Again and again a man would tell me about early childhood feelings of emotional exuberance, of unrepressed joy, of feeling connected to life and to other people, and then a rupture happened, a disconnect, and that feeling of being loved, of being embraced, was gone. Somehow the test of manhood, men told me, was the willingness to accept this loss, to not speak it even in private grief. Sadly, tragically, these men in great numbers were remembering a primal moment of heartbreak and heartache: the moment that they were compelled to give up their right to feel, to love, in order to take their place as patriarchal men. Bell Hooks
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More Quotes By Bell Hooks
  1. Usually adult males who are unable to make emotional connections with the women they choose to be intimate with are frozen in time, unable to allow themselves to love for fear that the loved one will abandon them. If the first woman they passionately loved,...
  2. Genuine love is rarely an emotional space where needs are instantly gratified. To know love we have to invest time and commitment..'dreaming that love will save us, solve all our problems or provide a steady state of bliss or security only keeps us stuck in...
  3. Living simply makes loving simple.
  4. Often men who have been emotionally neglected and abused as children by dominating mothers bond with assertive women, only to have their childhood feelings of being engulfed surface. While they could not 'smash their mommy' and still receive love, they find that they can engage...
  5. Love is a combination of care, commitment, knowledge, responsibility, respect and trust.
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