#reimagining masculinity

[malaisequotes]

“For two boys to come this close to each other in a realm ruled by the nebulous yet narrow laws of American masculinity, we needed magic.”

Reimagining Masculinity by Ocean Vuong

[malaisequotes]

“Can the walls of masculinity, set up so long ago through decrees of death and conquest, be breached, broken, recast—even healed? I am, in other words, invested in troubling he-ness.”

Reimagining Masculinity by Ocean Vuong

[malaisequotes]

“We ran, our bodies silver in the quickening dark, teenagers playing at war. The boy—let’s call him K—had helped me up, my arm slung across his shoulder as I limped toward his house, which sat just across the orchard.”

Reimagining Masculinity by Ocean Vuong

[malaisequotes]

“‘...She’s the bomb. She’s blowing up. I’m dead serious.’ To some extent, these are only metaphors, hyperbolic figures of speech—nothing else. But there are, to my mind, strong roots between these phrases and this country’s violent past.”

Reimagining Masculinity by Ocean Vuong

[malaisequotes]

“...I am here for the very reasons why I feel, on bad days, I should leave it altogether: that I don’t recognize myself within its dominant ranks—but I believe it can grow to hold me better.”

Reimagining Masculinity by Ocean Vuong

[malaisequotes]

“Masculinity, or what we have allowed it to be in America, is often realized through violence. Here, we celebrate our boys, who in turn celebrate one another, through the lexicon of conquest: ‘You killed it, buddy. Knock 'em dead...’”

Reimagining Masculinity by Ocean Vuong

[malaisequotes]

“His head is bent so that the swirl in his crown shows, the sweat in the follicles catching the autumn dusk through the window.”

Reimagining Masculinity by Ocean Vuong

[malaisequotes]

“Everywhere I looked, he-ness was akin to an aggression that felt fraudulent in me—or worse, in the blue collar New England towns I grew up in, self-destructive.”

Reimagining Masculinity by Ocean Vuong