everything I liked was punk.
The world started to make sense for the first time since Mosspark Primary. New and glorious constellations aligned in my inner firmament. I felt born again. The do-your-own-thing ethos had returned with a spit and a sneer in all those amateurish records I bought and treasured-even
though I had no record player. Singles by bands who could often barely play or sing but still wrote beautiful, furious songs and poured all their young hearts, experiences, and inspirations onto records they paid for with their dole money. If these glorious fuckups could do it, so could a fuckup like me. When Jilted John, the alter ego of actor and comedian Graham Fellows, made an appearance on Top of the Pops singing about bus stops, failed romance, and sexual identity crisis, I was enthralled by his shameless amateurism, his reduction of pop music's great themes to playground name calling, his deconstruction of the macho rock voice into the effeminate whimper of a softie from Sheffield.
This music reflected my experience of teenage life as a series of brutal setbacks and disappointments that could in the end be redeemed into art and music with humor, intelligence, and a modicum of talent. This, for me, was the real punk, the genuine anticool, and I felt empowered. The losers, the rejected, and the formerly voiceless were being offered an opportunity to show what they could do to enliven a stagnant culture. History was on our side, and I had nothing to lose. I was eighteen and still hadn't kissed a girl, but perhaps I had potential. I knew I had a lot to say, and punk threw me the lifeline of a creed and a vocabulary-a soundtrack to my mission as a comic artist, a rough validation. Ugly kids, shy kids, weird kids: It was okay to be different. In fact, it was mandatory.
”
”
Grant Morrison (Supergods: What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human)
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You only like white guys?”
“Stop that,” I say through gritted teeth.
“What?” he says, getting all serious. “It’s the truth, ain’t it?”
Mrs. Peterson appears in front of us. “How’s that outline coming along?” she asks.
I put on a fake smile. “Peachy.” I pull out the research I did at home and get down to business while Mrs. Peterson watches. “I did some research on the hand warmers last night. We need to dissolve sixty grams of sodium acetate and one hundred millimeters of water at seventy degrees.”
“Wrong,” Alex says.
I look up and realize Mrs. Peterson is gone. “Excuse me?”
Alex folds his arms across his chest. “You’re wrong.”
“I don’t think so.”
“You think you’ve never been wrong before?”
He says it as if I’m a ditzy blond bimbo, which sets my blood to way past boiling. “Sure I have,” I say. I make my voice sound high and breathless, like a Southern debutante. “Why, just last week I bought Bobbi Brown Sandwash Petal lip gloss when the Pink Blossom color would have looked so much better with my complexion. Needless to say the purchase was a total disaster,” I say. He expected to hear something like that come out of my mouth. I wonder if he believes it, or from my tone realizes I’m being sarcastic.
“I’ll bet,” he says.
“Haven’t you ever been wrong before?” I ask him.
“Absolutely,” he says. “Last week, when I robbed that bank over by the Walgreens, I told the teller to hand over all the fifties he had in the till. What I really should have asked for was the twenties ‘cause there were way more twenties than fifties.”
Okay, so he did get that I was putting on an act. And gave it right back to me with his own ridiculous scenario, which is actually unsettling because it makes us similar in some twisted way. I put a hand on my chest and gasp, playing along. “What a disaster.”
“So I guess we can both be wrong.”
I stick my chin in the air and declare stubbornly, “Well, I’m not wrong about chemistry. Unlike you, I take this class seriously.”
“Let’s have a bet, then. If I’m right, you kiss me,” he says.
“And if I’m right?”
“Name it.”
It’s like taking candy from a baby. Mr. Macho Guy’s ego is about to be taken down a notch, and I’m all too happy to be the one to do it.
”
”
Simone Elkeles (Perfect Chemistry (Perfect Chemistry, #1))
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One can take the ape out of the jungle, but not the jungle out of the ape.
This also applies to us, bipedal apes. Ever since our ancestors swung from tree to tree, life in small groups has been an obsession of ours. We can’t get enough of politicians thumping their chests on television, soap opera stars who swing from tryst to tryst, and reality shows about who’s in and who’s out. It would be easy to make fun of all this primate behavior if not for the fact that our fellow simians take the pursuit of power and sex just as seriously as we do.
We share more with them than power and sex, though. Fellow-feeling and empathy are equally important, but they’re rarely mentioned as part of our biological heritage. We would much rather blame nature for what we don’t like in ourselves than credit it for what we do like. As Katharine Hepburn famously put it in The African Queen, ”Nature, Mr. Allnut, is what we are put in this world to rise above.”
This opinion is still very much with us. Of the millions of pages written over the centuries about human nature, none are as bleak as those of the last three decades, and none as wrong. We hear that we have selfish genes, that human goodness is a sham, and that we act morally only to impress others. But if all that people care about is their own good, why does a day-old baby cry when it hears another baby cry? This is how empathy starts. Not very sophisticated perhaps, but we can be sure that a newborn doesn’t try to impress. We are born with impulses that draw us to others and that later in life make us care about them.
The possibility that empathy is part of our primate heritage ought to make us happy, but we’re not in the habit of embracing our nature. When people commit genocide, we call them ”animals”. But when they give to the poor, we praise them for being ”humane”. We like to claim the latter behavior for ourselves. It wasn’t until an ape saved a member of our own species that there was a public awakening to the possibility of nonhuman humaneness. This happened on August 16, 1996, when an eight-year-old female gorilla named Binti Jua helped a three-year-old boy who had fallen eighteen feet into the primate exhibit at Chicago’s Brookfield Zoo. Reacting immediately, Binti scooped up the boy and carried him to safety. She sat down on a log in a stream, cradling the boy in her lap, giving him a few gentle back pats before taking him to the waiting zoo staff. This simple act of sympathy, captured on video and shown around the world, touched many hearts, and Binti was hailed as a heroine. It was the first time in U.S. history that an ape figured in the speeches of leading politicians, who held her up as a model of compassion.
That Binti’s behavior caused such surprise among humans says a lot about the way animals are depicted in the media. She really did nothing unusual, or at least nothing an ape wouldn’t do for any juvenile of her own species. While recent nature documentaries focus on ferocious beasts (or the macho men who wrestle them to the ground), I think it’s vital to convey the true breadth and depth of our connection with nature. This book explores the fascinating and frightening parallels between primate behavior and our own, with equal regard for the good, the bad, and the ugly.
”
”
Frans de Waal (Our Inner Ape: A Leading Primatologist Explains Why We Are Who We Are)