901 Quotes About Gender

A painting walks into the room supported by the collector. It is the painting of a nude by a contemporary artist. She is scarred by shadows from venetian blinds. “The ritual scarification of light and shadow,” I say. But am thinking, silently, the female nude is the self-ironization of the male. She, in his shadow, by design.

​If we do something over and over again, it becomes normal. If we see the same thing over and over again, it becomes normal. If only boys are made class monitors, then at some point we will all think, even if unconsciously, that the class monitor has to be a boy. If we keep seeing only men as heads of corporations, it starts to seem 'natural' that only men should be heads of corporations. ​

We seem to assume that no one really wants to be a girl or a woman, and therefore some people, say female-bodied people, must be forced into these abject genders

I might go anywhere and do any magic I pleased if I were Peter, not Prunella.

Here all guilt ceases, for it cannot cling to such flowers as these.

The need to control others as a prerequisite for male agency presupposed self-control. That imperative, in turn, included both the physical and emotional dimensions of a man’s bodily self.

Granddaddy had told me about the wasp that could opt to be male or female while in a larval stage. An interesting thought. I wondered why human children weren't given that option in their grub stage, say up through age five. With everything I had seen about the lives of boys and girls, I would definitely choose to be a boy grub.

As the Greeks saw it, to be a man was to be defined by your ability to exert power in a world articulated through transcendent forces ultimately beyond human control. The apparent futility of this perspective was outweighed by the nobility that came with the struggle.

এখনকার ভাবুক পুরুষেরা সধবার পাতিব্রত্যে এবং বিধবার ব্রহ্মচর্যে যে কী অপূর্ব কবিত্ব আছে, সে কথা প্রতিদিন সুর চড়িয়ে চড়িয়ে বলছেন। তার থেকে বোঝা যাচ্ছে জীবনের এই জায়গায় কেমন করে সত্যে আর সুন্দরে বিচ্ছেদ হয়ে গেছে।